Whether you should pick Shopify or WordPress depends on a cyclone of criteria. While Shopify specializes in sales and is the leading e-commerce website builder, WordPress is a CMS. As such, WordPress is suitable for all kinds of websites, and above all, “holds” 40% of websites online. Undoubtedly, WordPress is a more popular option for website owners.
However, Shopify makes selling online efficient, as it doesn’t require experience. You can swiftly create an online store, upload products, and get on with it. On the other side, we have WordPress, which can do the same, as long as you rack up crafty plugins and add-ons.
Granted, WordPress offers much more freedom, but also more room for mistakes and a steeper learning curve. Shopify is a centralized platform, with everything you need pre-packaged and a learning curve that is ‘straighter’ than even that of Wix.
So, which one is better for you: WordPress.org or Shopify? Since we’re comparing two different platforms (website builder vs. CMS), some outcomes won’t be binary and will depend on your preferences. Find out more in our detailed Shopify vs. WordPress comparison for 2026.
WordPress vs Shopify: Quick Overview
| WordPress | Shopify | |
| Starting price | Free or dependent on features (hosting, domain name, security, plug-ins, …) | $24/mo |
| Free Domain | No | No |
| Free SSL | No | Yes |
| Number of templates | 13,000+, 200+ free | 230+ (13 free) |
| Transaction fees | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.4-2.6% + 30¢ |
| Email marketing | 5,000 free emails monthly | 10,000 free emails monthly |
| Security | Built-in threat detection; other security features are plug-in-dependent | PCI DSS compliance, fraud protection, DDoS protection, Proactive Threat Monitoring, 2FA |
| Customer support | Community forum, online guides | Phone, email, chat (24/7) |
Website Setup: WordPress vs Shopify
Having in mind their brilliance but also their differences, you can expect different adventures altogether. This, of course, includes the start-up process, which is the first stepping stone.
How to Get Started With WordPress?
We’ll actually begin with WordPress, just to clarify how it works.
As a CMS or Content Management System, starting your website with it means you have to download it to the server first. But what’s the server and where to find it? Well, it’s a web hosting server obtainable from the hosting provider. Which one to choose?
We’ll let you decide or hit you with our top 10 list of the best web hosts in 2026.
For this Shopify vs WordPress analysis, we’re using Hostinger as our favorite but you can pick any other. So, with Hostinger, it’s easy to install WordPress by going to the “Website” section within your dashboard and selecting the Auto Installer option.
From here, Hostinger will allow you to install Joomla, WooCommerce, or WordPress. Once you click on WordPress as your preferred CMS, provide your website name, enter a password, and type in the domain. Boom; in two minutes, WordPress will be ready.
Host your WordPress site on Hostinger
You already know the deal from here. It’s the good, old WordPress interface you’ve likely used a thousand times.
How to Get Started With Shopify?
You won’t have to install a thing in Shopify. Since this is a website builder, the registration process is followed by a few questions regarding your website or online store. You’ll have to explain what you’re going to sell, how you’ll sell, and other fluff. After that, it’s very easy.
Shopify allows you to pick up a template and start making the website. We love how intuitive Shopify is from the get-go. To ensure you have a smooth road ahead, the provider includes a comprehensive to-do list with tasks that you should complete before going “live”.
These things include adding a domain name, naming your store, etc. It’s worth noting that Shopify also allows you to upload products before previously choosing the template. Or you can skip the initial questions and immediately get on with your online store creation.
Simplicity-wise, it won’t matter much which one you choose, Shopify or WordPress. Your baby steps will be different but equally simple. Choose your adventure.
Website Templates Comparison: WordPress vs Shopify
The very core of every website builder is the template selection.
But wait—isn’t WordPress a CMS? Yep, it is but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have templates!
- Shopify has a little over 230 templates but just 13 or so are free.
- WordPress has over 13,000 templates but around 200+ are free.
You can see a huge discrepancy here. Shopify’s selection is by no means bad but WordPress has roughly 56 times MORE to pick from. Habitually, you’ll get more free templates as well, and 200+ are enough to play around with and pick a perfect one for your website.
If you’re unsure how to pick a proper template, see our website creation guide.
Template Quality: Which Platform Is Better?
Shopify won’t blow you away with its templates. The free ones look okay, while the paid ones can be but aren’t necessarily more advanced. Shopify’s #1 priority is functionality and selling online, so don’t expect the quality level of Wix or, let’s say, Squarespace.
The good thing is that all templates are e-commerce-friendly and allow you to forge a jaw-dropping online shop with top-tier smoothness and customization options.
Now, WordPress is in a different ballpark. After comparing WordPress vs. Wix, we found that the former offers better-looking themes. Again, the free ones are a bit bland and won’t blow you away. However, paid themes surpass Shopify’s equivalents but can be VERY costly.
