Two different approaches to building websites. Here's how they compare in 2026.
WordPress and Shopify solve different problems. WordPress is a self-hosted content management system that can do anything. Shopify is a hosted eCommerce platform built specifically for online stores. The right choice depends on what you're building.
WordPress: The software is free. You pay for hosting ($5-50/mo), a domain ($10-15/yr), and optionally premium themes or plugins. Total cost can be as low as $60/year for a basic site or $500+/year for a full eCommerce setup with WooCommerce extensions.
Shopify: Starts at $39/mo (Basic plan). All hosting, SSL, and core eCommerce features included. Transaction fees apply unless you use Shopify Payments. Annual cost starts around $468 before apps and themes.
WordPress: Steeper learning curve. You manage hosting, updates, backups, and security yourself. The block editor has improved significantly, but building a full site still requires more technical knowledge than Shopify.
Shopify: Designed for non-technical users. Sign up, pick a theme, add products, start selling. Everything is managed for you. The trade-off is less flexibility — you work within Shopify's framework.
WordPress: Unmatched. 60,000+ plugins, unlimited theme customization, full code access. You can build anything from a blog to a marketplace to a SaaS application. You own your data and can host anywhere.
Shopify: Excellent within eCommerce. Limited outside of it. You can't easily build a complex blog, membership site, or web application on Shopify. Custom functionality requires Shopify apps ($5-100/mo each) or custom Liquid theme code.
WordPress: Superior SEO control. Full URL structure customization, meta tag control via plugins like Yoast or Rank Math, complete schema markup flexibility, fast hosting options, and direct server-level optimization. WordPress sites dominate organic search results.
Shopify: Decent SEO out of the box but with limitations. URL structure includes mandatory prefixes (/products/, /collections/). Redirect management is clunky. Blog functionality is basic. For pure SEO competition, WordPress has a clear advantage.
WordPress + WooCommerce: More setup work but unlimited flexibility. No transaction fees (beyond your payment processor). Thousands of extensions for any eCommerce need. Better for complex product types, subscriptions, or multi-vendor marketplaces.
Shopify: Purpose-built for selling. Better checkout experience out of the box, built-in abandoned cart recovery, native POS system, and Shopify Payments integration. Better for straightforward product-based stores that need to launch fast.
Yes. A common setup is WordPress for the main site and content marketing, with Shopify handling the store on a subdomain (shop.example.com). This gives you WordPress SEO power for content and Shopify's checkout experience for sales. The downside is managing two platforms.
For initial setup, yes. WordPress requires choosing hosting, installing the software, selecting and configuring a theme, and installing plugins. Shopify handles all of this automatically. However, once set up, day-to-day WordPress management is straightforward.
For product pages, Shopify can rank competitively. For content-heavy strategies (blog posts, guides, resource pages), WordPress has a structural advantage due to better URL control, superior plugin ecosystem for SEO, and more flexible content types.
Use our WordPress theme detector. If the site runs WordPress, it will identify the theme and plugins. Shopify sites are identifiable by their cdn.shopify.com asset paths and myshopify.com references in the source code.
Yes, but it requires effort. Products, customers, and orders can be exported and imported into WooCommerce. URL structures will change, requiring 301 redirects. Plan for 1-2 weeks of migration work for a typical store.