Shopify and WooCommerce are the two names that dominate almost every UK shortlist for building an online store, and they sit at opposite ends of the same question. Shopify is the hosted all-in-one platform that builds, hosts and secures your shop for you in exchange for a monthly fee. WooCommerce is the free open-source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a shop, giving you full control in exchange for hosting and maintaining it yourself. The right pick comes down to how much you value a setup that just works against the flexibility and ownership of running your own stack.
Pricing and plans compared
The two platforms price in completely different ways, so the headline figures are not directly comparable. Shopify charges a single monthly subscription in pounds that bundles hosting, security, support and its store builder into one predictable bill, with higher tiers unlocking lower processing rates and more advanced features. WooCommerce, by contrast, is free to download: the plugin itself costs nothing. What you actually spend on WooCommerce is the running cost you assemble yourself, namely hosting, an SSL certificate, a theme and any premium extensions you add for shipping, bookings or subscriptions.
That makes the comparison a question of a fixed monthly fee against a build-your-own running cost. A lean WooCommerce store on budget hosting can undercut Shopify; a feature-heavy one loaded with paid extensions and managed hosting can cost more. The comparison table on this page shows Shopify's current plan pricing in pounds alongside WooCommerce's open-source position, so you can judge the real difference against the hosting and extensions you would actually choose. There is one more pricing wrinkle on Shopify: it includes its own payment processing and adds a fee when you use a third-party gateway instead, whereas WooCommerce adds no platform transaction fee and simply passes you through to whichever gateway you connect.
Who each one is for
Shopify suits owners who want to sell, not to manage infrastructure. If you would rather pay a predictable monthly fee and have hosting, security, updates and support handled for you, and you value a large app store to bolt on extra features, Shopify gets you live quickly and keeps you there with minimal upkeep. It is the comfortable choice for a first store or a growing brand that wants to focus on products and marketing.
WooCommerce is built for owners who want control and already live in, or are happy to adopt, the WordPress world. If you want to own your stack, avoid platform lock-in, shape every detail of the store and lean on WordPress for content and SEO, WooCommerce gives you that freedom. It rewards the technically confident, or anyone willing to work with a developer, with a store that can be customised almost without limit.
Ease of use and hosting
This is the clearest divide. Shopify is fully hosted, so there is nothing to install or maintain: you sign up, pick a theme, add products and you are trading, with Shopify handling servers, security patches and uptime behind the scenes. WooCommerce puts you in charge: you choose a host, install WordPress and the plugin, select and configure a theme, and take responsibility for backups, updates and security yourself. That control is the point for some and the burden for others. For a non-technical owner who wants the shortest path to launch, Shopify wins on ease; for someone who wants to own and shape everything, WooCommerce earns its extra effort.
AI and integrations
AI is where the two are pulling apart fastest. Shopify has built AI directly into the platform with Sidekick, an assistant that helps you set up the store, write product copy and answer questions about your shop, and it has opened up a Storefront MCP so AI agents and assistants can interact with your store in the emerging agentic-commerce world. That native, maintained AI layer comes as part of the platform. WooCommerce reaches AI the WordPress way, through plugins: the ecosystem has a wide range of AI extensions for product descriptions, chat and content, but you choose, install and maintain them yourself, and quality varies by plugin. On integrations more broadly, Shopify's curated app store offers a vetted, one-click route to thousands of add-ons, while WooCommerce taps the enormous WordPress plugin library for near-limitless extensibility that you assemble and manage. The trade-off mirrors the platforms themselves: Shopify gives you a polished, supported AI and app layer out of the box; WooCommerce gives you more raw choice that you have to curate.
UK considerations
For a UK store the billing picture is straightforward on Shopify and assembled on WooCommerce. Shopify bills UK merchants natively in pounds, so your subscription is a fixed pound amount each month. WooCommerce has no platform bill at all, but your real costs (UK hosting, domain, SSL and extensions) are what you pay, and most UK hosts price in pounds. Both can be made fully compliant with UK GDPR and PECR: Shopify provides the consent and privacy tooling as part of the platform, while on WooCommerce you add consent and cookie plugins yourself. Data residency is easier to control on WooCommerce because you choose the host and can pick a UK or EU data centre; on Shopify you rely on the platform's own infrastructure. Both connect to UK payment methods and the gateways British shoppers expect.
Pros and cons for this matchup
Shopify wins on speed to launch, a fully managed and secured platform, native pound billing, a deep curated app store and built-in AI through Sidekick. Its trade-offs are the recurring monthly fee, the extra charge on third-party payment gateways and less freedom to change the underlying platform.
WooCommerce wins on cost of software (free), total flexibility, no platform lock-in, full data control and the depth of WordPress for content and SEO. Its trade-offs are that you host, secure and maintain it yourself, the running cost is variable and assembling premium extensions takes more effort and technical confidence.
The verdict
For most UK owners who want to start selling without becoming a part-time system administrator, Shopify is the more practical pick: it bundles hosting, security, payments and support into one predictable pound bill, gets you live fast and now layers AI on top through Sidekick. WooCommerce earns its place when control matters more than convenience: if you want to own your stack, avoid lock-in, lean on WordPress for content and are comfortable hosting and maintaining the store, it is hard to beat on flexibility and software cost. It comes down to one question: do you want a store handed to you ready to run, or a store you build and own from the ground up? Answer that and the choice is clear.