WordPress lets you buy the themes from its website or through a third-party vendor; Theme Forest, for example. Examining their prices, it’s surprising that Shopify’s themes are usually more expensive than those of WordPress. The one we liked, Canopy, was $390, for instance.
However, when cycling through WordPress themes on Theme Forest, we found quite a few we liked at about $39 to $59. To digress, Shopify offers 56 times fewer themes than WordPress and the latter’s theme quality is usually a notch above, making WordPress.org the winner.
Editing & Site-Building With Shopify and WordPress
Once the theme/template has been set in stone, it’s time to work your magic and personalize it. Website builders are quite efficient at this but that’s unsurprising because their design revolves around… well, building and maintaining the website.
Website Building With Shopify
Speaking of that, Shopify won’t move mountains with its design philosophy. Yet, it’s so easy to use and get into, that even if you’re a beginner, you’ll grasp it within 20-30 minutes. To be clear, it’s simpler than Wix, as it doesn’t have the same drag-and-drop editor.
However, it still offers more leeway than WordPress and is better at overall personalization. You have this section-based editor, where you can add or subtract sections, in which you can put videos, text, products, and various other elements. There’s also the menu on the left.
This menu allows you to customize borders, colors, fonts, animations, buttons, etc. One thing to note is that Shopify also allows you to edit buttons and customize their fonts and styles, which is key to personalizing the website and making stand out from the crowd.
The good news is that Shopify allows you to edit the template by using HTML, which is great if you know coding. However, you can also install a third-party app to include more features and deepen your website-editing abilities. We explained all of this in our test of Shopify, too.
Website Building With WordPress
WordPress is slightly different than Shopify but essentially, they share the same section-based or block-based editor. The experience is a bit constrained and freedom of “choice” isn’t on the level of Wix or even Webflow. Especially the latter!
However, we can’t say building a website with WordPress is a chore. It’s the opposite.
This is true if you don’t want to tinker around that much and would rather slightly personalize the given template. For example, you can’t rearrange most elements or even edit the buttons. Buttons are directly dictated by the theme, so pick one carefully!
In fact, if you’re using the WordPress editor, ensure you pick the theme that resembles your desired final product the most given the editing limitations. If you’re acquainted with HTML or CSS, WordPress allows you to switch over to coding and fully redesign the theme.
But if you’re thinking about using a website builder in the first place, chances are you’re not a coding type. Plus, Shopify also lets you edit the selected theme with HTML, so you have ample freedom in both cases. Having this in mind, who actually wins?
Well, it’s Shopify for us. It’s a bit easier to use and offers more customization options out of the box. With WordPress, you’ll have to use HTML to achieve a higher level of customization.
Build an Online Shop With Shopify
Which Website Builder Is Better for E-commerce?
Can WordPress beat Shopify at its own game? Shopify is synonymous with selling online and is likely the most recognizable name. But WordPress has a contender in this race: WooCommerce. Without it, WordPress wouldn’t be able to handle an online store.
Selling Online With WordPress (WooCommerce)
WooCommerce is a free WordPress add-on, which makes sense because it’s an in-house solution. In our experience, WooCommerce is fantastic for selling online given its flexibility and ample sales features that you can implement and craft an amazing online shop.
Best of all, WooCommerce is simple to set up, and uploading products takes virtual minutes. You can sell physical and digital products, as well as subscriptions. However, the cracks start to show when you try to expand a bit, as WooCommerce will charge you for every bit.
For instance, to sell subscriptions and digital memberships, you’ll need to pay $17/mo. Physical products and downloads are free. You can also expand WooCommerce’s abilities through various plug-ins but very few are free; most are premium and some cost a lot.
On the brighter side, WooCommerce offers extensive tools like multi-channel selling, customizable shipping, flexible payment methods with 140+ vendors, etc. WooCommerce’s transaction fees are at 2.9% + $0.3 and that’s “okay”. Pretty much an industry standard.
WooCommerce is fully scalable and adaptable to your business. You can start slow and host a small online store, while still earning well enough to scale and gradually improve your business. WooCommerce will adapt to all your needs without issues.
Selling Online With Shopify
When we compared Shopify to Wix, we found that the former is more for large businesses. Smaller businesses are better off with Wix, as WooCommerce’s total costs can go up dramatically. Now, Shopify is our preferred option for selling online because of its prowess.
Product uploads are simple and there’s plenty of information to fill out, all enhancing your SEO. You can include prices in dozens of currencies, customize shipping, assign different couriers based on the country, and even engage in POS and a vast dropshipping market.
Shopify comes with top-of-the-market multi-channel selling paired with efficient Shopify Payments, which houses dozens of popular payment vendors, from PayPal and credit cards to Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and others. Advanced inventory management is here, too.
