We get asked this every week. The honest answer is: it depends, and not in a hand-waving way. After eleven years building stores on both, the decision usually comes down to three questions.
Question 1. How much complexity do you have?
Shopify wins when your catalog and pricing are reasonably standard:
- One or two product types (apparel, beauty, supplements, simple physical goods)
- Standard cart and checkout
- The same prices for every customer
- A handful of integrations from a well-stocked app ecosystem
WooCommerce wins when you have edges Shopify doesn't bend around easily:
- B2B with per-customer pricing tiers, NET-30 invoicing, role-based catalogs
- Configurable products with complex pricing rules (per-square-foot pricing, build-your-own kits, etc.)
- Legacy ERP integrations where you need full SQL-level control over the database
- Unusual order flows like deposits, partial payments, scheduled fulfillment
Most brands we work with don't have these edges. They think they do, but it turns out 90% of their requirements are well within Shopify's wheelhouse. The remaining 10% is usually solvable with one or two apps.
Question 2. Who maintains the store?
This one's underrated.
Shopify is a managed platform. Hosting, security patches, PCI compliance, theme updates are all on Shopify. Your team focuses on merchandising and content.
WooCommerce is WordPress. You (or someone you pay) keeps the server patched, the plugins updated, the backups running, the security tight. A neglected WordPress install is an open door, and the security cost grows linearly with your traffic.
If you have a dev team and want maximum control: WooCommerce is honest about what it asks of you. If you don't: Shopify saves you a part-time job.
Question 3. Where do you want to spend money?
For a typical mid-market DTC brand doing $1–10M/year:
- Shopify Plus runs around $2,300/mo plus a small revenue share. Add ~$300–800/mo for apps (Klaviyo, ReCharge, ShipBob integrations, etc.)
- WooCommerce has no platform fee, but a properly hosted, performant, secure WordPress + Woo setup with the same capabilities runs $300–1,500/mo in hosting + tools + maintenance.
Headline price favors WooCommerce. Total cost of ownership, factoring in your engineering time, favors Shopify for most teams.
What about headless?
Headless on Shopify or Woo (Next.js storefront, Shopify Storefront API or WPGraphQL backend) is its own bucket. We've built dozens.
It wins when:
- Your content needs are heavy (editorial, story-driven brands)
- You need maximum performance and bespoke UX
- You want to share product data across multiple channels (web, mobile app, kiosk, marketplace)
It loses when:
- You're under $5M revenue (the engineering overhead doesn't pay for itself yet)
- Your team can't maintain a custom frontend
- You're hoping a tech rebuild fixes a brand or merchandising problem
A rebuild won't fix a brand problem. We've seen the inverse too: brands that needed a rebuild and a rebrand, did only the tech part, and wondered why nothing changed.
How we actually decide with a new client
Our standard discovery is three short conversations:
- Catalog walkthrough. Show us 10 SKUs, walk us through what edits look like
- Operations walkthrough. Fulfillment, returns, customer service, integrations
- Growth roadmap. Where are you trying to get in 18 months
By the end of conversation three, the answer is almost always obvious. If it isn't, we lean Shopify by default. The cost of being wrong is lower.
If you're stuck between the two and want a second opinion, drop us a line. Free consultation, no pitch.