On the prices read here, WooCommerce is cheaper at $2,000 a month in sales ($36.89 against $58.90) and Shopify is cheaper at $50,000; at $10,000 it depends on the euro rate, because the two WooCommerce plugins are priced in euros. The platform bill is small next to ad spend and your own time. Card fees are the same on both sides if Shopify Payments Basic is taken at 2.9% + $0.30, which is an assumption, not a read figure; WooPayments’ 2.9% + $0.30 is read. The decision is therefore less about price than about who maintains the store; the section at the end splits it.
The model, with every assumption
- Average order value $50, so $2,000, $10,000 and $50,000 a month means 40, 200 and 1,000 orders. (Our assumption.)
- A dropshipping store using the “Dropshipping starter” stack from the app cost dataset: DSers Advanced $19.90, ReConvert Growth $9.99 (free up to 50 orders), Judge.me free, GemPages free.
- Shopify Basic at $39 a month on monthly billing ($29 on yearly), per a third-party USD guide; Shopify’s own page showed euros (Basic 28 monthly, 21 yearly) from the research location.
- Woo side: the same dropshipping app price (DSers Advanced, assumed to run on WooCommerce at the same price; confirm before relying on it).
- Woo equivalents, nearest listed, not identical: Product Bundles for the upsell app, AutomateWoo for email and abandoned-cart flows (Shopify Email is free up to 10,000 emails a month, see the email comparison).
- WooCommerce.com lists both extensions in euros only, with no US dollar price on the pages read: Product Bundles 71 EUR a year, AutomateWoo 142 EUR a year (read 2 Oct 2026). We do not convert them. They are kept in euros on their own line and never added into a dollar total.
- Hosting at renewal prices, not the introductory price. Hosts sized by our guess: no vendor ties a plan to a sales level, and SiteGround’s visit limits were not read.
- Excluded on both sides: domain, theme, developer time, ads, Woo security or backup extras beyond what hosts include.
Hosting prices read
| Host and plan | Intro | Renewal | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Unlimited | $3.99 a month | $16.99 a month | 48-month term, 50 GB, daily backups |
| Hostinger Cloud Startup | $7.99 | $25.99 | 48-month term, 100 GB |
| SiteGround StartUp | $2.99 | $17.99 | 12 months prepaid, 1 site, 10 GB |
| SiteGround GrowBig | $4.99 | $29.99 | 50 GB, staging |
| SiteGround GoGeek | $7.99 | $44.99 | 100 GB |
Monthly cost, calculated
| Line | $2k a month (40 orders) | $10k (200 orders) | $50k (1,000 orders) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify plan, Basic monthly | 39.00 | 39.00 | 39.00 |
| Apps: DSers 19.90 + ReConvert | 19.90 (ReConvert free) | 29.89 | 29.89 |
| Shopify Email | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Shopify total | 58.90 | 68.89 | 68.89 |
| WooCommerce host (renewal) | 16.99 (Hostinger Unlimited) | 29.99 (SiteGround GrowBig) | 44.99 (SiteGround GoGeek) |
| DSers Advanced | 19.90 | 19.90 | 19.90 |
| Woo total, USD lines only | 36.89 | 49.89 | 64.89 |
| Plus plugins in EUR: Product Bundles 71 / 12 | 0 | 5.92 EUR | 5.92 EUR |
| Plus plugins in EUR: AutomateWoo 142 / 12 | 0 | 11.83 EUR | 11.83 EUR |
| Woo total | $36.89 | $49.89 + 17.75 EUR | $64.89 + 17.75 EUR |
Check the sums: $2k Woo is 16.99 + 19.90 = 36.89; $10k USD lines are 29.99 + 19.90 = 49.89; $50k are 44.99 + 19.90 = 64.89; the plugins are 5.92 + 11.83 = 17.75 EUR a month. Shopify at yearly billing subtracts $10 from each Shopify total, which tilts all three rows toward Shopify.
Comparing across currencies. At $2k there are no euro items: Woo is $22.01 cheaper (58.90 - 36.89). At $10k Shopify’s $68.89 less Woo’s $49.89 leaves $19.00, so Woo is cheaper only if 17.75 EUR is worth less than $19.00, that is a rate below 19.00 / 17.75 = 1.07 dollars per euro. At $50k the gap is 68.89 - 64.89 = $4.00 before the plugins, so Shopify is cheaper at any rate above 4.00 / 17.75 = 0.23. Use the day’s rate to settle the $10k row; we have not taken one.
Payment fees, same on both sides
Shopify Payments Basic online US card is 2.9% + $0.30 (an assumption taken from the top of Shopify’s stated range, as in our payments comparison). WooPayments lists 2.9% + $0.30 in the US, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% currency conversion, $15 per dispute, no monthly fee. Calculation: 2.9% of $2,000 is $58, plus 40 x $0.30 = $12, total $70; at $10,000 it is $290 + $60 = $350; at $50,000 it is $1,450 + $300 = $1,750.
The trap is the other direction: on Shopify, using any outside gateway adds Shopify’s own fee (2% on Basic down to 0.2% on Plus, per its pricing page), which on $10,000 is $200 a month. See the third-party fee guide. On WooCommerce there is no such surcharge on a gateway; WooPayments is available only in the countries WooCommerce supports, so check yours.
Introductory prices change year one
Using the introductory hosting prices, year-one Woo at $2k falls to 3.99 + 19.90 = 23.89 a month. Those prices end at renewal: Hostinger’s 3.99 becomes 16.99, a 4.26 times increase. Shopify’s own offer is 3 days free then a promotional monthly fee for 3 months (pricing page); we kept both promotions out of the table.
Who each suits
| If you… | Pick |
|---|---|
| Want no server, update or plugin-conflict work | Shopify; at the largest size it is the cheaper of the two in the table above |
| Already run WordPress or have someone who maintains it | WooCommerce; lower bill at low volume |
| Sell mainly through one outside gateway | WooCommerce, to avoid Shopify’s extra fee |
| Expect to run several upsell and email tools | Count each: Woo extensions are yearly licences, Shopify apps are monthly |
For the wider field see Shopify vs Wix vs BigCommerce, the Shopify review, and DSers vs AutoDS for the dropshipping app line that is the same on both.
What we could not verify
Shopify US plan prices come from a third-party guide, not Shopify’s own page (shopify.com/pricing returned euros from the research location, and no US-locale page was readable). Host plan capacity at each sales level is our assumption. WooCommerce plugin prices were read in euros only and are not converted. The 2.9% + $0.30 Shopify Payments rate is an assumption; the WooPayments 2.9% + $0.30 US rate is read from WooCommerce’s documentation.
Method: researched from vendor pricing pages; checked 2 Oct 2026. All totals are our arithmetic from the stated assumptions.