Shopify is a web app designed for merchants to build their own online storefront fast.
WordPress is a general CMS, often used as a blog or portfolio site, but can also be e-commerce store, with WooCommerce.
In 2021, the 3 most popular e-commerce platforms (in the top 1 million websites) are:
1. WooCommerce (a WordPress Plugin)
2. Shopify
3. Magento
Shopify has templates that are used to customize your shop’s design, so people without any coding skills can still create a store without much hassle. They also let you edit the HTML (web site layout) and CSS (style).
Both options allow you to use premade themes, or create one from scratch.
Let’s introduce the limitations of these platforms, there are things that you can do on WordPress that you can’t do on Shopify.
On Shopify, they don’t allow user code to be run on their servers, so there are limited options to implement additional functionality.
Liquid is Shopify’s templating language allows you to write simple markup to style text or products lists.
On WordPress, you have the option to write code in PHP, a web focused programming language.
This means that if in the future your requirements increase, you will be safer in WordPress, because you always have the option to expand functionality, rather than having to redo your website completely if you ever need to have back end services.
Most features and functionalities that Shopify offers are making it look nice on the front end. If you’re not a developer, Shopify’s a great option for a lot of people to work on because you don’t need to know any programming languages, just liquid and maybe some HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
You can just make websites without any code, grab a theme and set up a store and start selling, or go and buy a theme for a client in and set it up with all of their design requirements. This makes the process of setting up your shop fast.
If you’re targeting clients in the B2B space, where technical programming and more complex websites are common, you’re better off on WordPress. If you’re targeting clients in the e-commerce space you’re better off working in Shopify and if you’re targeting startups or just general small businesses you’re better off with either WordPress or Webflow.
Go with Shopify if:
– You want to launch a nice looking online store fast.
– You are not a backend developer, or you don’t need any additional functionality
– You have target consumers with a simple business model, such as a merch store.
Go with WordPress if:
– You want a unique website
– You need more complex functionality for your e-commerce site beyond what JavaScript can do
– You target other businesses or consumers with advanced requirements beyond what Shopify can offer
Both options are smart choices, this is just general advice and our opinions.