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Shopify VS WordPress- A Start-Ups Guide

So, you’ve completed the first step. You have put together your business model and you are ready to begin setting up your website, but this bears the next question for many start-ups. Which website host should you use? Shopify Vs WordPress? With so many options available, if you don’t have knowledge or experience of any of them, it can be difficult to pick one.

 As Shopify and Google partners, we wanted to share our expert knowledge of our two favourite web hosts. Today we are comparing Shopify VS WordPress. By the end of this article, you should have a better understanding of both platforms. This will help you to identify the best platform for your business.

What is Shopify?

First of all we are going to begin by explaining what each platform is. Shopify is an ecommerce platform with all of the features needed to start, run and grow your online business. You can sell products to anyone, anywhere. There are also some great built in tools necessary to execute effective marketing campaigns. Ultimately, Shopify’s ecommerce platform empowers business owners across the globe by providing one platform to manage all digital elements of your business. 

What is WordPress?

On the other hand we have WordPress, in which 41% of the web is built on. Used by startups, bloggers and services to fortune 500 business WordPress is a hugely popular website builder. WordPress allows you to create a secure, sleek and professional website design without the need for a solid understanding of confusing coding. WordPress gives you the opportunity to turn your website into an online store and similarly to Shopify, has helpful built in tools to assist with digital marketing. 

Shopify Vs WordPress- The Benefits:

So, now we have established what each platform is, we are going to go through the benefits of Shopify and WordPress. The purpose of this is so that you can identify which platform will better suit the needs of your online business. 

Benefits of Shopify

  • Quick and easy to set up 
  • User friendly
  • Secure and Reliable
  • Customisable to create a unique site
  • Integration of marketing tools
  • 24/7 support 

Benefits of WordPress

  • Easy to create WordPress site and use
  • Templates available to generate professional site
  • Customisable blocks to make your site unique
  • Loved by search engines helping your site to rank
  • Plugins to extend the functionality of your site
  • Addition of marketing tools

What are the price differences- Shopify VS WordPress

We understand that for any business, particularly startups and small businesses, price and budgeting are fundamental factors that must be considered, especially when it comes to setting up your online store. You want to get it right but for the best price possible, and why wouldn’t you.

We have created this price comparison chart of Shopify Vs WordPress so you can decide, based on the benefits we have identified from both sites. It is important to remember that these prices are the simple package plans to give you an initial idea of the costs. If you plan to include any plugins, certain themes or the hiring of web developers, these costs could increase, particularly on WordPress. 

shopify-vs-wordpress

Which user is each platform aimed at?

So far we have covered what Shopify and WordPress actually are, what each platform’s benefits are and have compared the prices between each. Now we are going to delve a little bit deeper, so you can further understand which platform is better for your business.

It’s fair to say that Shopify’s main audience consists of users who lack web development and design skills and a budget to hire someone to build their store. These users often turn to Shopify because as previously mentioned, Shopify is a platform that allows you to create a quality website without the trauma of coding which from an outside perspective can be rather intimidating. Furthermore, Shopify is appealing because it does not require a huge upfront investment by allowing you to gradually build your site. Start by selecting your desired package to suit your needs and adding any marketing tools as and when you wish. 

In contrast, WordPress caters to a whole host of different users due to its versatility. This includes anyone from complete beginners to users with website development skills or those who have the budget to hire a developer to do it for them. Similarly to Shopify, this platform is suitable for web design novices or anyone starting out who isn’t particularly tech savvy. WordPress is also used by experienced web developers due to is customisability. Also, businesses with the finances to budget a web developer to produce a bespoke website design also use WordPress. 

The benefit of both platforms is that they are entirely flexible to adapt to the needs of your business This means you can grow on both sites without the need to move hosts and start from scratch if and when your business evolves. 

Summary of Shopify Vs WordPress

We hope this article has helped you in your journey to the creation of your ecommerce store. As digital experts with 25 years experience, and because we are a Shopify partner and Google shopping management partners we believe that this guide will help you to make the best choice for your business. To find out more about our services book your free discovery call to discuss what we can do to help sky rocket your business using Shopify or WordPress and start creating an effective digital strategy. Please don’t hesitate to contact us today.