Shopify vs WooCommerce for Indian Businesses (2026)

Shopify vs WooCommerce comes down to this for most Indian businesses: Shopify is quicker to launch and needs almost no technical upkeep, while WooCommerce costs less to run once sales grow and gives you full control of your store. The India-specific detail that tips the maths is that Shopify Payments is not available in India. So Shopify charges an extra 0.6% to 2% on every online payment you take through Razorpay, Cashfree or PayU, on top of the gateway's own fee.

This guide compares the two on what matters to an Indian store: cost in rupees, UPI and cash on delivery, GST invoices, Shiprocket, SEO, upkeep and growth. It ends with a verdict by business type and a checklist. Every price and rule links to the page we checked it on, on 6 October 2026.

Shopify vs WooCommerce at a glance

Sources for each row are linked in the sections below.

The basic difference

Shopify is software you rent. You pay a monthly plan, and Shopify runs the servers, the checkout, security patches and updates. You manage products and orders from a dashboard and add features through apps.

WooCommerce turns a WordPress website into a store. WooCommerce describes itself as "the free, open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress" with "0% revenue share". You choose your own hosting, install it, and own every file and database row. Most of the trade-offs below follow from that.

Shopify vs WooCommerce cost in India (2026)

Here is what each costs to run, using prices we checked today. Build costs, if you hire someone, are covered in our ecommerce website development cost guide.

Shopify plans in rupees

Source: Shopify India pricing, checked 6 October 2026. The page was also running a 3-day free trial followed by ₹20 a month for 3 months.

Shopify also adds GST to its own bills. Its help centre says Indian merchants can add their GSTIN to stop GST being charged on future invoices, and that GST already charged on earlier bills is not refunded. If you are registered, add it on day one.

WooCommerce running costs

The plugin is free, but a WooCommerce store has three bills of its own.

• Hosting. Entry plans are cheap. Hostinger India's WordPress plans start at ₹69 a month on a 48-month term, renewing at ₹289, and all list ecommerce support. A store with steady traffic usually needs more than the cheapest shared plan.

• Extensions. WooCommerce lists paid extensions at $29 to $299 a year each. They are billed in US dollars, so the rupee cost moves with the exchange rate. Many India-specific plugins, including Razorpay and Shiprocket, are free.

• Upkeep. WordPress, WooCommerce and every plugin need updates, backups and testing. Either you do this or you pay someone to.

The transaction fee Indian Shopify stores pay

In countries with Shopify Payments, merchants can avoid Shopify's extra fee by using its own gateway. Indian merchants cannot. Razorpay's September 2026 guide confirms the 2%, 1% and 0.6% fees apply on Basic, Grow and Advanced when you use a third-party gateway.

So on a ₹1,000 prepaid order on Shopify Basic, you pay ₹20 to Shopify. Razorpay's standard rate is 2% plus GST, so another ₹20 plus ₹3.60 GST goes to the gateway. On WooCommerce, the same order pays only the gateway's ₹23.60.

Cash on delivery is the exception. Shopify says "You aren't charged third-party transaction fees for manual payments", and it lists cash on delivery as a manual payment. For Indian stores with a high share of COD orders, Shopify's fee bites less than it first appears.

When does WooCommerce become cheaper?

The table below compares monthly platform costs at three sales levels. Gateway fees are left out because they are the same on both platforms.

The WooCommerce figure is an assumption for illustration: ₹6,000 a month for hosting, paid extensions and someone to keep the site updated, rising to ₹10,000 at ₹10 lakh in sales for better hosting. Your real number could be lower or higher. All sales are assumed to be prepaid online.

On these assumptions, WooCommerce gets cheaper than Shopify Basic once prepaid online sales pass about ₹2.25 lakh a month. Moving from Basic to Grow only pays off above about ₹4.1 lakh a month, because Grow costs ₹4,100 more and saves 1%.

COD changes the picture. At ₹3 lakh in sales with 40% paid on delivery, Shopify Basic charges its 2% on only ₹1.8 lakh. That is ₹3,600, for a total of ₹5,099, which is now below the WooCommerce figure.

Run this sum with your own sales, your own COD share and a real hosting and maintenance quote before you decide.

Payments in India: UPI, cards and cash on delivery

Both platforms handle the payment methods Indian buyers expect, through a gateway.

• Shopify. Connect Razorpay, Cashfree, PayU or another supported provider for UPI, cards, netbanking and wallets. Cash on delivery is a built-in manual payment option with no Shopify fee.

• WooCommerce. The free Razorpay for WooCommerce plugin has over 100,000 active installs and supports cards, UPI, netbanking, wallets and EMI. Cash on delivery is built into WooCommerce, and you can limit it to chosen shipping methods.

One practical note: the Razorpay plugin's public rating on WordPress.org was 2.5 out of 5 when we checked, with reviews mentioning payment-status issues. Place real test orders, including failed and refunded payments, before you launch on any gateway plugin.

For international buyers, Razorpay's guide lists 3% plus GST for international cards and some premium methods. That applies on either platform.

GST invoices and tax settings

Neither platform produces a GST-compliant invoice on its own.

Shopify's India GST guide says plainly that "Shopify doesn't create a GST-compliant bill", so you need an invoicing app. The same page notes you can't set multiple tax lines, so CGST and SGST are entered as a combined rate. Its default rates are only a starting point you must review with your CA.

On WooCommerce, tax rates are set in WooCommerce settings, and invoices come from a plugin. The free PDF Invoices & Packing Slips plugin has over 300,000 installs and fully editable templates, so a developer can add your GSTIN, HSN codes and tax split. Budget a few hours to set it up and check it with your accountant.

