BLOG

Shopify vs. WordPress Comparison 2018

Are you in the process of launching an ecommerce website? In this process you are very likely to be at the crossroads, confused which content management system to use and one of the most common dilemmas that business owners or webmasters have in this regard is whether to go with Shopify or WordPress. Unlike before, launching of an ecommerce website is never a tedious and intense process. It is also not expensive as it used to be because of the many ready to use CMS platforms that we have today. However, it is essential that you make the right choices right at the beginning with regard to your ecommerce platform if you do not want to go for a complete overhaul in just few months down the line. As far as this question of which is best – Shopify or WordPress, there is no cut and tie answer because many factors come into play here and you need to choose what is best for YOU and not simply what is best.

To help you decide and make well-informed decision, here are the comparisons between Shopify and WordPress.

To start with WordPress is a complete content management system in itself whereas shopify is not a complete system in itself. It is more of a tool rather than a content management system.

It terms of purpose-orientation, WordPress is more content centric. It allows you to share content online easily and quickly taking the hard work out of the way. You can publish content in multiple formats including text posts, images and videos. You have so much of flexibility with the way you can handle your content in a WordPress website. Whereas Shopify is more oriented towards e-commerce operations and it is meant precisely for buying and selling activities. Due to these very two purpose-orientations, your goal and what you want to achieve is what will help you decide whether to go with Shopify or WordPress.

Shopify is a subscription based service and you are required to have a shopify account more than just a basic user signup. WordPress is free to start with whereas Shopify comes only with paid subscriptions.

Setting up an ecommerce website using WordPress takes a longer route when compared to Shopify. With WordPress you will first need to go for a hosted site. Set up the entire website first before you could add any ecommerce features to it. WordPress by itself will not give you the ecommerce features that you would like to add to your website. You will need to use additional plugins, which will do the job for you. Using the plugin that you choose to install, you will need to configure your entire website. You are required to take care of features such as payment gateway, product gallery, product inventory and so on. This is ideally not meant for someone without any technical skills but who wants to do it themselves without hiring a web developer or a designer.

Shopify on the other hand, is a hosted solution. You can get things done faster without any need for technical skills. You will just need an account with appropriate subscription. The ecommerce store setup with Shopify uses user friendly system in a matter of few clicks without any fumbling with technical aspects of setting up an ecommerce website.

WordPress is an open source platform and you get it free of cost but the disadvantage or the price that you get to pay for that is it has no support. There is a support community but WordPress does not provide support. In other words, you need to find your way out of your problems, going and figuring your way out of the problems. If you run into any specific issues you cannot simply write to your provider and get a solution or call them for that matter.

Shopify as a paid service provides you support. You will be able to reach them 24×7 and get specific problem based solutions. You do not need any coding skills here because everything is pre-coded and sold to you as package and that is what you are paying for.

WordPress free design templates are few. If you want something unique and outstanding, you will have to go for paid themes. Shopify offers you much larger range of themes to choose from.

Another crucial area that needs your attention is the e-commerce website security. As far as WordPress is concerned, as its purpose-orientation is content, it was not built keeping security features in mind for the very fact the information shared in these websites are not essentially that sensitive. It does come with basic security features but it will not be sufficient if you are going to run your online shop. You have the responsibility to provide your buyers with a highly secure platform to shop. Shopify takes care of the security factors right from the word go. In other words shopify is more secure than WordPress.

If you are looking for something that you could use pronto just out of the box for your ecommerce website then Shopify should be the route that you may have to take. Shopify comes with ready-built features that you could use to set up your shop in just minutes. WordPress does not come with ready-built features for an ecommerce website.

Before you could make your final call on which one to use for your ecommerce website, whether Shopify or WordPress here are few more focused comparisons. The first factor that we would like to focus upon here is user friendliness. Which platform is easy to setup for newbies? Shopify scores high here. Of course there is a monthly subscription fee involved but in terms of setting up your shop in minutes, Shopify is easy to use on any given day. You will find intuitive features built into the system already. Whereas with WordPress you need to install additional plugins and configure them further to suit your specific needs. If you are looking for something easy to use without too many configurational modifications then Shopify offers the best bet.

The second factor that you should focus upon is the customization flexibility. You would certainly want to give your users unique shopping experience and this would require a system that would allow you the highest level of flexibility. Here again shopify offers you better options. What is important to note here is that Shopify has been created keeping ecommerce features in mind, so whatever you need or whatever you are looking for is already there and could be implemented at the click of a button but that is not the case with WordPress, you may have to add multiple plugins into your WordPress website which could affect the overall integrity of the website. Moreover, you may have to pay individually for these plugins if you want to use the premium features.

Thirdly, installation challenges take the center stage. If you are not a techy and you want to setup your own ecommerce website without looking for support from a programmer then, Shopify should be your choice. As far as WordPress is concerned, you really do not need to be a techy but at least certain basic technical knowledge is required. The setting up challenges are likely to be more with WordPress.

Finally, cost! Which one of these platforms is cheaper to setup and run? Initially, people are likely to jump up for WordPress because of the fact that it is free open source platform. However, when you take a little closer look, you will notice that there are number of hidden expenses with running an ecommerce website using WordPress. It could be the cost of the premium templates, cost of the plugins or other such expenses. Most importantly, when you happen to run into glitches, you will be forced to hire a techy to resolve your issues and this single factor makes a whole lot of difference just because you do not possess any technical knowledge. Shopify may have its subscription fee but you get whole lot of other perks that gets compensated. You will be able to get complete support for the running and maintenance of your website which comes free of cost. What is the most important factor to be remembered here is that it will give you complete peace of mind. On the long run you tend to save a great deal with shopify.

To conclude

When you are trying to weigh the two, namely Shopify and WordPress, you will have to think long term. If you lose sight of the long term concerns, then you are likely to make wrong choices. Moreover, you should also decide whether you.