Shopify or WooCommerce: the difference is who takes a cut
Two ways to sell online that are not alike. One rents you a store and takes a percentage of everything you sell. The other is yours, and asks somebody to keep it running.
This page is published by Vicou Studio, a website design studio. Vicou Studio presents its own offer here, alongside other solutions. This is a commercial communication.
The short answer
Fewer than fifteen products and nobody to look after the technical side: Shopify, whose subscription runs whether you sell or not, and whose payment fee grows with your revenue. A wider catalog, or somebody who already runs a WordPress site: WooCommerce, where you choose your own payment processor and carry the hosting and the updates. I build a Shopify store for EUR 1,190.
How this comparison was made
What is compared
An online store for a small US business selling physical products, shipping them itself, with no IT department. Two families: a platform hosted by its own publisher (Shopify), and an extension added to a WordPress site you host yourself (WooCommerce).
The criteria used
What each one takes from every sale, what it costs to open, what it takes from you, who does the work, what goes wrong after six months, and who fixes it then.
When the prices were checked
Shopify plan prices and card rates recorded on August 30, 2026 from a US connection on shopify.com/pricing. Hosting and third-party provider rates are not recorded here, so they are left blank. A missing price is better than one you would find out was wrong at checkout. The Vicou Studio amounts are the contract's.
What is left out
Subscription selling, marketplaces, and custom development. Very large catalogs are not compared here. Nobody paid to appear on this page, and no provider is named or ranked except me, in my own row.
Which one is you?
Five questions, and you will know whether it is Shopify or WooCommerce, and who should build it.
Every possible answer
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, and you are not there yet.
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 what I deliver, 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 variants. A wider catalog is not something I refuse, it is something I quote case by case.
Shopify, built by me
A catalog that fits what I deliver, 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.
See the three packages in detailWooCommerce, 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, the site built by me
You want the store to belong to you, without building the site yourself. I deliver the WordPress site and I install the selling extension. I do not configure it: payment, shipping and sales tax stay on your side.
That split is the thing to weigh before you decide, not after. If configuring a store puts you off, look at the Shopify result instead.
See the three packages in detailWooCommerce, 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.
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.
The table slides to the right.
| The solution | 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 stay with you here exactly as on the other routes | Me, for up to 15 products with two variants each | 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, the site built by Vicou Studio | EUR 1,190 once, plus hosting in your name | Your content, then configuring payment, shipping and sales tax yourself | Me for the site, you for the store settings | WordPress and its extensions update continuously, and nobody does it for you | You, or somebody you pay by the hour. None of those hours are included |
| WooCommerce, built by a specialist | — | 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 |
Choose the one that matches your situation
The six criteria that decide
- What gets taken from every saleThis 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 taxOn 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 pagesNobody does it for you on any of the five routes, mine included. I enter up to fifteen products with two variants each from the names, prices and photos you give me. Writing the product descriptions stays with you, and it is the largest piece of work in a store launch.
- What happens if you leaveThe 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 updatesOn Shopify, the platform, permanently. On WooCommerce, you or somebody you pay, and that is true whether the site was built by you or by me. 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 concrete case: Vicou Studio
Who it is for
A US business with fifteen products or fewer, two variants at most, that wants to sell without touching the machinery. 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 on the WooCommerce route, is opened in your name on your own account and never passes 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 is not included
Writing your product descriptions. Configuring payment, shipping and sales tax on the WooCommerce route. Anything past fifteen products or two variants, which is quoted separately. Ongoing catalog work after launch.
When I am not the right answer
The questions people ask me
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.
Victor Rouvreau
Founder of Vicou Studio. I build brochure sites for small businesses and freelancers, delivered with the video that shows how to change them yourself.
Who I am, in three minutesSources and date checked
- Shopify plan prices and card rates, recorded from a US connection — shopify.com/pricing, August 30, 2026
- The Vicou Studio prices, timescale and scope — The packages page, which is the contract
- What changes when you own the site rather than rent it — The blog, Squarespace vs WordPress for a small business
- What the Shopify route costs line by line — The blog, what it costs to start a Shopify store
Prices checked on August 30, 2026.
Page updated on August 31, 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.
The other guides
Same method, different question. See the whole section