Shopify vs WooCommerce: which is better for a UK small business?

TL;DR: Shopify is a hosted platform you rent by the month, from £19 a month on yearly billing in the UK, with card rates from 2% plus 25p online on Basic. WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress, so you pay for hosting, extensions and card processing instead, and you own the whole site. Choose Shopify if you want everything managed in one place; choose WooCommerce if you want full control and a shop that sits inside a bigger website.

Key takeaways

• Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform; WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a shop.
• On Shopify’s UK pricing page, Basic costs £19 a month paid yearly or £25 paid monthly, and online card rates on Basic start at 2% plus 25p.
• WooCommerce says it is free with no monthly subscription, but you pay for hosting, any paid extensions and card processing.
• Shopify adds its own transaction fee if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments: 2% on Basic.
• Pick Shopify for simplicity and a product-led business; pick WooCommerce for ownership, flexibility and a shop inside a full website.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: what is the difference?

The main difference in Shopify vs WooCommerce is who runs the shop. Shopify is a hosted platform: you pay a monthly plan and Shopify looks after the servers, security and checkout. WooCommerce is free software that runs on your own WordPress website, so you choose the hosting, own every file and decide how it all works.

Both are serious, widely used ways to run an online shop. Shopify suits a business whose website is mainly a shop and that wants as little technical responsibility as possible. WooCommerce suits a business that wants its shop to sit inside a bigger website, with service pages, bookings and a blog, and that values owning the site outright.

This guide compares them on the points that matter to a UK small business: what you pay each month and on every sale, who owns what, how easy each is to run, and how each handles search, delivery and growth. Prices come from Shopify’s UK pricing page and WooCommerce’s pricing page, checked on 15 October 2026.

How much does Shopify cost in the UK?

Shopify Basic costs £19 a month on yearly billing or £25 a month paid monthly, according to Shopify’s UK pricing page. Grow costs £49 a month yearly or £65 monthly, Advanced £259 yearly or £344 monthly, and Plus starts at £1,800 a month. Shopify was also offering 3 days free, then £1 a month for 3 months, on most plans.

On top of the plan, every card payment has a processing fee. With Shopify Payments, online card rates start at 2% plus 25p on Basic, 1.7% plus 25p on Grow and 1.5% plus 25p on Advanced. If you use another payment provider, Shopify adds its own transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, on top of that provider’s charges.

Shopify plan	Paid yearly	Paid monthly	Online card rate	Fee with another provider
Basic	£19 a month	£25 a month	2% + 25p	2%
Grow	£49 a month	£65 a month	1.7% + 25p	1%
Advanced	£259 a month	£344 a month	1.5% + 25p	0.6%

Paid apps add to the bill alongside card fees. Many Shopify stores use a few apps for reviews, subscriptions or delivery options, and each has its own monthly price, so check the app costs before you commit.

How much does WooCommerce cost?

WooCommerce itself is free. Its pricing page calls it the free, open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress, with no monthly subscription. What you pay for is everything around it: hosting, a domain, any paid extensions and card processing. WooCommerce lists paid extensions at $29 to $299 a year each.

For card payments, a common choice in the UK is Stripe. Stripe’s UK pricing page lists 1.5% plus 20p for standard UK cards, 2.8% plus 20p for premium UK cards, 2.5% plus 20p for cards from the European Economic Area and 3.15% plus 20p for international cards, with no setup or monthly fees. WooCommerce adds no transaction fee of its own on top of your payment provider.

Hosting is where the cost of a WooCommerce online shop varies most. A small shop can run on good shared or cloud hosting, while a busy one needs more. WooCommerce’s own page puts hosting at $25 to $350 a month for most stores, though that range is aimed at established shops; smaller UK shops often pay far less. Ask for the renewal price, not just the first-year offer.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: which has lower card fees?

On a standard UK card, Stripe on WooCommerce charges less per sale than Shopify Basic. Stripe lists 1.5% plus 20p for standard UK cards; Shopify Basic lists 2% plus 25p online. On a £40 order that is 80p with Stripe against £1.05 on Shopify Basic, before any monthly costs.

