Hi guys, my name is Hogan and in this video, I'm going to be comparing Shopify with WordPress and WooCommerce
So Shopify is primarily a ecommerce platform whereas WordPress is a content management system
Mostly branded as a blogging and a small business platform, but you can actually add WooCommerce which is a plug-in that adds
Ecommerce functionality onto your WordPress website to give you a ecommerce
Website, ok, so you can start selling goods
So in this video, I'm gonna be giving you my honest thoughts because I have been using WordPress for years now
And I've recently started a Shopify store
for dropshipping
For a few months, so I basically can give you my thoughts so you can make a good decision for yourself
so if you're mainly focusing on like blogging you're like a blogger then you definitely go with WordPress like there's no
Comparison with a better blogging platform or if you're like primarily building a website for a small business. Then you definitely go with WordPress
Okay, but if you're deciding between you know Shopify and WordPress and WooCommerce
for your ecommerce store
or your dropshipping store then watching this video so you can still build a dropshipping store if you actually use
WordPress and WooCommerce
there are plugins such as Alli dropship and also Roo dropship which basically helps you integrate the products from Aliexpress to your
WooCommerce and WordPress store really easily and basically semi automate that process for you
It's just that Shopify definitely has a lot more videos on it about drop shipping and it's definitely branded more as an e-commerce thing
But you can definitely build a dropshipping store or ecommerce store on either platform. Okay
So what I do want to talk about is maybe the pricing first
So with Shopify, there's a 14-day free trial, which is really awesome. And I think you should take advantage of that
I have a link down below
but after that you do have to pay $29 per month for the basic version and
$79 for the medium version and I think 200 plus for the enterprise version
With WordPress and WooCommerce. Those things are actually free
but what you actually do need is a hosting account and hosting is basically where you store your website files and
Is your text and data and things like that, so people can access your website
24/7 and then you install WordPress on top of that
Right. So Hosting goes from you know, five to ten dollars a month
including a SSL certificate and basically the SSL certificate is the
HTTPS in front of your website, you'll see that on a lot of e-commerce websites because that has the security layer
So you're actually able to store your customers data and you know process payments and things like that. So
in terms of pricing
definitely
Shopify is definitely a lot more expensive. WordPress is definitely cheaper
But I wouldn't base my decision on choosing either one based on price because over the long run
You're gonna be making a lot more money than that
So it wouldn't really matter anyway, in terms of the fees and stuff like that. I think Shopify have something called Shopify payments and
They charge zero fees
Or making a sale and that is really good
I think for some countries such as the United States, but if you're like me, I'm in Australia and they don't use Shopify payments here
So I have to use PayPal anyway
and with WordPress
Most of the time people just use PayPal because that's really easy and they charge like a two to three percent fee
So that's pretty much even there. The other thing that you have to pay for is themes. Okay, so themes is basically like a
Skin that you add on to your website that gives it specific look and appearance or like a color scheme
With Shopify that have a little bit of free themes which is pretty good. It's okay. It's not the best
In terms of things that you can actually customize
They're actually also paid themes, which I haven't actually tried yet
It's a hundred and forty dollars to $180 a one-time fee if you want to build out another store
You have to get that, you know another theme and you have to pay that one-time fee again
Whereas WordPress you have to pay, you know forty nine to seventy nine dollars for a paid theme
Which I highly recommend and that is on a yearly basis, but you can actually install that on
All websites even your clients web sites as well
So, you know the pricing there, it's more it cost more one-time fee with web here is a little bit cheaper
But it's an annual fee and you can install unlimited websites
In terms of the plugins plugins are basically things that you sort of like applications that you add on to your WordPress
Or Shopify store for additional functionality for example, so you might want to add like some kind of email pop
email pop-up for your Shopify store, you know, that's a plug-in and
You know for your WordPress website as well with Shopify, they have a lot more paid apps and it cost like five thousand
I know like nine dollars 99 and some apps which even charge a percentage of your sales
So it's definitely more expensive with Shopify and with WordPress
There's a lot of free themes which are really great already and don't need to upgrade
But the thing here is with WordPress and their plugins. Sometimes they might not play well together
so for example
they might conflict and sometimes the plug-in might not work because you've got the theme there and then
from a different developer and then you've got like plugins from different developers and
Sometimes it just doesn't work well and you have to spend time updating it fixing it and troubleshooting it
But with let's say Shopify, it's more like integrated. The experience is more seamless
That's why you're paying for that premium there
For me I can manage it for some people. You don't really want to manage that part and Shopify. It might be good, right and
Now the next thing is security so Shopify offers like an integrated security. You don't have to worry about it
It's a hands-free
thing which is like included just to have to think about it you just
You know focus on branding focus on marketing whereas WordPress, you know
The security is like for your hosting provider
They provide like basic security and backups and things like that for additional security. You'll need to add like plugins and stuff like that
So it takes more time to manage I would say so you're paying for that premium again and in terms of the support
Shopify offer 24/7 support
for basic things but if you want to actually
customize like your theme
The appearance of your website. You'll need to pay, you know by the hour for that
and
The good thing is that you actually get like 60 minute of free theme customizations when you first start out with Shopify
That is really good just to get your shop up and running because you might want to move like a headline or something like that
Which actually used but it does take a few days for them to actually enter that sometimes with WordPress here
There's basically two to support things because you've got one support which is the hosting
So for example if your website is down, then you need to contact your your hosting support
but if you want to make customizations to your theme and stuff like that you cook you contact the theme support and
That's where you pay, you know, your forty nine dollars a year and stuff like that
So with the theme support normally it's like a forum thing
So they'll answer your questions within you know, a few hours or the maximum I had to weigh was like 24 hours
It really depends on the theme that you pick
So overall what I think is that, you know picking either one is not going to make you more successful
It's like picking the Nike shoe or maybe picking the added a shoe. It's not gonna make you run any faster
What's gonna make your business successful is yourself and your marketing strategies your product and your customer service?
Not the platform that you choose it on
but overall I think Shopify is a good platform which
Saves you time in terms of managing it and you can focus more time on marketing and branding Facebook ads or whatnot
WordPress is more
self-managed and
You have to spend more time managing it but you get more customized ability in terms of like moving stuff and things like that
Which I really really really like about WordPress
But if you're like a blogger or if you're a small business and you want to add ecommerce functionality
Then I'll probably go with WordPress because it's just definitely the best
Platform to build your website and your blog on and then you can add new commerce functionality to it
So ultimately I would say, you know Shopify is more like a furnished apartment
You just move into that apartment. The furniture is like there already and
All you need to do is get your luggage moving your luggage being your products moving and then you can just you know
Leave your life
Okay, whereas WordPress is more like, you know, you're finding this piece of land and you're building that house by yourself
And then you're going to IKEA you're building to yourself
So it's definitely more self-managed some people like that option some people like a more convenient option
I'd recommend you try out Shopify for 14 days and
See what you like about the platform see what you don't and you can also try out the WordPress and WooCommerce option as well
there's a link down below for one cent hosting so it can sign up for hostgator for one cent only and then
you can install WordPress and WooCommerce and you can follow my free tutorial on how to set up an e-commerce website and
If you don't like it
then what you can do is cancel that hosting before that month ends and transfer that domain name to your Shopify account and
Basically build out your Shopify store and start your e-commerce journey
so if you like this video make sure to give it a thumbs up subscribe for more videos making more videos on my
Shopify journey and also wordpress tutorials as well as showing you guys how to make money online