Shopify vs WooCommerce for Devon businesses

Devon businesses ask us this before anything else: Shopify or WooCommerce? Both can sell well. They cost different things to run, and they suit different catalogues. This is how we choose, from a studio in the South Hams that builds both.

You work with the person who will build the store. We meet in Kingsbridge, Dartmouth and the wider South Hams when that helps, and we work with clients across Devon and the UK.

The short version

• Shopify when the shop is the website. A focused catalogue, a small team, and a wish to spend time on products rather than updates.
• WooCommerce when WordPress is already the right home, or the products are awkward: bundles, trade pricing, subscriptions, or rules that a standard shop theme will not cover.
• Move later if you already have a WooCommerce or WordPress site and the day-to-day running has become the problem. That is a migration, not a fresh argument.

Day to day

Shopify is a hosted shop. Payments, checkout and hosting sit with Shopify. You pay a monthly platform fee on top of the build. Apps cover extras, and we only add the ones that earn their place. There is no plugin pile and no PHP update waiting on your host.

WooCommerce is shop software on WordPress. There is no Shopify-style platform fee, but you pay for hosting, and someone has to keep WordPress, the theme and the plugins current. Done with care, it is flexible. Left alone, it becomes slow and fragile. Where we look after WooCommerce, the site sits on managed servers that monitor threats, so urgent issues are handled rather than discovered by you.

For a maker, a boutique or a food brand with a clear range, Shopify is usually the calmer week. For a business already writing and organising a large WordPress site, WooCommerce keeps the shop and the content in one login.

Catalogue and the awkward products

Shopify is excellent when products are straightforward and the work is merchandising: collections, photography, a clean path to checkout. Personalisation and variants are very doable. We have done that for Will Bees Bespoke in Salcombe, Odds & Suds, Noyces in Kingsbridge, and Relish Lifestyle.

WooCommerce is the better tool when the catalogue itself is the project. Bundles, kits, trade prices and product rules that staff must manage without a developer on call. Blacker Yarns is that kind of shop: a large yarn catalogue, kits and the operational detail around them.

If you are unsure which you are, describe how an order is priced and packed. That answer usually picks the platform.

What it costs to build

Guide prices are at £50 per hour. Final quotes follow a short discovery chat. Integrations with stock, accounts or bookings are scoped separately.

• Shopify Launch - £2,500 to £5,000 (about 50-100 hours). A new store, or a clean start: theme, products, payments, shipping and launch support.
• WooCommerce Rebuild / Rescue - £2,000 to £4,500 (about 40-90 hours). Fix or modernise a shop that has grown messy, slow or hard to run.
• WooCommerce to Shopify Migration - £3,000 to £6,000 (about 60-120 hours). When the right answer is to leave WooCommerce, not rescue it.

Shopify's own monthly fee is extra, and it depends on the plan you need. WooCommerce's ongoing cost is hosting plus the time to keep it updated. We put both on the table before you commit.

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A Devon decision, not a fashion

National agencies will sell you whichever platform they prefer this year. We will not. A South Hams gallery with forty products and a farm shop with trade accounts are different businesses. Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, Totnes and the rest of Devon have both.

If you want the recommendation in writing for your catalogue, tell us how you sell today. If you already know you are leaving WooCommerce or a WordPress site, the migration guide is the next page.