For most small UK shops, Shopify is the easier platform to run, because hosting, security and checkout all come in one monthly plan. WordPress with WooCommerce suits a shop that sits inside a content-led site, or an owner who wants full control and doesn’t mind looking after updates. When you weigh up Shopify vs WordPress in the UK, the deciding factors are running costs, who maintains the shop and how much you expect to sell.
What’s the difference between Shopify and WooCommerce?
Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform. You pay a monthly fee and it runs the servers, the checkout and the security. You can edit your theme, but the platform underneath isn’t yours to look after.
WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns a WordPress site into a shop. WordPress itself is open-source software. You choose your own hosting, install WooCommerce, then add extensions for anything it doesn’t do out of the box. Every file is yours, and so is the job of keeping it all working.
So the choice isn’t about which platform is better in the abstract. It’s whether you’d rather rent a well-run shop or own one you have to maintain.
What does Shopify cost in the UK?
Shopify’s UK prices, checked on its UK pricing page in autumn 2026, are as follows.
- Basic costs £25 a month, or £19 a month if you pay yearly
- Grow costs £65 a month, or £49 a month paid yearly
- Advanced costs £344 a month, or £259 a month paid yearly
Every sale also carries a card fee. With Shopify Payments, online card rates start at 2% + 25p on Basic, 1.7% + 25p on Grow and 1.5% + 25p on Advanced. If you’d rather use a different payment provider, Shopify adds its own transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow or 0.6% on Advanced, on top of whatever that provider charges.
Then there are apps. The core plan covers a lot, but features like product reviews, bundles or extra filtering often come from apps, and many of them bill monthly. Paid themes are a one-off purchase. None of these sit inside a build fee, and that includes ours.
What does WooCommerce cost?
The plugin costs nothing. WooCommerce’s own pricing page describes it as free, with no monthly subscription. What you pay for is everything around it.
- Hosting. A shop needs better hosting than a brochure site, because basket and checkout pages can’t be cached like ordinary pages.
- Extensions. WooCommerce’s pricing page puts typical extensions at $29 to $299 a year each. Subscriptions, bookings and some shipping integrations fall into this group.
- Payment fees. Stripe, PayPal and WooPayments each charge per transaction, but WooCommerce doesn’t add a fee of its own.
- Maintenance. WordPress, WooCommerce, your theme and every plugin need updating, and someone has to check the checkout still works afterwards.
For a small shop with a few products, WooCommerce can work out cheaper month to month than Shopify. Add a handful of paid extensions and decent hosting, though, and the gap can close quickly.
Who looks after the shop?
This is the part people skip, and it’s where the two differ most.
On Shopify, the platform handles security patches, server updates and card security. Your job is products, orders and the odd app setting. If something breaks at their end, it’s their problem to fix.
On WooCommerce, someone has to keep WordPress and every plugin up to date, take backups and test the checkout after each update. That someone is you, your developer or a support plan. It isn’t difficult work, but it can’t be skipped. Out-of-date plugins are a common way into small WordPress sites, and a shop holds customer details you’re responsible for protecting.
Is Shopify or WordPress better for SEO?
Both can rank well. The differences are in the detail.
- Shopify sets some URL patterns for you, so products sit under /products/ and categories under /collections/. You can’t change that structure.
- WordPress lets you set any URL structure you like, and plugins such as Rank Math or Yoast give fine control over titles, schema and redirects.
- Shopify’s built-in blog is basic. If articles and guides are a big part of how you’ll be found, WordPress is the stronger writing tool.
- Both create a sitemap for you and let you edit page titles and meta descriptions.
Speed often matters more than the platform. A store weighed down with apps can be slower than a lean WooCommerce shop, and the reverse is true too.
Shopify vs WooCommerce at a glance
| Factor | Shopify | WordPress with WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Platform cost | From £25 a month, or £19 a month paid yearly | Free plugin, but you pay for hosting |
| Payment fees | From 2% + 25p with Shopify Payments, plus 0.6% to 2% extra with another provider | Your payment provider’s fees only |
| Updates and security | Handled by Shopify | Down to you or your support plan |
| Extra features | Apps, many with monthly fees | Extensions, many at $29 to $299 a year |
| SEO control | Good, with some fixed URL patterns | Full control over URLs and structure |
| Best for | Product-led shops that want to sell, not maintain | Content-led sites with a shop attached |
Should you choose Shopify or WordPress?
Choose Shopify in these cases.
- selling products is the main point of the site
- you don’t want to think about hosting, updates or security
- you expect your range or order numbers to grow
- you also sell in person, since Shopify POS works from the same stock
Choose WordPress with WooCommerce in these cases.
- the shop is a small part of a bigger site, such as a few products alongside your services
- you publish a lot of articles and want the better writing tools
- you need a custom setup that Shopify’s apps don’t cover
- you’ve got someone, in-house or on a support plan, to keep it updated
Online selling isn’t a sideline for UK shoppers. The ONS reported that 28.3% of retail sales in Great Britain were made online in July 2026. If your shop is a big part of the business, pick the platform you’ll be happy running in your busiest week of the year.
We build on both, so we’ve no reason to push you one way. Our Shopify web design builds are fixed-price, in three bands. The first starts from £3,500 +VAT, the second is £5,500 to £8,500 +VAT and the third starts from £9,500 +VAT. If WordPress is the better fit, our website packages show what a WordPress build includes.
If you’re comparing quotes for the build itself, website packages explained covers what’s usually included at each price.
Common questions about Shopify vs WordPress
Can I move from WooCommerce to Shopify later?
Yes. Products and customers can be moved across. The part that matters most is mapping 301 redirects from your old URLs to the new ones, so you keep the search traffic you’ve already earned. We migrate shops from WooCommerce and Magento with redirect mapping for exactly that reason.
Do I have to use Shopify Payments?
No. But if you use another provider, you’ll pay Shopify a transaction fee on top, from 0.6% on Advanced to 2% on Basic. For most UK shops, that makes Shopify Payments the cheaper route.
Is WooCommerce free?
The plugin is. Hosting, your domain, paid extensions and the time to maintain it all aren’t. Add those up before you compare it with a Shopify plan.
How long does a Shopify build take?
Most of our standard Shopify store builds launch within 14 to 30 working days after we receive product images and content. The build fee doesn’t cover the Shopify plan, paid themes, app fees or product photography, which the providers bill separately.
