Shopify vs WooCommerce, Priced at 100 Orders a Month

You have a product and a decision you cannot make, because both answers are lying to you.

Shopify's pricing page says $39 a month. WooCommerce's says free. By the end of this page you will know what each actually costs at a hundred orders, which one fits your situation, and how to have a store open today — and it takes about five minutes to read.

What each one actually costs

Real numbers at 100 orders a month, $80 average order value — $8,000 in monthly revenue. That is a real small store: past the hobby stage, not yet a business with staff.

The plan is 11% of the bill. Payment processing is 76% of it, and no platform choice removes that — you would pay Stripe roughly the same on WooCommerce.

One Shopify-specific cost worth knowing: use an external payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments and Shopify adds 2% on Basic on top of whatever the gateway charges. At $8,000 a month that is $160 for the privilege. Use Shopify Payments wherever it is available to you.

What each platform costs at 100 orders a month. Total monthly cost, USD, including payment processing.

Item	Total monthly cost, USD, including payment processing
Shopify Basic	$344
WooCommerce, self-hosted	$332

Merxtio calculation, August 2026. Assumes 100 orders at $80 and card payments through the platform's own gateway.

$12 a month apart. That is the entire cost difference, and it is well inside the margin of error on any of these estimates. So stop comparing prices and answer a different question.

Pick in three questions

1. Have you run a website before

   You’ll have: An honest answer to the only question that actually predicts which platform works for you. · about 1 minute

   Not "are you technical" — have you personally kept a website online, applied an update that broke something, and fixed it?

   If yes, WooCommerce is genuinely cheaper and you will be fine. If no, the $12 you save is the most expensive $12 in e-commerce, because the first broken update costs you a weekend and every sale during it.

   There is no shame in either answer. This is the question the comparison articles skip, and it decides more than any feature table.

2. Open the store

   You’ll have: A working store with a product in it, on whichever platform question one pointed at. · about An afternoon on Shopify, about a week on WooCommerce

   If question one said Shopify, this is genuinely an afternoon. Pick a theme, add a product, connect Shopify Payments, and you have a store that takes money.

   If question one said WooCommerce, the hosting line is the one that decides whether the store survives. The $5 shared plans are where WooCommerce projects go to die — not dramatically, just a checkout that times out during your first good traffic day.

3. Decide before you outgrow it

   You’ll have: A number that tells you when to revisit this decision, instead of drifting. · about 2 minutes

   Write down your order volume today, and check it again at 500 orders a month.

   That is roughly where Shopify's fee structure starts to bite and self-hosting wins on cost again. Below 30 orders, WooCommerce was always cheaper. Between the two, you are in the band where this article applies and the $12 does not matter.

   Knowing the number means you switch because you planned to, not because a bill surprised you.

Where they actually differ

The mistakes that cost real money

Choosing on the headline price. $39 versus $0 is a 100% difference that turns into 3.5% once processing is counted. People pick WooCommerce to save $39 and spend $35 on hosting.

Using an external gateway on Shopify Basic. That 2% surcharge is $160 a month at this volume — four times the plan fee, for nothing.

Buying shared hosting for WooCommerce. A $5 plan will serve a blog and will not hold a store. You find out on your best traffic day.

Adding apps without adding them up. Three Shopify apps at $10 is another plan fee, and each one arrived looking essential.

Questions people ask

Is WooCommerce actually free?

The plugin is genuinely free and genuinely open source. The store is not: you pay for hosting (about $35/month for something that will hold a store), and usually for extensions like subscriptions or proper shipping rates. At 100 orders a month the realistic total is about $332 including payment processing.

Which is better for beginners?

Shopify, clearly, if you have not run a website before. It handles hosting, security and PCI compliance, and you can have a store taking money the same afternoon. WooCommerce expects you to be the person who fixes it when an update breaks the checkout.

How much does Shopify really cost per month?

About $344 at 100 orders of $80, against a $39 headline. The gap is payment processing ($262), a theme amortized over two years ($14) and the apps most stores add ($29). Processing is roughly three quarters of the bill and you would pay it on any platform.

What are Shopify's transaction fees and can I avoid them?

Card processing on Basic is 2.9% + 30¢ through Shopify Payments. If you use an external gateway instead, Shopify adds a further 2% on Basic — $160 a month at $8,000 revenue. Use Shopify Payments wherever it is available in your country.

Can I move from Shopify to WooCommerce later?

Yes, but it is a rebuild rather than a migration. Products, customers and orders export as CSV; the storefront itself does not come with you. Moving in the other direction is similar. Plan the decision at 500 orders a month rather than discovering it.

Do I need to know how to code for WooCommerce?

Not to set it up — but you do need to be comfortable applying WordPress updates, reading a plugin conflict, and restoring a backup. That is the real requirement, and it is less about coding than about being on call for your own store.