Shopify vs WooCommerce: Total Cost Over 3 Years, Payments and B2B

Over three years, a store selling $20,000 a month through a third-party gateway pays about $12,500 on Shopify Grow (plan, apps and Shopify's 1% fee), against about $3,300 in hosting and extensions on WooCommerce plus roughly 144 hours of maintenance. Choose Shopify if you want someone else to run the platform. Choose WooCommerce if you want control, lower platform fees and can own the upkeep.

If neither fits and you would rather have a store built for you, see how RAITHub would build this below.

What is the real difference between Shopify and WooCommerce?

Shopify is a hosted platform: you rent the store, and Shopify runs hosting, security, checkout and updates. WooCommerce is "the free, open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress": the software is free, but you choose and pay for hosting, and you are responsible for updates, security and how the extensions work together.

That one difference drives everything else in this comparison. Shopify costs more in fees and less in time. WooCommerce costs less in fees and more in time and risk. Which is cheaper depends on your sales volume, where you sell, and whether you have someone technical on hand.

Shopify, WooCommerce or a custom build: which should I choose?

Option	What you pay	Choose this when	Watch out for
Shopify (hosted, off the shelf)	From $19 a month billed yearly to $2,300 a month and up on Plus (Shopify pricing), plus apps	You want a store running this week, no server to manage, and you sell where Shopify Payments works	Shopify's extra fee on every sale through a third-party gateway; app subscriptions add up
WooCommerce (open source on WordPress)	Free plugin; hosting at $25–$350 a month and extensions at $29–$299 a year each, by WooCommerce's own figures (WooCommerce pricing)	You already run WordPress, want to own the code and data, need a local gateway plugin, or want no platform revenue fee	Updates, plugin conflicts, security patching and hosting performance are yours
Custom build	A capital project plus hosting and continuing development	Many sellers, verification before sale, trade pricing and credit, or payment and stock rules neither platform enforces	Needs an engineering owner; overkill for a standard single-brand store

Prices checked on 2 October 2026, in USD; confirm on the vendor pages before deciding.

How much does Shopify cost compared with WooCommerce over three years?

The model below is illustrative. It assumes a store selling $20,000 a month ($720,000 over three years) through a third-party payment gateway, which is the situation in Bangladesh and much of South Asia (see the payments section). Payment-gateway charges are left out because both platforms pay them.

Cost line (36 months)	Shopify Grow	WooCommerce	Assumption and source
Platform plan	$1,764	$0	Grow at $49 a month billed yearly (Shopify); WooCommerce core is free
Hosting	Included	$1,800	$50 a month, near the low end of WooCommerce's $25–$350 range
Apps or extensions	$3,600	$1,485	Shopify: $100 a month of apps; WooCommerce: 5 paid extensions at $99 a year
Platform fee on sales	$7,200	$0	Shopify's 1% third-party provider fee on Grow; WooCommerce states 0% revenue share
Maintenance time	Low	About 144 hours	Our estimate: about 4 hours a month of updates, backups and testing
Cash total	About $12,560	About $3,290 plus time	Excludes theme, design and payment-gateway fees

Two things change the answer. First, if you sell in a country where Shopify Payments is available, the 1% fee disappears and Shopify's card rates apply instead: Shopify's January 2026 guide puts US online rates at 2.5% to 2.9% plus 30 cents, comparable to the "~2.50–2.90% + 30¢" WooCommerce quotes for WooPayments. Second, maintenance hours are real money. At even a modest hourly cost, 144 hours can close much of the gap, and a single bad plugin update during a sale costs more than a year of Shopify fees.

Moving up a Shopify plan pays off only at volume. Advanced costs $250 a month more than Grow on yearly billing and cuts the third-party fee from 1% to 0.6%, so it breaks even at about $62,500 a month in sales through a third-party gateway.

Which is faster, Shopify or WooCommerce?

Out of the box, Shopify is more predictable: hosting, CDN and checkout are managed for you, so a store's speed mostly depends on its theme and apps. WooCommerce's speed depends on what you buy and configure: hosting tier, page and object caching, image handling and how many plugins load on each page. A well-run WooCommerce store on good hosting can be quick; a cheap shared host with 40 plugins will not be.

