Shopify vs WordPress - Which is The Best?

When it comes time to begin selling your products or services online, the question of which e-commerce service is best always arises. Many great tools and platforms are available, both downloadable software and online tools, so choosing one perfect solution for everyone is nearly impossible. To narrow down your choices and decide which e-commerce tools are best for you, you’ll need to weigh the options provided by various means and determine which features work best for you.

In this Shopify vs WordPress comparison, we will examine two viral e-commerce platforms to help you determine which one is more suitable for you.

Before going into too much detail, Shopify is often the better choice when compared with WordPress because it is built specifically for e-commerce purposes. The comparison is not cut and dry, however, and it’s good to remember that a skilled WordPress user can do just as much, if not more, with e-commerce as a Shopify user can. Read on for more detailed information.

The most significant difference between Shopify and WordPress

WordPress, by nature, is not an e-commerce site. It is a robust, fully-featured website creation platform that can be used for almost every website you can imagine. To turn a WordPress site into an e-commerce site such as the ones natively created by Shopify, it is necessary to go through many steps to get everything set up just right.

Shopify’s case is quite different. Shopify was built from the ground up to facilitate online sales. Whether users create online marketplaces to sell physical goods, services, or digital files, Shopify allows setting up a store with all the bells and whistles in a few minutes.

Pitting WordPress vs. Shopify against one another regarding which is the better e-commerce site is a rather unfair fight in most cases as Shopify is the more accessible, more convenient, and often times more secure platform for selling online.

WordPress as an E-commerce

For anyone who is well-versed in WordPress and understands how it works, using WordPress as an e-commerce site could be a better option despite Shopify users' apparent lack of ease. There is some comfort in using a familiar system; when used correctly, WordPress can undoubtedly be a compelling e-commerce platform.

The answer, of course, is in both the hosting and the available plug-ins. Once a host has been established in the WordPress software has been installed, WordPress users should grab plug-ins to handle e-commerce features such as store details, product descriptions, payment gateways, etc.

Shopify

As we have alluded to, most users will benefit from the most amusing Shopify. The combination of features on offer makes this an easy choice. It is possible to have an online store in mere minutes from signing up and paying for a subscription on the Shopify website. Subscription costs range from $9 to $179 per month, no coding skills are required, many professional themes to choose from, SEO and marketing tools are baked right in, 24-hour support is available, and so on.

Final thoughts

Most e-commerce site users would likely opt for Shopify over WordPress when building their online store. The choice comes down to how much faster and easier everything is on Shopify. While it’s true you can do the same with WordPress, the amount of work it takes to match the capability of Shopify is so much more involved that it only makes sense to existing WordPress users who know the system very well.