WordPress or Shopify: Which Should You Pick?

The honest answer to "WordPress or Shopify" is that they solve different problems. We build on both, so we have no reason to push one. Here is how we decide with clients.

Start with how you make money

Ask where revenue comes from. If people pay you on your site by adding products to a cart, you are running a store, and Shopify is built for that: catalog, checkout, shipping, tax and payments in one system. If people find your site and then contact you, you are running a lead-generation or content site, and WordPress is built for that: flexible pages, posts and content structure, with an editing experience you can shape around your team.

Most decisions follow from that single question.

When WordPress is the better fit

• You sell services, coaching or consulting and the site exists to generate enquiries.
• Content is your main asset, such as articles, guides, resources or landing pages.
• You want control over structure and are happy to have hosting and plugins as part of the setup.

Our WordPress packages start at $1,997 for a five-page site in 14 days. A custom theme with custom editing blocks starts at $3,997. See the WordPress packages.

When Shopify is the better fit

• You sell physical or digital products and need checkout, shipping and tax handled properly.
• Conversion rate is the number you watch, so product pages, collection pages, upsells and email flows matter.
• You would rather use a platform where the store mechanics are built in than assemble them from plugins.

Our Shopify Launch package is $2,997, built in 14 days. It includes up to 25 products migrated, plus shipping, tax, checkout, payment gateway and analytics setup. Conversion, at $5,997 in 21 days, adds a custom Liquid theme, upsell and bundle flows, and Klaviyo email and SMS automation. See Shopify development.

The running costs are different

The build price is only part of the cost. Under our terms, hosting, licences, premium plugins, themes and platform subscriptions are third-party costs, additional unless a proposal says otherwise. In practice a Shopify store carries a platform subscription, and a WordPress site carries hosting and any premium plugins it needs. Ask for both to be listed before you compare quotes.

If you are moving an existing store

We handle migrations from WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce and custom carts, including products, variants, customers, order history and the URL redirects. Missing redirects can wipe out the organic traffic you already have, so they are part of the job, not an extra.

When neither is right

Some projects outgrow both. If you need application-level interactivity, an unusual data model, or a product that is more than a website, a custom build in Next.js is the better route. WordPress can also work as a content backend with a separate front end. That suits sites that need extreme performance or app-like behavior, and it is the wrong choice when a well-built conventional theme would do the same job for less money. See custom builds.

A quick way to decide

1. Do customers buy on your site? If yes, lean Shopify.
2. Do customers contact you after reading your site? If yes, lean WordPress.
3. Do you need something the platform cannot do? If yes, talk to us about a custom build.

If your honest answer is "both", choose by whichever earns more and add the other as a supporting piece. Book a call and we will give you one recommendation for your case.