The direct answer
Shopify for most NZ ecommerce businesses. WooCommerce for businesses already deeply embedded in the WordPress ecosystem that have strong technical resources. The most common mistake is choosing WooCommerce because it appears cheaper and discovering the actual cost of running it over time.
What WooCommerce actually costs
WooCommerce is technically free software. What that means is the plugin itself has no licence fee. The actual cost of running a WooCommerce store includes hosting, the additional plugins required for most stores and the ongoing developer time needed to manage updates, resolve compatibility conflicts and handle anything technical that goes wrong.
The total cost of ownership over three to five years for a WooCommerce store is often higher than Shopify, not lower, particularly for businesses without an in-house developer. Shopify's monthly subscription includes hosting, security, updates and much of the infrastructure that WooCommerce requires separate spend on.
Where WooCommerce has an advantage
Full ownership. A WooCommerce store lives on hosting you control with a database you own. There is no monthly platform fee and no dependency on a third party's business decisions. For businesses with specific preferences about data ownership and platform dependency, this matters.
WordPress integration. If a business is already running a WordPress site and wants to add ecommerce without migrating to a new platform, WooCommerce is the natural extension.
Customisation depth. With developer time, WooCommerce can be extended to a greater degree than Shopify. For a business with genuinely unusual requirements that Shopify's native functionality and app ecosystem cannot address, WooCommerce on a well-managed WordPress setup can be the right choice.
Where Shopify wins
Infrastructure reliability and security. Shopify handles its own security, compliance and platform updates. A business running Shopify does not need to worry about plugin vulnerabilities, server configuration or PCI compliance at the platform level.
The app ecosystem. Shopify's app marketplace is extensive and mature. Most ecommerce requirements have multiple well-supported app solutions. The same breadth exists in WooCommerce's plugin directory, but plugin quality and maintenance varies significantly.
Frequently asked questions
Is WooCommerce really free?
The core plugin is free. A functional WooCommerce store also requires paid hosting, paid premium plugins for specific features and paid developer time for setup and maintenance. Accounting for these costs changes the comparison significantly.
Which platform is better for SEO?
Both are capable of good SEO with the right setup. For most businesses, platform choice makes less difference to SEO outcomes than content strategy and site speed.
Can I move from WooCommerce to Shopify?
Yes. The migration involves exporting product data, customer records and order history, importing into Shopify and setting up 301 redirects from old URLs. Done carefully, most rankings are preserved.
Which has more apps and plugins?
WordPress and WooCommerce have a very large plugin directory. Shopify's app store is smaller in total number but has a higher proportion of maintained, commercially supported apps. The question is whether the specific functionality a business needs is well-supported on each platform.
