Choosing a platform for your eCommerce website can feel confusing. Shopify is popular because it’s simple and quick to set up, but if you want flexibility, control, and a website that can grow with your business, WordPress with WooCommerce is often the better choice.
At b:web, we have over 20 years’ experience in building websites and eCommerce solutions. We’ve worked with almost every platform you can think of: PayPal buttons, Roman Cart, Actinic, Magento, OpenCart, WooCommerce, Shopify, and more. We’ve also built bespoke eCommerce platforms from scratch and written custom APIs to integrate with EPOS systems, inventory management, and picking lists. This means we understand the strengths and limitations of each platform and can advise on the best solution for your business now and in the future.
Unlike Shopify, WordPress doesn’t just focus on selling products. With WooCommerce, you can:
With WooCommerce, almost anything is possible with plugins or bespoke code, giving you flexibility that Shopify cannot match. Examples include:
Shopify limitations:
With Shopify, you’re stuck with the payment gateways they support, so you can’t just add your own. Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe) is the default and recommended choice, and using it means you avoid extra fees. You can also use third-party gateways like PayPal, Klarna, Worldpay or Amazon Pay, but not all of them are available everywhere. If you don’t use Shopify Payments, Shopify will add a transaction fee on top of your normal provider fees – usually between 0.5% and 2%, depending on your plan.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, gives you way more freedom. It works with pretty much every major payment provider worldwide, including Stripe, PayPal, Klarna, Square, Worldpay and SagePay, without charging extra fees on top. And if you need something more niche, we can build a bespoke integration for you – so even local or specialised payment providers can be added. This makes WooCommerce a far more flexible and often more cost-effective choice for businesses with specific payment needs.
With WordPress and WooCommerce, you have full control over your website’s design, layouts, and templates. Unlike hosted platforms, you’re not limited by pre-set templates or themes, so you can create a website that truly reflects your brand. Our experience with multiple platforms and bespoke projects means we can implement unique functionality and features beyond what standard templates allow. Whether you want custom landing pages, interactive widgets, or advanced product configurators, WordPress makes it possible. Shopify, by contrast, is more restricted. You’re limited to the templates and themes available, and adding unique business content or bespoke features outside the eCommerce website can be tricky.
WordPress with WooCommerce is excellent for on-page SEO and marketing. You can optimise blogs, product pages, and landing pages to attract organic traffic using plugins like Yoast or Rank Math. The platform also allows you to integrate email marketing, analytics, and other tools to track and improve your campaigns. Shopify can handle SEO too, but it offers less control over page structure and markup, and apps are often needed to achieve the same results. If growing your visibility and driving traffic through search engines is important, WordPress gives you more flexibility and power to do so effectively.
With WordPress and WooCommerce, you own your website, your data, and all of your content. You’re in complete control and not locked into a hosted platform, which means you can make updates, implement new features, and customise your website exactly as you need. Shopify, on the other hand, is a hosted solution. They control your environment, manage updates, and place limits on certain customisation options, so you don’t have the same level of ownership or flexibility.
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Q: Can I move from Shopify to WordPress?
A: Yes. We can migrate products, customers, and content from Shopify to WooCommerce. While it’s a project that requires planning, it gives you full control over your eCommerce website and overall website functionality.
Q: Is WooCommerce good for non-ecommerce pages?
A: Absolutely. WordPress with WooCommerce lets you create blogs, brochure-style pages, landing pages, and other interactive content alongside your eCommerce website.
Q: Which platform is better for SEO?
A: WordPress/WooCommerce generally offers better on-page SEO control. With plugins like Yoast or Rank Math, you can optimise blogs, products, and landing pages fully, whereas Shopify has more limited options.
Q: Can WooCommerce integrate with other business tools?
A: Yes. WordPress has a huge ecosystem of plugins and integrations for email marketing, CRM, analytics, bookings, and more, giving you a fully customisable business website.
