Shopify vs WordPress: Differences, Costs and Which to Choose

Shopify vs WordPress: which one fits your business

Shopify is a hosted commerce platform: you pay a monthly plan, and Shopify runs the servers, security patches, checkout and payments. WordPress is free, open-source software that can power any kind of website, from a blog to a large publication, and becomes a store when you add a plugin such as WooCommerce. If selling products is the core of your business and you want less technical upkeep, Shopify is usually the simpler choice. If content, publishing flexibility or full control of the code matters most, WordPress usually fits better. Many businesses end up using both, with WordPress for content and Shopify for the store.

This guide compares the two on what they are, cost, setup, day-to-day maintenance, design, SEO, security and growth, then shows how to run them together. Pricing and requirements are taken from Shopify’s and WordPress’s own pages, checked as of October 2026, with sources listed at the end. PROSeCommerce, part of PROS Global in San Diego, builds and maintains stores on both platforms, so the advice reflects the trade-offs our clients run into.

What Shopify and WordPress are

The two are often compared as if they were the same kind of product. They are not, and that difference explains most of the pros and cons below.

Shopify

Shopify is software-as-a-service built for selling. Your plan includes hosting, a store builder, themes, a checkout, payments through Shopify Payments where it is available, inventory and order management, and sales channels such as social media and marketplaces. You customize the store with themes and apps from the Shopify App Store, and developers can extend it with Shopify’s APIs. You never install or update the core software yourself.

WordPress

WordPress is a content management system. According to WordPress.org, it started in 2003, is built on PHP and MariaDB, and is licensed under the GPLv2 or later, which gives you the freedom to run, study, change and redistribute the software. You download it, install it on a web host and extend it with themes and plugins. For selling, most WordPress stores use WooCommerce, a free ecommerce plugin.

Note that WordPress.org (the free software you host yourself) is different from WordPress.com (a hosted service run by a company). This guide is about self-hosted WordPress, which is what most businesses mean when they compare it with Shopify.

How widely each is used

Usage figures depend on who is counting. WordPress.org says WordPress powers over 43% of all sites on the web. W3Techs, which updates its survey daily, reported as of October 2026 that WordPress is used by 39.6% of all websites, a 58.3% share of sites that use a content management system it can detect, while Shopify is used by 5.3% of all websites (7.9% of the CMS market). Either way, both platforms are mature, widely supported and easy to hire help for.

Shopify vs WordPress at a glance

Setup and day-to-day maintenance

Getting started

On Shopify, you sign up, pick a theme, add products, set up payments and shipping, and connect a domain. There is nothing to install. Shopify’s pricing page says it starts with a free 3-day trial, and after that most plans cost $1 a month for the first 3 months before standard pricing applies.

On WordPress, you first choose a host and install WordPress, often with a one-click installer. As of October 2026, WordPress.org’s hosting requirements recommend PHP 8.3 or greater, MySQL 8.0 or greater (or MariaDB 10.11 or greater) and HTTPS support. Then you choose a theme, install WooCommerce if you plan to sell, add payment and shipping plugins, and configure each one.

Keeping it running

This is where the platforms differ most in practice. Shopify applies platform updates for you and includes hosting, so most owners only manage apps and theme changes. On WordPress, someone has to keep WordPress core, the theme and every plugin up to date, test updates before they reach the live site, take backups and watch for conflicts. A good managed host or a maintenance plan covers much of that, but it is a real cost in time or money.

A simple test helps: if nobody on your team wants to own updates and backups, lean toward Shopify. If you have a developer or agency on hand and want full control, WordPress is a strong option.

What each platform really costs

Shopify plan fees and payment costs

As of October 2026, Shopify’s US pricing page lists these plans:

• Basic: $39 a month billed monthly, or $29 a month billed yearly
• Grow: $105 a month billed monthly, or $79 a month billed yearly
• Advanced: $399 a month billed monthly, or $299 a month billed yearly
• Plus: from $2,300 a month

With Shopify Payments, online card rates start at 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow and 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced. If you use a third-party payment provider instead, Shopify adds a transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. Hosting and an SSL certificate are included. Our Shopify plans guide explains which plan suits which stage of a business.

