If you’re an Australian business owner looking to launch or upgrade your online store, choosing between WooCommerce and Shopify can feel overwhelming. Both platforms offer powerful tools to help you build, manage, and grow your e-commerce presence, but they differ in pricing, flexibility, setup, and overall approach.
This guide provides an in-depth comparison between WooCommerce and Shopify, with a focus on Australia. We’ll cover costs, design flexibility, features, SEO, payment options, transaction fees, and more.
Overview: What Are WooCommerce and Shopify?
WooCommerce is a free, open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It gives you full control over your store, from custom design and features to hosting. You’ll need a separate web hosting provider (like VentraIP), but in exchange, you get near-total flexibility.
Shopify on the other hand, is a hosted e-commerce platform that takes care of most of the technical setup for you. It’s known for its ease of use, bundled support, and all-in-one package.
Key Differences:
- Hosting: WooCommerce requires a hosting provider; Shopify includes it.
- Customisation: WooCommerce offers more freedom, while Shopify has limitations but is easier for beginners.
- Pricing: WooCommerce is technically free, but add-ons and hosting costs vary. Shopify has fixed monthly plans.
Design Flexibility and Customisation
WooCommerce allows near-complete control of design. You can modify themes, install custom plugins, and use page builders like Elementor to tailor your storefront. It’s ideal for Australian businesses needing a unique or branded e-commerce experience.
Shopify offers beautiful, professionally designed templates; some free, many paid. But design flexibility is limited unless you’re comfortable editing Liquid (Shopify’s coding language). You’ll also need to work within Shopify’s app ecosystem to add custom features to your site.
E-commerce Platform Features
Both platforms support standard e-commerce functionality, such as product listings, checkout, shipping, inventory management, marketing, and more. However, there are important differences in extensibility:
- WooCommerce has an extensive plugin ecosystem with many free options. Great for adding unique features or integrating with local Australian services.
- Shopify has a polished app store with vetted third-party apps, but most come with recurring monthly fees that can add up over time.
Notable Features:
- Marketing tools: Email integrations, discount codes, abandoned cart recovery (native in Shopify, plugin-based in WooCommerce).
- Inventory management: Shopify’s backend is slightly more intuitive, but WooCommerce can be just as powerful with the right setup.
- Multilingual support: Both support translation, but WooCommerce gives you more freedom using plugins like WPML.
Payment Options and Transaction Fees
WooCommerce lets you choose from quite a few different payment gateways. They have their own payment gateway called WooPayments, but they still allow you to enable Stripe, PayPal, eWay and Afterpay. There are no additional transaction fees beyond what your payment provider charges.
Shopify includes its own gateway, Shopify Payments, which has no extra fees. However, if you use third-party gateways (like Stripe or PayPal), Shopify adds a transaction fee of up to 2% on top of what the gateway already charges.
In Australia:
- WooCommerce is often cheaper in terms of ongoing transaction costs.
- Shopify can be simpler to set up, but it may cost more depending on the payment method.
SEO and Blogging Tools
SEO is essential for e-commerce, and WooCommerce has a natural advantage. Built on WordPress, it gives you full control over on-page SEO, blog structure, permalinks, and more.
Shopify offers basic SEO tools and a built-in blog, but URL structures are less customisable. Shopify blogs also lack the depth of WordPress content features, which can impact your content marketing strategy.
For Australian Businesses:
- WooCommerce’s SEO flexibility helps local stores target Australian audiences better.
- Shopify can still rank well, but optimisation may require more effort or apps.
Page Speed and Performance
Performance depends heavily on your hosting provider. With WooCommerce, you control hosting and can choose a fast provider like VentraIP with LiteSpeed Cache support.
Shopify’s infrastructure is managed and globally optimised, which can lead to consistent performance, but with less control over the finer details. This makes it a little more difficult to get maximum performance.
Key Considerations:
- WooCommerce can outperform Shopify with proper optimisation and hosting.
- Shopify handles scaling and speed automatically, which can be appealing for beginners.
Cost Breakdown: What Will You Actually Pay?
