# Shopify or Wordpress+Woocommerce



## shirtbuzz (May 5, 2016)

I'm still torn. I keep going back and forth over which I should go with. I was going to go with host gator and use Wordpress and woocommerce Bc it is so cheap. But I've heard it can be more time consuming using Wordpress.

On the other hand I was looking at shopify and it is about 20$ more a month but it's a one stop shop.

I am just launching my line so I want something that's easy and effective, yet cost efficient. 

Any advice is appreciated.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Shopify included credit card processing.....


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## TPrintDesigner (Sep 16, 2007)

If cost is important then Shopify is the way to go because it includes an SSL so you can take credit card payments without paying for an SSL or static IP address.

On top of that you don't need to self host and their servers are lightning fast.

Shopify is a great ecommerce platform if you want a simple store with minimum hassle.


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## shirtbuzz (May 5, 2016)

TPrintDesigner said:


> If cost is important then Shopify is the way to go because it includes an SSL so you can take credit card payments without paying for an SSL or static IP address.
> 
> On top of that you don't need to self host and their servers are lightning fast.
> 
> Shopify is a great ecommerce platform if you want a simple store with minimum hassle.


Can somebody explain SSL to me. Shopify takes a percentage so aren't I paying ?


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## BidsMaven (Sep 23, 2011)

SSL is short for secure socket layer. What it does is allow an encrypted transmission of data so that sensitive data, like credit card numbers, can be kept safe. Here's an article with more information on why SSL is a must have for a commercial https://www.digicert.com/ssl.htm

If you're still thinking you may want to go with Wordpress and Woo Commerce, consider throwing the WooCommerce Custom Product Designer into the mix. https://codecanyon.net/item/woocommerce-custom-product-designer/10959830


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

TPrintDesigner said:


> If cost is important then Shopify is the way to go because it includes an SSL so you can take credit card payments without paying for an SSL or static IP address.
> 
> On top of that you don't need to self host and their servers are lightning fast.
> 
> Shopify is a great ecommerce platform if you want a simple store with minimum hassle.


I disagree on the cost aspect with SSL as you mention.

Host Gator Business with SSL included is only $5.95 month all inclusive.

https://www.hostgator.com/shared-compare

On my host if I add SSL it is only $29.95 a year.

I do agree that Shopify is more simple to setup and use. If you don't go outside what they offer it works well for many, but make no mistake if cost is important Shopify is _more cost per month_. If one doesn't know about setting up a website then the upfront costs are higher for a conventional website like Host Gator if you have to pay for someone to setup.


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## TPrintDesigner (Sep 16, 2007)

That price is based on you signing up for 36 months in advance.

Hostgator got bought out by Bluehost so it's now the same company. I really like the way they give you the freedom to configure the server which is why we recommend them for Shirttools. However, not everybody needs that privilege.

If you don't have to run complex scripts and want an out of the box solution with minimum hassle then Shopify is a good call. If you're lucky enough to have a product go viral then you can be assured their servers will cope.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

TPrintDesigner said:


> That price is based on you signing up for 36 months in advance.
> 
> Hostgator got bought out by Bluehost so it's now the same company. I really like the way they give you the freedom to configure the server which is why we recommend them for Shirttools. However, not everybody needs that privilege.
> 
> If you don't have to run complex scripts and want an out of the box solution with minimum hassle then Shopify is a good call. If you're lucky enough to have a product go viral then you can be assured their servers will cope.


OK so $8.95 a month based on 12 months. _But it's still cheaper_, less than half the price monthly.


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## TPrintDesigner (Sep 16, 2007)

Agreed, but now you need to factor in merchant gateway fees. Not all countries are fortunate enough to be able to connect to Stripe so there will be higher transaction fees and a monthly charge to connect to their service.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

Even on a month to month Host Gator is $19.95 if you only signed up for a single month. The only way you would do that is if you wanted to try the service first before going longer term. Still cheaper than Shopify at $29.95 for the basic service.

Not a knock against Shopify, just stating facts, Shopify is not cheaper if you consider SSL as you have stated.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

TPrintDesigner said:


> Agreed, but now you need to factor in merchant gateway fees. *Not all countries are fortunate enough to be able to connect to Stripe* so there will be higher transaction fees and a monthly charge to connect to their service.


All depends on who you get to process the CC.

Let's be clear, Shopify is more convenient and turnkey, it is not cheaper month to month.


http://www.hostgator.com.tr/merchant-accounts

Many choices, those shown in that link are just the most popular there.

It's still cheaper considering CC and SSL.

Shopify is 

2.9% + 30¢ and no monthly if you use their service. Add $10 a month using an outside service.

https://www.shopify.com/pricing

Use Paypal on Host Gator and the CC charges are the same and no monthly fee.

Some of the others have a cheaper per charge rate but a $10 monthly. However, even at $8.95 + $10 that is still cheaper than Shopify @ $29.95 Paypal as I stated no monthly.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

All our ecommerce sites are either Wordpress+Woocommerce or custom written using Bootstrap as the admin backend. We are moving more and more to custom written sites because it allows us to get the site blazing fast and a fast site kills it for SEO purposes.

When we dumped Wordpress on our busiest site and moved to custom coding, all our SEO ranking jumped up over 3-6 months (keeping the same URLs that Wordpress had). Wordpress is awesome for customizing, but it can be dog slow if your server is slow (shared hosting).

If you go Wordpress + Woocommerce, make sure you get a caching plugin that is supported by your host. We self host so that isn't an issue, but a lot of shared hosts have issues with caching plugins. They aren't just optional, they're required for Wordpress to be fast.


