For most small Australian stores that want to sell online without managing servers, Shopify is the simpler choice: hosting, security, updates and checkout are handled for you, in exchange for a monthly plan and less control. WooCommerce suits stores that already run on WordPress, need unusual product or pricing logic, or want to own every part of the stack, but someone has to keep the hosting, plugins and backups in order. If nobody on your team wants that job, lean towards Shopify.
That is the short answer. The rest of this article covers the questions that usually decide it in practice.
What is the real difference between Shopify and WooCommerce?
Shopify is a hosted service. You rent the platform, choose a theme, add apps for extra features and pay a monthly plan. You cannot get at the server, and some parts, especially checkout, can only be changed in the ways Shopify allows.
WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store. You choose your own hosting, install whatever plugins you need and can change almost anything with code. The software is free, but the hosting, premium extensions, security and upkeep are your responsibility.
Put simply: Shopify trades flexibility for fewer things to look after. WooCommerce trades extra upkeep for more control.
Which costs less to run?
Neither is automatically cheaper, and the honest way to compare is to price your own setup rather than trust a headline number. Plans, transaction fees and app prices change, so check the current pricing page for Shopify and for any WooCommerce extensions and hosting you are considering.
When you compare, list every ongoing cost, not just the platform:
- Platform or hosting. A Shopify plan, or WooCommerce hosting that can cope with your traffic. Cheap shared hosting is often the weak point of a slow WooCommerce store.
- Payment fees. Card processing applies on both. On Shopify, check whether extra fees apply if you use a gateway other than Shopify Payments.
- Apps and extensions. Subscriptions, reviews, product filters, wholesale pricing and shipping rules are often paid add-ons on either platform, and many bill monthly.
- Theme. A premium theme is usually a one-off cost, sometimes with yearly renewals for updates.
- Upkeep. Someone’s time, or a developer’s, for updates, testing and fixes. This is the cost most comparisons leave out, and it is larger on WooCommerce.
Who will maintain it?
This question decides more stores than any feature list. A WooCommerce store needs WordPress core, WooCommerce, the theme and every plugin kept up to date, plus backups and a hosting plan that keeps up. Skipping updates leaves known security holes open. Doing them carelessly can take the checkout down. Our guide to updating WordPress without breaking it shows what a sensible routine looks like.
Shopify handles the platform side for you. You still need to look after apps, theme changes and content, and a badly built app can slow a Shopify store too, but you will not be patching servers.
If you have a staff member who enjoys this kind of work, or a maintenance arrangement you trust, WooCommerce is very workable. If the store is run by one busy owner, the lower upkeep of Shopify is usually worth the trade.
What about Australian payments, shipping and GST?
Both platforms are widely used in Australia, and both can handle the basics of a local store. The details are worth checking for your situation:
- Payments. Shopify Payments is available in Australia and supports common wallets. WooCommerce connects to gateways such as Stripe, Square and others through plugins. If you also sell in person, check how your point-of-sale system fits with each. Our article on choosing between Stripe, Square and Tyro covers that side.
- Buy now, pay later. Providers such as Afterpay and Zip offer integrations for both platforms. Confirm the current integration and terms with the provider.
- Shipping. Both connect to Australia Post and other carriers, usually through apps or plugins. Check that the option you choose can quote live rates or the flat rates you want, and print labels the way you work.
- GST. Both let you set prices as GST-inclusive and show tax on invoices. How you configure GST, and whether you need to register, is a question for your accountant, not your platform.
When is WooCommerce the better choice?
- Your business already runs a WordPress site with content you want to keep, and the store is an addition to it.
- You need product logic that apps cannot do well, such as complex bundles, made-to-measure pricing, or custom quoting before checkout.
- You want full control of your data and hosting, and are comfortable being responsible for it.
- You have a developer or a maintenance plan lined up, rather than hoping updates take care of themselves.
When is Shopify the better choice?
- You want to launch quickly and spend your time on products and customers rather than the website.
- You sell a fairly standard catalogue: clothing, homewares, beauty, food products and similar.
- You expect busy periods, such as a launch or a sale, and do not want to worry about the server coping.
- You want point-of-sale, online and inventory in one system, using Shopify’s own POS.
Fashion and lifestyle brands often land on Shopify for these reasons. Our fashion industry page and broader e-commerce page cover the jobs we see most on both platforms.
Should you switch platforms?
If your current store works and sells, a switch is rarely the first fix. Slow pages, a fiddly checkout or a broken shipping rule can usually be fixed where you are. Moving platforms means moving products, customers, order history and URLs, and redirecting the old addresses so you keep your search traffic. Our guide to moving websites without losing Google traffic explains what that involves.
A switch makes sense when the platform itself is the problem: you keep fighting its limits, or the upkeep is costing more than the store earns. Our article on whether to fix or rebuild has a simple way to decide.
Whichever platform you choose, keep the accounts in the business’s name: the store, the domain, the payment gateway and the hosting. It makes every future change, and every future developer, easier.
The short version
If you only remember three things: price the whole setup including apps and upkeep, not just the plan; pick the platform that matches who will maintain it; and do not migrate a working store until you have tried fixing the actual problem.
If you have already chosen and need something built or fixed, we do defined jobs on both. See Shopify development or WooCommerce development. From $400 for a custom section. Most Shopify builds land between $400 and $3,500.
