Shopify vs WooCommerce

How do Shopify and WooCommerce differ at a glance?

Shopify is a paid service that bundles the software and hosting. WooCommerce is free, open-source software that runs on WordPress, so you choose and pay for the hosting yourself. This comparison is based on each vendor's published pricing and help pages, checked in November 2026, and not on testing either product.

What do the Shopify plans cost?

Shopify listed four plans in euros in November 2026. Annual billing is cheaper per month than monthly billing, and the page also advertised a three-day trial and a EUR 1 a month introduction for the first three months on most plans, so confirm the current offer.

The last column matters. Shopify charges an extra fee when you take payments through a provider other than Shopify Payments, and the rate falls as the plan rises.

What does WooCommerce cost?

The core plugin is free. The real costs are hosting, extensions and payment fees. WooCommerce's pricing page says most stores pay USD 25 to 350 a month for hosting, rising with traffic and performance needs, and USD 29 to 299 a year for each paid extension. For payments it says "no extra costs, just your solution's processing fees". WooPayments lists no setup or monthly fees. In Cyprus its card fee is 1.50% + EUR 0.25, with 2.00% added for cards from outside Europe, 2.00% added for currency conversion, and a EUR 15 dispute fee. Stripe's Cyprus page lists 1.5% + EUR 0.25 for standard European Economic Area cards and no monthly fee.

What does each cost to run at three sales levels?

This is an illustrative calculation. It assumes an average order of EUR 50 and uses Shopify Basic on annual billing with Shopify Payments, against WooCommerce taking payments through WooPayments in Cyprus on standard European cards. It ignores extensions, themes, apps, tax and currency conversion.

Card fees are the percentage of sales plus EUR 0.25 per order. At EUR 10,000 a month, Shopify's is 1.9% of 10,000 plus 200 orders at EUR 0.25, which is EUR 190 + EUR 50 = EUR 240. WooPayments' is EUR 150 + EUR 50 = EUR 200.

Read the table carefully. WooCommerce has lower card fees in this case, but you add hosting, which we have not converted because it is quoted in dollars and spans a wide range. At the low end of the range, WooCommerce stays cheaper at every sales level shown. At the high end, treating a dollar as roughly a euro, it costs more than Shopify at every level shown. Then add the time or fees for maintenance, which our website maintenance cost guide sets out.

A second finding: upgrading the Shopify plan pays off late. Moving from Basic to Grow cuts the card rate by 0.1 percentage points and adds EUR 40 a month to the plan fee, so the break-even is EUR 40 divided by 0.001, or EUR 40,000 in monthly sales. At EUR 40,000 both plans cost EUR 982 under these assumptions.

Does the payment provider change the answer?

Yes, especially on Shopify. If you use Stripe on a Shopify Basic plan instead of Shopify Payments, you pay Stripe's fee and Shopify's 2% third-party fee. On EUR 10,000 of sales and 200 orders that is Stripe's 1.5% + EUR 0.25 (EUR 200) plus 2% of EUR 10,000 (EUR 200), or EUR 400, against EUR 240 with Shopify Payments. Shopify's Help Center lists Cyprus among the countries for Shopify Payments, so a Cyprus-based store may be able to use it, subject to its business type and the verification documents Shopify asks for. Check eligibility before you design the store around it.

Who looks after updates, security and backups?

On Shopify the platform does. On WooCommerce you or a supplier do: WordPress core, the theme, WooCommerce and every extension need updates, and WordPress Learn advises backing up both the files and the database before updating, and keeping a copy away from the server. A store takes orders all day, so a failed update has a direct cost. If nobody on your side will own this, either budget for a care plan or choose Shopify.

When should you choose Shopify?

Choose Shopify if you want the store hosted, patched and kept running for you, your team is small, you sell physical products with standard variants, and a monthly plan fee is an acceptable price for fewer technical tasks. It also suits stores that need to launch quickly without a developer.

When should you choose WooCommerce?

Choose WooCommerce if you already run, or want, a content-led WordPress site with the shop inside it, you need control of hosting and code, you need unusual checkout or pricing rules, and you have someone to maintain it. It can also be the cheaper route at modest sales if your hosting is inexpensive and a supplier keeps it updated.

Choose neither if your catalogue is tiny and a builder's store plan does the job. The cheapest route that works is often a builder, covered in how to build an ecommerce website.

What should you do next?

Write your expected sales and order count, then run the arithmetic above with your own numbers. If you plan to hire a supplier, use our guide to choosing an ecommerce website design company. For a written quote on either platform, see our web design service. We quote in writing and do not publish a price list.