Security, offline and access rules that differ between WooCommerce and Shopify. Rows where both tools are the same (1) are left out; the full side-by-side is on each tool’s page: WooCommerce, Shopify.
PartialThe Shopify POS app can complete checkouts offline with cash, custom payment methods and (once activated) card payments on supported readers; customers, gift cards, returns and inventory/order sync need internet, and orders sync automatically on reconnect.source
Offline limits
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Offline card payments need POS app 9.14.0+, a supported Shopify reader, a staff permission, and are capped by per-device daily and per-transaction limits.source
Office & room hardware
POS mode in the Woo mobile app accepts card payments via an M2 reader (US) or WisePad 3 reader (UK and other supported countries), Tap to Pay, or an Android phone as a remote reader.source
Shopify POS runs on iOS/Android and supports Shopify card readers (POS Go, POS Terminal, Tap & Chip and others) plus retail hardware such as barcode scanners and cash drawers.source
Set up single sign-on in Shopify on Shopify Plus before you invite the team, so accounts are created through your identity provider rather than by hand.
Shopify adds offline access (partial): install the mobile app for staff who work on the move.
Checked September 19, 2026 against each vendor’s own trust center, help docs and app pages. Hover or tap “source” to see the exact wording we relied on. “Not published” means we could not find the vendor saying it on its own site; it doesn’t mean the feature is missing. Plan names are the lowest plan the vendor says includes the feature. Security · Offline · Remote vs office · Download the data
ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS · MIGRATION GUIDE
Switching from WooCommerce to Shopify
Switching from WooCommerce to Shopify usually means trading self-hosted flexibility for a fully managed platform with built-in scaling, security, and support.
Quick verdict: A strong option for store owners tired of managing WordPress hosting, plugin conflicts, and security patches, though Shopify’s own WooCommerce import tool covers products only, so plan for manual work on everything else.
Why teams switch from WooCommerce to Shopify
No hosting or plugin maintenance
Shopify manages hosting, uptime, security patches, and PCI compliance, removing the ongoing technical burden of self-hosted WooCommerce.
Built-in POS and omnichannel selling
Shopify’s native POS and multi-channel selling (social, marketplaces) are more integrated than WooCommerce’s plugin-based equivalents.
More predictable performance at scale
Shopify’s infrastructure is built to handle traffic spikes without the server-tuning and caching work self-hosted WooCommerce often requires.
Estimate the real hidden cost of moving from WooCommerce to Shopify, not just the subscription price.
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Estimated migration time
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Data friction rating
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Total hidden switching cost
Data mapping & cleaning labor—
Migration / cleaning tooling fees—
Team retraining overhead—
Switching friction buffer (10%)—
Assumes a blended $45/hr internal labor rate, using Shopify’s native importer. Adjust the sliders to match your team.
How to migrate your data
Shopify’s official Store Migration app automates product import from WooCommerce, but it’s still in early access and covers only part of a typical store.
Step
What happens
1Set up your Shopify store
Create a new Shopify account and choose the plan tier that fits your catalog size and sales volume.
2Run Shopify’s Store Migration app
Use Shopify’s official (early-access) Store Migration app to import your WooCommerce product catalog with a few clicks.
3Check product options against Shopify’s 3-option cap
Review any products with more than three variant options, since Shopify only supports three and won’t import extra options automatically.
4Import customers and orders separately
Bring over customer and order history using Shopify’s CSV import tools or a third-party migration app, since the Store Migration app doesn’t cover these.
5Rebuild collections and store design
Manually recreate product collections and your storefront design using a Shopify theme, since these aren’t handled by the migration app.
6Set up 301 redirects and test checkout
Map old WooCommerce product and category URLs to their new Shopify equivalents, then test checkout and shipping rates before launch.
What Shopify’s importer doesn’t handle: Shopify’s Store Migration app is still in early access and imports products only — collections, customers, orders, and reviews all need separate CSV imports, third-party apps, or manual recreation, and products with more than three variant options lose the extras.
Pricing during the transition
WooCommerce is free software with separate hosting costs; Shopify bundles hosting and software into one subscription.
Plan
WooCommerce
Shopify
Free plan
WooCommerce plugin: free, but requires paid WordPress hosting
No permanent free plan — 3-day free trial only
Entry paid tier
Paid WordPress hosting required; price depends on the host you choose
WooCommerce itself is free and open-source, so its real cost is hosting, theme, and extensions, while Shopify instead bundles everything into a single predictable monthly subscription.
Feature-parity checklist
WooCommerce gives you more control and no platform transaction fee; Shopify offers a more turnkey, fully managed setup.
Feature
WooCommerce
Shopify equivalent
Transaction fees on non-native payments
No platform fee, only your payment processor’s standard rate
Extra fee unless using Shopify Payments
Hosting and uptime management
Self-managed via your WordPress host
Fully managed by Shopify
App/plugin ecosystem
Massive WordPress plugin ecosystem, more variable quality
Large, curated Shopify App Store
Built-in POS
Requires a separate WooCommerce POS extension
Native Shopify POS
Official migration tooling
Paid WooCommerce Marketplace extension (by FmeAddons, not Woo) imports products, customers, orders, coupons, pages, and blog posts from Shopify
Store Migration app imports from WooCommerce (early access, products only)
Yes, it’s a free first-party app, but it’s still in early access and available only to certain stores on desktop.
Will my product variants transfer correctly?
Only up to Shopify’s 3-option limit. Products with more than three variant options (like size, color, and material combined) will lose the extra options and need metafields or a third-party app.
Does the migration app bring over my customer and order history?
No, customers and orders aren’t covered by the Store Migration app, so you’ll need separate CSV imports or a third-party migration tool for those.
What about my WooCommerce product reviews?
Reviews don’t migrate natively at all; you’ll need a third-party review-import app to bring them into Shopify.
How do collections get set up in Shopify after migration?
They generally need to be recreated manually, since the Store Migration app’s documentation doesn’t confirm automated collection transfer.
Canonical data for the tools on this page
Every pricing fact, rating, AI billing model and switching guide we hold on each tool, on one page, with the date each figure was last verified.
Prices on this page were recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown at the top of the page. Vendors change pricing often — check the live source before you buy.
Verified prices costed for your team size, a check against your must-have requirements, the questions to settle before you sign, and a source for every figure. Print it, or paste it into an email to whoever approves the spend.
Built for the leader who owns the selection, answers for the spend, drives the rollout, and lives with the results. HelpCompare covers the whole decision, not just the first step.
Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.
“I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”
Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 16, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.
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