In short
WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress that runs on your own hosting. Shopify is a ready-made service for a monthly fee that takes care of hosting, security and updates itself. WooCommerce is cheaper to start with and gives more freedom; Shopify saves time on maintenance and lowers the risk of technical problems. In Slovakia, payment fees weigh heavily in the comparison.
The data is checked as of 3 November 2026, and the sources are listed at the end.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: the key difference
- WooCommerce is open source, free and has more than 7 million active installations. Hosting, backups, updates to WordPress, the theme and plugins, and fixing errors are the job of the store owner or their developer.
- Shopify includes hosting, unlimited bandwidth and an SSL certificate in every plan. It is certified to PCI DSS Level 1, the highest level of the security standard for card payments. Shopify handles platform updates and states service availability of 99.9%.
Shopify vs WooCommerce costs
| WooCommerce | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | free | from €19 a month, billed yearly |
| Hosting | for example Websupport from €2.99 a month in the first year, then €3.99, excluding VAT | included |
| Extensions | many free, paid ones as a yearly subscription | apps, mostly monthly in US dollars |
| Platform fee per payment | none | 2% / 1% / 0.6% with a third-party gateway |
The cheapest hosting plans are “from” prices. An online store with a larger catalogue and more traffic usually needs a higher plan or managed WordPress hosting. WooCommerce costs also include the time spent on updates and checking plugins, which Shopify does not need.
Payments: the biggest difference for Slovakia
For a Slovak store, this is the most important difference. WooPayments, WooCommerce's own payment service, is available to companies and individuals in both Slovakia and Czechia. In Slovakia, a card payment costs 1.50% + €0.25, with no monthly or setup fee.
Shopify Payments is available to companies in Czechia, but not in Slovakia. A Slovak store on Shopify therefore also pays Shopify's third-party gateway fee on every card payment: 2% on the Basic plan, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced. WooCommerce has no such fee. With €10,000 a month in card payments on the Grow plan, that is an extra €100 a month. Shopify's fee does not apply to cash on delivery or bank transfers.
Payments are covered in detail in the article Shopify in Slovakia and Czechia.
Packeta, Heureka and invoicing
| Service | WooCommerce | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Packeta | official plugin by Packeta, free | third-party apps; outside the Plus plan, the pick-up point is selected only after the order |
| Heureka | official plugin by Heureka Group | third-party apps |
| GoPay | official plugin | official app |
| Comgate | third-party modules recommended by Comgate | official app |
| SuperFaktúra | third-party plugin, not by SuperFaktúra | third-party app |
| Fakturoid | plugin by Toret, CZK 1,690 a year | app by Digismoothie |
For local services, WooCommerce has the edge because Packeta and Heureka have their own official plugins. Shopify also has a checkout limitation: outside the Plus plan, pick-up point selection cannot be placed in the shipping step.
Security and maintenance
WooCommerce releases a new version every 5 weeks, and in autumn 2026 WordPress has one or two maintenance releases a month. According to Patchstack's report on WordPress security, 11,334 new vulnerabilities were found in 2025, 42% more than the year before. 91% of them were in plugins, 9% in themes, and only 6 in WordPress core itself. For 46% of the vulnerabilities, the developer had no fix ready at the time of disclosure.
For a WooCommerce store, this leads to a simple rule: as few plugins as possible, regular updates, backups and someone who keeps an eye on it. With Shopify, Shopify takes care of the platform and its security, but third-party apps still need to be chosen just as carefully.
What online stores in Slovakia and Czechia use
Exact platform shares vary depending on who measures them and how. Several measurements agree that by number of stores, Shoptet leads in Czechia with WooCommerce second, WooCommerce leads in Slovakia ahead of Shoptet, and Shopify has a single-digit share in both countries.
Shopify or WooCommerce: when each platform makes sense
WooCommerce makes sense when:
- the store is based in Slovakia, customers mostly pay by card and Shopify's fee would take a large bite out of the margin,
- you already have a WordPress website and the store is an add-on to it,
- you need customisations that Shopify does not allow, such as custom checkout steps without the Plus plan,
- you have someone who regularly looks after WordPress and the plugins.
Shopify makes sense when:
- you do not want to deal with hosting, updates and security,
- you sell, or plan to sell, in several countries and currencies,
- the company is in Czechia and can use Shopify Payments,
- you want to grow through apps and integrations without an in-house developer.
If the store already runs on WordPress and WooCommerce and Shopify comes out ahead, the move is described on the page moving from WordPress to Shopify. A full list of Shopify costs is in the article How much a Shopify store costs.
Sources, checked 3 November 2026: WooCommerce on wordpress.org, WooCommerce extension subscriptions, Websupport pricing, WooPayments countries, WooPayments fees, Shopify pricing (SK), Shopify security, Shopify availability, Shopify Payments countries, Packeta plugin, Heureka plugin, GoPay plugin, Comgate modules, SuperFaktúra plugin, Fakturoid plugin by Toret, WooCommerce releases, WordPress releases, Patchstack 2026.