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## NuJerzyDevil (Feb 19, 2013)

I was just debating this a few months back. I ended up going with WordPress and WooCommerce. Primarily for costs.

I'm no pro, but i'm a little bit familiar with wordpress so this was an easy decision for me. I believe that shopify was designed for people with absolutely no knowledge of wordpress and no desire or time to learn it. So they may be what's best for some people.

I'll address a few points that were made earlier in this thread the best I can.

About Hosting. I recommend staying away from HostGator and BlueHost. The problem I've found with them, at least on their shared hosting plans, is that they fill up each server with hundreds of clients.. all sharing the same bandwidth. And I felt the speed bottleneck more times than not. 

I spent a few days researching and ended up going with SiteGround. To date, this is the best host that I've ever been with. There are only 3 sites hosted on my server and they are all mine. I never have any bandwidth issues, and other issues i've had were resolved instantly with their chat service.

About Payment Gateways. Presently, Stripe is the new up and coming payment gateway to be on. Everyone loves stripe. They are definitely taking over, that is, until square becomes more webfriendly. Hell even Shopify's payment gateway is powered by Stripe. So shopify and WP + WC are gonna charge the same for payment gateway so that's a wash. 

About SSL. Yes SSL and dedicated IP is needed to accept credit cards. But SiteGround offers OpenSSL which is a free SSL option. 

About Themes. Let's face it, if you want your site to look good, you're going to need a theme. For a good Shopify theme, you're talking $150-$200 (From the Shopify Site). That's quite a lot for a theme. The WooCommerce themes can be had for an average of $50.

I think the biggest dealbreaker for me though, was the fact that in spite of being more expensive, Shopify only lets you do 1 site for the monthly fee. With Wordpress and WooCommerce option, you can have unlimited sites. This is a very good option to have if you want to set up different niche's.

All in All.. i think they are the top 2 options for anyone wanting to make a website. It just comes down to personal preference and knowledge. Shopify definitely geared toward the people with less knowledge in the website creation department but for a premium cost.

Hope this helps.

PS. If you choose Shopify, you will lose the ability to use all the good plugins that make wordpress what it is. The biggest loss will be the Yoast SEO Optimization plugin.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

It all depends whether you want to spend time growing your business or working in your business....DIY solutions can be much cheaper, however, all the time you invest costs you energy you could spend growing your business....The choice is yours....


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

royster13 said:


> It all depends whether you want to spend time growing your business or working in your business....DIY solutions can be much cheaper, however, all the time you invest costs you energy you could spend growing your business....The choice is yours....


I find the opposite is true -- and I've been in the ecommerce market since the 90s.

The easier something is for newbies, the more likely they are to not spend time honing and defining their product or service. Shopify is horrifying for the amount of low quality t-shirt designers out there creating brands. 99% of Shopify brands are garbage designs with no work put into them but a half hour of Illustrator or Photoshop. Teespring is even worse, I have only seen one Teespring design out of thousands that I would wear myself.

Doing it yourself, line by line, teaches you slowly what you need and don't need. It teaches you how to be efficient, how to not rely on features and plugins and doo-dads and widgets to make a web page that people will actually buy from. It teaches you to monitor your inbound traffic and find what serves your bottom line best.

Wordpress is good middle ground but like all things it quickly can become cluttered or unreasonably difficult to want to buy from it.

The more we DIY, the better our sales are because we're not mimicking thousands or tens of thousands of other site's codes, themes, look-and-feels. And Google rewards individuality as much as speed.

Look at how beautiful Cotton Bureau is -- and how well it renders on a variety of devices! That's all done in-house AFAIK, and it adds a ton of value to their brand.

Starting at the ground floor is scary because it means a lot of time is spent learning things, but that learning will last a lifetime. You're investing in yourself.

Now, if you spend 30 minutes on a garbage design that a brain dead monkey with a mouse could do better, and then put it on your Shopify boring themed site, and spam Facebook and Reddit with the horrid designs, don't be posting here why you can't sell anything. You can't sell anything because you refused to invest in learning something.

The t-shirt market (in the US and Canada) is 700,000 new designers a year. 2000 new t-shirt brands come out every day. It's ridiculous how many people think it's as easy as clipart + photoshop + bad free fonts from dafont + shopify or teespring. Millions of man-hours wasted because yet another dreamer thinks it's as easy as snapping their fingers.

If you want to sell, you need to learn everything about selling. And that includes learning how web sites function and how the best ones generate traffic. 

Yes, there are successes with Shopfy (and Teespring) but ALL of those successes had succesful brands before they created their sub-sites. All of them. No one succeeds on those sites from ground zero.


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## aldorabancroft (Nov 18, 2014)

I don't think wordpress is more secure now. I have seen many disquiet cases. I prefer Magento more then any other.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

aldorabancroft said:


> I don't think wordpress is more secure now. I have seen many disquiet cases. I prefer Magento more then any other.


It wouldn't be because your design tool product is Magneto based?

Not a knock on your product but perhaps your opinion is self serving?

Just saying


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

mgparrish said:


> It wouldn't be because your design tool product is Magneto based?


Zing!

Also, I dumped Magento when it stopped handling lots of items and options well. My Magento server was dog slow eventually whereas my Wordpress server can (and has) handled 10,000 simultaneous visitors without slow down.


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## harryvent (Aug 8, 2016)

Better you can go with shopify. It's cost effective.


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