Comparison
Shopify or WooCommerce: which one fits you?
A fixed subscription with technical peace of mind, or full control with full responsibility — that is the actual choice.
With Shopify you pay a subscription of €30–300 a month and everything arrives in one package: hosting, security, updates, support. No technical worries, but limited customisation and extra commissions if you use a payment processor other than the platform's own. WooCommerce is free software, yet the real budget includes hosting, premium plugins at €100–300 a year and an implementation that costs an indicative €1,500–8,000 on the Romanian market — in exchange for owning everything and being able to change anything. The short decision rule: if you have a simple catalogue and want to start selling fast without touching the technical side, choose Shopify; if you have needs specific to the Romanian market — e-Factura electronic invoicing, local couriers such as Fan Courier or Sameday, invoicing through SmartBill or Oblio — and you want long-term control, WooCommerce or a custom solution serves you better. The rest of this page details where the balance tips, with real indicative figures.
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Key takeaways
Where Shopify wins
You launch in days rather than weeks: hosting, SSL certificate, security and updates are included in the subscription. You need nobody technical in the company, and the store survives traffic peaks without your intervention.
Where WooCommerce wins
Total control over the code and the data, thousands of extensions, and natural integration with the Romanian ecosystem: e-Factura, local couriers, local invoicing software. No platform-imposed transaction commissions.
The long-run difference
On Shopify the monthly cost grows with every app you add and you stay dependent on the platform. On WooCommerce the upfront investment is larger, but after 2–3 years the total cost tends to be lower if the store grows.
Where the balance tips
Upfront cost: Shopify wins clearly — you start with a theme costing a few tens of euros plus the monthly subscription. WooCommerce demands either a paid implementation or a serious amount of your own time. Long-run cost: the picture inverts. A mature Shopify store easily reaches €150–400 a month with apps and commissions, while a well-built WooCommerce runs on hosting of €20–50 a month plus indicative maintenance of 15–20% a year of the implementation cost.
Romanian specifics tilt the balance towards WooCommerce: the e-Factura obligation for B2B and B2C is handled by mature plugins and integrations, local couriers have native modules, and cash on delivery — still frequent in Romanian online retail — configures without friction. On Shopify those integrations exist, but through third-party apps with their own subscriptions, and some scenarios (bulk waybills, courier manifests, returns via a local courier) remain awkward.
When paying us for this makes no sense
If you sell under 50 standardised products, have no special invoicing requirements and only want to test the market, a Shopify subscription you configure yourself over a weekend is the rational choice. There is no point paying an agency thousands of euros for a store the platform hands you almost ready-made.
A professional WooCommerce implementation or custom development justifies itself only when concrete requirements appear: a large catalogue with variants, differentiated B2B pricing, synchronisation with an ERP or inventory system, return flows, e-Factura integration without manual work. At that point the difference between an amateur installation and a professional one shows up directly in the hours your team loses every month.
Frequently asked questions
Can I move the store from Shopify to WooCommerce later?
Yes — products and customers export through CSV or migration tools, but you lose the theme and the apps, and the URLs may need redirects so search rankings are not damaged. Migrating a mid-sized store costs an indicative €1,000–3,000, so it pays to choose correctly at the start.
What commissions do I actually pay on Shopify?
Besides the monthly subscription, if you do not use Shopify Payments (not fully available in Romania), the platform withholds an extra 0.5–2% of every transaction processed through third parties such as Stripe or Netopia — on top of the processor's own fee.
Is WooCommerce secure enough for a serious store?
Yes, provided somebody is accountable for it: monthly plugin updates, automated daily backups and an application firewall. Compromised WooCommerce stores are almost always abandoned installations with no maintenance, rather than a flaw in the platform itself.
How does e-Factura integrate on the two platforms?
On WooCommerce you have dedicated Romanian plugins and integrations with SmartBill, Oblio or FGO that send invoices into the national system automatically. On Shopify you depend on third-party apps with separate subscriptions, and the flow sometimes requires manual steps — check your exact scenario before signing.
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Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247