It is a Shopify vs WordPress contest today. We will do a detailed analysis of Shopify and WordPress for you to decide which one is the best-suited platform for your e-commerce business. Read till the end and make a better decision.
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What Is Shopify?
Shopify is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Its headquarters are also based in Canada. It was founded back in 2006. Shopify is an e-commerce platform. It lets potential business owners start an online business. People with a business idea can build an online store on Shopify, select a theme for their store, add products and start selling to their niche. It is effortless and less costly to start a business with Shopify because you only have to pay Shopify’s subscription and you are good to go. Expenses for paying rent, utilities, and employees are reduced. There are many other ways through which expenses are reduced in Shopify such as dropshipping. Dropshipping lets you order directly from the supplier and ship it to the consumer without having to stock up on inventory. There are options like a 14-day free trial, an easy payment system, and minimal cost in Shopify that provide ease for business owners.
Moreover, with Shopify, you can be creative. You can even sell tickets to an event, stickers, fairy lights, and every little thing. Store owners can experiment with their product line without worrying about stock lying in inventory because with Shopify dropshipping there is no need to stock up. It can be said that with Shopify doing business will not cost you a kidney and it’s much easier.
What Is WordPress?:
WordPress was developed by the WordPress foundation and was released on 19th May 2003. WordPress was a result of collaboration between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. It has made a lot of progress since then and has become the most popular solution to create any type of website. WordPress is self-hosted software. It is defined as a website builder that is technically more advanced. You can create any type of website with WordPress including an online store. WordPress requires some form of coding knowledge or requires you to hire a developer. It offers full control customization of the website. WordPress is not a dedicated e-commerce platform, it has some plugins you can install to start selling. It is also called a content management system that contains plugins and thousands of templates to choose from. You can choose any template that goes with your website.
You must be wondering how to create your own where there is no magic wand for that. The step-by-step by step process for it. So let’s talk about it.
- First and Foremost step is to choose to WordPress plan. WordPress.org offers only one free plan option but WordPress.com offers five plans.
- Next step is to select a domain name and hosting provider. Visitors find you through your domain name and it looks something like this www.xyz.com. The hosting provider is where all your files are stored. You have to use your domain name and get a third-party hosting provider.
- the Third step is to install WordPress and connect your hosting provider to WordPress.
- Now choose a theme for your website and customize it just the way you won’t look like it. There are many WordPress themes and templates to choose from. WordPress automatically applies a default theme to your website but it would be plain and not so you should chooser you choose it yourself.
- After setting up your website, start adding posts and pages and you are good to go.
There are many advantages of using WordPress as a website builder such as it is SEO friendly, its updates are automatic and quick, you can access your website anywhere in the world, it’s mobile-friendly, and it offers customization, plugins, and applications.
Shopify Vs WordPress:
It’s a Shopify Vs WordPress battle today. We will compare WordPress and Shopify. If you are confused and cannot decide which one to choose then keep reading.
Easy To Use:
The major difference between WordPress and Shopify is that Shopify is a dedicated e-commerce store but WordPress is a blogging platform that has some plugins that can be installed to make it an online store. This makes Shopify easy to use. For people who are looking for a platform to start a business then Shopify will be their number one choice. Moreover, Shopify does not require you to have coding knowledge but WordPress does not. Shopify hosts your websites for you unlike WordPress, you need to look for a hosting provider and a domain name.
Shopify is a winner in this aspect because it provides you with all the sales tools, you don’t need to go through the hassle of finding a hosting provider and installing additional plugins.
Quicker and flexible:
Everybody needs a platform that is flexible and quicker. There are no lengthy procedures to execute a simple task. Shopify is easy to use and building a store on Shopify is quicker. You just need to install Shopify, enter your details, pay a small fee, select a theme and you are good to go. One does not have to wait for hours or days and has the sophisticated technical knowledge to have a store on Shopify. On the other hand, WordPress is technical and it consumes a lot of time to build a store on WordPress. You need to install extra plugins and find a hosting provider for your store.
Now if we consider flexibility, research says that WordPress is far more flexible than Shopify because it offers total customization. A store owner has tons of templates to choose from. But in my opinion, you have to pay a huge price for this flexibility in form of time. If someone chooses WordPress because it is more flexible or customizable then they need to consider the time they will spend on customizing it or just setting up their store. Shopify might not that be flexible but it surely saves you a lot of time and it cannot be said that Shopify is not flexible or customizable at all, it is but a little less than WordPress.
Pricing:
The most important thing that is considered before investing in anything is cost. It surely impacts your decisions to a great extent. Shopify offers a 14-day free trial along with three main plans. It has a minimal subscription cost but there are some extra charges too. There are extra transaction fees that might make it look expensive but it’s not if compared to WordPress. WordPress is very expensive. You have to pay for security, hosting provider plugins, and many others.
So Shopify is a winner in this regard. It gives value to your money.
Templates And Themes:
Templates and themes are something very important for your e-commerce store. They make it look more attractive to your customers. Shopify has over 7o themes to choose from. Some of them are paid while others are free. All of these themes are mobile responsive. WordPress has over 1000 themes. It is better than Shopify in this regard but not all these themes are equally good. Only some are mobile responsive and some of them are not offered by WordPress, so it gets messy when updates roll around.
Shopify Vs WordPress SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the process of increasing your website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Shopify app store has many SEO apps also Shopify’s onsite SEO tools help you a lot in ranking your store. WordPress SEO is done through additional plugins. It means you have to pay extra pennies for SEO. Shopify has better SEO tools than WordPress.
Customer Support:
Customers are an integral part of a business. It is important to make sure that your customers return home satisfied because only then they will come back. To satisfy your customers, you need to have a strong customer support system. Shopify offers strong customer support. It has a customer support option on its website and you can contact them 24/7. Shopify’s customer satisfaction is 97%. While WordPress does not offer any customer support service. Some forums will help you in this regard but there is no help center.
Shopify customer support is way better than WordPress.
Security:
In this era of digitalization, there is always a threat to your security. It is important to have a secure platform for your business because there is a huge investment in it and it can go to waste in seconds if hackers are successful in doing their job. With Shopify, you get an SSL certificate that protects your data and your visitor’s data. But in WordPress, you have to pay for security separately. In my opinion, it gets difficult and costly to pay for everything separately, there is a long list of bills you need to pay and a human mind can only remember a few. So Shopify is a more secure platform for your e-commerce store.
Final Answer:
We have done a detailed analysis of Shopify and WordPress. We have compared their flexibility, SEO, pricing, customer support system, templates and themes, ease of use, security, and other things. Shopify is a better option than WordPress because of all those reasons discussed above. It gives value for money and has better SEO and customer support. Shopify gets extra points for being a more secure platform. You get an SSL certificate that helps maintain your privacy. WordPress is better than Shopify in some aspects too but if we evaluate them more critically it is still not worth it. WordPress offers greater flexibility but it demands a lot of time to install plugins and set up your e-commerce store. There are more than 1000 themes in WordPress but not all of them are offered by WordPress, they are not mobile responsive so it gets messy to handle them.
In a Shopify Vs WordPress contest, Shopify has earned more points.