This makes Shopify ideal for managing a bulk of products and handling larger loads more efficiently. In addition, you can handle local deliveries and add custom rules for shipping to fully personalize the store. Shopify’s fees can vary based on the chosen plan.
The cheapest plan yields the same fees as WooCommerce. However, the priciest plan drops them to 2.4% + $0.3, making it excellent for higher sales and generating more earnings. Of course, both WordPress (WooCommerce) and Shopify have their app markets.
This is where you’ll find additional e-commerce-based apps to expand your possibilities. We found Shopify’s apps a bit more efficient, as they cover shipping, delivery, conversion, fulfillment, and so on, plus, they tend to be a bit more affordable.
Digression
At the end of the day, we prefer Shopify for e-commerce over WooCommerce.
It’s easier to set up an online store with it, plus, the website cost will be lower, as Shopify already includes a built-in e-commerce toolkit. WooCommerce is free, in theory, but its base isn’t enough to support more demands, so you inevitably have to pay for add-ons.
Those starting an online store will prefer Shopify’s streamlined process that virtually hand-holds you from start to end and is foolproof.
Start Selling Online With Shopify
SEO & Marketing Features
Nailing your SEO is a big step to success; the most important one. Let’s also not forget marketing, which is quintessential to grow your brand and improve your online presence. Should you choose WordPress or Wix if you want to improve these aspects of your site?
Again, it depends on your preferences because of their glaring differences.
SEO: Shopify vs WordPress
We’ll start with Shopify because it’s a lot simpler, and in our book, more efficient and cost-effective. Shopify includes a load of SEO features. From basics, like editing your alt titles, descriptions, and page titles, to more advanced stuff endorsed through third-party apps.
Shopify’s App Market has ample SEO tools to include in your day-to-day workflow, which allow you to cover every aspect of Search Engine Optimization. Some tools are meant to identify new keywords, while others are more for tracking your ranking.
We love that you can integrate Google Search Console in Shopify for more first-hand information. Shopify stores also create a sitemap file, which you can then upload to search engines using Webmaster Tools, setting your site up for better rankings in the future.
Moving on to WordPress, you can see it has virtually no built-in SEO tools.
But hey, there’s this thing called third-party add-ons. Some add-ons are free, like Yoast SEO, which we use on every website. Yoast SEO is fantastic, especially if you pay for it, as long as you have enough money to spend.
During our WordPress vs Shopify review, we also used Slim SEO and Rank Math for things like configuring XML sitemaps, optimizing our internal linking, and even some WooCommerce SEO functions. You can do wonders for your SEO with these add-ons.
Marketing
Since we’re on the topic of WordPress, let’s mention its marketing features. There are none.
Again, we go back to the plug-in store, where you’ll find some crafty tools for this purpose. You can implement Creative Mail to send 5,000 free emails monthly. Pay a few quids and you can remove the limit. WordPress has no shortage of marketing tools in its store.
Better yet, these tools are usually gimmick-free, so each serves a purpose, whether it’s email marketing or social media tools for improving your online presence. Shopify strikes back with its 10,000 free emails, all customizable and with ample good-looking email templates.
After examining its App Store, we found a surge of marketing apps, such as Mailchimp, Shopify Forms, and Instafeed. We loved the latter’s assistance in boosting social media sales with clever promotional videos and reels, which can boost earnings tremendously.
Shopify has a handful of free apps with incredible user reviews. We noticed its Pop Convert app, which allows users to include pop-ups and smart bars on the site for better sales. This app can be installed right away without spending a dollar.
Whether you pick WordPress or Shopify, you’ll find just how far you can go in terms of SEO and marketing. Truthfully, WordPress will cost you more, while Shopify will include the most essential tools in its plans, with superior email marketing (10,000 free sent emails).
Because of this, we’d give a slight advantage to Shopify.
WordPress vs Shopify Price Comparison
If you’re dead set on a cheap website builder, neither of these is for you.
We came up with a list of the least expensive website builders which also allow you to sell online. That’s not to say you can’t start on a budget with WordPress or Shopify but the budget must be “elastic” more so than usual, so to speak.
Shopify Prices & Plans
We’ll first analyze Shopify and then discuss the restless sea that WordPress represents.
So, the Basic Shopify plan starts at $24/mo if you pay annually. This lets you save 25% and make an online shop way cheaper. The Shopify plan is $69/mo, which isn’t affordable by any means but in our experience, it’s the best deal overall, with plenty of excellent features.
Save 25% on Annual Shopify Plans
We must admit that the Basic plan is already feature-rich and will satisfy even higher demands. Though, it has a bit higher fees compared to Shopify and Advanced ($299/mo). All plans have multi-channel selling, at least 10 inventory locations, and free SSL.
