Shopify or WooCommerce for dropshipping?
Short answer
Shopify Basic at $39 a month for about 90% of people, because every supplier app integrates natively and the mobile checkout converts without configuration. WooCommerce is genuinely cheaper — $30-$80 a month all-in — but costs 10-20 hours of setup and 3-5 hours a month of maintenance. If your time is worth more than $10 an hour, Shopify is the cheaper option.
| Factor | Shopify Basic | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Platform cost | $39/mo | $0 for the plugin |
| Hosting | Included | $25-$50/mo managed |
| Card fee | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ via Stripe |
| Extra gateway fee | 2% if not using Shopify Payments | None |
| Setup time | Under a day | 10-20 hours |
| Maintenance | None | 3-5 hours a month |
| Supplier apps | DSers, CJ, Zendrop, AutoDS — all native | Supported, second-class |
| Content SEO control | Forced URL structure, weak blog | Full control — the real advantage |
Shopify Basic versus a working WooCommerce store, monthly, checked August 2026.
The decision in one line
If your traffic plan is paid ads, use Shopify. If it is content and organic search, WooCommerce earns its maintenance cost.
Why Shopify wins for most dropshippers
Everything else in your stack was built for it first. DSers, CJdropshipping, Zendrop, AutoDS, Judge.me and Klaviyo all ship a Shopify app before they consider a WooCommerce plugin. When something breaks at 2am, the fix exists and somebody has written it down.
The checkout is the second reason. Shop Pay’s one-tap flow lifts conversion on returning traffic in a way you cannot replicate on a self-hosted store. On a store converting at 2%, a 0.3 point lift is a 15% revenue increase for no work.
The cost to plan for is not $39 — it is $39 plus $45-$90 of apps once you add reviews, upsells and email. The tool stack page covers which of those are worth installing and when.
Where WooCommerce genuinely wins
No platform fee and no gateway penalty. At $50,000/mo, avoiding Shopify’s 2% third-party gateway fee is $1,000 a month — but only if you were going to be hit by it. With Shopify Payments available, this advantage mostly disappears.
Content SEO. Full URL control, a real blog, proper schema control. For a store whose plan is to rank on informational content, this is a structural advantage rather than a preference.
Ownership. You can move hosts, edit anything, and export everything without asking permission.
The case that changes the answer completely
If Shopify Payments is unavailable in your country, Shopify charges an extra 2% on Basic on top of whatever gateway you use. On $10,000/mo that is $200. In that situation WooCommerce with Stripe is the cheaper platform by a wide margin, and it is the one scenario where we would tell a non-technical beginner to learn WordPress.
Check availability for your country before committing — details in Shopify transaction fees explained. If neither suits, Wix Core is $29/mo with a different set of trade-offs.
The honest cost comparison
At 100 orders and $5,000 revenue a month:
- Shopify Basic: $39 plan + $175 payment fees = $214/mo, zero maintenance
- WooCommerce: $30 hosting + $175 payment fees = $205/mo, plus extensions and 3-5 hours of your time
A $9 monthly difference, and hours of maintenance. That is the whole trade. The full platform comparison runs the same maths across BigCommerce, Wix and Shopline, where the differences are larger and the caps matter.
Related questions
Is WooCommerce really free?
Which is better for SEO?
This is one question out of a much longer guide. The full breakdown lives onthe platform comparison, and you can run your own numbers in thebreak-even calculator.