On this pageThe table
Five ways to open a store, and what each one takes from every sale
The blank prices are the ones I have not opened myself at a stated date. I would rather show nothing than a figure you find out is wrong when you pay.
| Option | Real cost, first year | Hours it takes you | Who does the work | What breaks at six months | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No store at all: a payment link or an invoice by email | No monthly fee. Your payment provider's own rate applies | Minutes per order, by hand | You | Nothing technical. It stops scaling once orders arrive faster than you can type | You. There is nothing to maintain, and that is the point |
| Shopify, built by you | $29 a month on annual billing, $39 month to month, recorded August 30, 2026. Card rates from 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction | Your evenings, plus learning the tool and entering every product | You | Nothing on the machine side. Your stock and prices go stale | The platform, on the platform. You, on the catalog |
| Shopify, built by Vicou Studio | EUR 1,190 once, plus the Shopify subscription in your name, $29 a month on annual billing, and the same 2.9% + $0.30 card rate as the row above | Gathering your names, prices and photos, writing a description for every product, then reviewing. The descriptions are the largest piece of the work and they are not included here, and no other route includes them either | Me, for up to 15 products with up to two variant options | Nothing on the machine side. The store stays on Shopify: the theme cannot be moved | The platform. Six months of questions by email from me, on the site rather than the catalog |
| WooCommerce, built by Vicou Studio | EUR 1,190 once, plus hosting and a payment processor account in your name | Gathering your names, prices and photos, writing a description for every product, then reviewing. After launch, the updates | Me, for the site and the store settings, and up to 15 products with up to two variant options | WordPress and its extensions update continuously, and running those updates after launch is outside the fixed price | Six months of questions by email from me. Repairs after launch are quoted case by case, or you handle them yourself |
| WooCommerce, built by a specialist | Price not public | Not recorded | A provider whose main trade is online selling | The same WordPress updates as the row above | Whoever you contract with, on the terms you agree |
No store at all: a payment link or an invoice by email
- Real cost, first year
- No monthly fee. Your payment provider's own rate applies
- Hours it takes you
- Minutes per order, by hand
- Who does the work
- You
- What breaks at six months
- Nothing technical. It stops scaling once orders arrive faster than you can type
- Who fixes it
- You. There is nothing to maintain, and that is the point
Shopify, built by you
- Real cost, first year
- $29 a month on annual billing, $39 month to month, recorded August 30, 2026. Card rates from 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction
- Hours it takes you
- Your evenings, plus learning the tool and entering every product
- Who does the work
- You
- What breaks at six months
- Nothing on the machine side. Your stock and prices go stale
- Who fixes it
- The platform, on the platform. You, on the catalog
Shopify, built by Vicou Studio
- Real cost, first year
- EUR 1,190 once, plus the Shopify subscription in your name, $29 a month on annual billing, and the same 2.9% + $0.30 card rate as the row above
- Hours it takes you
- Gathering your names, prices and photos, writing a description for every product, then reviewing. The descriptions are the largest piece of the work and they are not included here, and no other route includes them either
- Who does the work
- Me, for up to 15 products with up to two variant options
- What breaks at six months
- Nothing on the machine side. The store stays on Shopify: the theme cannot be moved
- Who fixes it
- The platform. Six months of questions by email from me, on the site rather than the catalog
WooCommerce, built by Vicou Studio
- Real cost, first year
- EUR 1,190 once, plus hosting and a payment processor account in your name
- Hours it takes you
- Gathering your names, prices and photos, writing a description for every product, then reviewing. After launch, the updates
- Who does the work
- Me, for the site and the store settings, and up to 15 products with up to two variant options
- What breaks at six months
- WordPress and its extensions update continuously, and running those updates after launch is outside the fixed price
- Who fixes it
- Six months of questions by email from me. Repairs after launch are quoted case by case, or you handle them yourself
WooCommerce, built by a specialist
- Real cost, first year
- Price not public
- Hours it takes you
- Not recorded
- Who does the work
- A provider whose main trade is online selling
- What breaks at six months
- The same WordPress updates as the row above
- Who fixes it
- Whoever you contract with, on the terms you agree
Depending on your situation
You sell a handful of items, occasionally
No store. A payment link or an invoice costs nothing per month and works perfectly until orders outgrow it.
