(POD = Print on Demand. Shopify = hosted e-commerce platform; WooCommerce = a WordPress e-commerce plugin you self-host.)
Shopify Costs: Shopify operates on a subscription model with tiered plans. As of 2025, the main plans are Basic, Shopify, and Advanced. Basic starts around $39 per month (paid monthly) for a single store, with higher tiers ($105/mo "Shopify” plan, $399/mo “Advanced") unlocking lower payment fees and more staff accounts. These fees include hosting, SSL, and security. On top of the base fee, many Print on Demand apps on Shopify are free to install (e.g. Printful, Printify) – they monetize per product sold. However, certain apps or advanced features may add monthly costs. Also note, if you use a third-party payment gateway (instead of Shopify Payments), Shopify charges an extra transaction fee (up to 2% on Basic) on each sale. Using Shopify Payments avoids that extra fee, so most sellers stick with it.
WooCommerce Costs: WooCommerce is open-source and free to install as a WordPress plugin. The primary costs come from hosting and optional paid extensions. Entry-level shared hosting for a small WooCommerce store can be as low as ~$5-$15 per month, while a higher-performance plan (for growing stores) might range $30-$100+ monthly. You'll also need to purchase a domain (~$10-15/year) and an SSL certificate (often included in hosting). Many essential WooCommerce plugins are free, and print-on-demand integration plugins (for services like Printful) generally cost nothing. That said, some advanced functionalities (SEO plugins, speed optimization, etc.) or premium themes can incur one-time or annual fees. WooCommerce does not charge its own transaction fees - you only pay the payment gateway's fees (e.g. Stripe or PayPal rates) with no extra platform commission. Overall, WooCommerce can be cheaper at the start, but costs will rise as you add better hosting, premium plugins, or developer assistance.
| Business Stage | Shopify Estimated Cost | WooCommerce Estimated Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Starter (hobby or test) | Basic Shopify plan $39/mo; free POD app integrations. (~$39/mo) | Shared hosting ~$10/mo; WooCommerce plugin free; free POD plugin. (~$10/mo) |
| Growing (steady sales) | Shopify plan $105/mo; 1-2 paid apps ~$20-50; possibly higher Shopify Payments volume rates. (~$130-$155/mo) | Managed WP hosting ~$30-$50/mo for better performance; a few premium plugins (e.g. SEO, marketing) ~$100/year. (~$40-$60/mo) |
| Established (high volume) | Advanced Shopify $399/mo (or Shopify Plus if enterprise $$$); multiple apps ~$100+; possibly lower credit card rates. (>$500/mo) | VPS or dedicated hosting $80-$150/mo; developer optimizations; several premium extensions ~$250/year. (>$150/mo plus one-time costs) |
Note: Shopify plan pricing is as of 2025 paid monthly. Annual plans can reduce the effective monthly cost. WooCommerce costs vary widely – you have more control to keep costs low, but high-performing stores will spend more on quality hosting and services. Also, taxes and payment processing fees are additional on both platforms (e.g. credit card fees ~2.9% + 30¢ per transaction) – those are charged by payment providers, not by Shopify/Woo themselves (except Shopify's added fee if not using Shopify Payments).
One key factor for POD sellers is which print-on-demand services you can connect to your store. Shopify has the broadest integration ecosystem for POD. According to our data, 114 POD fulfillment companies offer a Shopify app integration, whereas 76 offer a WooCommerce plugin. Notably, all providers that support WooCommerce also support Shopify - there are zero known POD services that integrate with WooCommerce but not with Shopify. In other words, Shopify's coverage includes those 76 overlapping providers plus dozens more that are Shopify-exclusive integrations.
Why does this matter? A larger integration pool means more choices for products and fulfillment. If a specialty POD supplier (for example, one that prints on demand jewelry or pet products) only has a Shopify app, a WooCommerce store wouldn't be able to use that provider directly. That said, the major POD players tend to support both platforms.