On both, the usual culprits are the same: heavy themes, too many third-party scripts, and unoptimised images. Why a Shopify store is slow covers the checks, and most apply to WooCommerce too.

Shopify apps vs WooCommerce plugins: what is the trade-off?

• Billing model. Shopify apps are usually monthly subscriptions. WooCommerce extensions on the official marketplace are usually yearly licences per site, at $29–$299 each by WooCommerce's figures.
• Where the code runs. Shopify apps run on the vendor's servers and talk to your store through APIs, so a bad app rarely takes the store down. WooCommerce plugins run inside your WordPress site, so a conflict or a vulnerable plugin can break checkout or expose the site.
• Customisation. WooCommerce lets a developer change almost anything, because you own the code. Shopify limits what you can change, which is also what keeps it stable.
• Lock-in. WooCommerce data sits in your own database. Shopify data can be exported, but the store itself cannot be moved; you rebuild it elsewhere.

Which is better for B2B and wholesale?

Shopify has B2B features built in: company accounts, catalogs with their own prices, and payment terms, with up to 3 B2B catalogs on Basic, Grow and Advanced and more on Plus, as listed on Shopify's pricing page. WooCommerce handles wholesale through extensions for role-based prices, minimum quantities and quote requests, which is flexible but means more plugins to keep compatible.

Both run out of road at the same point: credit limits that must block an order, many price tiers with per-buyer overrides, or batch stock with expiry dates. Tiered B2B pricing on Shopify without Plus covers how far Shopify goes, and Sundor Skin, a B2B wholesale platform RAITHub built for a client, shows what custom looks like: 4 price tiers with per-buyer overrides, credit enforced at order submission, and 530+ tests.

Can I take bKash, Nagad and SSLCommerz payments on Shopify or WooCommerce?

This is where South Asian stores should start, because it changes the cost model. Shopify Payments is not available in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka, and Shopify says stores in unlisted countries "need to use a third-party payment provider", which brings Shopify's extra fee of 2% on Basic to 0.2% on Plus. WooCommerce's own gateway, WooPayments, is offered in 38 countries, and Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are not among them.

So on either platform you are relying on a local gateway's integration. WooCommerce has more of them: a search of the WordPress plugin directory shows SSLCommerz gateway plugins for WooCommerce, and you can modify or replace a plugin because you host the code. On Shopify, you are limited to the providers that integrate with Shopify in your market, and you pay Shopify's fee on top. Check that any gateway plugin is maintained, verifies payments on the server rather than trusting the browser redirect, and handles refunds.

Cash on delivery matters as much as cards in Bangladesh. Both platforms offer it as a manual payment method, but neither manages COD advance payments, courier booking or failed-delivery rules on its own.

TheSkinProof, the founder's own skincare marketplace, built and run by RAITHub, shows the alternative: it was built custom, with bKash, Nagad, SSLCommerz and cash on delivery integrated directly, across 217 API endpoints and 750+ automated tests. That choice was driven by its verification workflow and multiple sellers, not by payments alone. The bKash and SSLCommerz integration guide covers the engineering, including callbacks and verification.

Payment rules vary by country and change; this is general information, so confirm gateway terms and any regulatory requirements with your provider and adviser.

Shopify or WooCommerce: which fits my store?

Your situation	Usually the better fit	Why
No technical person, want to launch fast	Shopify	Hosting, security and updates are handled
Selling where Shopify Payments works, standard catalogue	Shopify	No third-party fee; card rates comparable to WooPayments
Already running a content-heavy WordPress site	WooCommerce	One site, one admin, content and products together
Bangladesh or South Asia, local gateways and COD	WooCommerce, or custom at scale	Local gateway plugins exist; no platform fee on each sale
High volume through a third-party gateway	Run the numbers on both	Shopify's fee grows with sales; WooCommerce hosting grows with traffic
Wholesale with up to 3 price lists and simple terms	Shopify B2B	Built in below Plus
Many sellers, verification, credit rules or batch stock	Custom	Neither platform enforces these rules natively

When does neither Shopify nor WooCommerce fit?

