Most Indian businesses that want to sell online end up choosing between the same two platforms: Shopify and WooCommerce. Both can run a serious store. They differ in who looks after the technology, how costs grow as you sell more, and how much you can change.
This guide compares them on the things that matter most to a store selling in India: payments, cash on delivery, GST, shipping, running costs and day-to-day upkeep. It ends with a simple way to decide.
The short answer
- Choose Shopify if you want to start selling quickly, you don't have anyone technical in the team, and your store works the way most stores work.
- Choose WooCommerce if you want full control of your site and data, you already run WordPress, or you need features a standard store doesn't offer.
- Consider a custom build only when neither fits: unusual pricing rules, a marketplace with many sellers, or deep links into your own billing or inventory systems.
The rest of this guide explains why.
How the two platforms work
Shopify is a hosted service. You pay a monthly subscription, and Shopify runs the servers, security, updates and checkout. You customise the store with a theme and add features with apps from the Shopify App Store, many of which have their own monthly fee.
WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns a WordPress website into a store. The software costs nothing, but you need your own hosting, and you (or your developer) are responsible for updates, backups, security and speed. Extra features come from plugins, some free and some paid.
The simplest way to think about it: Shopify is renting a fully serviced shop; WooCommerce is owning the building and maintaining it yourself.
Payments and UPI
Indian customers expect to pay by UPI, cards, net banking and wallets. Both platforms handle all of these through an Indian payment gateway such as Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree or CCAvenue.
The difference is in fees:
- On Shopify, Indian stores typically use a third-party gateway, and on most plans Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top of the gateway's charge for orders paid that way. Check Shopify's current pricing page for your plan before you commit, as this changes.
- On WooCommerce, there is no platform fee per order. You pay only the gateway's charges.
For a small store the difference is minor. As your monthly sales grow, the per-order fee on Shopify becomes a cost worth calculating.
Cash on delivery
Cash on delivery is still a large share of orders for many Indian stores. Both platforms support it:
- Shopify offers it as a manual payment method, and apps can add rules such as a COD charge, a minimum order value, or pincode restrictions.
- WooCommerce includes cash on delivery out of the box, and plugins add the same kinds of rules.
Whichever you choose, the harder problem is returned COD orders. Confirming orders by SMS or WhatsApp before dispatch, and limiting COD to pincodes and order values where it works, usually matters more than the platform.
GST and invoices
Both platforms can apply tax to prices. Neither produces a GST-compliant invoice, with your GSTIN, HSN codes and the correct CGST, SGST or IGST split, entirely on its own setup.
- On Shopify, this is normally done with a GST invoicing app.
- On WooCommerce, it is done with an invoicing plugin, or by connecting the store to your accounting software.
Decide early whether your prices include GST or have it added at checkout, and confirm the tax setup with your accountant before launch. Fixing tax settings after hundreds of orders is painful on either platform.
Shipping
Most Indian stores ship through an aggregator such as Shiprocket, Delhivery or a similar service, which compares couriers and prints labels. The major aggregators connect to both Shopify and WooCommerce, so shipping is rarely the deciding factor. Check that your preferred courier partner has a maintained integration for the platform you choose.
Running costs
It is easy to compare the wrong numbers. Compare the total monthly cost, not just the headline price:
| Cost | Shopify | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Monthly subscription | Free |
| Hosting | Included | You pay for it, and the quality matters |
| Theme | Free or one-off paid | Free or one-off paid |
| Extra features | Apps, often monthly | Plugins, free, one-off or yearly |
| Per-order platform fee | On most plans with third-party gateways | None |
| Updates and security | Included | Your responsibility, or a maintenance contract |
WooCommerce often looks cheaper at the start. Once you add good hosting and someone to keep it updated and secure, the totals are often closer than expected. Shopify often looks simple at the start, until several monthly apps add up.
Control and flexibility
This is where WooCommerce wins clearly. Because it is your own WordPress site, you can change anything: the checkout, the product pages, how data is stored, and how the store connects to other systems. Your data lives on your own server, and moving hosts is straightforward.
Shopify gives you a lot through themes and apps, but you work inside its rules. Some changes, especially to checkout, are restricted on lower plans. Leaving Shopify later is possible, but it is a migration project, not a file copy.
Upkeep
A Shopify store mostly looks after itself. You still need to manage products, apps and content, but Shopify handles the platform.
A WooCommerce store needs regular care: WordPress, WooCommerce and every plugin need updating, the site needs backups, and someone should watch for security issues and slow pages. Left alone, a WooCommerce store becomes slow and vulnerable. With proper maintenance it is very reliable. We have run a WooCommerce store for a wellness brand since its launch, and the maintenance is what keeps it healthy.
How to decide
Answer these four questions:
- Is anyone in your team comfortable with technical work, or will you pay for ongoing maintenance? If neither, choose Shopify.
- Do you need anything unusual? Custom pricing, B2B and retail on one site, complex bundles, or links into your own systems point towards WooCommerce or a custom build.
- How large do you expect your monthly sales to be? The higher the sales, the more Shopify's per-order fee and monthly apps matter, and the more WooCommerce's lower running cost pays off.
- Do you already have a WordPress site with content that ranks on Google? Adding WooCommerce to it keeps everything in one place.
If your answers point in different directions, start with the first question. A store nobody maintains is worse than a store with fewer features.
Next step
If you're still unsure, tell us what you sell, roughly how many products you have and how you take orders today. We'll recommend a platform and explain why. Get in touch for a straight answer, or see the online stores we have built.