Shopify, WooCommerce or Wix for a UK shop

Most platform comparisons are written by somebody who sells one of the platforms. This one is too, so here is the bias up front: OpenX24 builds on Shopify. What follows is still the honest version, including the cases where Shopify is the wrong choice and you should not pay us to build one.

Why are feature lists a bad way to choose?

Every platform in this comparison can take an order, calculate UK VAT, print a shipping label and email a receipt. If you pick on feature lists you will find they all tick nearly every box, which is why feature lists are a bad way to choose.

The question that actually separates them is this: when something breaks at nine at night, who fixes it? That single question decides more about how a shop feels to own than any feature does.

On a hosted platform the answer is the platform. On a self-hosted one the answer is you, or somebody you pay. Neither is wrong. But one of them is a job you may not have noticed you were signing up for.

Where does Shopify genuinely win?

Shopify is hosted, which means the server, the security patching, the uptime and the checkout are somebody else's problem. You do not update anything. The checkout in particular is maintained by a company whose entire business depends on it working, and you cannot break it by installing the wrong thing.

It handles the boring compliance parts that are easy to get wrong on your own: card data never touches a server you are responsible for, and the payment side is built to the standards card networks require. That is a real weight off a sole trader who does not want to think about it.

The trade is a monthly platform fee and a walled garden. You work the way Shopify works. For most small shops that constraint is a feature, because the well-worn path is the one that has been tested by an enormous number of other shops.

Where does WooCommerce genuinely win?

WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that you host yourself. There is no platform fee, the code is open, and you can change absolutely anything. If you need behaviour that does not exist anywhere else, this is usually where you end up.

It also wins when you already have a WordPress site with real traffic and content. Bolting a shop onto something that already ranks is often smarter than moving everything to a new domain structure and hoping the rankings follow.

The catch is that everything the host was doing for you is now yours. Updates, backups, security, performance, plugin conflicts, and the awkward morning when two plugins disagree and the checkout stops. It is not hard, but it is a standing job, and the cost is measured in your attention rather than in a monthly invoice.

Where do Wix and Squarespace genuinely win?

If you sell a handful of products alongside a site that is mostly about something else — a studio, a class, a portfolio, a restaurant — a builder like Wix or Squarespace is often the honest answer. They are pleasant to edit, the design tools are good, and a small catalogue does not strain them.

They are also the fastest route to something that exists. If the alternative is another six months of not having a shop at all, the platform question is not your real problem and you should pick whichever one you will actually finish.

Where they struggle is depth. Large catalogues, complicated shipping rules, subscriptions, wholesale pricing, or serious inventory work all get uncomfortable. If the shop is the business rather than a feature of the business, you are likely to outgrow them.

Which costs never appear in the comparison table?

Every platform charges for the platform, and every payment provider takes a cut of each sale. Those two numbers are published and easy to compare. They are also rarely what makes one option more expensive than another in practice.

The costs that actually bite are the ones nobody lists. Apps and plugins that each seem small and are not small together. A theme. The hours you spend, or the hours you pay somebody else to spend. And, if you choose wrong, the cost of moving later, which is always larger than the cost of choosing carefully now.

Rather than trusting anybody's figures, including ours, write down what you would pay in a year on each option, with the apps you know you need. The number that matters is the one for your shop, and it takes twenty minutes to work out.

Which three questions decide it?

Is the shop the business, or a feature of the business? If the shop is the business, weight the answer towards Shopify or WooCommerce. If it is a feature, a builder is probably enough.

Do you want to own the maintenance? An honest yes points at WooCommerce and you will be glad of the control. An honest no points at a hosted platform, and there is no shame in it — most small shops should say no.

Do you need something that does not exist yet? If your business genuinely depends on behaviour no app provides, self-hosting gives you room that a hosted platform will not. If it does not, that freedom is a cost with no benefit attached.

Where does our bias sit?

We build on Shopify because it is hosted, so a shop we hand over does not quietly become a maintenance problem for somebody who did not want one. That reasoning is genuine, and it is also convenient for us, which is exactly why you should weigh it yourself.

If you read the three questions above and the answers point at WooCommerce or a builder, that is the right answer and we are the wrong supplier. We would rather say so here than take a payment for a shop on a platform that does not suit you.

What to do next

Answer the three questions honestly and the platform usually picks itself. If the shop is the business and you do not want to own the maintenance, Shopify is the straightforward choice, and a Starter Store Build is £349, handed over in 2 business days, with the store, domain and data yours. If your answers point elsewhere, use them — the wrong platform chosen quickly is more expensive than the right one chosen carefully.

Common questions