When the rules are the business. A marketplace with many independent sellers, products that must be verified before sale, credit that must stop an order, or stock tracked by batch and expiry all end up as a stack of apps or plugins plus manual workarounds on either platform. That is when a custom platform pays off. Shopify vs custom ecommerce sets out that decision, Shopify's limitations lists the warning signs, and the marketplace and B2B store guide covers how a custom build is structured.

If you are setting up either platform yourself, a simple store takes a few days to a few weeks depending on catalogue size. The main risk on Shopify is app sprawl and fees; on WooCommerce it is unpatched plugins and a host that cannot handle a sale-day spike.

Why RAITHub for this?

RAITHub is a founder-led, QA-first software studio, founded in 2024 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by Rupak Amin, working with clients worldwide in English. It builds custom commerce platforms, and has shipped the South Asian payment rails this post discusses.

• Local payments in production. bKash, Nagad, SSLCommerz and cash on delivery on TheSkinProof, the founder's own venture.
• B2B rules on the server. Sundor Skin's tier pricing, credit and audit rules, with 530+ tests.
• A straight answer. If Shopify or WooCommerce is enough, the free audit says so in writing.

When you don't need us

• You need a Shopify theme, a WooCommerce plugin or a store set up. A specialist in that ecosystem will know its apps and plugins better; RAITHub builds custom platforms, not themes or plugins.
• Your store is standard. Pick a platform with the table above and spend the money on stock and marketing.
• You need a native mobile app. RAITHub builds web apps and PWAs only.
• You want developers placed in your team. RAITHub does fixed-scope builds and dedicated teams, not staff augmentation.

How RAITHub would build this

• Decision first: a written comparison of your store against Shopify, WooCommerce and custom, using your sales, markets and rules.
• If custom: catalogue, cart and checkout on a Next.js and PostgreSQL stack, with pricing and stock rules enforced on the server.
• Payments: the gateways your buyers use, such as bKash, Nagad and SSLCommerz, or Stripe outside South Asia, with server-side verification, refunds and cash on delivery.
• Migration: products, customers, orders and URL redirects from your current store, so search rankings survive.

Timeline: a fixed-scope custom store MVP usually fits 4–6 weeks; a platform with several gateways, B2B rules and integrations is closer to the 6–12 week backend and API range. A store that is live but broken can start with a 2–4 week code rescue.

You receive: automated tests and CI covering checkout and payments, handover docs and runbooks, and full IP in the code under NDA.

Next step: book the free 15-minute technical audit with what you sell, where, and how buyers pay, then get a written fixed quote. The ecommerce page shows what a build includes, and the MVP cost estimator gives a first range.

Frequently asked questions

Is Shopify or WooCommerce cheaper?

WooCommerce is usually cheaper in cash, because the plugin is free and there is no fee on sales, but you pay for hosting, extensions and maintenance time. Shopify costs more in plans, apps and, outside Shopify Payments countries, its third-party transaction fee, but needs far less upkeep.

Does Shopify charge transaction fees?

Only if you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, according to Shopify's pricing page. With Shopify Payments, you pay card rates instead.

Does WooCommerce charge a fee on sales?

No. WooCommerce states 0% revenue share. You pay your payment gateway's charges, plus hosting and any paid extensions.

Can I use bKash or SSLCommerz with Shopify?

Only through a provider that integrates with Shopify in your market, and Shopify adds its third-party fee on those sales because Shopify Payments is not available in Bangladesh. WooCommerce has SSLCommerz gateway plugins in the WordPress directory.

Which is better for SEO, Shopify or WooCommerce?

Both can rank well. WooCommerce on WordPress gives more control over URLs and content; Shopify is simpler and has fewer ways to break. Speed, content and structured product data matter more than the platform.

Can I move from WooCommerce to Shopify, or to a custom platform, later?

Yes. Products, customers and orders can be exported from both. Plan URL redirects to keep search rankings, move order history, and re-point every integration before switching.

When should I choose a custom store instead of either?

When your business depends on rules neither platform enforces natively: many sellers, verification before sale, credit limits that block orders, many price tiers, or batch and expiry stock.