Understanding the total cost of ownership is crucial when comparing WooCommerce vs Shopify. While WooCommerce is free to install, the real expenses are less straightforward. Shopify, on the other hand, has transparent monthly pricing, but it often comes with additional costs.
WooCommerce Costs
- Platform cost: Free (WooCommerce plugin and WordPress are open-source)
- Hosting: The cost varies based on which hosting package you choose. Reliable Australian web hosting (like VentraIP) can range from $11 to $40+ AUD per month, depending on your needs.
- Themes: Some free themes are available, but premium themes can cost from $70–150 AUD.
- Plugins: Many are free, but advanced functionality (e.g. subscriptions, bookings, advanced SEO) often requires paid extensions, which can add up.
- Development/Maintenance: Optional but common, especially if you want help managing updates, security, or design. Costs vary.
- Payment gateways: Standard gateway fees apply, with no additional transaction fees from WooCommerce itself.
Best for: Businesses that want full control over features and costs associated with running their website, and are confident dealing with the technical aspects of hosting and maintenance.
Shopify Costs
- Platform cost: Starts at $56 AUD/month for the Basic Shopify plan, with higher tiers at $149 and $575+ AUD/month depending on features.
- Themes: A mix of free and paid themes (premium themes typically cost $140–350 AUD).
- Apps: Many apps in the Shopify App Store come with monthly fees. Some features that are free in WooCommerce may require a paid app here.
- Transaction fees: If you use Shopify Payments, you avoid extra fees. But if you use external gateways (e.g. Stripe or PayPal), Shopify adds up to 2% on top of the standard gateway fee.
- Hosting and SSL: Included with all plans.
Best for: Those who want predictable monthly pricing, prefer not to deal with technical maintenance, and are okay with a platform that is slightly less customisable.
Scalability: How Well Does Each Platform Grow With You?
As your store grows in product volume, traffic, and complexity, the e-commerce platform you choose will need to keep up. Here’s how WooCommerce and Shopify scale.
WooCommerce Scalability
- Server control: You can upgrade your hosting environment as needed, from shared hosting to VPS. This flexibility lets you grow without rebuilding your site.
- Database performance: WooCommerce relies on WordPress’s database structure, which may require optimisation or server tuning as you scale (especially when you have a higher number of products).
- Customisation: Almost limitless, you can extend or optimise virtually any part of your store with developer help.
- Costs: Can remain affordable, but large-scale stores may need to invest in higher-tier hosting and plugins.
WooCommerce is highly scalable, but scaling effectively may require developer involvement and strategic infrastructure upgrades.
Shopify Scalability
- Infrastructure: Built on a cloud-based platform that automatically handles traffic spikes, large inventories, and rapid growth.
- Enterprise options: Shopify Plus caters to larger brands, with advanced features and support (but comes at a high price — usually over $2,000 AUD/month).
- Performance management: Shopify manages infrastructure, meaning you don’t need to think about the technical aspects of hosting a website.
- Limits: Some limitations around product variants, custom logic, and app dependencies may surface for highly complex stores.
Shopify is ideal for fast-scaling brands that prioritise simplicity and uptime, especially if you’re happy working within the bounds of its ecosystem.
Migration and Setup
- Migrating to WooCommerce is relatively easy from other WordPress-based solutions.
- Shopify has built-in import tools and supports migration from other platforms.
For beginners, Shopify is more of a turnkey solution. While WooCommerce is fairly straightforward to setup.
Security and Hosting: Who Handles What?
WooCommerce (Self-Hosted)
With WooCommerce, you’re in full control, which means you’re also responsible for ensuring your store is secure and performs well. This gives you flexibility, but also adds a layer of responsibility.
Security considerations:
- SSL certificates: You’ll need to install an SSL certificate to secure customer data. Most quality hosts (like VentraIP) provide free SSL as part of their hosting.
- Plugin vulnerabilities: You must keep WordPress, WooCommerce, and all plugins up to date to avoid security issues.