Shipping: Shiprocket and Indian couriers

Both platforms connect to Shiprocket, the aggregator many Indian D2C brands use.

• The Shiprocket Shopify app syncs orders, offers tracking updates by email, WhatsApp and SMS, and lists coverage of 24,000+ Indian pincodes. It has a free plan, with optional paid tiers at $3 to $9 a month.

• The free Shiprocket WooCommerce plugin syncs orders, shows live shipping rates at checkout and lists 26,000+ pincodes.

Shipping is not a reason to pick one platform over the other, because Shiprocket's per-shipment rates do not depend on which store platform you use.

Ease of use and day-to-day upkeep

This is Shopify's strongest point. You can set up a store on a theme without touching a server, and Shopify handles uptime and security.

WooCommerce is not hard to use once set up, because it runs inside the familiar WordPress dashboard. The work is around it: choosing hosting, installing SSL, updating plugins and fixing the occasional conflict after an update. If nobody on your team will own that, either budget for a maintenance contract or choose Shopify.

SEO: which one ranks better?

Both can rank on Google. Rankings depend far more on your content, product pages, speed and links than on the platform.

• Shopify handles the basics well: editable titles and meta descriptions, automatic sitemaps, and a customisable robots.txt through a theme template. Its URL prefixes are fixed, though: /products/, /collections/, /pages/ and /blogs/ cannot be removed.

• WooCommerce gives you full control of URLs, schema, redirects and server settings through WordPress and SEO plugins. WordPress is also a stronger blogging tool, which matters if content will drive your traffic.

If organic search is your main growth channel, WooCommerce gives you more room. If you are planning to hire help, our guide to SEO cost in India explains what monthly retainers include.

Speed and security

On Shopify, hosting, SSL and platform security are included, and a slow store is usually down to the theme or too many apps.

On WooCommerce, speed and security depend on your hosting and on how well the site is maintained. A WooCommerce store on good hosting with few plugins can be fast; one on the cheapest shared plan with dozens of plugins will not be. Outdated plugins are the most common weak point, so updates and backups are not optional for a store holding customer data.

That matters more now in India. The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules were notified on 14 November 2025 with an 18-month phased timeline, and an online store collects names, phone numbers and addresses on every order.

Customisation, scaling and moving later

Shopify is customisable within limits. Themes can be edited and apps add features, but you cannot change the checkout or the core platform the way you can with open-source code. Many features you would build once on WooCommerce become monthly app fees on Shopify.

WooCommerce has no ceiling on custom work: B2B price lists, custom product builders, ERP or Tally sync. The trade-off is that complex stores need good hosting and a developer who knows WordPress well.

On ownership, WooCommerce stores everything in your own database on your own hosting. Shopify lets you export products, customers and orders, but the store itself lives on Shopify. Moving either way is possible. Plan redirects from old URLs to new ones so you keep your Google rankings.

Verdict: which should you choose?

A small Shopify store can do very well, and so can a well-run WooCommerce one.

Checklist: answer these before you decide

1. What are your expected monthly online sales in the first year?

2. What share of orders will be cash on delivery?

3. Will anyone on your team, or a developer, keep WordPress and plugins updated?

4. Do you already have a WordPress site with traffic you want to keep?

5. Do you need GST invoices with HSN codes from day one? Who will set them up?

6. Which gateway will you use, and have you checked its current rates and offers?

7. Do you need any custom features, such as B2B pricing or a product builder?

8. How many people need admin logins?

9. Is SEO and blogging a main source of customers in your plan?

10. Have you priced the paid apps or extensions you will need for one year?

If most of your answers point to "no developer" and "launch fast", start on Shopify. If they point to "prepaid sales growing" and "control", choose WooCommerce. For a full first-year budget, see our website development cost guide as well as the ecommerce guide linked above.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Shopify take from a ₹1,000 sale in India?

On a prepaid order through a third-party gateway, Shopify takes 2% on Basic (₹20), 1% on Grow (₹10) or 0.6% on Advanced (₹6). Your gateway charges its own fee on top, for example 2% plus GST on Razorpay's standard rate. On a cash on delivery order, Shopify takes no transaction fee.

Is WooCommerce really free?

The WooCommerce plugin is free, with no revenue share. You still pay for hosting, a domain, any paid extensions at $29 to $299 a year each, and the time or cost of keeping the site updated.

What is the main disadvantage of Shopify for Indian stores?

Because Shopify Payments is not available in India, you pay Shopify's 0.6% to 2% fee on online payments on top of your gateway fee. Apps billed monthly also add up, and you have less control over URLs and the checkout than with WooCommerce.

Which is better for SEO, WordPress or Shopify?

Both can rank well. WordPress with WooCommerce gives more control over URLs, schema and content, while Shopify covers the basics with less effort but fixes its URL prefixes. Content quality and site speed matter more than the platform.

Is Shopify still worth it in 2026?

For new sellers who want to launch quickly without managing a server, yes. It is less attractive for stores with large prepaid sales, where the per-sale fee can cost more each month than running WooCommerce.

Can I move from Shopify to WooCommerce later, or the other way?

Yes. Products, customers and orders can be exported and imported, though themes and apps do not carry over. Set up 301 redirects from every old URL so you keep your search rankings.

Need help choosing or building your store?

Webhorse Studio builds Shopify and WooCommerce stores for businesses in Mumbai and across India, including Razorpay, Shiprocket and GST invoice setup. See our ecommerce website development services, or tell us about your store and we will recommend the platform that fits your sales and budget.