WooCommerce or Shopify: which is better for an Australian online store?
Shopify, for most stores. It costs a little more on paper, but Shopify hosts it, patches it and runs the checkout, so busy days and security are its job. WooCommerce wins when a WordPress plugin is the business and someone is paid to keep it patched. Fee by fee, in Australian dollars.
- Shopify Basic
- $56 a month
- Shopify card fee
- 1.7% + 30c
- WooCommerce
- free, plus hosting
- Woo card fee
- 1.75% + 30c, or Stripe 1.65%
- Who patches it
- Shopify, or you
- Our pick
- Shopify, most of the time
- Price
- see our own price list
Read on 24 October 2026, monthly billing, Australian dollars unless marked. Shopify was showing two sets of yearly prices that day, so only monthly prices are quoted.
Australia · 2026Shopify for most stores. WooCommerce when a plugin is the business.
For most Australian online stores, Shopify is the better choice in 2026. It costs $56 a month on Basic and 1.7% plus 30 cents per Australian card sale, and in return Shopify hosts, secures and updates the whole store, checkout included.
WooCommerce is free to install, but it runs inside WordPress, so the bill moves elsewhere: hosting at about A$27 to A$65 a month once the first-year discount ends, paid extensions at A$115 to A$406 a year each, and someone to keep WordPress, PHP and every plugin up to date. Card fees are close: WooPayments charges 1.75% plus 30 cents, plus GST unless you are registered, and Stripe 1.65% plus 30 cents.
Security is where they part ways. Shopify is certified PCI DSS Level 1, the card industry's highest level, for every store. A WooCommerce store is only as safe as its host, its PHP version and its least-maintained plugin: in May 2026 a Funnel Builder flaw was used to steal card details from WooCommerce checkouts, and October's PHP2Shell flaws left every unpatched WordPress server exposed.
WooCommerce still wins when the store depends on a WordPress plugin with no Shopify equivalent, when a large content site already runs on WordPress, and when a developer is already paid to patch it.
Moving across keeps your products, customers, orders and Google rankings, with every old address redirected. Store Leads counts 140,156 live Shopify stores in Australia against 82,728 on WooCommerce.
Shopify or WooCommerce, row by row.
| Compared on | Shopify | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Shopify $56 on Basic, $149 on Grow, $575 on Advanced, billed monthly, plus GST unless your ABN is on the account | WooCommerce The plugin is free. Hosting runs from about A$27 to A$65 a month at renewal on SiteGround, or A$40 a month billed yearly on WP Engine |
| Card fees | Shopify 1.7% plus 30c on Basic, 1.55% on Grow, 1.35% on Advanced, GST included | WooCommerce WooPayments 1.75% plus 30c, plus GST unless registered, or Stripe 1.65% plus 30c including GST |
| Other payment providers | Shopify Another gateway costs an extra 2% per order on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced | WooCommerce No platform fee on top of the provider |
| Extra features | Shopify Apps, most with a free plan and US$15 to US$50 a month once you pay | WooCommerce Extensions at A$115 to A$406 a year each, such as Product Add-Ons, Bookings and Subscriptions |
| Security and updates | Shopify Hosted and patched by Shopify, and PCI DSS Level 1 certified for every store | WooCommerce Your host patches PHP, and you or your developer update WordPress, WooCommerce, the theme and every plugin |
| Busy days | Shopify Shopify's servers take the peak, so there is nothing to scale | WooCommerce Down to the hosting plan. Two of our clients came to us from WooCommerce stores that slowed or crashed when traffic peaked |
| Checkout | Shopify Shopify's own checkout, with Shop Pay, fraud checks and Afterpay for Australian stores | WooCommerce WooCommerce's checkout, plus whichever payment plugins you add |
| Editing | Shopify Shopify admin for products, the theme editor or a CMS such as Sanity for content | WooCommerce The WordPress admin for everything |
| Best for | Shopify Most stores, from a first product to tens of thousands | WooCommerce Stores built around a WordPress plugin with no Shopify equivalent, with a developer already on hand |
Shopify for most stores: a little more on paper, far less to look after, and a checkout that is Shopify's job to secure. WooCommerce when a WordPress plugin is the business and someone is paid to patch it.
