Shopify vs WooCommerce Dropshipping – Best Ecommerce Platform?

Dropshipping business is making more and more people a lot happier these days due to its ease in setting up and how lucrative it can be when done the right way. There have been many success stories and there will still be.

But before you begin your dropshipping journey you need to be careful while choosing your e-commerce platform. This could mar or be responsible for the success of your business.

Woocommerce Dropshipping vs Shopify Dropshipping – In this comparative article I tends to break down both platform for you to know which one is best for you. While starting your dropshipping business you should take into consideration, cost, ease, features, and flexibility of any e-commerce platform you’re going to use.

When it comes to eCommerce platform Woocommerce and Shopify are virtually the big fish. When I begin my dropshipping journey Shopify was my first experience later I heard about Alidropship and the WooCommerce platform. Both of them are very wonderful platforms but it all boils down to want you want and your financial budget.

Like I said both platforms are really wonderful platforms you can begin with. But to start you only need to choose one. Eventually, at the end of this article, you should be able to go for want you want after knowing both of their strengths and shortcomings.

Contents

WooCommerce Vs Shopify

First on the list is WooCommerce, let’s see everything it has to offer.

WooCommerce is a free eCommerce plugin built to integrate seamlessly with WordPress that allows you to sell anything beautifully.

According to BuiltWith WooCommerce now power over 35% of the online stores due to its endless flexibility and access to hundreds of free and premium themes.

Themes and Design

When it comes to any eCommerce platforms, themes and designs are the bedrock! No customer will want to patronize your online store if it’s not aesthetically pleasing in terms of design and functionality.

In this case, WooCommerce gives you access to thousands of different designs, although it does not provide any specific designs of its own. But helps you to create your online store and expose you to a larger market of different themes.

WooCommerce on its own is a WordPress plugin built for the very purpose of creating an e-commerce website. This means you will be able to select any WordPress theme and make it work with WooCommerce.

Even better, there are themes built with WooCommerce in mind from the get-go to make your online store looks great. If these are what you want, the best place to start with will be the WooCommerce default online store theme called Storefront.

Here is the interesting part and one of the edges WooCommerce have over Shopify. Many of the WooCommerce themes are free and they offer complete customization which gives you the total control over your dropshipping store.

One thing I know about Shopify is, I can easily tell which website is powered by Shopify when I stumble upon one. The themes are similar and they make it difficult to customize. WooCommerce, on the other hand, gives you access to unlimited themes and completely customize it to your own taste.

Dropshipping on WooCommerce lets you decide what your online store will look like on all m devices, be it desktop, tab, and mobile device. Sincerely WooCommerce beats Shopify over designs. Shopify is for its beauty but still limited to what you can do with WooCommerce.

Another interesting part of WooCommerce design is the marketplace where you can look-in to get astounding and beautiful themes specifically made for eCommerce by Themeforest.

WooCommerce Pricing

Since I’m going to be honest with you on this, there’s no need to hype one over the other. Its true WooCommerce can be cheaper compared to Shopify, but even at that, you shouldn’t rush to a conclusion.

One thing I know about WooCommerce is that you can set up your online store with as low as $150 but for you to meet-up on some specific standard you may need to more money on extensions and themes.

But basically WooCommerce is free; it’s an open source software plugin for WordPress. Even better, WordPress itself is free. So your starting point will be to pay for hosting, a domain name, Premium theme, SSL certificate and few additional extensions.

Additionally, you need to add to your set up cost by choosing from some of the best dropshipping plugins and extension for your dropshipping business.

It obvious WooCommerce is lesser compared to Shopify but you need to be careful because every additional extension or plugin comes with an extra cost. Shopify, on the other hand, is rather straightforward. Any other additional cost will be for Shopify Apps or themes.

WooCommerce Features

The features of WooCommerce are probably one of the top reasons you’ll ever fall in love dropshipping with the platform. First and foremost WooCommerce has no monthly recurring fee, in fact, it’s absolutely free.

The best part is, WooCommerce gives you access to over 75,000 plugins you can easily choose from. WooCommerce is a think and have-platform, you’ll virtually have access to any plugin or add-on you can ever imagine.

Here are some of the features you could enjoy dropshipping with the platform:

You can dropship and sell your own personal products at the same time.
Sell any type of products, physical or digital etc.
Use a different type of payment most especially the one available in your country.
Built-in payment via PayPal and stripe
Mobile friendly structure
More extension that supports dropshipping business
Complete control
Easily adjust shipping rate and taxes
Unlimited number of product and category

The sky is the limit when it comes to WooCommerce features. This is due to because WordPress allows the third-party creation of plugins and extensions. This, therefore, allows WooCommerce to tap into the wide market.

WooCommerce Ease of Use

Now, here is the truth of the matter. If you not familiar with WordPress then setting up your online store with WooCommerce may not be easy as you think. But not to worry after tweaking around your dashboard for few days you definitely going to get used to it. We all start that way.

When it comes to ease, the major difference between WooCommerce and Shopify is that one is a subscription-based Store while the other has to be created from the scratch.

To start a WooCommerce website here are some of the things you need to set up:

Get a domain name… You can visit NameCheap.com
Sign up for a web hosting account… You can check HostGator.com
Install WordPress

Finally, after everything is done you can then install your WooCommerce plugin.

But not to worry, Just in case you not familiar with setting up an eCommerce website I’ve created a detailed article on that.

You can check here!

Even better, Companies like HostGator and NameCheap can help you with the WordPress installation, leaving you with just the WooCommerce part.

In the end, what could take you 5hours with WordPress(WooCommerce) might take 5minitues with Shopify. Shopify is literally one-click sign-up.