You have fifteen items or fewer and no appetite for the technical side
Shopify, built by me. Payment and shipping are built into the platform, so there is nothing to install, but switching them on stays with you: it takes your bank details and your identity documents, which I never hold.
Your catalog is wider than fifteen items
That is outside the fixed price, and it is quoted case by case. Tell me what you sell before you go looking elsewhere.
You want the store to be an asset you own
WooCommerce. I configure payment, shipping and sales tax with your details at the same fixed price as Shopify. What stays with you is running the updates once the site is live.
Online selling is the whole business, not a part of it
That is a bigger job than a fixed price can hold. Tell me what you sell and we look at it together, rather than you guessing from a page.
Nobody at your company will ever run a software update
Shopify. The platform does that part permanently, and it is a real service you would be giving up.
The criteria that decide it
What gets taken from every sale
This is the line that decides your cost, and it is the one people look at last. On Shopify's entry plan, card rates start at 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction, recorded August 30, 2026. A US processor on WooCommerce publishes much the same rate, so the card fee itself is close to a wash. What Shopify adds, and WooCommerce has no equivalent of, is a surcharge for not using Shopify Payments, from 2% on the entry plan down to 0.6% on the top one. At $2,000 a month in sales that surcharge is $40, already more than the subscription, and at $20,000 it is $400 a month. What the fees add up to at a given monthly volume is worked through on the blog, in what it costs to start a Shopify store, and it is not repeated here.
Who calculates the sales tax
On Shopify the platform has a tool for it. On WooCommerce you add a service that does the same job, and you choose it. What neither the platform nor I can tell you is what you actually owe: nexus, thresholds and state rates are a question for a US accountant, and they are the reason this row says who calculates rather than who owes.
Who writes the product pages
None of the five routes includes it, my fixed-price package among them. I enter up to fifteen products, with up to two variant options such as size and color, from the names, prices and photos you give me. Writing the product descriptions is the largest piece of work in a store launch, and it sits outside the fixed price: it is quoted case by case.
What happens if you leave
The asymmetry is worth knowing before you choose rather than after. On WordPress you leave with the site, the files and the database. On Shopify the account transfers to you and the store stays on Shopify, because a Shopify theme cannot be moved: leaving means a second build. That second bill belongs in any honest comparison, and it is rarely in one.
Who does the updates
On Shopify, the platform, permanently. On WooCommerce, running them is outside my fixed price and quoted case by case, or you run them yourself, whoever built the site. I answer questions by email for six months. That is answering questions, not maintaining the site, and it is a distinction worth being clear about before you sign.
The quiz
Five questions, and you will know whether it is Shopify or WooCommerce, and who should build it.
How many items will you sell, counting sizes and colors as separate lines?
How do you feel about a percentage being taken from every sale?
Who builds the store?
Payment, shipping and sales tax: who sets those up?
What happens if something breaks in six months?
Your result
No store at all, for now
At that volume a payment link or an invoice by email does the job, costs nothing per month, and loses you almost nothing. A store earns its keep once handling orders by hand becomes the expensive option. With a handful of items, doing it by hand is the cheaper one.
This result does not lead to me. It is the cheapest answer on this page, and it is the first row of the table for the same reason.
Shopify, built by you
Your catalog is larger than my fixed-price package covers, and you want the technical side handled for you. That is exactly what Shopify does: you build the store, the platform runs the rest, and you pay for as long as it exists.
This result is outside my fixed-price package, which stops at fifteen items with two variant options. A wider catalog is not something I refuse, it is something I quote case by case.
Shopify, built by me
A catalog that fits my fixed-price package, and no appetite for building the store yourself. I build it, the platform provides payment and shipping, and you switch them on with your own bank and identity details, then run the products and the orders.
The Shopify subscription runs on top, in your name, on your account. It never passes through me.
WooCommerce, built by you
You want to own the store rather than rent it, and maintaining it does not worry you. It is the cheapest route over the long run and the most demanding: updates, backups and outages are yours.
This result does not lead to me either. If you have the time and the inclination, you need nobody.
WooCommerce, built by me
You want the store to belong to you, without building it yourself. I deliver the WordPress site and configure WooCommerce with your own details: payment, shipping, and sales tax at the rates you give me, plus up to fifteen products entered, for the same price as Shopify.
