It’s honestly pretty hard to weigh WooCommerce vs. Shopify when it comes to price.
Just to add the WooCommerce plugin to your site, you need at least a WordPress Business plan ($25 per month). But that only gets you access to the free WooCommerce plugin. If you want more advanced features, you can either download and pay for additional extensions and plugins or get the WordPress eCommerce plan ($45 a month). This plan integrates WooCommerce plus a few of the most commonly used premium extensions into the WordPress builder.
Shopify, on the other hand, provides a robust e-commerce platform with its most basic plan. The caveat here is Shopify’s basic plan is roughly the same price as the WordPress Business plan—perhaps a bit less if you sign up for a biennial plan. And you’ll probably still need to download extra apps to get all the features you need.
Fortunately, both Shopify and WordPress include a number of essential features, so you don’t have to pay extra for SSL certificates or hosting. However, using third-party web hosting providers can improve your site speed and add another layer of encryption to your site so you can better protect your customers’ privacy—but it’ll cost you a bit extra.
You should also budget at least $10 per year for your domain name. While WordPress offers free domain registration for the first year of your plan, you will have to pay to register your domain every year. And if you get Shopify, you’ll have to pay up front for your first year of domain registration, then pay to renew your registration every year after that.
You may also want to pay for premium themes. Free WooCommerce themes and Shopify templates get the job done, but they may not give your site the professional look you’re going for. In that case, your e-commerce business could benefit from the added gravitas of a professionally designed theme—just be prepared to pay anywhere from $20 to thousands of dollars for it (depending on the theme you choose).
Finally, you’ll want to factor in transaction fees. With WooCommerce, you’ll have to pay transaction fees as stipulated by your payment gateway of choice (usually around 3% + 30¢ per transaction). But Shopify hits you with fees not once, but twice. Not only do you have to pay anywhere from 2.4%–2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, but you have to pay an extra 0.5%–2% if you use any payment gateway besides Shopify Pay. Fees vary based on which Shopify plan you sign up for, so be sure to read the fine print before choosing your plan.