Shopify and WooCommerce are the two names most people come across first when they start looking at dropshipping. They both let you build an online shop, but they work in very different ways.
What is the difference?
Shopify is a website you rent. You pay Shopify every month, and it looks after the hosting, the security and the checkout for you. You build your shop using one of its designs.
WooCommerce is free software that adds a shop to a WordPress website. The software costs nothing, but you have to pay for somewhere to host the website, and you are responsible for keeping it running and up to date.
What does each one cost?
Shopify's Basic plan is £25 a month, or £19 a month if you pay for the year. When a customer pays by card, Shopify takes 2% of the sale plus 25p.
WooCommerce itself is free. Its own website says hosting for most shops costs between $25 and $350 a month. When a customer pays by card through WooCommerce's own payments, it takes 1.5% plus 25p.
How does dropshipping work on each one?
Neither of them does dropshipping on its own. On both, you add a supplier app, such as DSers, which copies products from AliExpress into your shop and sends each order to the supplier when your customer pays. On Shopify you add it from the Shopify App Store. On WooCommerce you add it as a plugin.
Which one is right for you?
If you want someone else to look after the hosting and the security, Shopify is the simpler of the two. If you already have a WordPress website, or you want complete control over everything, WooCommerce may suit you better, but it is more work to look after.
There is also a third option: having a company design, build and look after the shop for you. Mediatopia, which owns this website, does this for £119 a month plus VAT, with the connection to AliExpress already built in.
