You have decided to sell online. Now the platform question arrives, and it is almost always argued as a matter of taste: one is said to be simpler, the other more flexible. Those are adjectives. It is more useful to tie the decision to the few structures in which a hosted platform and a self-hosted shop genuinely differ.
First, so you can place the rest: we build both. WooCommerce on WordPress and Shopify as a hosted platform are both part of what we do, and neither answer is the more convenient one for us. So you will not find a list of the other system’s supposed weaknesses here, but an attempt to reduce the difference to what you can check yourself.
The three axes on which the systems really differ
Almost everything sold as an advantage or a drawback in comparisons comes back to three questions. Answer them for your own business and you usually do not need the detailed debate at all.
1. Who owns the shop, and who maintains it?
A hosted platform is rented: the provider runs the software on their infrastructure, applies updates centrally and is responsible for operating the platform. A self-hosted shop belongs to you — it runs on hosting you choose, the installation is yours, and updates, backups and server upkeep sit with you or with a provider you engage.
That is not a judgement of quality but an allocation of work. The work disappears in neither model, it simply sits somewhere else. In the rented model you pay for it continuously and it is not on your desk. In the ownership model it is on your desk, and it has to carry a name.
2. How would you get back out?
Hardly anyone asks this before starting, and it is the most revealing question of the three. In a self-hosted shop your data consists of a database and a directory of files; both can be copied in full and brought back up elsewhere. On a hosted platform the data leaves through the export routes the provider offers — what comes out, and in which format, is set by the provider.
Check that before you decide, not afterwards: which exports exist for products, orders, customers and content? The answer sits in the provider’s documentation and takes half an hour to read. A system you can cleanly leave is one you can try out with a calm mind. With one you could not leave without losing data, the first decision is also the last one.
3. How does the cost behave over years?
The usual mistake is to compare the starting budgets. What matters is the trajectory. A rented model carries running costs tied to your plan and your usage, and they continue for as long as the shop exists. An ownership model shifts effort forward into setup and then into upkeep: hosting, extensions, and the time updates and testing actually take.
There are deliberately no figures here. Fee models differ by platform and by plan, they combine fixed elements with usage-dependent ones depending on the provider, and they change — any number in a blog article would be a snapshot and wrong soon after. The only reliable move is to go to the source: the provider’s current pricing page, plus the terms of your payment provider, who bills separately from the shop software.
What you can do instead is a calculation of your own with two lines: once with the order volume you have today, and once with the volume you expect in three years. The gap between those two results says more than any general price comparison, because the models behave differently as you grow. That is where the decision is actually made, not in the first month.
The criteria side by side
The table below compares two operating models, not two products. Work through it row by row and note which column better describes your situation. If one column clearly dominates, you have your answer.
| Criterion | Hosted platform | Self-hosted (WooCommerce) |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership of the installation | You rent the operation; the installation sits with the provider | The installation is yours and runs on hosting you choose |
| Updates and operational safety | The provider applies platform updates centrally | You or your provider apply updates and are responsible for backups |
| Where order and customer data sits | On the provider’s infrastructure; access through their exports and interfaces | In your own database, which you access directly |
| Customising the checkout | Within the scope the platform provides for it | The checkout is code, and code can be changed |
| Relationship to the existing website | Shop and website are separate systems unless the website runs there too | Shop and website share one WordPress installation and one admin area |
| Fee model | Fixed elements plus usage-dependent ones depending on the plan; read the terms at the provider | No licence fee for the shop software itself; hosting, extensions and payment providers are billed separately |
| Dependence on a roadmap | The provider develops the feature set and the terms | The feature set follows an open ecosystem of core and extensions |
| Moving to another system | Data leaves the platform through the export routes provided | Database and files can be copied in full and moved |
Four questions that usually tip the decision
The table shows the landscape. In practice the decision is almost always tipped by one of these four questions. Answer them honestly, including when the answer is inconvenient.
Who carries updates and security?
