Is Shopify better than WordPress?

Shopify and WordPress (with WooCommerce) are leading online store platforms - but which one will give you your time back to focus on anything oyu want?

For merchants specifically focused on online sales, Shopify often comes out ahead due to its ease of use, robust features, and dedicated e-commerce functionalities.

“For users prioritizing ease of use and e-commerce features optimised natively, Shopify often provides a more streamlined and efficient path to launching and growing an online store.”

— Bad Dog

Here are 15 reasons why Shopify might be considered better than WordPress for online sales:

1. E-commerce Focused: Shopify is a dedicated e-commerce platform designed specifically for online sales, whereas WordPress is a content management system that requires plugins like WooCommerce to sell online.

2. Ease of Setup: Shopify offers a straightforward setup process for beginners, with no need for hosting or installing software, unlike WordPress, which requires a bit more technical know-how to get started and ongoing maintenance with core updates and plugin conflicts.

3. Integrated Payment Processing: Shopify includes built-in payment processing with Shopify Payments, simplifying the setup process for accepting payments, while WordPress requires external payment gateways. This can be time consuming and awkward to set up.

4. Security: Shopify provides automatic updates and security patches, ensuring your store remains secure without manual intervention. WordPress sites, on the other hand, require regular updates to themes, plugins, and the core CMS for security.

5. 24/7 Support: Shopify provides 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and live chat. WordPress support depends on your hosting provider, theme, and plugins, which can vary widely.

6. Mobile Optimisation: Shopify themes are all mobile-responsive, ensuring your store looks great on any device. While there are responsive WordPress themes, not all are optimised for e-commerce out of the box.

7. App and Plugin Ecosystem: Both platforms have extensive app and plugin ecosystems, but Shopify's apps are specifically focused on enhancing e-commerce capabilities.

8. SEO Capabilities: While WordPress is known for its SEO strengths, Shopify also offers robust SEO features that are specifically tailored for online stores, making it easier to rank product pages.

9. Hosting and Maintenance: Shopify is a hosted solution, meaning hosting is included in its plans, relieving you from the responsibility of managing a server, unlike WordPress.

10. Speed and Performance: Shopify stores tend to load quickly and handle traffic spikes well due to Shopify's optimized hosting environment. WordPress site speed can vary based on hosting, theme, and plugins used.

11. Built-in Tools: Shopify provides a range of built-in tools for analytics, marketing, and inventory management without the need for additional plugins.

12. Scalability: Shopify can easily scale with your business, offering plans from small businesses to enterprise levels with Shopify Plus. Scaling a WordPress site may require migrating to a more robust hosting plan.

13. Checkout Customisation: Shopify offers a secure, customisable, and optimised checkout experience out-of-the-box, which is crucial for conversion rates. Customising the checkout process in WordPress can be more complex and may require additional plugins.

14. International Sales: Shopify simplifies the process of selling internationally with multi-currency and multi-language support, which can be more cumbersome to set up in WordPress.

15. Unified Dashboard: Shopify provides a single, centralized dashboard to manage your store, orders, products, and analytics, offering a cohesive user experience compared to managing a WordPress site where e-commerce is bolted on.

While Shopify shines in many areas for e-commerce, the best choice depends on your specific needs, technical skills, and the type of online store you're looking to build. WordPress with WooCommerce can be a powerful and flexible option for those who need a content-heavy site with e-commerce functionality, but for users prioritizing ease of use and e-commerce features out of the box, Shopify provides a more streamlined and efficient path to launching and growing an online store.