WordPress vs Shopify: Which CMS Is Best for Your Website?
You have started a new business and want a website for it. Apart from many other considerations, you must also decide which content management system you might be using to manage your website. This can be a tricky decision to make especially if you do not know about the pros and cons of each content management system.
To help you make the right decision, we have pitted two popular content management systems against one another. If you are confused about whether to choose WordPress or Shopify for your website, then you are at the right place. In this article, you will learn about pros and cons of both WordPress and Shopify so you can decide which one you should choose for your website.
WordPress
WordPress started as a blogging platform and went on to become one of the most popular content management systems in the world. According to WordPress statistics, WordPress powers 35% of the web and is a market leader in the content management system market with a market share of 62%. Not only that, 30% of the world top 1000 websites use WordPress.
WordPress is available in two different versions.
- Hosted WordPress
- Self-Hosted WordPress
Hosted WordPress
Just like Shopify, Hosted WordPress follows a software as a service model. Users must pay a monthly or yearly fee and get access to tons of features, which makes website creation and maintenance a breeze.
Self-Hosted WordPress
Self-Hosted WordPress is a software that you can download from the WordPress website and install on your web server. This software is open source, which means that you can not only get access to the code but can also tinker with it to add more functionality to your WordPress website. Due to this, you can easily customize your WordPress website.
Pros and Cons of WordPress
Here are some of the pros and cons of WordPress.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Feature rich
- Huge library of plugins and themes to choose from
- Customization
- Search engine friendly
- Ability to manage your website from any computer
WordPress is powerful, yet easy to use, feature rich, yet has a simple interface. Users are literally spoilt for choice as they can choose from thousands of WordPress plugins and themes. Want your WordPress website to look as you want it to? You can take advantage of WordPress customization options.
In addition to this, WordPress websites are SEO friendly which means that you have a better chance to rank higher on search engines if you have a WordPress website. All you have to do is to make sure that it is optimized. WordPress takes the pain out of website management by providing its users a dashboard. Users can upload new content, edit old content and perform many different action using that dashboard.
Cons:
- Security
- Updates
Security and privacy have always been the Achilles heels of WordPress websites, but not anymore. The strong community behind WordPress helps users by bringing frequent updates and bug fixes. Just make sure you update your WordPress version to the latest one, as older versions of WordPress may have security vulnerabilities which can easily be exploited by hackers. Frequently updating themes, plugins and software can become a pain in the neck for WordPress users but you can easily get over this issue by turning on the automatic update feature. As soon as a new update is available, you will be automatically updated to the latest version.
Shopify
Shopify is an app which is designed with the intention of offering merchants the ability to create their online store to sell their products. It follows software as a service model and is a hosted solution, which means that everything runs on their servers. What makes Shopify stand out is that even a beginner who does not have technical skills can create an online store by using it. It also targets advanced users who have coding skills by letting them edit and tweak the HTML and CSS code of their website.
Pros and Cons of Shopify
Here are some of the pros and cons of Shopify.
Pros:
- Do not require technical expertise
- Tailor made for E-commerce
Shopify is an ideal choice if you want to create an online store but if you want to use it to create any other type of website, it might not be the right fit. This limits its application and scope drastically. The good news is that you don’t need much technical knowledge to create an online store using Shopify.
Cons:
- Extra transactional fees
- Requires content reformatting when changing the theme
- Limited options per product
- Switch to a paid app to unlock more features
When using Shopify, you will incur extra charges in terms of transactional fees, which can add up to your overall cost. You might have to spend extra 0.5%-2% in terms of transaction fee for every transaction unless you use Shopify’s own payment gateway called Shopify Payments. This can become quite irritating for users who are on a tight budget.
Unlike WordPress, you will have to reformat your whole content when changing the theme. Another problem with Shopify is that it is not as feature packed as other competitors such as WordPress. This means that you have limited options to play around with. If you want more features, you will have to pay more to unlock extra features. Users might have to use premium apps to use many features, which can add to the overall cost. If you can afford to pay extra and want to create an Ecommerce store, then Shopify is worth considering. Otherwise, you should look elsewhere.
WordPress Vs Shopify: Winner
WordPress is the clear winner here, as it is more established and offers its users more flexibility as compared to Shopify. Not only does WordPress have a much larger user base but it also offers a wide range of themes, plugins, and apps to choose from. If you have the right skillset, you can not only create any type of website but can also customize every element of your WordPress website too.
Which content management system would you choose and why? Let us know in the comments section below.
Irfan Ak
Irfan Ak is a digital marketing strategist, growth hacker, digital transformation expert of Branex & a guest blogger on various websites. He has worked with various other brands and created value for them.
We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!