Not: who could take that on, but: who does, by name. In the rented model the structure gives you the answer. In the ownership model you have to create it yourself, in house or through a maintenance agreement. Both are legitimate choices. There is only no third variant: a shop of your own that nobody feels responsible for.
How far do you want to customise the checkout?
Get concrete here, or the question leads nowhere. Do you ship by weight, by zone, or by collection in person? Do you need tiered pricing, units of measure, or a B2B view with net prices? Does the order have to flow into an inventory system you already run? The more of these apply, the more the decision pulls towards a system whose checkout is code. If a standard flow without special rules is enough, customisability is not an argument worth the operational effort.
Do you already run WordPress?
If your website already runs on WordPress and you update content there regularly, the self-hosted route has a practical head start: one interface, one login, one editorial process for pages, blog and products. If the website runs on something else, that advantage falls away. Switching the whole website just so the shop fits is rarely the cheaper calculation.
How comfortable are you depending on a roadmap?
With a hosted platform, one provider decides which features exist, which terms apply and when either changes. For many businesses that is a good trade: fewer decisions, less to operate. Others would rather hold the wheel themselves, even though that means work. There is no generally correct answer — only a wrong approach, which is not asking the question at all.
What stays the same either way
Some points depend not on the system but on the fact that you are selling to consumers in Germany. They arise on any platform and are therefore no use as a criterion for the choice:
- A right-of-withdrawal notice and model withdrawal form, at the right point in checkout and sent with the order
- Terms and conditions that match your catalogue and the regions you ship to
- Price information under the German price indication rules, including total price, VAT notice, shipping costs and, where applicable, the unit price
- An order button that states the obligation to pay unambiguously
- A privacy policy that covers ordering, payment and shipping
- Product photos, descriptions and shipping rules that somebody has to write and maintain
The last point delays projects most often. The system is standing within days; the content for sixty products is not standing within days. Debating the platform question at length while leaving the content until later pushes the launch back by weeks — regardless of how the decision turned out.
How we settle the question in the first consultation
We have no house preference that we impose on every project. We ask the same five questions and derive the recommendation from the answers:
- What system does your website run on today, and who maintains it?
- What is special about the sale — variants, tiers, shipping rules, tax rates, B2B?
- Who takes on updates, backups and regular test orders after launch?
- What order volume do you expect today and in three years?
- How important is it to you to be able to take the shop with you in full at any time?
The recommendation usually follows from the answers by itself, and it is explicitly allowed to be that you stay with the system you already have. Switching platforms is a project with migration effort, training and transition risk — it pays off when it solves a named problem, not because a comparison article online implies a preference. The first consultation costs nothing, and we quote shops individually once these points are clear.
Frequently asked questions about Shopify and WooCommerce
There is no universally valid answer, because the two are different operating models: in one you rent the operation, in the other you own the installation. The better model is the one that matches your answers to three questions — who takes on maintenance, how far the checkout should depart from the standard, and how important a complete move later is to you. We build both and recommend on those criteria.
That cannot be answered in general, and any figure in an article would date quickly. The models distribute cost differently: the rented model charges continuously for operation, the ownership model charges for hosting, extensions and upkeep. Run your own scenario with current terms directly at the provider, and include your payment provider’s fees, which apply separately in both cases.
A move is possible in principle and is a project in its own right in either direction: products, orders, customers and content have to be exported, prepared and imported, plus redirects for old addresses. How much effort it takes depends mainly on which export routes your current platform offers. That is exactly why the question is worth settling before you start rather than during the move.
Yes. WooCommerce is an extension for WordPress and requires a WordPress installation. If your website runs on WordPress anyway, that means one shared interface for pages, blog and products. If it runs on something else, the additional effort for WordPress belongs in the decision.
In both models you as the operator remain responsible for the data. The difference is where the data physically sits and how you reach it: in a self-hosted shop it is in your own database, on a hosted platform it sits on their infrastructure with access through the exports and interfaces provided. Check which exports exist, and in which format, before you decide.
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