Introduction: Why Choosing the Right Platform Matters

Choosing to build a website as a newbie in digital marketing feels hard and confusing, and it’s hard to decide what kind of website you need to start out with and what are the ways to build the websites and start selling there. So to save you from the confusion and dilemma, there are various ways to build a website. The first one is coding, and to build a website from scratch and from code requires you to learn it and put your time and effort into it, and you don’t want that, do you? Otherwise, you would have gone for development, not digital marketing and business. But there are other ways as well, like platforms that give you ways to build the website in the drag-and-drop method. This way, you can make the website easily and hassle-free, kinda.

There are various platforms that are available in the current market in 2025-2026 as well, like WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and others as well. Today we will be discussing WordPress and Shopify, the two of the most popular platforms that are available in the market that are easy to understand for new people getting into the website-building space, the persons that want to build a business and take their business online. That’s why choosing the right platform matters a lot for the person learning this for the first time.​

What Is WordPress?

So the big question lies now: what is WordPress, the thing that presses the words? Well, no, it’s a platform where you can build your website and customize it through the drag-and-drop builders, and you can create your whole website through drag and drop. This is the advantage of WordPress, and I am not gonna give you boring facts about WordPress, how it’s made and trivia kind of information. I am just giving you the experience I have with WordPress, and matter of fact, this website is also made in WordPress, so yeah, it is a great platform to build websites.​

Primary Use Cases

OK, so WordPress is not perfect; neither are we, so yes, there are some problems here and there, but we can learn how and where WordPress can help us in our journey. So what are the primary use cases of the WordPress website? Blogs, portfolios, and some ecommerce with the WooCommerce plugin. So the best use of this website builder is to create simple and effective websites for writing and selling products.​

What Is Shopify?

So let’s discuss the next contender of this choice that we have to consider—Shopify, the best platform for ecommerce. So the major difference between WordPress and Shopify is that Shopify is the best place to build an ecommerce website. You will get the ease of use and ease to build the website, but it’s gonna cost you more per year compared to WordPress. But the design part of Shopify is better, and it’s easier to manage, and it’s best for business. So if you have a business, Shopify becomes a better choice for new people that want to grow their business. And I have also worked on the Shopify store and done their SEO and built it from scratch, so in terms of ease of use, Shopify can feel easier to use and execute. And the capturing of payment and managing the inventory and the displaying of the inventory is professional and easy to manage in Shopify compared to WordPress.​

Ease of Use: WordPress vs Shopify

If we compare both of them head to head and know the situation and the kind of work we want from the platforms, then we can see what platform is gonna feel easy and amazing to use. So in terms of the designing and the management part, Shopify is the king in this department. You can easily manage and use Shopify if you do not know anything about website building and managing your products. Shopify gives you ease of use and a simple UI to work with, whereas the room for customization is more in WordPress, but you will need knowledge to make it work.​

There can be so much customization in WordPress, but it requires time and effort, whereas Shopify is easy to customize and use in this department. So if you are totally new to website building and learning digital marketing and you want something easy to use, Shopify is the way to go and build your website in.​

SEO Capabilities

So what is SEO and why does it matter? OK, so let’s understand SEO first. SEO is search engine optimization. It is the way that Google and other search engines find your website and the way they can easily read your content and show the content to the people that are searching for it. And it matters a lot because you want your website to rank and you need more traffic on your website. The more traffic you will get on the website, the chances of getting conversion will get higher. The organic searches will work in our favor for getting the leads and conversions we want, so let’s see what the SEO capabilities are for the 2 platforms.​

WordPress: Powerful SEO Plugins

WordPress has powerful SEO plugins that will help you to do the SEO and work on your website SEO. The most popular ones are Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All in One SEO. These plugins give you complete control over your meta tags, sitemaps, and technical SEO elements. You can customize your URL structures, add schema markup for rich snippets, and get real-time optimization suggestions as you write your content. WordPress also allows you direct access to your .htaccess file and robots.txt, giving you complete control over technical SEO elements that can make a real difference in rankings.​

Shopify: Built-In SEO Features

Shopify provides built-in SEO features as part of its core platform with several automated optimizations. It automatically generates canonical tags to prevent duplicate content, creates sitemap.xml and robots.txt files, and provides automated title tags. You can edit meta descriptions and title tags for all content types including products, collections, blogs, and pages. The platform takes a “done-for-you” approach to technical SEO, which helps if you’re not an SEO expert, but this automation comes with some trade-offs like less granular control over technical SEO elements and structured URL patterns that aren’t fully customizable.​

The Verdict on SEO

WordPress wins in terms of SEO capabilities through its extensive plugin ecosystem and complete technical control. While Shopify provides a solid foundation with automated SEO features that many stores will find sufficient, WordPress’s depth of customization and advanced optimization tools make it the clear winner for SEO-focused businesses.​

Pricing: What Will It Cost You?

Let’s talk money because that’s important when you’re starting out. WordPress itself is free, but you need to pay for hosting, domain, and other stuff. You can start a basic WordPress site for around $100-$200 per year, which includes domain ($10-$20/year), shared hosting ($3-$5/month), and maybe a premium theme. For an ecommerce site with WooCommerce, you’re looking at around $300-$800 per year.​

Shopify, on the other hand, has fixed monthly plans. The Basic plan starts at $39/month (or $29/month when billed annually), the Shopify plan is $105/month (or $79/month annually), and the Advanced plan is $399/month (or $299/month annually). Plus, you’ll pay transaction fees—2.9% plus 30 cents per online transaction on the Basic plan if you use Shopify Payments. If you use a third-party payment gateway, Shopify charges additional transaction fees on top of the gateway’s fees.​

WordPress doesn’t charge additional transaction fees for using third-party gateways, which can be a significant cost-saving advantage. So if you’re on a tight budget and don’t mind doing a bit more work yourself, WordPress can be cheaper in the long run.​

Customer Support and Community

Shopify offers 24/7 customer support through live chat, email, and phone. You can contact them anytime you need help, and they’re pretty responsive. This is great when you’re new and need someone to hold your hand through the process.​

WordPress doesn’t have official customer support because it’s open-source, but it has a massive global community. There are forums, tutorials, YouTube videos, and countless blogs where you can find answers to pretty much any question. The community support is amazing, but it might take a bit more effort to find solutions compared to just chatting with Shopify support.​

Final Thoughts: Which One Should You Choose?

So here’s the deal—both platforms are great, but they serve different purposes. If you want to start a blog, build a portfolio, or have a content-heavy website with some ecommerce on the side, go with WordPress. It gives you more control, better SEO capabilities, and can be cheaper if you’re willing to put in the work.​

But if you’re focused purely on ecommerce, want something easy to use from day one, and don’t mind paying a bit more for convenience, Shopify is your best bet. It’s professional, easy to manage, and handles all the technical stuff for you so you can focus on growing your business.​

At the end of the day, it depends on what you need and how much time you want to invest in learning. Both will get you where you want to go—it’s just about choosing the right vehicle for your journey. Good luck with your website-building adventure!