This question gets asked a lot. I am sure you are wondering; which is better for e-commerce, WordPress or Shopify?
There is no correct answer for this. If you are new to e-commerce or have an existing business and are thinking of migrating, you first need to step aside and ask yourself what is your end goal of your website? I will outline popular topics relating to running an e-commerce business.
Security: This is a big one for me. Full disclosure, I am a huge WordPress fan, however I have to say that whenever anything is cloud hosted and not self hosted it is always more secure. This combined with the fact that WordPress is open-source, and shopify is closed-source makes a huge difference too. Closed-source cloud hosted SAAS and PAAS (Software as a Service / Platform as a Service) have entire security teams dedicated to locking down the infrastructure. WordPress can certainly be secure, usually most of the breaches come from service providers not keeping the instance up to date. WordPress will always need many updates. If you don’t have a professional to help you with this, you might want to find one! Cloud hosted applications also have entire teams ensuring that your instance is hosted correctly. Self hosting incorrectly can cause huge headaches down the line, this is why it’s always important to contact a hosting professional at the least. Did I mention we sell hosting packages? Just kidding (but not really.)
Support: Unless you have a dedicated web design agency you are working with, Shopify is the easy winner here. Their support is amazing and its part of your monthly support fee.
Cost: WordPress is actually the winner here, however you must be very thoughtful in your web design. Technical debt is very real and can be easily accumulated with WordPress if you are not careful. In software development, technical debt (also known as design debt or code debt) is the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy (limited) solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer.
Analogous with monetary debt, if technical debt is not repaid, it can accumulate “interest”, making it harder to implement changes. Unaddressed technical debt increases software entropy and cost of further rework. Similarly to monetary debt, technical debt is not necessarily a bad thing, and sometimes (e.g. as a proof-of-concept) is required to move projects forward. On the other hand, some experts claim that the “technical debt” metaphor tends to minimize the ramifications, which results in insufficient prioritization of the necessary work to correct it.
Implementation: Shopify is the easy winner here. There is far more overhead associated with WordPress, however that being said Shopify is a bit less customizable. If you have a wide scope of requirements, it’s best to have an expert who knows the ins and outs of both Shopify and WordPress.
Customization: WordPress wins here, but Shopify is certainly working on building their platform to allow you to be fully customizable. Customization is easier on Shopify, but you are more limited in what you can do.
Winner: There isn’t a winner. The answer here all depends on your needs and overall goals. Reach out to us for a free consultation. We will tell you what platform works best for you! Let us take the guesswork out of this for you. We hope to hear from you!
About Us: Located in Oconomowoc, WI – We are a team of technology experts from varying fields of expertise. This ensures that there is no job that we cannot accomplish. Some of our areas of expertise are: Shopify, WordPress, ServiceNow, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Blockchain, Cloud hosting, DevOps, E-Commerce, AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), GKE (Kubernetes), Docker, Server management, Security, Ethical hacking, API Development, integrations, Data recovery, Data backups, Product development, Product management, Management planning, Project planning, Software architecture and more. Just ask!
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