Shopify vs WooCommerce — what to choose for an EU store in 2026?

How much do Shopify and WooCommerce really cost per year (store 50–500 orders/mo)?

The gap widens over time because WordPress upkeep is a lumpy cost — every PHP upgrade, every plugin, every conflicting plugin is hours of work. Shopify maintains itself.

Where does Shopify win in the EU in 2026?

Integrations with EU market

Carriers (InPost, DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS) all have official Shopify apps. Payment gateways — Stripe, Adyen, Klarna, Mollie, PayU — native. Accounting (Xero, QuickBooks, DATEV, iFirma) — through middleware or apps.

Performance

Core Web Vitals on Shopify (Dawn 2.0+) are green out of the box. On Woo you manually config cache, LiteSpeed, image optimization, plugin pruning — and LCP > 3s is still the norm.

Security

Shopify: PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2, auto updates. WordPress + Woo: constant vigilance — 43% of WP sites in 2025 had an active vulnerability (Sucuri).

Apps

Shopify App Store has 8,000+ apps in 2026 — great subscriptions, upsell, AI personalization. Woo plugins are lottery quality.

When does WooCommerce still make sense?

Content-first store with huge blog

500+ blog articles, categories, authors, tags? WordPress is still the better CMS for large editorial blogs.

Specific custom requirements

Need full control of checkout, promotion logic, URL structure to the millimeter? Woo gives you the whole PHP stack. Shopify enforces abstractions (Liquid, Functions).

No monthly platform fee

If you already run WordPress for a blog/landing, adding Woo only costs setup time. For stores under €12k/yr revenue, that's sensible.

When should you migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify?

Signals it's time: site down 2+ times/month, CWV red for 3 months, upkeep > €350/mo, 200+ orders/mo with sync issues, going cross-border (multi-currency / language), lacking native marketing automation (Klaviyo, Omnisend).

Our migration checklist

1. Audit current store (2 days)
2. Shopify setup + custom theme (3 weeks)
3. Data migration — products (Matrixify), customers (password reset), historical orders (1 week)
4. Integrations — 3PL, payments, Klaviyo, GA4, Meta Pixel (1 week)
5. SEO migration — 1:1 301 redirects, Schema, sitemap, GSC reindex
6. Testing + launch — QA, staging, off-peak DNS switch (2 days)
7. First 2 weeks monitoring — rankings, conversion, errors

Common myths

"Shopify is expensive." — Over 3 years Shopify comes out cheaper than running a proper Woo store. Do the TCO math.

"Shopify has worse SEO." — False in 2026. Shopify added meta editing, custom URLs, Schema via themes, and good SEO apps.

"You can't change anything on Shopify." — True: checkout is locked on Basic/Shopify. But Liquid gives full control over everything else. Shopify Plus unlocks checkout.liquid.

"WooCommerce is free." — Platform yes, everything around it no. Real upkeep for a good Woo store: €350–700/mo.

Conclusions

In 2026 for 80% of EU stores I'd recommend Shopify. For the other 20% — content-first, highly custom, or tight starting budget — WooCommerce still has a place. Platform choice is a 3–5 year decision, not a seasonal one. Count TCO, not just implementation cost.

Frequently asked questions

Is Shopify or WooCommerce cheaper to run?

Over several years, Shopify. For a store with 50–500 orders a month, year one costs around €5,200 on Shopify Basic versus around €6,600 on WooCommerce, and by year three around €9,000 versus €13,500. The gap widens because WordPress upkeep is lumpy — every PHP upgrade and plugin conflict means hours of work.

How long does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration take and cost?

Typically 6–10 weeks and €3,500–9,500. It covers a store audit, Shopify setup with a custom theme, migrating products, customers and order history, integrations (3PL, payments, Klaviyo, GA4), 1:1 301 redirects and two weeks of post-launch monitoring. It usually pays back within the first year.

Does Shopify have worse SEO than WooCommerce?

No — that's a myth. In 2026 Shopify supports meta editing, custom URLs and Schema.org via themes, and has good SEO apps, while Core Web Vitals are green out of the box on Dawn 2.0+. WooCommerce only wins where you need millimetre-level control of URL structure or a large editorial blog.

When is WooCommerce the better choice?

When you run a content-first store with a huge blog, when you need full control of checkout and promotion logic, or when you already host WordPress and the store turns over less than €12k a year. For around 80% of EU stores, the recommendation remains Shopify.

What are the signs it's time to migrate to Shopify?

Your site goes down 2+ times a month or Core Web Vitals have been red for 3 months, upkeep exceeds €350/mo, you handle 200+ orders a month with stock-sync issues, you're going cross-border with multiple currencies or languages, or you lack native marketing automation such as Klaviyo or Omnisend.