Shopify vs. WordPress for Beginners: A Complete Comparison

E-commerce Shopify vs WordPress: Key Differences

Ease of Use

Shopify
It is designed especially for E-commerce beginners. As it comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, setting up an online store is very easy. The good thing is that the platform takes care of hosting, security, and updates. 

So you don’t have to worry about the technical details of the site. Just focus your attention on important business activities and grow much faster in the E-Commerce business. However, the creation of future-rich Shopify websites requires complete knowledge of website design and development. You can take the help of a prestigious web development company in this regard. 

WordPress
It is extremely user-friendly. So, both tech and non-tech individuals can create WordPress websites. They also need to manage WordPress hosting, security, and regular updates. If you are completely new to website development and management, increase your WordPress skills as soon as possible. This will help you to operate your website successfully and generate sufficient revenue. 

E-commerce Capabilities

Shopify
It would not be wrong to say that Shopify is a good E-commerce platform. It comes with multiple features, such as a user-friendly interface, inventory management, secure payment gateways, abandoned cart recovery, mobile optimization, etc. It provides round-the-clock customer support. Moreover, users can use its apps to add additional features to their Shopify websites. 

WordPress
It comes with a powerful e-commerce plugin (WooCommerce). So, you can use this CMS to create beautiful and fully functional online stores. WooCommerce supports numerous extensions for payments, shipping, and product management. It also allows SEO control. Choose it if you want to create a basic E-commerce site with lots of content, better control, and unique customizations. 

SEO Shopify vs WordPress​

Support for search engine optimization plays an important role when you select a platform for Ecommerce website development. 

Shopify
It comes with built-in SEO features. It includes mobile optimization, meta descriptions, and customizable title tags. These help in SEO practices. But you need to use your expertise to optimize Shopify websites for higher search results. 

WordPress
When it comes to search engine optimization, WordPress offers numerous options. You can use its SEO plugins to optimize the website or its pages. It will help to improve the site’s performance even with little effort. 

Cost
Shopify

It offers multiple plans for different categories of individuals and businesses. Go through its available plans and choose one that aligns with your budget and business needs. Depending on the complexity of the site, website development and maintenance costs may go up. 

WordPress
It is free for all. But, you need to pay for hosting, a domain name, and premium themes and plugins. Free themes and plugins are suitable for basic WordPress websites. But, for feature-rich WordPress E-commerce websites, using premium themes and plugins makes sense. It will benefit your digital business in the short and long term. 

Business Scalability

Shopify
If required, you can easily scale a Shopify website. The platform easily handles server performance, security, and a sharp increase in web traffic. Large-scale companies (with high sales volume) frequently use Shopify Plus to operate everyday business activities successfully. 

WordPress
With WooCommerce, content delivery networks, and plugins, you can scale a WordPress website. But performance may be jeopardized if there is a problem in the website’s technical setup. Practically, WordPress is not considered suitable for large-scale E-commerce websites with lots of traffic and daily transactions. Sooner or later, you need to migrate a WordPress-powered E-commerce website to any suitable platform.

Speed

Shopify 
Shopify websites or their pages load faster on all Internet-enabled devices. With global servers, automatic updates, and built-in caching, it supports website performance. You don’t have to worry about server optimization. There is no need to get involved in technical ifs and buts to ensure your website’s optimal speed. Shopify does it automatically. 

WordPress 
E-commerce websites powered by WordPress are also fast only when you set them up properly. Always remember, site speed depends on your hosting provider, total number of used themes and plugins, caching systems, and content delivery networks. Poor optimization can make websites slow, which ultimately decreases the business volume.