The same small store, a year on each.
A GST-registered store taking 100 Australian card orders of $100 a month. Our arithmetic on the prices read on 24 October 2026; apps and extensions are listed below the total because every store needs different ones.
| A year of | Shopify Basic | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Shopify Basic $672 ($56 a month) | WooCommerce $0 |
| Hosting | Shopify Basic included | WooCommerce $480 (SiteGround GrowBig at renewal) |
| Card fees 1,200 orders of $100 | Shopify Basic $2,400 (Shopify Payments, 1.7% + 30c) | WooCommerce $2,460 (WooPayments, 1.75% + 30c) |
| Keeping it patched | Shopify Basic $0 | WooCommerce $1,188 (a care plan at $99 a month) |
| Total before apps and extensions | Shopify Basic about $3,070 | WooCommerce about $4,130 |
| Apps or extensions each, if you need them | Shopify Basic US$15–50 a month | WooCommerce A$115–406 a year |
Shopify's yearly billing would lower its plan line, but Shopify showed $42 a month to some visitors and $50 to others on 24 October 2026, so the table uses the monthly price. With Stripe instead of WooPayments the WooCommerce card fees would be $2,340. The $99 care plan is the entry price in our guide to what a website costs to run.
When WooCommerce still makes sense.
- 01
The feature is a WordPress plugin.
A booking system, a membership area or a product builder that only exists as a WordPress plugin and would cost more to rebuild than to keep.
- 02
The content is the business.
A large blog or resource library already in WordPress, with the shop a small part of it.
- 03
Someone already maintains it.
A developer is paid to update WordPress, PHP, WooCommerce and the plugins, and acts the day a flaw is announced.
When Shopify pays for itself.
- 01
The store has outgrown its hosting.
Crashes on sale days, slow product pages, or a hosting bill that keeps climbing. Karis Life's WooCommerce store crashed when it got busy; on Shopify it stays up.
- 02
Security keeps you up at night.
Karis Life's WordPress and WooCommerce store was hit by ransomware twice before it moved. On Shopify, the checkout and the servers are Shopify's to secure.
- 03
Nobody wants to be the developer.
Updates, backups and plugin conflicts stop being anyone's weekend job.
- 04
You want Afterpay and Shop Pay without plugins.
Afterpay is available to Shopify stores with an Australian or New Zealand address, and Shop Pay is built in.
Who moves stores to Shopify in Australia, and what to ask.
- 01
Which plugins move, and what replaces each one?
A list, plugin by plugin, with the Shopify app or built feature that replaces it and its monthly price.
- 02
How will customers sign in on day one?
Passwords can't be moved to Shopify, so ask what customers see and which email they get.
- 03
Which old addresses get redirected?
Every product, category and page. Shopify addresses always start with /products/ and /collections/, so each old one needs mapping.
- 04
What happens to past orders and Afterpay refunds?
Order history can come across with an app, but Afterpay refunds on old WooCommerce orders stay in the old plugin, so keep it running for a while.
- 05
Who looks after the store after launch?
A named person, what they check each month, and what it costs.
- 06
We do.
Croissant & Baguette is a small studio with a network of Australian specialists, and a Shopify Partner. Karis Life and Kea Health both moved from WooCommerce to Shopify stores we built: one had crashed on busy days and been hit by ransomware twice, the other slowed under traffic.
A 20-minute look at your store tells us what moves, what gets rebuilt and what it costs.
What we charge.
- Custom Shopify theme a WooCommerce store moved to Shopify
- from $9,000 typically $9–16k
- Headless storefront a custom shop front with Shopify behind it
- from $12,000 typically $18–35k
- Care plan monitoring, updates, small changes and a monthly speed report
- from $250/month
What moves the price within those ranges:
- how many products and customers move across, and how many old addresses need redirecting
- which plugins become Shopify apps and which are built as features
- how many custom sections or page layouts the store needs
- connections to accounting, shipping, email or point of sale
Where the money goes in a store move
Into the design, the import and the redirects; the platform barely moves the bill. Coming from WooCommerce adds the product and customer import, the map from every old address to its new one, and the features that used to be plugins, and the quote lists each.