Features like gift cards, abandoned checkout recovery, Shopify Forms, and other features are standard in every plan. It’s worth mentioning that the Basic plan doesn’t support staff accounts, while the rest offer 5, 10, and unlimited respectively.
WordPress Prices & Plans
WordPress.org doesn’t have specific plans or prices. It’s a free CMS that you can install on your server. Therefore, the minimum cost of WordPress would be the price of the server, i.e., the web hosting provider you choose, such as Hostinger, A2 Hosting, SiteGround, etc. If you’re interested, we recently compared the best managed WordPress hosting services.
If you get Hostinger, you’ll also enjoy a free domain for a year, so that’s accounted for.
Check out WordPress hosting plans from Hostinger
However, WordPress is nothing without plug-ins, and of course, the template. Since paid templates are much better, you’ll pay at least $20 and even more than $200, depending on the choice. As said a while ago, its SEO, marketing, and even e-commerce tools are paid.
This induces additional hard-to-determine costs. Essentially, it boils down to getting what you’re paying for. You can create a basic website with WordPress on a shoestring budget. Leaving the “basic” constraints will inevitably cost you and that’s the main gripe.
We can assume the initial costs will likely be higher in WordPress than in Shopify.
But they may not be. It all depends on the hosting provider, template, and plug-ins (apps) you’ll use. This renders this WordPress vs Shopify comparison rather futile.
Which Option Performs Better? (Speed Tests)
Speed-wise, we believe that WordPress is faster than any website builder. It has to be, especially if you install it on a top WordPress hosting service like the one from Hostinger, which excels in performance. When we used Hostinger in our WordPress vs. Shopify duel, we found some interesting results.
For this test, we used GTmetrix and its native server in Vancouver (Canada). We made pretty much identical websites on both sides (e-commerce),
After that, we ran GTmetrix and tested both websites to see how fast they were. First up, Shopify:
Now, let’s look at our WordPress site hosted on Hostinger:
Do you see just how better-performing Hostinger’s WordPress site is?
| Shopify | WordPress (Hostinger) | |
| FCP | 470 ms | 294 ms |
| LCP | 793 ms | 435 ms |
| TTI | 2.3 s | 294 ms |
| Speed Index | 992 ms | 435 ms |
| FLT | 6.2 s | 2.5 s |
This, however, doesn’t mean WordPress is faster than Shopify. It just means the web hosting you’re using is faster; WordPress is just a CMS installed on the bought server (web hosting).
Customer Support
You’ll find Shopify’s customer support impressive, especially if you’ve ever used WordPress. Shopify offers 24/7 support through live chat, email, and phone. It’s also equipped with the Help Center where you’ll find guides and tutorials for different things, such as POS, migrations, managing your account, etc.
Shopify’s live chat support is based on AI, which tries to solve the problem before “bothering” the support team member with it. However, you can simply say the answer wasn’t helpful and you’ll get in touch with the human representative.
WordPress relies on its forum, where you’ll sift through countless topics and discussions to find the solution. You can also open up a new discussion if something unique bothers you. WordPress guides and problem solutions are everywhere online, as well.
There’s no centralized support platform here. This is a “makeshift” method where you’re on your own and must seek help “manually”. Nothing bad about that. It’ll make you smarter if nothing. But we prefer the simplicity and professionalism of Shopify in this aspect.
WordPress.org vs Shopify: The Key Takeaways
Who said you can’t compare apples to oranges? As you can see, you can!
This WordPress.org vs Shopify duel was a strange one and doing a simple point count won’t tell you everything you need to know. Yes, on paper, Shopify seems to be a better option but that’s not necessarily the case for everyone, knowing WordPress’ popularity.
So, why do so many people use WordPress and not Shopify?
- Thousands of templates grant extreme freedom of choice
- A myriad of plug-ins and extensions for added functionalities
- The possibility to edit the website using HTML and CSS
- Ease of set up and installation
- Full control over every nook and cranny of your website (including security)
- The ability to use the desired hosting company, etc…
Host your WordPress site on Hostinger
On the other hand, Shopify is also used by thousands of online stores for these reasons:
- Simplicity in creating and managing online shops
- Pre-defined upfront costs
- Built-in SEO and marketing tools
- The ability to sell unlimited products in all plans
- Top-of-the-line customer support
- Progressively lower transaction fees, and more..
Try Shopify for Free for 3 Days
So, which platform is better in 2026, Shopify or WordPress? As you can see, there’s no definitive answer. It boils down to your preferences and ambitions. Our team of experts uses both, in fact. We host our websites on WordPress and use Shopify for online stores.
You can go with the same criteria. If you sell online, go with Shopify. If not, WordPress will do the job. We also recommend Wix in this case, as it’s one of the top-rated website builders for 2026.