WooCommerce and SEO

The quality of your site SEO is going to determine the success of your website. SEO is highly important and cannot be overemphasized.

Some big website spent thousands on SEO monthly just to get their product to their targeted customers, this is to let you know the importance of SEO.

But on this, WooCommerce has several advantages over Shopify when it comes to SEO. WordPress makes SEO easier with WooCommerce. This is because it enables you to easily add and edit meta content for ranking high for some specific keywords.

Additionally, with the help of plugins like Yoast SEO for eCommerce, allows you to fully optimized your page for SEO.

Lets see everything Shopify has to offer

Shopify Design

If you are familiar with Shopify you should know that beauty is one of their top selling points. Shopify themes come with high visual quality and on top of that, they are all mobile responsive.

Using Shopify will give you access to over 50 different templates and among them are free 10 you can use to begin your journey while you later change if you want.

One thing I love about Shopify themes is that they are all fashionably sleek and clean aesthetic which is perfect for modern websites. Another thing about Shopify themes is that they are all created by a third party. These are group of professional web designers who ensure creativity.

As attractive as Shopify themes are, I’ve discovered most of the themes look alike. And for you to have a perfect theme that stands out you may need to know a little bit of coding yourself. Although not limited to that, they offer a theme editor you can use for customization.

Finally, a Shopify Premium theme goes as high as $180 but truly the theme is going to worth the price.

If you may compare this to WooCommerce I can say Shopify themes is twice the price of WooCommerce. On marketplace like Themeforest.com, you can see premium themes as low as $50.

Shopify Pricing

Obviously, this what chase most people away when it comes to Shopify, because of it monthly recurring fee. To be frank its a little bit high but also straightforward.

Shopify is very upfront about their pricing system they make it super clear for you before getting into it. To complement this, they also provide a 14 days free trial to test the system.

Shopify comprises of three majors plans:

Basic Shopify – $29
Shopify – $79
Advance Shopify – $299

These are some of the features included in all Shopify plans

Customer support
Finance reports
discount codes
Fraud analysis
Online sale channels
Shopify point of sale
Unlimited bandwidth and online storage

Shopify is very straightforward you know what you are getting from the very start. Although using Shopify for dropshipping will require you using other apps to optimize your dropshipping business.

Apps like Oberlo will do a wonderful work. You should also know that Shopify apps are not free but they all offer 14days free trial to test them.

The main difference between Shopify and WooCommerce pricing is that Shopify pricing maybe a little bit high but at the same time it’s straightforward.

With WooCommerce you can set up your online store with less than $200 and at the same time with over $1000. It all depends on how you want to scale your business.

This doesn’t mean WooCommerce is overly cheap. Things could go differently when you start upgrading your web hosting accounts, installing SSL certificate and paying for other extensions to keep your site running.

In the end, you can still start low with WooCommerce if your budget is not much.

Shopify Ease of use

I think its obvious Shopify is overly simple to use, mostly because it’s a sign up online based tool. To create your online store with Shopify all you need to do is click the sign-up button and the Shopify wizard will take you through the whole process.

The Shopify Wizard is going to help you all through the way. It’s going to ask questions like the purpose and nature of your online store. What you plan to sell and how to set everything up.

The process is actually very straightforward and the best part is that you don’t need any coding or site building skills in order to finish setting up your store.

Once you are through with the Shopify wizard it’s from there you will have access to your dashboard. You can now start adding products and so on to have a standard e-commerce store.

Overall, Shopify is easier to use compare to WooCommerce. It’s like a ready-made package you just need to sign up and your store will be ready to use within few minutes.

Shopify Features

Like I said earlier, you will still need further apps to enhance your dropshipping business. But from the get-go, there are still free features you can enjoy with Shopify. Features like:

Unlimited products
Manual order creation
Automatic fraud analysis
Unlimited file storage
Discount codes
Facebook selling module
Individual product reviews
Daily backups
Fully featured mobile app etc.

The list is endless and I need to finish this article. One of the similarities both platforms have in common is that they allow you to sell whatever it is you want to sell. And to be candid both platforms are fully rich when it comes to features.

Shopify SEO

When it comes to SEO, Shopify is still considered a strong factor, though it might come second in the SEO overall with WooCommerce. but they still have a lot going on for them.

One thing you should know is that, so far you are producing quality content on your website you will definitely enjoy great result with Shopify. The basic fact with Shopify when it comes to SEO is that Shopify is fast. This is because it’s a hosted platform that is created on a huge system.

As a result of this, Shopify allows its webmaster pages stand a better chance of ranking well and also leading to customer conversion.

Conclusion

The thing about both comparison is that the features are spread, what you want might not be in the two platform but with just one of them. Like I said earlier, they are both great platforms with great features.

However, I will recommend you go with Shopify if you need the following:

You need a quick and easy way to launch an e-commerce store while you do little or nothing.
If you lack any technical knowledge about websites and you don’t want to bother yourself with one.
You want a fast and reliable responding support at your disposal.

I will recommend WooCommerce if you need the following:

You need a platform that’s old and full of experience in the game
If you want to be in total control of your eCommerce store.
You don’t want to spend much while creating your e-commerce store
If you need access to thousands of site template and plugins to assist your dropshipping business
You need a platform with huge SEO benefits to ensure long-term success for your business.

So are you convinced? Would you rather go for Shopify or WooCommerce, I have experience with both platform I can easily say WooCommerce has an edge over Shopify but that doesn’t mean Shopify isn’t a badass itself.

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Shopify vs WooCommerce Dropshipping – Best Ecommerce Platform?