Hosted SaaS vs open-source WordPress plugin, compared on 2026 pricing, transaction fees, and who should actually run their own store stack.
| Shopify | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Hosted SaaS, subscription | Open-source WordPress plugin, self-hosted |
| Software cost | Basic $29/mo to Advanced $299/mo (annual billing); $39-$399 monthly | Plugin is free; you pay for hosting, domain, and extensions |
| Typical real monthly cost | Plan + apps, often $50-500 all-in | Hosting from roughly $10-30 for small stores, more for managed WP at scale |
| Payment fees | Shopify Payments 2.9% + 30¢ online on Basic, improving by tier | Your processor's rate only (Stripe/PayPal around 2.9% + 30¢) |
| Extra fee on outside processors | Yes: 2% Basic, 1% Grow, 0.6% Advanced on top of processor fees | None, ever |
| Maintenance | Shopify's problem | Yours: updates, backups, security, PCI scope |
| Customization | Themes + app store, within platform limits | Unlimited; full code and database access |
| Content/SEO flexibility | Adequate blogging, some URL structure limits | WordPress, the strongest content and SEO tooling there is |
| Time to launch | Days | Days to weeks depending on skill |
| Best fit | DTC brands that want to sell, not run infrastructure | WP-native teams, content-heavy stores, cost-sensitive operators |
Published numbers as of mid-2026. Shopify's monthly prices drop about 25% on annual billing.
| Item | Shopify | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Basic: $29/mo annual, $39 monthly | $0 plugin + hosting from about $10/mo |
| Mid tier | Grow: $79/mo annual, $105 monthly | Managed WooCommerce hosting, commonly $30-100/mo |
| High tier | Advanced: $299/mo annual, $399 monthly; Plus from ~$2,300/mo | Scale is a hosting and dev question, not a license question |
| Card rate (online) | 2.9% + 30¢ Basic, 2.7% Grow, 2.5% Advanced with Shopify Payments | Whatever your gateway charges |
| Third-party gateway penalty | +2% / +1% / +0.6% by tier | $0 |
| Trial | 3 days free, then $1/mo for 3 months | n/a (free software) |
The fee that surprises people is the third-party payment surcharge. If you must use a processor other than Shopify Payments, Shopify takes an extra cut of every sale on top of what your processor charges. On meaningful volume that dwarfs the plan price. WooCommerce never touches your transactions.
Pick Shopify if your job is selling products, not running websites. For a new DTC brand, Basic at $29/month gets you hosting, checkout, PCI compliance, fraud tools, and a theme store, and you can be taking orders within days. Nothing goes down because you forgot a plugin update. That reliability is the product, and for most founders it is worth far more than the subscription.
It is also the better choice when you sell across channels. Shopify's integrations with Instagram, TikTok Shop, Google, and its own POS hardware make multichannel retail close to turnkey. A boutique selling in-store and online, or a brand doing paid social at volume, benefits from checkout optimization work that Shopify does continuously and you would have to build on WooCommerce.
Accept the costs going in: app subscriptions add up (many stores run $50-200/month in apps), you play by platform rules, and if Shopify Payments is unavailable for your business type, the third-party gateway surcharge stings. Price that before committing, not after.
Pick WooCommerce if WordPress is already in your stack or content is your growth engine. If your traffic comes from blog posts, SEO, or a media property, WooCommerce puts the store inside the best content platform available instead of bolting a blog onto a storefront. You control URLs, schema, page speed work, and the database itself.
It is also the margin play at scale and the flexibility play for odd business models. No platform fee, no gateway surcharge, and hosting you control means a high-volume store keeps points of margin that Shopify would take. Custom checkout logic, unusual pricing rules, B2B quirks, regional payment providers: things that fight Shopify's guardrails are just code on WooCommerce.
The honest requirement: someone must own the stack. Updates, backups, security hardening, and plugin conflicts are now your operations work. If you do not have that person, in-house or a retained developer, the money you save on fees will be spent in downtime and stress. Budget real hosting, not the cheapest shared plan you can find.
Most comparisons tally subscription fees and call WooCommerce cheaper, but the honest unit of cost is money plus your hours. WooCommerce's sticker price is near zero; its real price is becoming a part-time sysadmin, and founder hours spent patching plugins are hours not spent on products and marketing. Shopify's real price is the opposite: the fees are transparent, and what you give up is control at the edges, felt most sharply in the payment surcharge and checkout customization limits. Neither platform hides its cost, they just charge in different currencies.
The second miss is that this choice is mostly about your team, not your store. The same store thrives on either platform. A solo founder with no technical help almost always does better on Shopify; a team with a WordPress developer already on payroll usually does better on WooCommerce. Choosing against your team's actual skills is the most common mistake I see, and it is usually made by reading cost tables like this one and ignoring the people who have to run the thing.
For most new stores I recommend Shopify, and Basic at $29/month is the honest starting point. It removes the entire category of infrastructure problems at the moment you can least afford distractions, and the fees are a fair trade for that. I would choose WooCommerce in two cases: your growth plan is content and SEO on a site someone technical maintains, or your volume and payment situation make Shopify's surcharges a real margin problem. What I would not do is pick WooCommerce purely to save $29 a month with nobody on the team to run it. That is not saving, it is deferred cost.