Key facts
- WordPress runs 39.6% of all websites and Shopify 5.3%, according to W3Techs figures dated 18 October 2026.
- Shopify's UK Basic plan costs £19 a month billed yearly or £25 billed monthly (Shopify UK pricing page, October 2026).
- The WordPress software is free and open source; you pay for hosting, a domain and any premium plugins.
- On Shopify Basic, using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a 2% transaction fee (Shopify UK pricing page).
- Shopify looks after hosting, security patches and updates; on WordPress, someone has to update core, theme and plugins.
- WordPress can sell through WooCommerce, which has used High-Performance Order Storage by default on new installs since version 8.2 (WooCommerce developer docs).
The short answer
Ask what the website is mainly for. If the honest answer is "selling products online, every day", Shopify is hard to beat. You get a fast, secure checkout, stock and order management, and someone else handling the servers. If the answer is "winning enquiries for our services" or "publishing useful content, with a small shop on the side", WordPress gives you more room and lower running costs.
Neither is a bad choice. The mistakes we see come from picking a platform for the wrong job: a 400-product shop bolted onto a cheap WordPress install with no maintenance, or a plumber paying for Shopify to show five service pages.
WordPress and Shopify side by side
| WordPress | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source content management system you install on your own hosting | Hosted ecommerce platform you pay for monthly |
| Software cost | Free | Basic £19, Grow £49, Advanced £259 a month billed yearly (Shopify UK, October 2026) |
| Hosting and security | Your choice of host; you or your developer keep it patched | Included and managed by Shopify |
| Selling | Through WooCommerce or another plugin | Built in: products, variants, stock, checkout, orders |
| Card fees | Set by your gateway, for example Stripe at 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards (Stripe UK pricing) | Shopify Payments online rate of 2% + 25p on Basic, lower on higher plans |
| Content and blogging | Its original strength; block editor, custom post types, categories | Basic blog and pages; fine for simple content |
| Extending it | Thousands of plugins, or custom code | App Store apps, often billed monthly |
| Moving away later | Full database and files are yours to move | Products, customers and orders export as CSV; the theme stays behind |
| Day-to-day upkeep | Updates, backups and security checks needed | Mostly handled for you |
What it really costs to run each one
Shopify's pricing is simple to read but adds up. On Shopify's UK pricing page in October 2026, Basic is £19 a month on a yearly plan, Grow is £49 and Advanced is £259. Card payments through Shopify Payments cost 2% + 25p online on Basic, 1.7% + 25p on Grow and 1.5% + 25p on Advanced. If you use another provider instead, Shopify adds its own fee of 2%, 1% or 0.6% depending on plan. Most shops also pay for two to six apps for reviews, subscriptions, filters or delivery rules, and many of those are monthly too.
WordPress has no licence fee. You pay for hosting (ours starts from £1 a day + VAT at dijihost.co.uk), a domain, and premium plugins where they earn their keep. WooCommerce is free, and you pick your own gateway. The hidden cost is maintenance: plugins need updating, backups need checking and someone needs to notice when an update breaks the checkout.
- Low order volume, few products: WordPress usually costs less to run.
- Steady daily orders: Shopify's fixed costs are easier to justify, and staff time saved on upkeep matters more.
When the other option is better
Our default for a service business is WordPress, and our default for a product business is Shopify. Here is when we would flip that advice.
Choose WordPress even though you sell products
- You sell a handful of items alongside a content-heavy site, such as a training company selling course places or a charity shop page.
- Your products need unusual logic, such as made-to-measure pricing, trade-only price lists or complex booking rules, that would need several paid Shopify apps.
- You publish a lot of articles and guides and want proper control over categories, templates and schema.
Choose Shopify even though you are mainly a service business
- Nobody on your side will look after updates, and you want the platform to carry that risk.
- You plan to sell in person too: Shopify POS ties shop stock and online stock together.
- You expect sales to grow fast and want a checkout that copes with peaks without a hosting upgrade.
Speed, SEO and ownership
Both platforms can rank well. Google's Core Web Vitals ask for Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint within 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1, measured at the 75th percentile (web.dev). Slow sites on either platform are nearly always caused by heavy themes, oversized images and too many apps or plugins, not by the platform itself.
On ownership, WordPress wins outright: the files and database are yours and can move to any host. Shopify lets you export products, customers and orders, but your theme and apps do not come with you. With us, you own the domain and the content either way, and there is no lock-in.
How we build on either
We build both as custom designs, not off-the-shelf demos. For Shopify that means a lean theme, sensible collections and a product page that answers buyers' questions. For WordPress, it means the block editor set up so you can edit pages without breaking them, and only the plugins you need. See Shopify website design, WordPress web design or compare Shopify vs WooCommerce if you have already decided to sell online. Prices are on our pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify better than WordPress for SEO?
Neither has a built-in ranking advantage. WordPress gives finer control over URLs, templates and structured data, which helps content-led sites. Shopify forces some URL patterns, such as /products/ and /collections/, but these rank perfectly well. Content quality, speed and internal linking matter far more than the platform.
Is WordPress cheaper than Shopify?
Usually, yes, for running costs. WordPress has no licence fee, while Shopify Basic is £19 a month billed yearly on its UK pricing page, plus apps. But WordPress needs updates and backups, so add the cost of your time or a care plan before comparing like for like.
Can I move from WordPress to Shopify later?
Yes. Products, customers and order history can be imported into Shopify, and blog posts can be moved too. You will need a new theme and a full set of 301 redirects from old URLs so you keep your search rankings. Plan the move, do not rush it.
Do I need WooCommerce to sell on WordPress?
WooCommerce is the most common route and is free, but simpler options exist for one or two products, such as a payment link or a lightweight checkout plugin. If you will have more than a few products, stock levels or delivery rules, WooCommerce is the sensible starting point.
Which is easier for staff to use?
Shopify's admin is focused on orders and products, so shop staff usually pick it up faster. WordPress is easier for writing and editing pages. Whichever you choose, we include training so your team can add products, edit pages and handle orders without calling us.
Do you charge more to build on Shopify or WordPress?
No. Ecommerce builds on Shopify or WooCommerce start from £750 + VAT, and WordPress brochure sites from £250 + VAT. The price depends on pages, products and integrations, not on which platform you pick. You get a fixed quote before work starts.
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