Fixed quote after a 20-minute call. Bug fixes and critical updates are included for the first 12 months.
Ask away.
Seven things people ask before they choose. What Shopify charges in full is in our guide to Shopify fees in Australia. Still one missing? Ask us.
Is Shopify cheaper than WooCommerce in Australia?
Usually, once the whole bill is counted. Shopify Basic costs $56 a month and the WooCommerce plugin is free, but WooCommerce needs hosting, paid extensions and someone to keep it patched. For a store taking 100 orders of $100 a month, our sums put a year on Shopify Basic at about $3,070 and on WooCommerce at about $4,130, before apps or extensions.
Is WooCommerce free?
The plugin is free; running a store with it is not. Woo's own pricing page puts hosting at $25 to $350 a month for most stores and extensions at $29 to $299 a year each, without naming the currency. Card fees come on top, and someone still has to update WordPress, WooCommerce, PHP and every plugin, which is your time or a care plan.
Is Shopify more secure than WooCommerce?
For most store owners, yes, because Shopify does the patching. Shopify is certified PCI DSS Level 1 for every store and runs its own servers. A WooCommerce store depends on its host updating PHP and on every plugin: in May 2026 a flaw in Funnel Builder, used on more than 40,000 WooCommerce checkouts, was used to steal card details.
Was WooCommerce affected by PHP2Shell?
Yes, wherever the server's PHP wasn't updated. WooCommerce runs inside WordPress, which runs on PHP, and WordPress.org said on 21 October 2026 that no WordPress update was needed or planned: the fix was for hosts to update PHP. Shopify stores were not affected in any way their owners had to fix. Our PHP2Shell guide has the checks.
Can I move from WooCommerce to Shopify without losing SEO?
Yes, if every old address is redirected. Shopify's own migration app brings products and customers across, an app such as Matrixify (from US$20 a month) can bring orders and redirects, and Shopify accepts up to 100,000 redirects. The work is mapping each old product and category address to its new one, then watching Google Search Console for a month after launch.
Do customers need to reset their passwords?
Passwords can't be moved to Shopify, so customers either set a new one or, on Shopify's newer customer accounts, sign in with a one-time six-digit code sent to their email and no password at all. Their order history and addresses can come across. Tell them before launch, in the same email that announces the new store.
Which is better for a small Australian business?
Shopify, unless the business already runs on WordPress and has someone to maintain it. Shopify pays out in Australian dollars within two business days, lets Australian stores add Afterpay, and leaves the servers and the checkout's security to Shopify, which is the part a small team has least time for. Most of the first year's cost is the build, not the plan.
Sources
Read on 24 October 2026; prices change often, and the vendor pages are the ones to check.
- 01 Shopify pricing, Australia Shopify · plans and Shopify Payments rates
- 02 Third-party transaction fees Shopify Help Center
- 03 PCI compliance Shopify · Level 1 PCI DSS
- 04 WooCommerce pricing WooCommerce · hosting and extension ranges
- 05 WooPayments fees WooCommerce · Australian card rates
- 06 Stripe pricing, Australia Stripe · 1.65% + 30c since 1 October 2026
- 07 WooCommerce hosting SiteGround · AUD, renewal prices
- 08 Funnel Builder vulnerability exploited Sansec · 14 May 2026
- 09 Critical PHP security release WordPress.org · 21 October 2026
- 10 Migrating from WooCommerce Shopify Help Center
- 11 URL redirects Shopify Help Center · up to 100,000 redirects
- 12 New customer accounts Shopify Help Center · one-time codes
- 13 Top Shopify stores in Australia Store Leads · updated 16 October 2026
- 14 Top WooCommerce stores in Australia Store Leads · updated 16 October 2026
- eCommerce. Shopify stores, from a custom theme to a fully custom storefront.
- Shopify fees. Every Shopify fee in Australian dollars, with a calculator.
- Headless or a theme? When a custom shop front is worth it, and when a theme is enough.
- Leaving WordPress. Every page moved across, every old address redirected, and nothing left to patch.