8 key differences between WordPress and Shopify

Every business is looking to rebuild its online presence after a disastrous pandemic. The market is growing and the pandemic has shifted its focus to online purchasing. Therefore, you may be looking for an online solution for your e-commerce site or online business.

The question arises now: What will be the best e-commerce platform for you? Most people often face the dilemma of choosing between WordPress or any other dedicated e-commerce platform, like Shopify, for their business.

Therefore, in this article, TipsMake will show you the differences between WordPress and Shopify so you can better understand these two platforms.

User

Whether you want to build a magazine site, an online store or a blog, WordPress can serve all of these needs. Therefore, WordPress is suitable for many users with many different purposes. Furthermore, it has a large ecosystem of themes and plugins, allowing you to develop any type of website.

In contrast, Shopify's user base is suitable for entrepreneurs and e-commerce store owners because it is a store management system. Those who own an online e-commerce store or plan to have an online store will consider Shopify as the platform they want to turn to. Aside from e-commerce users, other users don't have a compelling reason to use Shopify.

Price

Free WordPress CMS. Therefore, you don't have to pay a single penny when using WordPress or WooCommerce. However, because domain and hosting services do not come with the WordPress package, you need to pay additional costs for these things.

Although most plugins and themes in the WordPress repository are completely free or limited free, you still need to purchase the premium version to access advanced features.

On the other hand, Shopify comes with 5 differently priced plans that cover everything on your behalf as a user. So you don't need to worry about other problems.

Templates and themes

WordPress offers an unprecedented number of themes, over 8,800 website themes and over 1,500 e-commerce themes. Additionally, there are many themes developed by third parties. However, if you consider security and compatibility issues after updating WordPress, you should use themes from WordPress.org.

On the other hand, Shopify offers a total of more than 70 themes, of which 10 are free. The remaining themes cost from $140 and up.

User interface

The basic layout of WordPress and Shopify is almost the same. Both platforms come with a similar dashboard with a menu on the left side. You can select options and add, edit or delete elements according to your needs using the menu.

Some users have confirmed that they find the Shopify interface a bit simpler and more modern than the WordPress interface. However, WordPress offers more flexible customization, as it comes with visual editor plugins like Elementor and Divi to tailor your store or website to your preferences.

Ease of use

Compared to the simplicity of Shopify, WordPress is relatively a bit complicated to use. Since it is not exactly developed for creating online stores, users need to install an e-commerce plugin like WooCommerce, BigCommerce or Ecwid. Additionally, the backend dashboard can be a bit overwhelming for new users, as there are so many options and tools.

Adding products to your Shopify store is a simple process. The interface looks a lot like a Microsoft Word document. The user needs to tell the system a little bit about his job, and the system will take care of the rest. There are two ways to upload products - individually or in bulk.

Mobile Responsiveness

Today, a significant number of users browse from their mobile or tablet devices. In that case, a device responsive website is a must when considering customer satisfaction.

Most WordPress themes are mobile responsive (only some themes lack this feature). On the other hand, all Shopify themes are mobile-ready. However, you can use Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) on both platforms to enjoy better mobile responsiveness.

Ecommerce

Shopify is a platform precisely designed for e-commerce businesses and online stores, while WordPress serves diverse interests. Therefore, Shopify has a slight advantage in the e-commerce space compared to WordPress.

Shopify provides all the elements, themes, and everything else with just one goal in mind - providing you with a fully functional online store.

On the contrary, e-commerce is not the only concern of WordPress. To build an ecommerce store in WordPress, you need to install separate plugins (WooCommerce, BigCommerce, etc.).

Both platforms integrate multiple payment options, and Shopify supports more languages. However, you can use multilingual plugins to use many other languages ​​on your WordPress site.

For dropshipping, WordPress has a solution available. On the other hand, Shopify integrates with Ordoro, eCommHub, and Inventory Source for dropshipping.

SEO

As a blogging platform, SEO becomes an area where WordPress dominates. The platform itself is SEO friendly. Besides, various SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math give you great guidance to keep a strong position in SERP.

Shopify's SEO function is also relatively good. For example, you can add meta title, meta description, and meta tags. You can also add a 301 Redirect and change the page URL according to your needs. Additionally, Shopify recommends SEO best practices when you add products to your website.

Lesley Montoya

Update 13 October 2023