Shopify vs Woocommerce/Prestashop/etc?

[gazfocus]

Looking for some advice really.

I have spoken to a few people already and still struggling to make my mind up so thought I'd check in here.

I need to get cracking on building two websites for my business (well 3 actually but the one can wait haha). I've always used Prestashop and really quite like it but I'm noticing a lot of automation/integration plugins prefer the likes of Shopify and while there are workarounds to get Prestashop functioning with the tools I want to use, I don't know how I feel about buidling a site based on 'workarounds'.

So, I wondered what you guys use for your websites? Shopify on one hand has a monthly cost and tries to force you to use Shopify Payments, whereas Prestashop gives more control and we can use our own payment provider.

Decisions, decisions.

[Justin]

Couple of similar threads at the top come up here which may help you.

We used Shopify for a number of years and whilst it worked well for us it became very limiting. We had to keep paying for add ons and even then stuff just wasn't available.

We switched to Wordpress/WooCommerce which is far better and way more flexible.

[gazfocus]

Couple of similar threads at the top come up here which may help you.

We used Shopify for a number of years and whilst it worked well for us it became very limiting. We had to keep paying for add ons and even then stuff just wasn't available.

We switched to Wordpress/WooCommerce which is far better.

Thanks Justin. Yes, one of my concerns with Shopify is that all of the plugins are monthly costs to add to the $29-$69 subscription, whereas with Prestashop for example, we may pay £120 for a module but we have that module for life (unless we want updates then there's a modest annual fee after the first year).

The only thing that really has me considering Shopify is that it integrates with so much. For example, we use Shopvox for order management. Shopvox can use Zapier to pull orders from Shopify and add them as jobs to the job board. To do this in Prestashop we'd have to buy a third party plugin to allow Prestashop to connect to Zapier.

[pisquee]

We use WooCommerce - we like that Wordpress can be made to do just about anything, that we're in control of every aspect of the site, chose the server/hosting, etc etc
There are plugins which cost, as well as the server etc, but Shopify seems limiting in how it works in comparison

[Mrteajunkie]

100% woocommerce.
I have used them all over the years and wc is far easier to use and customise.
Even if you aren’t web savvy it’s very simple to get a site up and running in a short time.

yes some plugins cost but there are others that do the same job for free if you search the plug-in library.

[Ann87]

Well, you should definitely consider switching to Shopify in case you're looking for a quick website launch without too much of experience, 24/7 support aaand ready-made themes. WooCommerce offers way more customization options, and suits more for those ones who have experience in web development and websites creation.