Most comparisons of these two platforms are written for a market where Stripe works, cash on delivery is unusual and nobody has heard of a pathao rider. None of that describes selling online in Bangladesh, and the things that actually decide the choice here barely appear in those articles.
Payments decide more than features
This is the first question, not the fifth. Your customers expect bKash, Nagad and cash on delivery — and how well each platform handles those differs.
- WooCommerce has local plugins for the local gateways, and because it is self-hosted you can integrate whatever a provider offers. More setup work, no ceiling.
- Shopify supports local gateways through third-party apps, and its own payment product is not available here. Check that your specific gateway has a current, maintained app before committing — not after.
Cash on delivery deserves its own thought. If most of your orders are COD, the platform matters less than your process for confirming orders before dispatch, because a COD order is not a sale until someone accepts the parcel.
Delivery and couriers
Whichever you choose, you will be working with local couriers. Ask the same question of both: does the courier you use have a current integration, and does it push tracking back into the order?
If it does not, somebody on your team will be copying order details into a courier panel by hand every day. That is a real cost, it scales badly, and it is worth choosing a platform around.
What each one genuinely gets right
Shopify is hosted, so security patches, uptime and scaling are not yours to worry about. The admin is the best in the business and staff learn it quickly. Checkout is fast and well-tested. You trade control for not having to think.
WooCommerce is WordPress, so you own everything and can change anything. No revenue share. The same site can carry a serious content operation — which matters if you plan to earn search traffic rather than buy every visit. In return, hosting, updates, backups and security are your responsibility or your agency's.
The cost comparison people get wrong
Shopify's monthly fee is visible and predictable. WooCommerce's "free" is only the software — hosting, a decent theme, several paid plugins and maintenance are real, recurring, and easy to underestimate.
Run the comparison over three years with your actual order volume, including transaction fees and the cost of somebody maintaining it. The answer flips depending on volume, and it is rarely the one people assume before doing the arithmetic.
The trap: migration is expensive both ways
Products migrate reasonably well. Order history, customer accounts, URLs and search rankings do not. Moving platforms after two years is a project, not an afternoon.
So choose for where you expect to be in three years, not where you are this month. The most expensive version of this decision is making it twice.
A rough rule
- Choose Shopify if you want to start selling quickly, have no technical person, run a manageable catalogue, and would rather pay a monthly fee than manage infrastructure.
- Choose WooCommerce if you need control over checkout or integrations, plan to compete on content and search, have unusual products or pricing, or want to avoid per-sale platform costs at higher volume.
Both are correct answers for different businesses. Anyone who tells you one is simply better has not asked what you sell.
We build on both, which means we have no stake in the answer. If you want a straight recommendation for your catalogue and order volume, tell us what you sell — and web development sets out how we work.