Shopify vs WooCommerce for UK Shops
Shopify suits UK shops that want a hosted platform with little technical upkeep: plans start at £25 a month, or £19 billed annually, plus card fees. WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that gives more control and no platform fee, but you pay for hosting, updates and security yourself. Choose on how much control you need and who will look after the shop.
Shopify and WooCommerce run a large share of small online shops, and both work well for UK businesses. The difference is in who looks after what. Shopify is a hosted service: you pay a monthly fee and Shopify runs the platform. WooCommerce is free software that runs on WordPress: you choose the hosting and you, or your developer, keep it running.
This guide compares the two on cost, fees, control and upkeep. Prices are from each company’s own UK pages, checked on 9 November 2026. Neither is a Hostlyx price.
In short:
- Choose Shopify if you want to start selling quickly, do not want to manage hosting or updates, and are happy to work within Shopify’s app ecosystem.
- Choose WooCommerce if you already run WordPress, want full control of the code and data, need unusual product or pricing logic, or want to avoid a monthly platform fee.
Monthly platform cost
Shopify’s UK pricing page lists these plans:
| Shopify plan | Monthly billing | Billed annually (per month) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | £25 | £19 |
| Grow | £65 | £49 |
| Advanced | £344 | £259 |
| Plus | from £1,800 | not listed |
The same page advertises a 3-day free trial and £1 a month for the first 3 months on most plans. It does not say whether plan prices include VAT, so check at checkout.
WooCommerce itself is a free download from WooCommerce.com. There is no platform fee, but you need:
- Hosting suitable for an online shop. Entry shared plans are heavily discounted in year one; on 9 November 2026 Hostinger UK listed £1.49 a month renewing at £7.99, and Krystal a flat £7 a month. A busy shop will need more than an entry plan.
- A domain and an SSL certificate (usually included with hosting).
- Extensions for features WooCommerce does not include by default. Some are free, many are paid.
- Maintenance: WordPress, WooCommerce and plugin updates, backups and security monitoring.
Payment fees
Card fees often cost more than the platform fee once a shop is trading. Both platforms have their own payment service.
| Online card rate (UK) | Using another payment provider | |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Payments, Basic | 2% + 25p | extra 2% transaction fee |
| Shopify Payments, Grow | 1.7% + 25p | extra 1% |
| Shopify Payments, Advanced | 1.5% + 25p | extra 0.6% |
| Shopify Payments, Plus | 1.3% + 25p | extra 0.2% |
| WooPayments | 1.5% + £0.25 domestic cards; +2% international; +2% currency conversion | no WooCommerce fee for other gateways |
Sources: Shopify UK pricing and the WooPayments fee schedule. WooPayments has no monthly fee, and its documentation says 20% VAT applies to its fees, with a reverse charge possible for VAT-registered merchants who supply a valid VAT ID.
The key point for Shopify: if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top of that provider’s charges. With WooCommerce, you can use most major gateways without a platform fee.
A worked example of monthly fees
Fees are easier to compare with a real number. Take a shop selling £5,000 a month across 100 online orders of £50, all paid by UK cards. Using the published rates above:
| Shopify Basic, monthly billing, Shopify Payments | WooCommerce with WooPayments | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | £25 | £0 |
| Card fees | 2% of £5,000 = £100, plus 100 × 25p = £25 | 1.5% of £5,000 = £75, plus 100 × £0.25 = £25 |
| VAT on payment fees | not stated on the pricing page | 20% of £100 = £20, unless reverse charge applies |
| Hosting | included | your hosting plan, for example Krystal’s flat £7 |
| Monthly total before apps or extensions | £150 | £127 |
This is arithmetic on published prices, not a quote. Paid Shopify apps and paid WooCommerce extensions can change the picture quickly, and the WooCommerce column leaves out the time or cost of maintenance. Run the same sum with your own order numbers, average order value and the extensions you actually need.
Control and flexibility
Shopify
You work within Shopify’s themes, apps and checkout. That keeps things stable and secure, but some changes are limited by the platform, and many features come from paid apps with their own monthly charges. Your store data lives on Shopify’s systems, although you can export it.
WooCommerce
You have the code, the database and the server. Almost anything can be built, from custom pricing rules to integrations with a warehouse or ERP system. That freedom brings responsibility: poor plugins, slow hosting or missed updates are your problem to fix.
Running and maintaining the shop
| Task | Shopify | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting and uptime | Included | Your hosting provider |
| Security updates | Handled by Shopify | You or your developer |
| Backups | Platform managed; apps for extra | You set them up |
| Speed | Mostly handled by Shopify | Depends on hosting, theme and plugins |
| Checkout changes | Within Shopify’s limits | Fully customisable |
| Getting help | Shopify support and partners | Your developer, host and plugin vendors |
For a small team without technical staff, the upkeep column is often the deciding factor.
UK-specific points to check on either platform
- VAT is set up correctly for UK customers, and for any overseas sales.
- Prices are shown the way your customers expect, usually including VAT for consumers.
- Delivery zones and rates cover the UK mainland, Highlands and Islands, and Northern Ireland as you need.
- Your company details appear on the site as GOV.UK requires for limited companies.
- Terms, returns policy, privacy notice and cookie controls are in place. See our UK GDPR and cookie checklist.
- Payment methods suit your buyers, such as cards, wallets and buy-now-pay-later if you want it.
How to decide
Answer these four questions:
- Who will maintain the shop? If nobody technical, Shopify removes most of that work.
- How unusual is your catalogue? Made-to-order products, complex variants or trade pricing often fit WooCommerce better.
- What will fees cost at your sales volume? Work out monthly platform, app and card fees at your expected turnover for each option.
- Do you already have a WordPress site? Adding WooCommerce to a good WordPress site is often simpler than starting again.
If you sell a modest range of standard products and want to focus on selling, Shopify is usually the easier start. If you need control, integrations or want to avoid platform fees, WooCommerce is usually the better long-term fit.
Moving between the two later
Neither choice locks you in for ever. Products, customers and order history can be exported from one and imported into the other, usually with a migration tool or a developer’s script. What does not move directly:
- Design. Themes are platform-specific, so the shop needs a new theme or a rebuild.
- Apps and extensions. Each feature needs an equivalent on the new platform.
- URLs. Product and category addresses differ, so every old URL needs a 301 redirect to the new one to keep search rankings and links.
- Customer passwords. Customers usually need to reset them after a move.
Plan a migration for a quiet trading period, and test checkout, emails and redirects before switching the domain.
How Hostlyx can help
Hostlyx is a Zorixo Services company with a delivery team in Bengaluru, India. UK customers are invoiced in GBP by Zorixo Ventures Ltd, a UK company, through Stripe. We build both Shopify stores and WooCommerce shops, and we host WooCommerce on cPanel through our web hosting. Our e-commerce development page explains what a build includes.
If you are unsure which platform suits you, send us your product range and how you sell. We will recommend one, explain why, and reply with a fixed written quote in GBP.