Shopify vs WooCommerce: which e-commerce platform for an SME?

You want to sell online and you have reached the classic fork in the road: Shopify or WooCommerce? They are the two most widely used e-commerce platforms in the world, and they embody two opposite philosophies: the turnkey shop you rent, versus the shop you own but have to look after yourself. In this guide I compare them honestly, from the perspective of a Swiss SME. And at the end I add a third way that almost nobody considers: the online shop connected to your ERP.

One thing up front: I don't sell either platform, and for many businesses the right answer really is Shopify or WooCommerce. My goal is to help you understand which philosophy fits your situation, before you even look at the price lists.

Shopify: simple, but rented

Shopify is the online shop as a service: you pay a monthly fee and get everything included. Hosting, security, updates, payments: the platform takes care of it all. A simple shop can launch in a few days, even without technical skills, and you never have to wonder whether the site will hold up or whether an update broke something. For anyone who wants to start fast and focus on products, it is the smoothest path.

The flip side is that the shop isn't really yours: it's rented. You pay the fee every month, forever, and on many plans transaction fees are added if you don't use the platform's own payment system. Customisation has boundaries: as long as you stay within the rails of your theme everything runs smoothly, but as soon as you want something truly specific you need paid apps or dedicated development. And apps are the cost that grows in silence: reviews, invoicing, shipping, each one adds its own fee, and a shop that started at a modest price can end up costing two or three times as much. Finally, your data lives inside the platform: you can export it, but the shop runs by Shopify's rules.

WooCommerce: yours, but you look after it

WooCommerce is the opposite: a free, open source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a shop. The software costs nothing, there are no fees imposed by the platform, and control is total: you can customise every pixel and every feature, the data sits on hosting you choose, and nobody can change the terms on you overnight. For anyone who already has a WordPress site or in-house skills, it is a rock-solid foundation. It's the same reasoning I laid out in off-the-shelf vs custom software: more control in exchange for more responsibility.

Because responsibility is the real price. "Free" applies to the software, not to the shop: you pay for hosting, the domain, almost always a theme and a few premium plugins (Swiss payments, shipping, invoicing). And above all, you look after it yourself: updates to WordPress, the theme and the plugins, backups, security. A neglected WordPress shop is a well-known target, and the time you spend on maintenance is a hidden cost that never shows up in price-list comparisons. If you have no one to take care of it, you pay that cost in surprises.

The comparison that matters for an SME

I'll skip the rankings and compare the six criteria that really count when you decide. On prices I deliberately stick to orders of magnitude: price lists change often, cost structures don't.

Note the last row: it's the one almost nobody looks at before choosing, and it's the one that weighs the most after a year. And to be clear: for many SMEs the right answer is one of the two. If you sell a handful of products and want zero technical worries, Shopify does its job very well. If you have an established WordPress site and someone who looks after it, WooCommerce is an excellent choice.

The third way: the online shop connected to your ERP

In the projects I follow in Ticino I keep seeing the same script: an SME's problem isn't opening the shop, it's what happens after the order. Every sale has to be recorded, invoiced, deducted from inventory, linked to the customer. If the shop and the ERP don't talk to each other, you do all of this by hand: re-typing orders, realigning stock levels, chasing invoices. The shop was the easy part; the post-order work eats your hours.

That's why I built my offering the other way around: in my subscription websites and e-commerce, the online shop costs €79 a month and includes the AFianco management App, already connected and managed by me. Orders, invoices, inventory and customer records are born aligned, with no plugins to glue together and no integrations to maintain. And on that foundation you can automate the post-order work: confirmations, payment reminders, stock reordering.

Due transparency: this third way isn't for everyone. If you have a catalogue with thousands of SKUs and complex logic, or if your strategy is to sell first and foremost on marketplaces like Amazon, dedicated platforms or a custom project make more sense. I'll tell you upfront, so you don't find out later.

How to choose (checklist)

Five practical questions to ask yourself before deciding:

1. Who handles the technical side? If the answer is "nobody", rule out solutions that put the maintenance on you.
2. How specific is the way you sell? Standard products fit anywhere; configurators, per-customer price lists or unusual logic demand more control.
3. What happens after the order, today? If invoices and inventory are already a bottleneck, ERP integration matters more than the graphic theme.
4. What is the total cost over three years? Not the first month: fees, apps, plugins, maintenance and your time, all together.
5. How much does changing your mind cost? Ask yourself from the start how you would exit each solution: exportable data, redirects, rebuilding the theme.

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The shop is the easy part; the post-order work is where you win. If you want an online shop with no technical worries, already integrated with the ERP, take a look at my offer of subscription websites and e-commerce: website from €39 a month, e-commerce from €79 a month with the AFianco management App included. And if you're unsure about your specific case, let's talk: I'll tell you honestly even if the right answer is Shopify or WooCommerce.

Frequently asked questions

Shopify or WooCommerce to start selling online?

If you want to launch quickly and have no one to handle the technical side, Shopify is the simplest route: you pay a subscription and focus only on your products. If you already have a WordPress site, in-house skills or a larger initial budget and want total control, WooCommerce makes more sense. If your real problem is what happens after the order (invoices, inventory, customers), consider an online shop connected to your ERP.

Can I switch from one platform to the other later?

Yes, migration is possible: products, customers and orders can be exported and re-imported. But it has a real cost: days of work for the data migration, rebuilding the theme, setting up redirects so you don't lose your SEO rankings, and a settling-in period. Better to choose carefully at the start than to migrate after two years.

How much does an online shop really cost per year?

It depends on the cost structure more than on the price list. With Shopify you pay a monthly subscription, transaction fees and add-on apps: for an SME the order of magnitude ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand francs a year. With WooCommerce the software is free, but you pay for hosting, domain, premium plugins and above all maintenance. In both cases the most underestimated item is the time spent managing it. I ran the full numbers in how much a website costs for an SME.

Can an online shop be connected to my ERP?

Yes, and it is often the point that makes the difference for an SME. Shopify and WooCommerce connect to ERPs through apps, plugins or custom integrations, but the connection has to be built and maintained. In my e-commerce subscription the connection is native: the shop is born already integrated with the AFianco management App, so orders, invoices, inventory and customers stay aligned with no manual work.

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