Shopify vs WooCommerce:
which is right for your UK business?

It's the question almost every business asks me before they start selling online: Shopify or WooCommerce? And the honest answer is that there isn't a universal winner. They're both excellent. The right one comes down to you: how you want to run the store day to day, what you're willing to manage, and where the business is heading.

So instead of declaring a champion, here's how to actually decide.

The 30-second version

If you want a platform that just works and you'd rather not think about hosting, security or updates: Shopify.

If you want full control, lower ongoing costs and the flexibility to do things your way (and you've got someone to look after it): WooCommerce.

Everything below is the detail behind that.

Shopify: the all-in-one option

Shopify is a hosted platform. You pay a monthly fee and they handle the technical side (hosting, security, SSL, updates), so you never touch a server. You focus on products and customers; they keep the lights on.

Here's what it actually costs in the UK in 2026:

• Starter: £5/month. Social and link selling only. No real storefront. Fine for selling through Instagram or a link in bio, not for a proper shop.
• Basic: £19/month (on annual billing, or £25 monthly). This is the minimum for a genuine online store, and where most small businesses start.
• Grow: £49/month. Better reporting, lower card fees. Tends to pay for itself once you're turning over around £10,000 a month.
• Advanced: £259/month. Deeper reporting and international tools for higher-volume stores.

A couple of things worth knowing. Annual billing saves you roughly 25%, so commit once you've proven the store works. And the "hidden" costs people forget are premium themes (£150–£350 one-off) and apps, which can run anywhere from £5 to £100+ a month each.

The transaction-fee trap. This catches people out constantly. Shopify charges an extra transaction fee, from 2% down to 1.5% depending on plan, but only if you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments. Use Shopify Payments and that extra fee disappears; you just pay the normal card-processing rate. On a store turning over £20,000 a month, choosing Stripe over Shopify Payments can cost you around £400 a month in extra fees for no real benefit. The rule is simple: unless you have a specific reason not to, use Shopify Payments.

Shopify suits you if: you want simplicity, you don't want to manage anything technical, and you'd rather pay a predictable monthly fee to make the whole problem go away.

The trade-offs: you're renting, not owning. You're inside Shopify's ecosystem, customisation has limits unless you go bespoke, and a lot of "small" extras come via paid apps that quietly stack up.

WooCommerce: the flexible option

WooCommerce is different in one fundamental way: it's free and open-source, built on WordPress, and you host it yourself. There's no monthly platform fee and no platform cut of your sales. Instead you pay for the pieces: hosting, your theme, any premium extensions. You (or your developer) are then responsible for keeping it running.

Typical costs look like:

• Hosting: roughly £10–£30+/month for decent managed WordPress hosting that can handle a shop properly. Cheap hosting and ecommerce don't mix.
• Domain and SSL: a domain is around £10–£15/year; SSL is usually free through your host.
• Theme and extensions: plenty are free, but specific functionality (subscriptions, advanced shipping, bookings) often comes via paid extensions, sometimes one-off, sometimes annual.
• Payment processing: you connect Stripe, PayPal or similar and pay their rate (around 1.4% + 20p for UK cards), with no WooCommerce fee on top. That's a genuine long-term saving versus a platform that takes its own cut.

WooCommerce suits you if: you want complete control over how the store looks and behaves, you want to own your setup outright, you're keeping ongoing costs lean, or you need something a hosted platform simply won't let you build.

The trade-offs: the upkeep is on you. Updates, security, backups and the occasional plugin conflict don't manage themselves. Handled well, it's rock solid and cheaper to run. Ignored, it's how WordPress sites end up slow, broken or hacked. This is exactly why a managed-care arrangement makes sense for most WooCommerce stores.

The questions that actually decide it

Forget feature checklists. These four questions get you to the right answer faster:

1. Who's going to maintain it? If the honest answer is "no one, really," lean Shopify. If you've got a developer or a care plan in place, WooCommerce opens up.
2. How custom does it need to be? Standard products and a clean checkout, either works. Unusual logic, bespoke customer journeys or tight integration with other systems, WooCommerce gives you more room (or a bespoke Shopify build).
3. Predictable monthly fee, or lower running costs with more responsibility? That's genuinely the core trade. Shopify is convenience as a subscription; WooCommerce is ownership with upkeep.
4. Where's the business heading? Pick for next year, not just this week. Both scale well, but they scale differently, and the right call depends on your direction of travel.

The honest bottom line

There's no wrong choice here, only a wrong fit. Shopify removes the technical burden for a monthly fee. WooCommerce hands you control and lower running costs in exchange for looking after it.

But here's the thing that matters more than the platform: it's only ever as good as the store built on it. I've seen businesses on a perfectly good plan losing money every month to slow pages, a clunky checkout or a layout that quietly turns shoppers away. The monthly cost is almost irrelevant next to what a well-built store actually earns you.

Get the foundations right, on either platform, and it pays for itself.