WordPress costs

The WordPress software and the WooCommerce plugin are free. The costs come from everything around them:

• Hosting: from basic shared hosting to managed WordPress or cloud hosting for busy stores
• Domain and SSL: many hosts include a free certificate
• Premium themes and plugins: many are paid yearly, such as subscriptions, bookings or advanced shipping
• Payment processing: fees set by your payment provider
• Maintenance: updates, backups, security monitoring and fixes, done in-house or by an agency

A small WordPress site can cost less per month than a Shopify plan. A busy WooCommerce store with premium hosting, a stack of paid plugins and a maintenance retainer can cost more. Price both options with your real product count, apps or plugins, traffic and support needs rather than headline numbers.

Design and customization

Shopify themes are built in Shopify’s Liquid template language, and the theme editor lets you change sections, colors and content without code. Developers can build custom sections and apps, but the checkout and core platform behavior stay under Shopify’s control, with deeper checkout customization reserved for Shopify Plus.

WordPress gives you full access to the code. You can change any template, build custom post types, write your own plugins and connect to almost any system. That freedom is valuable for unusual sites, membership communities, directories or heavy publishing. It also means a poorly built theme or too many plugins can slow the site down or break after updates.

If you want to see how far Shopify’s built-in tools go before you need a developer, our guide on how to customize Shopify walks through the theme editor, metafields and custom code.

SEO and content

Both platforms can rank well. Search results depend far more on helpful content, site speed and links than on the platform name.

The differences are about control and content tools:

• URLs: WordPress lets you set your own permalink structure, as explained in the WordPress permalinks documentation. Shopify uses fixed prefixes, so products always sit under /products/, collections under /collections/ and blog posts under /blogs/.
• Content: WordPress was built for publishing. Categories, tags, custom fields, revisions, editorial workflows and a large choice of SEO plugins make it the stronger tool for content-heavy sites. Shopify’s blog covers the basics well enough for most stores.
• Technical basics: Shopify generates a sitemap, canonical tags and SSL by default. On WordPress, an SEO plugin and a good host usually handle the same jobs.

For a store-focused SEO plan on Shopify, see our Shopify SEO checklist.

Security and payments

Shopify says on its pricing page that it is certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant and that stores powered by Shopify are PCI compliant by default. Because Shopify hosts the platform and checkout, a large part of the security work is done for you, although you still need strong passwords, two-step login for staff and care with the apps you install.

On WordPress, security is shared between you, your host and your plugin vendors. Outdated plugins and themes are a common way in, so prompt updates, backups, a web application firewall and limited admin access matter. Using a payment provider’s hosted fields or checkout keeps card data off your server and reduces your PCI scope. Our ecommerce security guide covers the practical steps for either platform.

Using Shopify and WordPress together

You do not always have to choose. Shopify offers a Sell on WordPress sales channel and a Shopify plugin for WordPress that, according to the Shopify Help Center, let you display products and collections on a WordPress site while managing the business in your Shopify admin. As of October 2026, the plugin requires WordPress 5.0 or higher with the Block Editor (the Classic Editor isn’t supported) and PHP 7.4 or higher.

This setup suits brands that already have a strong WordPress site, such as a publisher or a service business adding products. Shopify’s Buy Button sales channel is another lighter option for embedding products on an existing site. Larger brands sometimes go further with a headless build, using WordPress for content and Shopify for products and checkout, but that needs ongoing developer support.

Which platform should you choose?

Choose Shopify if:

• Selling products is the main purpose of the site
• You want hosting, updates and checkout handled for you
• You plan to sell across social channels, marketplaces and in person from one admin
• You would rather pay a predictable monthly fee than manage technical upkeep

Choose WordPress if:

• Content, publishing or a non-store website is the main purpose
• You need features or data structures that a store platform doesn’t offer
• You have, or will pay for, developer and maintenance support
• You want full ownership and control of the code and hosting

Use both if you have a valuable WordPress site and want Shopify’s checkout and store tools without rebuilding everything.

If you are leaning toward WooCommerce specifically, our WooCommerce vs Shopify comparison goes deeper on store costs, plugins and payments, and our WooCommerce to Shopify migration guide covers the steps if you decide to move.

Frequently asked questions

Get help choosing and building your platform

The right platform is the one your team can run well for years. If you would like a second opinion on Shopify, WordPress or a combined setup, or help migrating between them, contact PROSeCommerce and we will talk through your products, content and budget.