Below is an integration matrix for a sample of popular POD vendors and which selling channels they support:
| POD Vendor | Shopify | WooCommerce | Amazon (Seller Central) | Etsy (Shop Manager) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Printful | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Printify | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Gelato | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| CustomCat | ✓ | ✓ | – | – |
| Teelaunch | ✓ | – | – | ✓ |
| Gooten | ✓ | – | – | ✓ |
| SPOD | ✓ | – | – | – |
✓ = official integration available; – = not supported natively.
As shown, a Shopify store can integrate with all of these example vendors. WooCommerce can work with most of the big names (Printful, Printify, Gelato, etc.), but misses out on some providers that haven't built Woo plugins (e.g. Teelaunch, Gooten). Amazon and Etsy in this context refer to whether the POD provider can fulfill orders for those marketplaces via direct integration. For instance, Printful offers a direct integration for Amazon and Etsy sellers (so you can sell on Etsy/Amazon and let Printful handle fulfillment). Many POD services support Etsy, but fewer support Amazon due to its stricter requirements.
The bottom line: if you plan to try a variety of POD vendors or niche products, Shopify gives you the most options out-of-the-box. WooCommerce's selection, while smaller, still covers all the major POD platforms a typical seller would use. (And remember, new integrations are continually being developed – WooCommerce support has grown from virtually none a few years ago to 76+ providers now.)
Both Shopify and WooCommerce can handle large product catalogs, but there are some differences. Shopify imposes a limit of 3 product options and 100 variants per product. This means if your POD product has many possible combinations (say style, color, size, material, etc.), you might hit Shopify's 100-variant cap for a single product listing. In contrast, WooCommerce has no hard variant limit - you can technically create hundreds of variations for a product (the limitation is usually practical, as too many variations can slow down the site or complicate management). If you need more than 100 variants on Shopify, you'd have to use workarounds (splitting into separate products, or using a third-party app to extend variants). For most POD use cases, 100 variants per product is plenty, but extremely customizable items might favor WooCommerce's flexibility.
Both platforms allow unlimited products and let you organize them into categories (collections or tags on Shopify; categories and tags on WooCommerce). Because print-on-demand items are often produced by external vendors, inventory is mostly "virtual" (products are made to order). Both Shopify and WooCommerce POD integrations will typically set inventory to not track or to a high number by default. When an order comes in, the integration app/plugin sends the order details to the vendor who then fulfills it. Shopify's interface for managing products is intuitive and has bulk editing, import/export via CSV, etc. WooCommerce relies on WordPress's admin which, while powerful, can be a bit slower or more cumbersome for bulk operations if you have thousands of products (though plugins like WP All Import can help with bulk uploads).
Using POD services on either platform automates most of the fulfillment process. For example, with a Shopify POD app like Printful or Gelato, once a customer orders a product, the app will automatically receive the order, forward it to the print provider, and can even sync tracking numbers back to your store. The same is true on WooCommerce with the equivalent integration plugins e.g., Printful's WooCommerce plugin pushes orders to Printful for fulfillment and updates the WooCommerce order status when shipped. In general, Shopify apps tend to offer slightly more polished user experiences (centralized dashboards in your Shopify admin for tracking orders, etc.), but the core functionality is comparable. Both systems allow you to fulfill orders through multiple POD providers simultaneously (e.g., you could use Printful for shirts and Printify for mugs in the same store). It's wise on WooCommerce to test plugins together for compatibility, but reputable POD plugins are designed to coexist.
If you plan on selling not just on your own website but also via marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, or others, consider how each platform handles that: - Shopify has built-in sales channel integrations. You can connect your Shopify store to Facebook/Instagram, and through apps or channels to Amazon and Etsy. Essentially, Shopify can serve as a hub – for example, you list products on Shopify and push them to Etsy; orders from Etsy come back into Shopify for fulfillment by your POD app. Some POD apps (like Printful) also integrate directly with those marketplaces, which can simplify things (orders can flow either through Shopify or directly to the POD vendor). - WooCommerce doesn't natively have marketplace integrations, but you can install plugins for multi-channel. There are extensions to sync WooCommerce with Etsy or Amazon, but these may require additional setup and sometimes cost. Alternatively, you might let the POD plugin itself handle marketplace orders (Printful's plugin for WooCommerce won't directly pull in Etsy orders; you'd instead use Printful's separate Etsy integration in parallel).
