Shopify vs WooCommerce in South Africa, and the third option
15 October 2026 · 6 min read
Shopify is the easier way to start, and it costs more per sale in South Africa: plans bill in US dollars, and because Shopify Payments isn't available here, Shopify adds 0.6% to 2% to every sale on a local gateway. WooCommerce is free and takes nothing from your sales, but you pay for hosting and paid add-ons, and someone has to keep the site updated and secure. If you'll run the store yourself and sell a few hundred orders a month, Shopify is usually less hassle. If you have a developer you trust and sell steadily, WooCommerce usually costs less.
There's a third route for a shop that also trades in person, which we get to at the end: a store system that runs the tills and the website on one stock count, priced in rands. That's Sirat Retail OS, and it's what we build.
What's the actual difference?
Shopify is a hosted service. You pay a monthly plan, Shopify runs the servers, the security and the updates, and you add features by installing apps from its app store. You can't move the store itself anywhere else; you can export your products and customers.
WooCommerce is a free add-on (a "plugin") for WordPress, the software that runs a large share of the world's websites. You install it on hosting you pay for, choose a theme, and add features with more plugins. You control everything, including the problems.
What does each cost to run?
Checked September 2026 on each provider's own page. Shopify's dollar prices are converted at about R16.20 to the dollar, the rate on 23 September 2026, and the rand figures will move with the exchange rate.
| Cost | Shopify | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Software | Basic US$25/mo, Grow US$65/mo (about R405 and R1 053) | Free, with "0% revenue share" |
| Extra fee on local gateway sales | 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced | None |
| Hosting | Included | Your cost: xneelo WordPress hosting from R99/mo; HOSTAFRICA's shop plan R600/mo at its regular price |
| Paid themes | US$100 to US$420 once-off on the theme store | Varies by seller |
| Add-ons | Apps, most billed monthly in US dollars | WooCommerce lists paid extensions at US$29 to US$299 a year each |
| Payment gateway | Payfast, Yoco, Peach Payments and others | The same local gateways, through their WooCommerce plugins |
| Updates and security | Shopify's job | Yours, or your developer's |
The card fee itself is the same on both: Payfast charges 3.2% + R2 per card sale whichever platform sends it the order. What differs is what the platform adds on top, and on WooCommerce that's nothing.
Where does Shopify cost more?
On sales. Shopify Payments doesn't operate in South Africa, so every South African Shopify store pays Shopify's third-party fee on card and instant EFT sales. The only exemption is manual payments, such as a bank deposit you check and mark as paid yourself.
On R80 000 a month in card sales on Basic, that fee is R1 600 a month. It's the same store, the same gateway and the same customers; the R1 600 goes to Shopify for letting you use a local gateway. We work through a full month in what Shopify really costs in South Africa.
The other Shopify cost is the dollar. Your plan and most of your apps are billed in US dollars, so a weaker rand raises your costs without you changing anything.
Where does WooCommerce cost more?
In time and in someone's attention.
WordPress, WooCommerce, the theme and every plugin release updates, often several a month. Most are harmless. Some break the checkout, and some close security holes, which is why an out-of-date plugin is a common way into a WordPress site. So you either do the updates yourself, carefully, with a backup first, or you pay a developer or agency a monthly fee to do them. Those retainers vary too much to quote, but budget for one.
Speed is the other cost. Cheap shared hosting and a stack of plugins make a slow store, and slow stores lose sales on mobile data. Faster WooCommerce hosting exists. WooCommerce's own pricing page puts hosting at US$25 to US$350 a month for most stores, which is a long way from the R99 plan.
Which one should you pick?
Choose Shopify if:
- you'll build and run the store yourself, without a developer
- you're testing whether a product sells and want to start this week
- you sell mostly overseas
Choose WooCommerce if:
- you already have a WordPress site and a developer who looks after it properly
- you need to change how the store works in ways Shopify apps don't cover
- your sales are big enough that Shopify's percentage hurts, and you'll pay for good hosting and upkeep instead
Neither is a great fit if you also have a physical shop. Both can connect to a till system, but that usually means a third product, another monthly bill, and a sync between them that someone has to watch. When the sync slips, the website sells stock the shop sold an hour ago.
What's the third option?
Sirat Retail OS is one system for the online store and the shop tills. The same stock count serves both, so a sale at the till takes the item off the website straight away. We designed it for owner-run South African shops that sell in person and online. Victoria Packaging, Sizabantu Fabrics and Bargain Home are among the stores running on it now.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Setup: design in your brand, store build, payments, domain and staff training | Once-off, quoted per store |
| Starter: 1 branch, 2 staff logins | R400/mo |
| Growth: 3 branches, 5 staff logins, SMS campaigns and loyalty | R900/mo |
| Pro: 5 branches, 10 staff logins, customer app with push notifications | R1 500/mo |
| Till (point of sale) | Pro only, with one till included; more tills priced with you |
| Added to your sales | 0% |
Yearly billing is 10 months' fee. Payments go through Bob Pay, Paystack, Payfast, Payflex, PayJustNow and EFT, and you pay only the provider's fee. Updates, hosting and security are our job, like Shopify, but everything is priced in rands and nothing is added per sale, like WooCommerce.
What you don't get: the freedom to hire any developer to change the code. We keep the platform and code, licensed while you're subscribed. Your domain stays in your name, and your products, customers and orders can be exported any time.
It isn't for everyone. If you have no shop and sell a few orders a month, the cost of a store setup is hard to justify, and a Shopify trial is the cheaper experiment. If your store depends on a niche WordPress plugin, stay where it works.
Can you move from WooCommerce without losing everything?
Yes. When a store moves from WooCommerce to Retail OS, we bring across the products and customers, and we redirect the old product and category links so people arriving from Google or old bookmarks land on the right page.
If you're weighing up a move, or starting from a shop with no website yet, how to start an online store when you already have a shop walks through it.
Next step
Tell us what you sell, how many branches you have and where your store runs today. See how Sirat Retail OS works, ask for an estimate at /price, or WhatsApp us on +27 73 453 8352. We reply within one working day.