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Dropshipping, WordPress vs Shopify. Is there an easy winner?
In the Dropshipping wars of WordPress vs Shopify, I must say, if you solely want to start a dropshipping business or site and you do not have a WordPress website already up and running, then you should definitely go with Shopify. Why?
Shopify is an easy to use eCommerce platform. It has a drag-and-drop interface, which allows, even absolute beginners to be able to set up and manage a dropshipping store easily. Whereas WordPress uses WooCommerce as its eCommerce platform.
Unlike Shopify, WordPress as well as WooCommerce are both free and open source. As a result, WordPress is definitely more flexible than Shopify. WordPress is also the most popular CMS on the internet and has been around since 2003 unlike Shopify.
Although Shopify does offer a variety of dropshipping store themes, the options are quite limited compared to the thousands of WordPress themes.
However, if you are just looking for a simple dropshipping store and aren’t worried about control, flexibility and your options in choosing things like hosting, then Shopify is a better option than Wordpress for dropshipping simply because Shopify was made specifically for eCommerce
So, if you’re just looking for a simple dropshipping store, then go with Shopify.
So with all the advantages that Shopify has in the drop shipping sphere, why would anyone consider using WordPress for shop drop shipping?
Whoa! Not so fast.
There is definitely more than meets the eye in this dropshipping WordPress vs Shopify comparison.
In this post, I’m going to answer some of those questions and hopefully create a clearer picture of your drop shipping options in regards to WordPress. And why before going all in on Shopify you might want to reconsider WordPress for your dropshipping needs.
Can you add Shopify to WordPress?
Yes, you can add Shopify to WordPress.
However, you do need to still have the WooCommerce plugin activated on your WordPress website before adding the Shopify plugin and importing Shopify products into your WordPress website via WooCommerce.
Is Shopify better than WooCommerce for WordPress?
Although you can add a Shopify store to your WordPress website, WooCommerce was especially made for WordPress.
You will find that WooCommerce will, in general, integrate much better with your WordPress website than adding a Shopify store.
Does Shopify own my website?
Technically yes. If you have a Shopify store, then it is basically a website.
Your Shopify store, the website, the customizations you’ve made, the functionalities, invoice templates etc. are all owned by Shopify.
You see, Shopify is a closed source CMS. This means that you basically have little control over your Shopify theme, functions and where and how it’s even hosted.
Whereas, WordPress is open source.
Although WordPress may not be as beginner friendly in setting up a simple dropshipping store like Shopify, the price you pay for Shopify’s simplicity is a lack of ownership over your Shopify store. Why?
Because with WordPress being open source, you can move it to any web hosting provider you like If, for example: Your current hosting provider raises prices, offers poor support, server issues and down time, security as well as a whole host of other potential difficulties when dealing with any hosting provider.
Owning a WordPress website you can simply take your theme all the customizations you have done to it and migrate it to another host.
With WordPress you own the theme, the design and its functionality. With Shopify you don’t. But that isn’t the only disadvantage that Shopify has when compared to WordPress.
What are the disadvantages of Shopify?
The main disadvantages of Shopify are:
- Platform and CMS are not open source.
- If you want to discontinue your dropshipping store, you will be severely limited in what you can do with your Shopify site.
- You do not own the theme, customizations, functionality and other aspects of your Shopify site.
- You cannot migrate your Shopify site to another CMS or Web Hosting Provider.
- If you discontinue dropshipping and decide to simply keep the Shopify site, you will be stuck with Shopify’s prices, service and support.
You see simply using Shopify as a website, although you do have pretty much most of the functionalities that you would have with a WordPress website, you don’t have the control, flexibility nor do you own anything you create with Shopify’s theme, addons, payment systems etc.
You only own your custom domain name and your content.
If you were to move all of that to a WordPress website, you would basically need to copy and paste all your content and images onto your computer, then start a totally new website from scratch including getting a new theme, designing and customizing it, finding and adding functionalities to it etc.
Is Shopify good for blogging?
Although Shopify does have a blogging feature that you can add to your Shopify store, WordPress was originally created for bloggers.
Even though WordPress has of course evolved to be far much more than for blogging, WordPress is also by far superior for blogging than Shopify.
Is WordPress really free?
WordPress, the CMS, is not only open source, but it’s also free.
In fact, you can even have a free WordPress blog hosted on WordPress.com to get you started with WordPress.
However, If you want much more control over your WordPress website, you will either need to go on one of WordPress.com paid plans or move your WordPress website to a self-hosted plan on another hosting provider.
You can also find free WordPress themes as well as plug-ins. So essentially WordPress, the CMS is free.
Can I sell products on WordPress?
You can sell products on WordPress without adding a WooCommerce store by simply joining affiliate programs and installing links to those products from those affiliate programs onto your WordPress website.
However, if you want to sell your own products or open up a dropshipping or any other store for that matter on your WordPress website, you would need to install WooCommerce and add a WooCommerce store to your WordPress website.
What is the best eCommerce platform for WordPress?
In my opinion, WooCommerce is the best ecommerce platform for WordPress. Why? Simply because WooCommerce was built for WordPress websites.
You will find the integration as well as support to be much more thorough and smooth than any other e-commerce platform.
Dropshipping, WordPress vs Shopify, conclusions.
For a purely dropshipping store, if I were an absolute beginner and I was trying to decide between WordPress vs Shopify? I would choose Shopify.
However, if I wanted to build a more permanent presence on the internet and have full control over my website as well as its ecommerce store, including the theme, functionality, and design with the ability to move it to any Web Hosting Provider I wanted, I would choose WordPress.
You see, with WordPress you can have so much more than just a dropshipping store. You can have a whole business with many other options like affiliate marketing, display advertising, you can put a portfolio or offer other services on a WordPress website.
There are just so many more possibilities with WordPress, that if you wanted to continue doing business online and stop dropshipping, you would have much more flexibility in pivoting with a WordPress website, than you would with a Shopify site.