- PCI compliance: WooCommerce itself is not PCI-compliant by default. You’ll need to configure your server, payment gateway, and checkout process to meet compliance requirements.
- Backups and malware scanning: These depend on your hosting provider or any added plugins you use.
Hosting needs:
- WooCommerce requires a reliable, fast hosting provider to handle traffic, backups, and caching. Australian businesses benefit from local servers, like those offered by VentraIP, to reduce latency and improve page speed.
- Hosting costs are separate from your website, and performance varies depending on your plan and provider.
Shopify (Fully Hosted)
Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform, which means the infrastructure, updates, and most security measures are handled for you.
Security advantages:
- PCI-DSS compliant: Shopify is fully PCI-compliant out of the box.
- SSL included: All plans include a free SSL certificate automatically.
- Automatic updates: Platform updates, security patches, and maintenance are handled by Shopify without manual input.
- Fraud analysis tools: Built into Shopify Payments and some third-party gateways.
Hosting benefits:
- Shopify’s cloud-based infrastructure ensures consistent performance, even during traffic spikes.
- Global content delivery network (CDN) included, helping reduce page load times for visitors around the world, although this advantage may be less noticeable for local Australian traffic compared to using an Aussie host with WooCommerce.
In summary:
- WooCommerce offers flexibility and control but demands proactive security and hosting management.
- Shopify provides peace of mind with built-in security and hosting, ideal for those who prefer a hands-off approach.
WooCommerce vs Shopify: Pros and Cons
Here’s a summary of the key differences between WooCommerce and Shopify.
| Feature | WooCommerce | Shopify |
| Ease of Use | Requires some technical setup (hosting, domain, plugins), but highly customisable. | Extremely beginner-friendly. Fully hosted with an intuitive interface. |
| Design Flexibility | Full control over design with thousands of free and premium WordPress themes. | Limited to Shopify’s templating system, though themes are polished and easy to use. |
| Customisation | Highly customisable with open-source access. | Customisation depends on Shopify apps and templates, with some restrictions. |
| Plugins & Extensions | Thousands of WordPress plugins are available. Some require setup and compatibility checks. | Robust app marketplace, but many apps are paid or subscription-based. |
| SEO Tools | Excellent SEO flexibility. Full control over URLs, metadata, and schema. | Good built-in SEO features, but limited control over URL structure. |
| Performance | Depends on your hosting. Optimisation is your responsibility. | Performance is relatively consistent due to Shopify’s managed infrastructure. |
| Security | You’re responsible for updates, SSL, and plugin security. | Shopify handles all security and compliance out of the box. |
| Transaction Fees | No platform fees, just your chosen payment gateway fees. | Extra fees if you’re not using Shopify Payments. |
| Hosting | Self-hosted. You choose your provider (e.g. VentraIP). | Hosting is included in all Shopify plans. |
| Scalability | Scales well with the right setup, but may need technical input. | Scales automatically with your growth, ideal for rapid expansion. |
| Cost Predictability | Lower upfront costs, but expenses vary depending on plugins, themes, and hosting. | Clear pricing tiers, but monthly costs can add up with paid apps. |
| Best For | Businesses needing control, custom features, or already on WordPress. | Those wanting an all-in-one solution with minimal setup or maintenance. |
Final Verdict: WooCommerce or Shopify?
If you want full design flexibility, control over costs, deeper SEO capabilities, local hosting, and support. Then WooCommerce is the stronger long-term platform — especially when paired with fast, Australian-based hosting.
If you prefer a simplified, all-in-one platform, less setup and fewer decisions, and access to built-in support. Then Shopify is a great choice for getting up and running quickly.
VentraIP: The Perfect Hosting Partner for WooCommerce
For Australian businesses choosing WooCommerce, hosting is key. VentraIP offers:
- Fast Australian servers
- Support for LiteSpeed Cache and WordPress performance optimisation
- Free website migration
- 24/7 Australian-based support
Our hosting is purpose-built to help your WooCommerce store load faster, perform better, and grow alongside your business.
Ready to get started?
Explore our WordPress and WooCommerce hosting plans and move your store to VentraIP today.
