TheSoloAct
Junior Member
- May 12, 2019
- 159
- 154
Clients from all over the world have been conflicted between WordPress and Shopify when they come to me. By now, I don't have the time to explain all the differences or actually audit their project brief to tell them what will be the best for them (though that's the ideal way). So, by now, I've made a pretty solid brief regarding both which I'm more than happy to share, in case you're also conflicted for your new project.
The basic idea of what both are: WordPress is a content management system that can be extended via various plugins, one of which is WooCommerce, which makes dope ecommerce websites. WordPress is open source. Shopify is a propriety software suite for building ecommerce stores. For both, you need to choose a theme or template, respectively, which decides the look and feel. These themes can be customized to reflect your branding and personality.
Why choose WordPress?
Do you have a team? Would you like to extend your site a lot in the future? Are you not a fan of recurring payments? Go with WordPress. And in case you know a little bit of frontend, backend, or both, then definitely WordPress. The chances are infinite. WooCommerce isn't a hitherto drag and drop website builder (unless you install more plugins like Elementor), and needs some time to grow on you. It surely makes your life easier than Shopify does once you get a hang of it. Seeding products, using various SEO tools, publishing, are all much easier and faster on a WordPress site.
Pros: Very flexible, 30%+ websites use WordPress, authors very clean code, many free plug-ins to choose from, very scalable down the road, proper blogging system for side traffic, more social (comment system, pingbacks, WordPress' own readership, etc.), open source and free to install on any server.
Cons: Doesn't come with hosting so you need to buy one, has a learning curve, without the right tools you'd be quite lost.
Why choose Shopify?
Are you just one person? Is dropshipping your only aim while overall branding can take a backseat? Do you want to build a website very simply, dragging and dropping a bunch of different chunks? Do you not want to bother with code and advanced customization at all? Are you okay with paying a hosting fee + paying a charge that increases with your needs as long as you get your product seeding right? Go with Shopify. The platform has a way of looking cool from the first design iteration. It's responsive from the start.
Pros: All templates are handpicked to be as seamless as possible, built for people with no technical know-how, has many apps (plugins in WordPress) that make your dropshipping site a lot easier.
Cons: The charges, the lack of flexibility, limited advanced customization options, even using the "liquid" way of customizing pages can be a nightmare, you're pretty much stuck to whatever blocks/design elements the template provides without really being able to change a lot of things.
Bottom line
This usually gives an idea to people what regarding what's better for them. Sometimes you just a site created very fast with very less effort and you want to setup channels that speed up the process of seeding new products and information. Shopify does that for you. Sometimes, you want a full fledged website that has a lot more flexibility in terms of design, customization, layouting, and scalability. WordPress is the solution in that case.
The basic idea of what both are: WordPress is a content management system that can be extended via various plugins, one of which is WooCommerce, which makes dope ecommerce websites. WordPress is open source. Shopify is a propriety software suite for building ecommerce stores. For both, you need to choose a theme or template, respectively, which decides the look and feel. These themes can be customized to reflect your branding and personality.
Why choose WordPress?
Do you have a team? Would you like to extend your site a lot in the future? Are you not a fan of recurring payments? Go with WordPress. And in case you know a little bit of frontend, backend, or both, then definitely WordPress. The chances are infinite. WooCommerce isn't a hitherto drag and drop website builder (unless you install more plugins like Elementor), and needs some time to grow on you. It surely makes your life easier than Shopify does once you get a hang of it. Seeding products, using various SEO tools, publishing, are all much easier and faster on a WordPress site.
Pros: Very flexible, 30%+ websites use WordPress, authors very clean code, many free plug-ins to choose from, very scalable down the road, proper blogging system for side traffic, more social (comment system, pingbacks, WordPress' own readership, etc.), open source and free to install on any server.
Cons: Doesn't come with hosting so you need to buy one, has a learning curve, without the right tools you'd be quite lost.
Why choose Shopify?
Are you just one person? Is dropshipping your only aim while overall branding can take a backseat? Do you want to build a website very simply, dragging and dropping a bunch of different chunks? Do you not want to bother with code and advanced customization at all? Are you okay with paying a hosting fee + paying a charge that increases with your needs as long as you get your product seeding right? Go with Shopify. The platform has a way of looking cool from the first design iteration. It's responsive from the start.
Pros: All templates are handpicked to be as seamless as possible, built for people with no technical know-how, has many apps (plugins in WordPress) that make your dropshipping site a lot easier.
Cons: The charges, the lack of flexibility, limited advanced customization options, even using the "liquid" way of customizing pages can be a nightmare, you're pretty much stuck to whatever blocks/design elements the template provides without really being able to change a lot of things.
Bottom line
This usually gives an idea to people what regarding what's better for them. Sometimes you just a site created very fast with very less effort and you want to setup channels that speed up the process of seeding new products and information. Shopify does that for you. Sometimes, you want a full fledged website that has a lot more flexibility in terms of design, customization, layouting, and scalability. WordPress is the solution in that case.