In summary, both Shopify and WooCommerce support a robust print-on-demand operation, but Shopify's ecosystem places a few more constraints (like variant limits) while aiming to make the process as turnkey as possible. WooCommerce offers more open-ended customization for product listings and options, at the cost of a bit more complexity in management as your catalog grows.
The checkout is where Shopify really shines as a hosted platform. Shopify's checkout is highly optimized and fast, with features like Shop Pay (an accelerated checkout method). Shop Pay allows customers to save their details and check out with one tap, boosting conversion rates – it's known to have one of the highest conversion rates among payment methods. All Shopify stores (on any plan) use Shopify's secure, PCI-compliant checkout. The downside is that it's less customizable – you cannot modify the checkout pages' code or flow unless you upgrade to Shopify Plus (an enterprise plan). You can still configure your logo, colors, and form options, but the structure (cart -> customer info -> shipping -> payment) remains standard. This consistency is generally positive for conversion and security, but if you wanted, say, a one-page checkout or completely custom fields, you'll be limited on Shopify (except on Plus).
WooCommerce's checkout, by contrast, is fully customizable because you control the code. By default, WooCommerce provides a straightforward checkout page on your site. You can customize it extensively: add or remove fields, change the layout, implement one-page checkout or multi-step flows using plugins, etc. There are many WooCommerce extensions for checkout optimization (for example, plugins for one-click upsells, custom checkout fields, or integrating digital wallets). The flexibility is great if you know exactly how you want to optimize your checkout. However, the onus is on you to ensure it stays smooth and fast – a poorly configured Woo checkout or too many scripts could hurt conversion. Also, because WooCommerce checkout runs on your hosting, you need to keep your site's security tight (SSL, updates) to protect customer data (Shopify handles most of this security aspect for you).
Both platforms support a wide range of payment gateways: - Shopify Payments: Shopify's built-in solution (powered by Stripe) lets you accept all major credit cards and some alternative payments with no additional transaction fee beyond the normal card rate. If you use Shopify Payments, you pay the standard processing fees (roughly 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic plan, and lower on higher plans). If you use a different gateway (e.g. PayPal, Authorize.net), Shopify will charge an extra fee (e.g. 2.0% on Basic) on top of the gateway's own fees. This is essentially a "platform fee" for not using their in-house system. Many merchants stick with Shopify Payments (and PayPal, which is allowed without extra fee for PayPal transactions) to avoid the surcharge. - WooCommerce Payments: There is a WooCommerce-branded payment solution (also powered by Stripe) which aims to mimic Shopify Payments (simplifying setup and providing an integrated dashboard). It charges similar rates (~2.9% + 30¢) but no additional fees to WooCommerce. In general, WooCommerce allows any payment gateway integration with no extra charges from Woo itself. You can use Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, etc., by installing the appropriate plugin. The cost is just the gateway's fees. This flexibility is great for international sellers who might need local payment methods not supported on Shopify. The flip side is that setup can be a bit more involved (multiple plugins) and the user experience might not be as unified as Shopify's. - Alternative and Express Checkouts: Shopify supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal Express, etc., out of the box (or via easy setup), and these show up as express buttons on the cart/checkout. WooCommerce can also support these methods - for example, the Stripe plugin enables Apple/Google Pay, and there are plugins for PayPal, Amazon Pay, etc. Both platforms let you offer Buy Now, Pay Later options (Shopify has integrations for Affirm, Afterpay, etc.; WooCommerce has plugins for those as well).
Selling in multiple currencies is increasingly important for POD sellers reaching global audiences. Shopify offers a built-in multi-currency feature through Shopify Payments. You can enable customers to check out in their local currency, and Shopify will handle currency conversion at checkout with up-to-date exchange rates (available on all plans, though some features like setting custom prices per market may require Shopify Advanced or Shopify Markets add-ons). This is very handy for improving international conversion rates. By contrast, WooCommerce by default is single-currency - your store prices are in one set currency. To support multi-currency on WooCommerce, you would need a plugin such as WooCommerce Multilingual (WPML) or a currency switcher plugin. Those work but require configuration and may not integrate as seamlessly with all payment gateways. If international sales (with localized currency display) are a big part of your strategy, Shopify has an edge for ease of setup.