The gap narrows on higher Shopify plans, which have lower card rates, and premium or international cards cost more on Stripe. Work out the card fees on your real numbers: take your expected monthly sales, multiply by the card rates, and add the monthly plan, hosting and app or extension costs for each option.

Example: 100 orders of £40 a month	Shopify Basic	WooCommerce with Stripe
Card fees (standard UK cards)	£105	£80
Platform plan	£19 (yearly billing)	£0
Hosting	Included	Paid separately

The example uses the published rates for standard UK cards and leaves out apps, extensions and VAT. It shows why the cheapest plan is not always the cheapest shop.

Shopify vs WooCommerce over a full year

Monthly prices hide the real cost, so add up a full year. Take a small online shop selling 100 orders of £40 a month, all on standard UK cards. On Shopify Basic with yearly billing, the plan costs £228 a year and the card fees come to about £1,260, so roughly £1,488 before apps and VAT.

On WooCommerce with Stripe, there is no platform fee and the card fees come to about £960 a year. You then add hosting, a domain and any paid extensions, which is where the totals start to depend on your choices. If those come to less than about £528 a year, WooCommerce works out cheaper for this shop; if you need several paid extensions and premium hosting, Shopify can come out ahead.

Run the same sum on your own numbers before you decide. Include the apps or extensions you know you will need, such as product reviews, subscriptions or a delivery rates tool, because they often cost more over a year than the platform itself.

Who owns your shop on Shopify vs WooCommerce?

With WooCommerce you own the website files, the database and every order, and you can move the whole site to another host whenever you like. With Shopify the store runs on Shopify’s platform under its terms; you can export your products and customer lists, but the shop itself only runs on Shopify.

For most small businesses either is fine, as long as the account is in the business’s own name. With Shopify, make sure the store account is yours, not your designer’s. With WooCommerce, make sure the hosting account and the domain are registered to your business, so you can always move.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: which is easier to run?

Shopify is easier to set up and run if you do it yourself. Hosting, security updates and the checkout are handled for you, and the admin works well on a phone. WooCommerce asks more of you: someone has to look after WordPress updates, plugin updates, backups and hosting, though a good developer or host can take that on.

Day to day, both let you add products, change prices, manage stock and process orders from a dashboard. The difference shows when something breaks: on Shopify you contact Shopify support; on WooCommerce you contact your host or developer.

Shopify vs WooCommerce for SEO

Both can rank well on Google. Shopify gives you editable titles, descriptions and URLs for products and collections out of the box, though its URL structure has fixed parts such as /products/ and /collections/. WooCommerce on WordPress gives you full control of the URL structure, page templates and content, and works with established SEO plugins.

What matters more than the platform is the work: clear product titles, real descriptions, good photos with alt text, fast pages on phones and a sensible category structure. Our check of 935 local business websites found that 76.6% of the sites that loaded gave Google no structured business details, a gap that is easy to fix on either platform. You can run a quick check on your own shop with our free website check.

Which is better for a shop with services, bookings or a blog?

WooCommerce is usually the better fit when the shop is one part of a bigger website. Because it runs on WordPress, the same site can hold service pages, a booking system, gift vouchers, a blog and the shop, all with one login and one design.

Shopify can host a blog and simple pages, and apps add bookings, but it is built first and foremost around products. If most of your revenue comes from services or bookings, with a few products on the side, WooCommerce or a WordPress site with a small shop is often simpler and cheaper.

Shopify vs WooCommerce for food, drink and local shops

For a café, bakery, takeaway or gift shop, the choice usually comes down to what else the website has to do. If you want online ordering for collection, gift vouchers, table bookings and a menu that ranks on Google, all on one site, WooCommerce on WordPress handles that well because each part is a plugin on the same site. If you mostly sell packaged products for delivery across the UK, Shopify is the simpler choice.

