The WooCommerce vs Shopify argument usually gets settled on features, which is the least useful way to decide. Both will sell products. Both handle payments, shipping and tax. Comparing feature lists produces a tie.
The better question is which one you will resent in two years, because that is where the real difference shows up.
The actual difference: ownership versus outsourcing
Shopify is a service you rent. They handle hosting, security, updates, uptime and PCI compliance. You get a store that works and a monthly bill.
WooCommerce is software you install on hosting you control. Nobody handles anything unless you arrange it. You get complete control and complete responsibility.
Everything else in the WooCommerce vs Shopify comparison follows from that one distinction. It is not a technical choice so much as a decision about how much operational responsibility you want to hold.
Where Shopify genuinely wins
Nothing breaks on a Tuesday. No updates to apply, no plugin conflicts, no security patching. For a business with no technical person and no appetite for one, this is worth a great deal more than it costs.
It is faster to launch. A working store in days rather than weeks, because the infrastructure decisions are already made.
Support exists. Something is wrong, you contact Shopify. With WooCommerce, something is wrong and you contact your developer, your host, or a plugin author who may not reply.
Checkout is excellent. Shopify has optimised its checkout across an enormous volume of transactions. Matching that on WooCommerce takes deliberate effort.
Where WooCommerce genuinely wins
You own the store. The code, the database, the customer list, the order history. It can be moved to another host or handed to another developer without asking permission from anyone.
No per-sale platform fee. Shopify charges a monthly subscription and, unless you use their payment processing, an additional cut of every transaction. WooCommerce charges nothing beyond hosting and your payment provider.
Content and commerce in one place. If organic search is a real channel for you, WordPress handles content properly. Publishing substantial search-driven content alongside products is where WooCommerce pulls ahead.
Anything unusual is possible. Odd pricing rules, custom fields, unusual product configurations. On Shopify, things outside the intended path require apps, workarounds, or are simply not available.
The cost comparison people get wrong
WooCommerce looks free and is not. Shopify looks expensive and sometimes is not.
The Shopify cost is visible: a monthly plan, transaction fees if you use an external payment gateway, and apps, which add up faster than anyone expects. Predictable and easy to budget.
The WooCommerce cost is real but scattered: hosting, premium extensions for things Shopify includes, and maintenance, which is the line everyone forgets. Someone has to apply updates and check nothing broke. If that is not you, it is a monthly cost.
At low volume, Shopify is usually cheaper once maintenance is counted honestly. At higher volume, the per-transaction fees start to dominate and WooCommerce becomes cheaper. Where that crossover sits depends on your margins and order values, so work it out with your own numbers rather than trusting a blog post, including this one.
What you regret with each
The regrets are predictable and worth knowing in advance.
Shopify regret usually arrives as a wall. Something you need is not supported, so you add an app. Then another. Six apps later you are paying more than the plan, the store is slow, and the thing you actually wanted still is not quite right. Or the pricing changes and you have no leverage, because migrating away means rebuilding.
WooCommerce regret usually arrives as neglect. Nobody maintained it. Plugins fell out of date, one broke the checkout, and nobody noticed for a fortnight because there was no monitoring. That is not a flaw in WooCommerce so much as a consequence of choosing responsibility and then not exercising it.
A straight recommendation
Choose Shopify if nobody in the business wants technical responsibility, if you are launching quickly to test whether the products sell, if your catalogue and rules are conventional, or if predictable monthly costs matter more than total cost.
Choose WooCommerce if content and organic search are central to how you sell, if your products or pricing do not fit a standard mould, if per-transaction fees would be significant at your volume, or if owning the platform outright matters to you.
For most small stores selling straightforward products with no technical person available, Shopify is the honest answer, and any studio that only builds one platform should tell you that rather than talking around it.
Two things that matter more than the platform
Stores lose money in the same places regardless of what they are built on.
The product page that does not answer the question standing between interest and purchase. Usually sizing, materials, delivery time or returns. No platform fixes that for you.
The checkout that asks too much. Forced account registration, surprise shipping costs, too many steps. Shopify gives you a head start here, but a badly configured Shopify checkout still loses buyers.
If your store already gets visitors and few sales, the platform is almost certainly not the cause, and the reasons a site gets traffic without conversions apply directly.
If you are still deciding
Answer three questions. Who applies updates if something breaks? Is organic search content a real channel or an aspiration? And at your expected volume, do per-transaction fees actually matter?
Those three settle the WooCommerce vs Shopify question more reliably than any feature comparison. Stores built here run on WooCommerce for the ownership reasons above, but where a hosted platform is clearly the better fit for how a business wants to work, that gets said. It is also worth knowing what moves a build quote and what to ask before paying a deposit.