Shopify vs WordPress: Which is the best platform?

E-commorce sales levels are at an all-time-high in 2021. It is estimated that around $5 trillion has been spent on ecommerce websites in 2021. That is why a lot of businesses are looking to have some form of online presence and be able to sell their products directly to the customers.

Doing so requires designing and implementing a powerful online shopping platform. In this article we’re going to have an in-depth look at two of the most popular platforms: Shopify and WordPress.

Shopify vs WordPress development can be tricky and before getting started on your project, you should have some basic knowledge on their differences and similarities. So let’s get started.

Shopify vs WordPress – Differences and Similarities

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is a website building tool. It allows for people who have limited IT knowledge to set up an online shopping website. Shopify is dedicated to creating ecommerce platforms, as opposed to WordPress which can be used to create any type of website.

Even if you’re new to the web. Shopify helps you set up an ecommerce website in a very short time frame. They have a 24/7 support, so even if something goes wrong you can always call the support team and resolve it over the phone.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is an open-source content management system and some consider it to be the best website development platform.It can be used to design any type of a website, even a shopping platform. Although an ecommerce website is not the main focus of WordPress, designing such a site can be accomplished using the very powerful WordPress plugin called Woomoorce.

Woocommerce allows us to create a large online shopping platform with hundreds of different products and manage the entire ecommerce process. From signing up to product delivery. Everything can be managed from the WordPress woocommerce website.

Shopify vs WordPress SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization refers to how well search engines can find your website and rank them against similar websites. A website with better optimization will have a higher rank within search results.

Shopify facilities the search engine optimization in a few different ways. For example putting certain keywords with the page or paragraph titles helps Google and other search engines to find your website easier and index them. Using Shopify you can also customize your URLs to get a better crawl rate from search engine bots.

When it comes to WordPress, SEO is generally handled by plugins. These plugins act at various levels. Some of the changes to the backend like creating a sitemap is done automatically by the plugins. They also suggest changes and addition to the content in order to further improve optimization.The most famous WordPress SEO plugin is Yoast.

So to summarize, the optimization of Shopify vs WordPress SEO might be a moot question since both of these platforms deliver excellent tools for SEO.

Shopify vs WordPress Security

Shopify source code is closed. Meaning we as the designer and you as the consumer do not have access to the code of the website and cannot review and search for any potential flaws, however Shopify’s security team is always on the lookout and they make sure to constantly look for potential security flaws and patch them as necessary.

In addition, you can take extra precautions to increase the security of your website such as adding SSL certificates to the site. Shopify also confirms that all websites are PCI compliant which is the Payment Card Industry standards that ensure the payments are conducted in a safe and secure manner.

WordPress security is a huge topic that needs its own article but to summarize, there are different ways that we can make WordPress websites secure.

The most important and first factor to consider is how the website is coded. A lot of potential security problems can be avoided if the website is written well and the standard security practices have been followed.

Secondly, always ensuring that WordPress and all of its plugins are updated is a great way to reduce the chance of a security breach. Plugins and themes are routinely patched, so make sure you always stay updated.

Another method is to make use of Web Application Firewalls (WAF). These are plugins that are installed on WordPress to enhance some security measures such as intrusions.

Overall these are some of the security elements of Shopify vs WordPress security. Of course it’s not limited to these but we covered the major aspects.

Shopify: Pros and Cons

Pros

Limited technical knowledge is needed to use Shopify
It’s a dedicated platform for ecommerce websites
24/7 support
No need to pay for hosting services
You don’t have to worry about the technical backend stuff

Cons

You have a pay a certain transaction fee per transaction
It’s close-source. You don’t have access to the site files
Changing the template is difficult and requires total transformation
Prices can be high compared to WordPress

WordPress: Pros and Cons

Pros

More flexibility. Every aspect of your theme can be customized
The WordPress text editor is more user-friendly
Huge online community with active online forums
Open-source and free

Cons

Some technical knowledge is needed to use WordPress
There is no 24/7 support. You will be responsible for fixing any issues.
You have to purchase separate hosting and domain for the website
overall it can be considered less user-friendly compared to Shopify

Ease of Use. Which Is Better?

A huge difference between these two platforms is the need for coding. If you use Shopify, you don’t need to know any level of coding, or understanding of coding at all. Shopify takes care of all of that for you.

With Shopify, you will start by giving it some initial information. After this you will be directed to the dashboard where everything takes place.

In the dashboard you can add new products, follow orders and check on payment status. Adding new products is a very easy streamlined process. You can either add each item individually, or import a CSV file.

WordPress can be considered a little bit more difficult. There is a need for little understanding of coding. For example knowing the PHP syntax and being able to write simple HTML and CSS code.

You will have to add an ecommerce plugin such as Woocommorce. It has a similar kind of structure like Shopify for adding new items.

A lot web developers consider WordPress to be the best website development platform. However the catch is that the learning curve is a bit more steep. You have to put in more time to learn the ins and outs of WordPress until you feel comfortable to use it on a daily basis.

Final Word

We took a close look at WordPress and broke down each in detail. Hopefully this guide helped you in making a decision and understanding development of Shopify vs WordPress development. If you have any further questions, you can leave a comment on this post or get in touch with us via email. We will be happy to work with you on your Ecommerce website designs.