Local shops often want click and collect as well as delivery. Both platforms can offer collection from your shop, with its own opening times and a message on the order confirmation. Both also let you set delivery zones, so you can offer local delivery to nearby postcodes at one price and Royal Mail or a courier everywhere else.

If you sell in person as well, think about stock. Shopify’s own point of sale keeps online and shop stock in one system. With WooCommerce, check whether your till can share stock with the website before you choose; many modern tills can, through a connector.

What about Wix, Squarespace and other builders?

Wix and Squarespace can also run small online shops, and for a handful of products they can be enough. They sit between the two options here: hosted like Shopify, but built mainly for brochure websites, with fewer ecommerce features. If you sell a lot of products, Shopify or WooCommerce will usually serve you better as you grow.

Our comparison of the best website builder options for UK businesses sets out the real UK prices and transaction fees for Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and WordPress, checked against each builder’s own pricing page. When you compare Shopify vs WooCommerce against those builders, look at the total cost over a year, not just the first month.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: which should you choose?

Choose Shopify if selling products is the main job of the website, you want everything hosted and supported in one place, and you are happy to pay a monthly plan. Choose WooCommerce if you want to own the whole site, keep monthly platform costs down, and run your shop alongside services, bookings or content.

Your situation	Better fit
Mainly selling products, little time for tech	Shopify
A shop inside a bigger website with services or bookings	WooCommerce
Want to own and move every file	WooCommerce
Want one company to call when something breaks	Shopify
Lowest card fees on standard UK cards	WooCommerce with Stripe
Selling in person and online from one system	Shopify

If you already sell on one platform and it works, moving is rarely worth it just to save a little on fees. Moving makes sense when the platform is holding you back: fees that grow faster than sales, features you cannot add, or a site you do not control.

Can you move from one to the other?

Yes. Products, collections, customers and order history can usually be exported from one and imported into the other, though apps, themes and some settings have to be rebuilt. The most important part is keeping your Google rankings by redirecting every old product and category address to its new one.

Google advises mapping old addresses to new ones and using permanent redirects, kept for at least a year, in its guidance on site moves. Plan the move for a quiet trading week, and test checkout and delivery rates with real orders before you switch.

Need something built around your business instead? See web development in Portsmouth and Your Pub, the system we built for pubs.

Frequently asked questions

Is WooCommerce really free?

Yes. WooCommerce describes itself as free and open source with no monthly subscription. You still pay for hosting, a domain, any paid extensions and card processing fees.

What does Shopify charge per sale in the UK?

With Shopify Payments on the Basic plan, online card rates start at 2% plus 25p. If you use another payment provider, Shopify adds a transaction fee of 2% on Basic, on top of that provider’s charges.

Which is cheaper, Shopify or WooCommerce?

It depends on your sales and costs. WooCommerce has no platform fee and, with Stripe, lower standard UK card fees, but you pay for hosting and extensions. Shopify includes hosting in its plan but charges higher card rates on Basic. Work it out on your own monthly sales.

Is Shopify or WooCommerce better for beginners?

Shopify is easier for beginners who set up their own shop, because hosting, security and updates are handled for you. WooCommerce is just as easy to use day to day once a developer has set it up.

Can I sell in person with Shopify or WooCommerce?

Shopify has its own point of sale, and its UK pricing page lists in-person card rates. With WooCommerce, in-person payments depend on your payment provider, so check what yours supports before you choose.

Do I need a developer for WooCommerce?

Not always, but it helps. WooCommerce runs on WordPress, which needs updates, backups and hosting. Many small businesses have a developer or agency set it up and look after it.

Which is better for Google?

Both can rank well. Good product titles, real descriptions, fast pages and clear categories matter far more than the platform you choose.

Want an online shop built for you?

Whichever platform suits you, we can build it. Our Shopify website design and WooCommerce website design services set up your products, payments and delivery and test real orders before launch. Websites start from £300 a year per site, including hosting, your domain and five pages, with one fixed price in writing before any work starts. See our online shops page for how it works.

Related reading: how to start an online shop in the UK.