What stays with you: the hosting, in your name, and the updates to WordPress and its extensions once the site is live. That is the thing to weigh before you decide, not after.
WooCommerce, built by a specialist
Online selling is the whole business rather than a part of it: a catalog that changes weekly, stock to keep straight, and a store that has to hold all of it. That is a bigger job than a fixed price can hold, and it is worth a conversation before you assume either way.
No price is shown for this route because no US provider publishes one, and I am not going to invent a range.
The concrete case: Vicou Studio
Who it is for
A US business with fifteen products or fewer, two variant options at most, that wants to sell without touching the machinery, on Shopify or on WooCommerce, at the same price and configured with its own details. Below that, no store at all is often the right answer. Above it, the fixed price stops and the job is quoted case by case.
What it costs
EUR 1,190, paid in two parts: EUR 357 on order and EUR 833 when the store goes live. The Shopify subscription, or the hosting and the payment processor on the WooCommerce route, are opened in your name on your own accounts and never pass through me.
The timeline
15 business days, counted on the French working calendar, about three calendar weeks, from the start date I confirm in writing once the deposit has cleared and your content is complete. The clock pauses by dated email every time I am waiting on you.
What the fixed price does not cover
Writing your product descriptions. Working out which sales tax you owe, which is a question for a US accountant. Anything past fifteen products or two variant options, which is quoted separately. Ongoing catalog work after launch, and on the WooCommerce route, running the updates.
When this is not the right answer
Fifteen products, two variant options
Fifteen items, counting sizes and colors as separate lines, is what a fixed price can carry without guessing. Past that the work stops being predictable, so the price stops being fixed and becomes a quote, with the figure written down before you commit to anything. Send me the list of what you sell and you will know which side of that line you are on within a day.
On WooCommerce, the updates are yours after launch
WordPress, the theme and every extension need updating, and running those updates is not included once the site is live. If nobody at your company will do it, Shopify spares you that.
You are billed in euros
What that costs in dollars depends on the rate the day you pay, and your card may add a foreign transaction fee. It is a real cost of working with me, and I would rather you counted it before you order than found it on your statement.
The store subscription and the hosting are never mine
They are opened in your name, on your accounts, with your card. That is deliberate: it is what lets you leave without asking me for anything.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify or WooCommerce cheaper?
Over the first year, Shopify usually costs less because there is nothing to set up and nothing to maintain. Over several years, WooCommerce costs less in fees and more in attention, and the crossover depends almost entirely on how much you sell.
The honest way to compare is not the subscription but the percentage: Shopify takes a card rate on every sale, plus a further fee if you use another processor. WooCommerce takes nothing, and your processor charges what it charges.
Can I move a Shopify store to WooCommerce later?
You can move the products and the customer data. You cannot move the design, because a Shopify theme does not travel. In practice that means a second build rather than a transfer, and it is worth pricing that in before you choose rather than discovering it in year three.
Do I need a store at all?
Often not, and this page asks it first rather than last. A store starts earning its keep when handling orders by hand costs you more than the platform does, and before that point a payment link or an invoice does the job for nothing a month.
What the table above adds to that question is the second half of it: a store also hands somebody a percentage of every sale for as long as it exists. Volume decides whether you need one, and the row you pick decides who takes a cut once you do.
Who handles sales tax?
Shopify has a tool that calculates it. On WooCommerce you add a service that does the same. What you actually owe, in which states, is a question for a US accountant: neither the platform nor I can answer it, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling past the edge of what they know.
Written by
Victor Rouvreau
I've been building websites for four years, for myself and for clients.
The About pageSources and date checked
- Shopify plan prices and card rates, recorded from a US connectionshopify.com/pricing, August 30, 2026
- The Vicou Studio prices, timescale and scopeThe packages page, which is the contract
- What changes when you own the site rather than rent itThe blog, Squarespace vs WordPress for a small business
- What the Shopify route costs line by lineThe blog, what it costs to start a Shopify store
Page updated on October 2, 2026. It is reviewed at least once a quarter. If something here looks wrong or out of date, write to contact@vicou.studio: the page is corrected, or the claim comes out.