WooCommerce migration can be a massive decision for any eCommerce company. Whether it is to reduce platform fees, have more control over the customization of your store, or even get away from the limitations of hosted platforms, the benefits are relative. However, you must know the different costs of such a migration before taking a plunge. 

Here, we have broken down the financial and non-financial costs of migrating your Shopify store to WooCommerce with the help of a WooCommerce development company.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: In-Depth Comparison

Each solution has specific strengths and weaknesses, and WooCommerce and Shopify do. Therefore, we must understand both in detail to decide whether Shopify migration is worth it.

Here are the five best features store owners consider in an e-commerce platform while migrating to a reliable platform.

1. Ease of Use

Each store owner wants the eCommerce platform interface to be user-friendly so they can easily handle customer feedback, process orders, reply to queries, and work with vendor management. Shopify fits here just as it should.

WooCommerce requires more learning than Shopify. To work flawlessly on it, you need some technical expertise, such as Shopify development services providers, or at least an understanding of the WordPress dashboard. 

2. Customization Capabilities 

Most store owners fill this gap with a couple of clicks, given that more than 8,000 apps are in the Shopify App Store, each vetted by Shopify. Moreover, you needn’t think over technical questions such as updating or compatibility-Shopping does all that work.

Moreover, WooCommerce boasts a pool of plugins and extensions and is highly customizable. However, incorporating a plugin or extension needs at least primary technological knowledge.

3. Scalability and Growth

When you migrate to another eCommerce platform, the growth opportunity will be a big headache. When chosen, if your eCommerce platform cannot sustain the growth in orders, it directly affects your business.

Speaking of scalability, both WooCommerce and Shopify offer scaling possibilities. WooCommerce is open-sourced, meaning the scaling options depend directly on your hosting solution. The more powerful the hosting solution, your WooCommerce store will be when you collaborate with a WooCommerce development company.

With Shopify, hosting is already included in every plan, so you only need to upgrade to a more extensive plan as your business grows. While this might make Shopify more expensive to scale, remember that it is an all-in-one solution that saves you from searching for hosting and themes. 

4. Security

Your e-store processes transactions and holds customers’ personal information. So, during migration, you should maintain the security level provided by the platform.  

Shopify is a PCI-compliant platform with a fully hosted solution that manages security certificates. That means once you have a store with Shopify, you will never have to bother your head with data security. Shopify would handle any security breaches to keep your site safe from hackers.  

On the other hand, WooCommerce is self-hosted, which brings some degree of security out of the box. However, you must rely on plugins for tightly locked security in your store. Finally, you will need a hosting solution for WooCommerce that offers excellent server-level security, adding layers of protection to your store.

5. Support Options

It is essential to find the proper support on the platform. What if, after migration, several issues pop up on that platform, and none of the support channels respond? You will feel shattered.

Up until now, you relied on the range of resources provided by WooCommerce, from tutorials and videos to a knowledge base, to get assistance with problems. And yes, because it is an open-source plugin, WooCommerce lacks direct support options, such as live chat, calls, or emails.

On the other hand, Shopify offers 24/7 support via live chats, calls, and emails, so reaching them for assistance is precise. Recently, Shopify introduced an AI assistant that further helped users, ensuring your queries were resolved right from Shopify development services providers.

Cost to Migrate a WooCommerce to Shopify

Migration to Shopify does not bear any fixed price tag. Usually, the cost is divided into different chunks when migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify. Below, I’ve included a breakdown of each associated cost. 

1. Shopify Subscription Fees

When you migrate from WooCommerce, you’ll first have to buy a Shopify subscription plan that is right for your business’s size.

Here is the list of Shopify pricing plans for Shopify development services providers and suggestions for each business size best suited.

List of Plans	Plan Pricing	Best for
Basic Shopify plan	$39 per month (25% off on yearly payment)	Individuals and Small Businesses
Shopify Plan	$105 per month (25% off on annual payment)	Small Businesses
Advance Shopify Plan	$399 per month (25% off on annual payment)	Medium to Large large-sized businesses
Shopify Plus	Starting from $2000 per month	Enterprise sized businesses

You can select any of these pricing packages to proceed with Shopify, but just make sure it fits your business needs. Once you pick one that is right for your match, consider the costs associated with that pricing plan.

2. Store Data Migration Cost

Data transfer is the next big step once you subscribe to a plan and log into Shopify. This is where you import your data from the old WooCommerce store into the new Shopify store. A Shopify developer imports or exports data to a target store to ensure a smooth and successful transfer.

I have also included rough estimates here to estimate how much you will spend when hiring Shopify experts to do data migrations.

Shopify expert hiring cost for migration:

• Fixed Rate: $10,000 – $20,000
• Hourly Basis: About $20-$55 Per Hour
• These cost figures shall depend on your niche, store complexity, store size, time consumption of the process, and expertise level of Shopify developers you go ahead with.

Conclusion

WooCommerce is undoubtedly a great platform, but it surely annoys any store owner by asking for some technical knowledge to work seamlessly with it. On the other hand, Shopify is reliable, easy to use, and has excellent scaling options. Migration from the vast world of WooCommerce to Shopify might sound doubtful. Still, it is among the best decisions most store owners make when collaborating with a WooCommerce development company.