Short answer: Shopify — if you want to launch in a week and accept a subscription; WooCommerce — if you're already on WordPress and the catalog is small; headless on Next.js — if speed, custom logic and the kind of volume where conversion hinges on every tenth of a second of load time matter. There's no universal "best" — there's the right fit for your stage.
I build headless stores and migrate clients off the first two, so I'll lay this out without zealotry: each platform has honest upsides and an honest price.
Comparison in one table
| Criterion | Shopify | WooCommerce | Headless (Next.js) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | days | 2–4 weeks | 5–10 weeks |
| LCP (mobile) | 1.5–3 s | 2–5 s | 0.4–1.2 s |
| Subscription | $29–299/mo | none | none |
| Cut of sales | up to 2% (without Shopify Payments) | none | none |
| Logic flexibility | limited | medium (plugins) | full (code) |
| Who fills content | anyone | anyone | needs a CMS layer |
| Maintenance | minimal | weekly | quarterly |
| Best for | fast start | small/mid catalog | volume, custom logic |
Shopify: fast, but rented
Shopify is a rented store. You pay $29–299 a month, get hosting, payments, themes and apps — and launch in days. For testing a niche or a first store, that's sensible.
The downsides start at volume. The subscription is always running. If you don't use Shopify Payments, the platform takes up to 2% of every sale on top. A feature you need often lives in a paid app at $10–50/mo, and those apps add up to 5–10. Any non-standard logic (B2B pricing, complex cart, custom search) hits the limits of Liquid — you build "what Shopify allows," not "what the business needs."
Pick Shopify if: you're testing a niche, need a launch in a week, run standard retail, don't want to think about tech, and accept paying for it monthly.
WooCommerce: free as a platform, paid as a kit
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. The platform itself is free, and if you already have a WordPress site, adding a store here is logical. Any non-technical person can fill content, and the plugin ecosystem is huge.
But "free" is deceptive. A real store gets assembled from paid plugins (shipping, payments, filters, speed) — €150–800 a year. WooCommerce inherits WordPress's weak spots: speed drops as the catalog grows, and security depends on timely plugin updates every week. At 50–300 products with standard logic it works fine. At 2,000+ SKUs or complex scenarios it starts to lag and demand expensive hosting.
Pick WooCommerce if: you're already on WordPress, the catalog is small/mid, you want full control over content without a developer, and you accept weekly upkeep.
Headless on Next.js: pricey to launch, cheap to own
Headless means separation: the storefront (front end) on Next.js, while products, cart and payments go through a commerce engine (MedusaJS, Shopify as a backend, Saleor) and Stripe. The front end serves static files from a CDN, so the catalog loads in 0.4–1.2 seconds versus 2–5 on a typical WooCommerce.
This gives three things the first two don't: speed (and therefore conversion and SEO), any logic (B2B, subscriptions, custom cart — that's code, not platform limits), and low cost of ownership (no subscription, no plugins, no cut of sales). The honest downside: more expensive and slower to launch, and filling content needs a CMS layer (Sanity, MDX) rather than an admin panel out of the box.
Pick headless if: volume already depends on speed and conversion, you need custom logic, serious multilingual support (PL/EN/UA/RU with correct hreflang), or you don't want to maintain the store every week.
How to choose in 30 seconds
- Just testing an idea, minimal budget → Shopify or a ready template.
- Already on WordPress, catalog up to ~300 products → WooCommerce.
- Volume growing, speed and SEO affect revenue → headless on Next.js.
- Need non-standard logic or B2B → headless; anything else hits limits.
- A store in several languages for Poland and abroad → headless with correct hreflang.
And the key point: you can migrate from any platform. Moving to headless while keeping products, orders and SEO URLs (via 301 redirects) is a standard scenario — Google rankings aren't lost.
FAQ
WooCommerce or Shopify — which is better? Shopify — faster start and fewer technical worries, but a subscription and sometimes a cut of sales. WooCommerce — a free platform and full control over content, but it gets assembled from plugins and needs upkeep. For a small catalog on WordPress — WooCommerce; for a quick niche test — Shopify.
What is a headless store? A store where the storefront (front end on Next.js) is separated from the commerce engine and payments. The front end serves static files from a CDN — hence 0.4–1.2 s speed and strong technical SEO. It fits volume and custom logic.
What's faster and better for SEO? Headless: LCP 0.4–1.2 s versus 2–5 s on WooCommerce, plus control over schema, hreflang and the Google Shopping feed in code. Core Web Vitals is a ranking factor, and speed directly affects conversion.
What's cheaper over 3 years? It depends on volume. Shopify and WooCommerce are cheaper to launch but accumulate subscription, plugins and a cut. Headless costs more up front but has no growing tail of costs and is faster, which pays back in sales growth.
Can you move from Shopify or WooCommerce to headless? Yes. Products, orders and SEO URLs carry over, and old URLs are closed with 301 redirects — Google rankings are preserved. It's a common scenario as you grow.
Not sure what fits your catalog and volume? See how I build online stores on Next.js, or write to me — in 30 minutes I'll suggest the right platform for your case and give a fixed quote.