Both platforms can handle sales taxes, but automation differs: Shopify can automatically calculate common sales taxes (like US state taxes or EU VAT) based on your store location and customer location. It has a database of tax rates that it updates. For example, if you're in the US, you can tell Shopify to automatically apply the correct sales tax for customers in your state (and others if needed), or if you're in the EU, it can apply VAT rates for each EU country. Shopify will also generate basic tax reports. However, you as the merchant are responsible for knowing your tax obligations (Shopify helps with calculation but doesn't handle filing for you by default). - WooCommerce allows you to configure tax rates manually or import a tax rate table. Out of the box, it doesn't auto-update tax rates - you have to input the rates (like X% for California, Y% for New York, etc., or VAT rates for each country). This can be tedious, but there are extensions (some free, like Jetpack's WooCommerce Services) that can provide automated tax calculations for US taxes and some other regions. Still, it's not as plug-and-play as Shopify's built-in system. For EU sellers, there are WooCommerce add-ons to handle VAT (including OSS compliance, VAT number validation, etc.), but these are third-party plugins you'd need to add. In short, Shopify is more hands-off for basic tax setup, whereas WooCommerce might require a bit more work and extra plugins to achieve the same level of automation.
Both Shopify and WooCommerce support selling internationally in terms of languages as well (Shopify has multi-language capabilities via multilingual themes or third-party translation apps, and WooCommerce has plugins like WPML or Weglot for multilingual support). This isn't a primary focus of this comparison, but it's worth noting if you plan to translate your store for global customers – WooCommerce gives full control over site language and localization (since it's WordPress), while Shopify allows multiple languages but with some constraints (like URL structures for different languages and reliance on apps or theme translation).
Since WooCommerce runs on WordPress, it inherits WordPress's strengths in SEO. You have complete control over your site's code and SEO settings. With plugins like Yoast SEO or RankMath, you can edit meta titles, meta descriptions, create advanced XML sitemaps, add schema markup, and fine-tune every page's SEO. You can structure your URLs pretty much however you like (e.g. example.com/shop/product-name or even just example.com/product-name) and create custom site structures. WooCommerce also allows robust blogging (since it's WordPress at the core), which is great for content marketing to drive organic traffic.
Shopify, on the other hand, also provides solid SEO fundamentals out-of-the-box: you can edit each product's title tag, meta description, and alt text for images. It auto-generates a sitemap.xml and has built-in canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues. However, Shopify's SEO flexibility is a bit more limited. For example, Shopify URL paths have certain mandatory prefixes (all product pages live under /products/, collections under /collections/, etc., so you can't customize the URL structure beyond the handle name). While this isn't a deal-breaker (many Shopify stores rank just fine), it's a difference from WooCommerce where you have full control. Additionally, adding advanced SEO features or custom code (say, additional schema types, or tweaking how meta tags are generated) is easier in WooCommerce because you can extend the theme or use plugins. In Shopify, you might need an app or to edit theme liquid code, which has some limitations.
Another consideration is blog content. If part of your POD strategy is content marketing (e.g., blogging about your niche to draw traffic), WordPress (WooCommerce) is arguably the best blogging platform available. Shopify does have a blogging tool built-in, but it's more basic. WordPress offers superior management of posts, categories, SEO for blogs, and plugins for things like related posts, social sharing, etc.
That said, for most typical SEO needs, both platforms can rank well. It often comes down to how much fine-grained control you want. If you're very SEO-focused and want to optimize every technical detail, WooCommerce gives you the freedom to do so. If you prefer not worrying about the technical minutiae, Shopify's default SEO setup is decent and you can achieve great results by focusing on product content, backlinks, and using the SEO fields they provide.
