WordPress.com vs Shopify: Features, Pricing and Verdict
WordPress.com vs Shopify: prices, features, and selling tools compared side by side, with a clear verdict on which platform fits a content site or a store.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-13T04:23:42+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-13T04:23:42+00:00
WordPress.com vs Shopify: Features, Pricing and Verdict
WordPress.com and Shopify solve different problems. WordPress.com is a hosted website builder for blogs, business sites, and stores. Shopify is a dedicated ecommerce platform for selling products. Pick WordPress.com if content comes first. Pick Shopify if selling comes first.
This guide compares the two on price, features, ease of use, and selling tools. Every price below comes from the vendors' own pricing pages, checked in November 2026.
WordPress.com vs Shopify at a glance
| WordPress.com | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Blogs, content sites, small stores | Online stores of any size |
| Free plan | Yes, with 1 GB storage | No free plan; 3-day trial |
| Entry paid plan | Personal, $4 a month billed yearly | Basic, $29 a month billed yearly |
| Top paid plan | Commerce, $45 a month billed yearly | Plus, from $2,300 a month |
| Plugins and apps | Plugins on every paid plan | Thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store |
| Hosting included | Yes, on every plan | Yes, unlimited, on every plan |
| Free SSL certificate | Yes | Yes |
WordPress.com pricing
WordPress.com sells five plans. The free plan costs nothing and includes 1 GB of storage. Paid plans start at Personal and run to Commerce.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 1 GB |
| Personal | $9 a month | $4 a month ($48 a year) | 6 GB |
| Premium | $18 a month | $8 a month ($96 a year) | 13 GB |
| Business | $40 a month | $25 a month ($300 a year) | 50 GB |
| Commerce | $70 a month | $45 a month ($540 a year) | 50 GB |
These are first-term prices. Each plan renews at a higher rate after the first term. Personal renews at $5 a month, Premium at $9, Business at $28, and Commerce at $50 on yearly billing. Annual plans include a custom domain free for the first year.
Since April 2026, every paid plan can install plugins and upload third-party themes. Before that change, plugins were limited to higher plans. That change makes Personal a real option for small sites that need a specific plugin.
WordPress.com also charges its own fee on payments. The fee is 10% on Free, 8% on Personal, 4% on Premium, 2% on Business, and 0% on Commerce. This sits on top of the payment processor's fee.
Shopify pricing
Shopify sells four plans with a full online store. Basic, Grow, and Advanced are self-serve. Plus is the enterprise tier.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Online card rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 a month | $29 a month | 2.9% + 30 cents |
| Grow | $105 a month | $89 a month | 2.7% + 30 cents |
| Advanced | $399 a month | $359 a month | 2.5% + 30 cents |
| Plus | From $2,300 a month | 3-year term | 2.25% + 30 cents |
Shopify's yearly rates for Grow and Advanced changed in November 2026. Confirm the current figure on the pricing page before you buy. Basic is $29 a month billed yearly, or $39 month to month.
Shopify also charges a fee when you use a third-party payment gateway. The fee is 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus. Using Shopify Payments avoids that extra fee.
New merchants get a 3-day free trial, then $1 a month for the first 3 months on standard plans. The Starter plan, at $5 a month for selling through social links only, closed to new signups around August 2026. Basic is now the entry point for a new store.
What each platform does best
WordPress.com starts as a publishing platform. It gives you unlimited pages, unlimited users, and a block editor that suits long-form content. Premium adds premium themes, WordAds, and Google Analytics. Business adds staging, real-time backups, SFTP and SSH access, WP-CLI, and GitHub deployments. Commerce adds managed WooCommerce extensions and a 0% WordPress.com transaction fee.
Shopify starts as a selling platform. Every plan includes a full online store, unlimited products, and the Shopify checkout. Basic includes 10 inventory locations and live chat support. Grow adds 5 staff accounts. Advanced adds 15 staff accounts and third-party calculated shipping rates. Plus adds unlimited staff, a fully customizable checkout, and up to 9 expansion stores.
Both platforms include a free SSL certificate and a custom domain option. WordPress.com includes a free domain for one year on annual plans. Shopify includes unlimited web hosting on every plan.
Ease of use
WordPress.com suits people who want a site up fast with little setup. Pick a theme, add pages, and publish. The block editor handles text, images, and layouts without code. Business and Commerce add developer tools, but most users never touch them.
Shopify suits people who want to sell. The setup flow asks about products, then builds the store around them. Adding products, setting prices, and managing orders all happen in one dashboard. The theme editor controls the storefront without code. Apps extend the store, but each app adds cost and complexity.
Neither platform needs coding skill for a basic site. WordPress.com is simpler for a content site. Shopify is simpler for a store.
Selling online: WordPress.com vs Shopify
Shopify wins on selling depth. It has built-in inventory management, discount codes, gift cards, abandoned checkout recovery, and shipping discounts up to 87% on Basic. It also supports in-person sales with a card reader, and POS Pro costs $89 a month per location as an add-on.
WordPress.com sells through WooCommerce on the Commerce plan. It works well for a small store attached to a content site. The 0% transaction fee on Commerce helps. But the selling tools are not as deep as Shopify's, and the store depends on plugins for many features Shopify includes by default.
For a store that is the whole business, Shopify is the safer pick. For a blog or business site that also sells a few products, WordPress.com Commerce is enough.
Content, SEO, and blogging
WordPress.com wins on content. WordPress is built for publishing. It has a strong editor, categories and tags, scheduled posts, revision history, and a huge theme library. Premium adds Google Analytics. Every plan includes visitor stats.
Shopify includes a blog, but it is basic. It handles simple posts well. It lacks the depth of WordPress for a content-heavy site. If search traffic from articles is a core part of your plan, WordPress.com has the edge.
Both platforms handle the SEO basics: custom titles, meta descriptions, clean URLs, and sitemaps. WordPress.com's edge is the publishing workflow, not a technical SEO gap.
Which one should you choose?
Choose WordPress.com if your site is mainly content. A blog, a portfolio, or a small business site fits well. Start on Personal at $4 a month billed yearly. Move to Premium if you want to earn from ads or need Google Analytics. Move to Business if you need staging and developer tools. Move to Commerce only if you run a real store on WooCommerce.
Choose Shopify if your site is mainly a store. A product business, a brand selling direct, or a shop with staff needs Shopify's selling tools. Start on Basic at $29 a month billed yearly. Move to Grow when you need staff accounts and lower card rates. Move to Advanced for international selling and calculated shipping rates.
Do not pick Shopify for a blog that happens to sell a book. Do not pick WordPress.com for a store that happens to have a blog. Match the platform to the main job.
Bottom line
WordPress.com is the better website builder. Shopify is the better store builder. WordPress.com costs less at the entry level and excels at content. Shopify costs more and earns it back with selling tools. Pick the one that matches what your site does most. If that is writing, choose WordPress.com. If that is selling, choose Shopify.