The e-commerce decision is rarely about the platform itself. It's about your team, your product catalogue, your growth trajectory, and your tolerance for maintenance overhead. We've built on Shopify, Shopify Plus, WooCommerce, and headless combinations of both. Here's the 2026 reality.
The one-line summary
If you're doing under AUD $2M revenue and don't have a dev team, use Shopify. If you're on WordPress already, have unusual product configurations, or want zero per-transaction fees, use WooCommerce. If you're doing over $5M and need custom everything, look at Shopify Plus or a headless build.
Shopify: what it actually costs in Australia
Shopify's monthly plans in AUD (2026):
- Basic: AUD $51/month + 1.75% transaction fee (2% if not using Shopify Payments)
- Grow: AUD $132/month + 1.6% transaction fee
- Advanced: AUD $549/month + 1.4% transaction fee
- Plus: from AUD $3,600/month + variable fees
That's the platform. Now add the reality: apps. The average Aussie Shopify store runs 12–18 paid apps — Klaviyo (email), Yotpo (reviews), Bold Subscriptions, ReCharge, LoyaltyLion, Aftership. Combined app cost lands at AUD $200–800/month depending on volume.
Add a theme (Dawn is free, premium themes are AUD $250–500 one-off), a custom domain (AUD $20/year), and any developer time. Realistic year-one cost for a starting Aussie Shopify store: AUD $5,000–15,000.
WooCommerce: what it actually costs
WooCommerce itself is free. That's the pitch — and the trap. Real costs:
- Hosting — WP Engine, Kinsta, or Cloudways ecommerce plans: AUD $60–300/month
- Premium theme (Kadence, GeneratePress, Blocksy): AUD $150–450/year
- Extensions — subscriptions, bookings, shipping, tax, memberships each cost $50–200/year
- Stripe or PayPal fees — 1.75% + 30¢ per transaction (no platform fee on top)
Year-one realistic cost: AUD $2,500–8,000. Cheaper on paper. But the maintenance overhead is real — updates, security, backups, plugin conflicts. Budget 3–5 hours a month for care.
When Shopify wins
Shopify wins on speed to launch and ops overhead. Non-technical teams can add products, run promotions, and change theme settings without touching code. Every checkout is PCI-DSS compliant out of the box. Shopify's checkout genuinely converts better than most WooCommerce setups by 5–15% (their internal data, but our own tests confirm the direction).
Pick Shopify if:
- You want to launch in weeks, not months
- Your team is marketing- and merchandising-first, not tech-first
- You'll be running paid ads at scale — Shopify's integrations with Meta, Google, and TikTok are best-in-class
- You need reliable inventory sync across multiple sales channels
- You're happy to pay the 1.4–1.75% transaction fee for less operational headache
When WooCommerce wins
WooCommerce wins on control and customisation. It's a plugin for WordPress, so if you're already on WordPress (or need a rich content-marketing side to your store), the integration is native. There's no per-transaction platform fee. Custom checkout flows, complex product configurations, unusual pricing rules — all more flexible on Woo.
Pick WooCommerce if:
- You're already on WordPress and content marketing is a core channel
- You have unusual products — configurable options, bundles, custom quotes, made-to-order
- You do B2B with tiered pricing, quote requests, or purchase orders
- You want to own every part of the stack (no risk of a platform changing terms)
- You have (or hire) a developer to maintain it — this is not optional
What about headless?
Headless (Next.js or Nuxt frontend + Shopify or Woo backend) is genuinely faster and lets you build a custom experience. It also doubles your engineering complexity. Reserve for stores doing over AUD $5M revenue where a 1% conversion lift pays for the extra dev time.
Our verdict for 2026 AU/NZ SMEs
For most Australian and New Zealand businesses launching an e-commerce store in 2026, Shopify is the right default. The lower operational burden and higher checkout conversion typically outweigh the platform fees over the first two years.
Move to WooCommerce (or invest in headless Shopify) only when you can point at a specific need Shopify can't meet — usually B2B pricing, complex product configurations, or a heavy content-marketing motion where WordPress already lives.
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