Site speed is critical both for user experience and SEO. Here the differences come from hosting and architecture: Shopify is a hosted solution optimized for e-commerce speed. Shopify's infrastructure uses a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to serve your assets globally, and Shopify optimizes images and code on their end. In general, a standard Shopify store with a well-made theme will load quickly without much effort from the merchant. You don't have to configure caching or CDNs - it's all managed. However, one thing to watch is that installing too many Shopify apps can slow down your site. Many apps insert their own scripts, which can increase page load times. So a lean Shopify store is very fast; an app-heavy store might start to lag. - WooCommerce's performance depends largely on your hosting environment and optimization. With the right hosting (e.g., a good managed WordPress host) and caching, WooCommerce stores can be very fast. But if you're on a cheap, underpowered server or you don't set up caching, a WooCommerce site can be sluggish - especially as you add plugins or if your theme is bloated. Achieving Shopify-like speed on WooCommerce may require using caching plugins (like WP Super Cache or LiteSpeed Cache), optimizing your database, and possibly a CDN for global content delivery. The benefit is you have control: you can choose a super fast theme, optimize images thoroughly, and tweak performance settings to squeeze out every millisecond. The drawback is you (or your host) have to do this work; it's not automatic.
Both Shopify and WooCommerce offer themes that are optimized for speed. Shopify's newer default theme (Dawn, and others built on Online Store 2.0) is designed to be lightweight and fast on mobile. WordPress has many lightweight WooCommerce themes (like Storefront, Astra, Neve) which, when paired with caching, can be just as fast. Conversely, there are also heavy, feature-packed themes that can slow things down on both platforms. So your choice of theme matters. With WooCommerce, it's easier to fall into the trap of a bloated theme or plugin because the ecosystem is so open – always choose reputable, speed-conscious designs.
When it comes to product images (which are critical in POD stores), Shopify automatically handles a lot of optimization. Images you upload to Shopify are served in WebP or other efficient formats to browsers that support them, and they are delivered via Shopify's CDN with responsive sizes (Shopify creates multiple sizes of each image and serves the appropriate size for the device). WooCommerce does not automatically serve images in next-gen formats or a CDN out-of-box - you would need to use plugins or services for that. For example, you might use Jetpack or Cloudflare for CDN, and a plugin like ShortPixel or Smush to generate WebP images and compress images. It's all achievable with some setup, but Shopify does it behind the scenes for you.
Both platforms generally handle canonical tags correctly for product pages. Shopify will set the product page as canonical even if that product is accessed through a collection URL. WooCommerce relies on your SEO plugin to manage canonicals – Yoast SEO, for instance, will typically set the primary URL as canonical and handle paginated content, etc. Just ensure you configure your SEO plugin properly (e.g., avoid indexing duplicate content like tag archives if not needed). Shopify has some fixed structures (e.g., /collections/ pages for categories) but marks the canonical accordingly. In WooCommerce, you have to be mindful of things like category vs. tag archives, but you have tools to control indexing.
In summary, WooCommerce/WordPress leads in SEO flexibility, giving you the tools to optimize everything, whereas Shopify wins in ease-of-use and out-of-box speed optimization (with a solid baseline SEO that works for most merchants). Advanced sellers who want to technically fine-tune their site might lean WooCommerce; those who want to focus on products and marketing, with less technical fuss, often prefer Shopify's managed approach.
Choosing between Shopify and WooCommerce ultimately depends on your priorities and circumstances. Here are three clear scenarios to help guide the decision:
What if you chose one platform and later decide to switch (for example, you start on WooCommerce and want to migrate to Shopify, or vice-versa)? Migrating a POD store requires careful planning to avoid disrupting your business. Here's a checklist of steps to consider for a smooth migration:
yourstore.com/product/product-name to yourstore.com/products/product-name). It's vital to redirect the old links to the new ones so that customers and search engines don't hit broken links. Shopify has a URL redirect feature where you can input old URL -> new URL mappings. Likewise, if moving from Shopify to WooCommerce, you may need a plugin to bulk-create redirects. Don't forget to redirect category/collection pages and any blog articles you had as well.Migrating platforms can be a bit of work, but plenty of businesses do it as they evolve. The key is to plan it out, take backups of everything, and double-check that your orders will continue to be fulfilled during the transition. With the above checklist, you can move from Shopify to WooCommerce or vice versa with minimal hiccups, and take advantage of the platform that best suits your needs as your POD venture grows.
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