WooCommerce vs. subscription store: which is right?
You want to sell online, and every search result gives you a different answer. One camp says rent a store from a platform like Shopify for a monthly fee. The other says build on WooCommerce, the open-source store software that runs on WordPress. The platforms make it sound like WooCommerce is for programmers. The WooCommerce crowd makes the platforms sound like a trap. Neither is quite true, and the wrong choice costs real money for years. Here is the honest version of WooCommerce vs. subscription store platforms, with 2026 prices, so you can pick the one that fits your shop instead of the one with the better ad.
The short version: a subscription store platform rents you a storefront for $39 to $399 a month, forever, and you never own it. A WooCommerce store costs more to set up but is an asset you own outright, with no platform fee on any sale. Testing an idea? Rent. Running a real business? Own.
In this post:
- What each one actually is
- What they really cost
- Who owns what
- The honest case for each
- The third option: own it without managing it
- Frequently asked questions
What each one actually is
A subscription store (Shopify, Squarespace Commerce, Wix, BigCommerce) is software you rent. The company hosts your store, handles the technical side, and charges a monthly fee for as long as the store exists. Your products, your theme, and your checkout all live inside their system.
WooCommerce is a free, open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. The software costs nothing, but it does not run itself: you (or someone you hire) supply the hosting, the design, and the upkeep. In exchange, the whole store belongs to you. The files, the product catalog, the customer list, all of it sits on hosting you control and can be moved anywhere.
That is the whole trade in one sentence: subscription platforms sell convenience you rent, WooCommerce gives you ownership you have to maintain.
What they really cost
Platform marketing leads with the starter price, so let’s lay out the actual numbers. Per Shopify’s current pricing, plans run $39/mo (Basic), $105/mo (Grow), and $399/mo (Advanced) on monthly billing, with discounts for paying a year up front. On top of the plan, Basic takes 2.9% + 30¢ per online card sale, and if you use an outside payment provider instead of theirs, Shopify adds another 2% per transaction on Basic. Most growing stores also end up paying for apps (reviews, email, bundles) that add their own monthly fees.
A WooCommerce store flips the shape of the cost. The software is free, so the money goes into the build and the hosting:
| Cost | Subscription platform | WooCommerce store |
|---|---|---|
| Software | $39 to $399/mo, forever | $0 (open source) |
| Build | DIY from a template | One-time build, or a managed subscription |
| Hosting | Included in the rent | Roughly $40 to $80/mo managed |
| Per-sale platform fee | Extra 2% on Basic with outside payment providers | None. You pay only your card processor’s standard rate |
| When you stop paying | The store goes offline | The store is still yours |
Run the plan fees forward and the “cheap” option stops looking cheap. Shopify’s Grow plan at $105/mo is $3,780 over three years, and at year four you are still renting. The platform fee never ends because it is not paying off a store, it is paying rent on one.
Who owns what
This is the question most owners skip, and it is the one that matters most when something changes.
On a subscription platform you can export your product list and customer CSV, and you should. But the store itself (the theme, the apps, the checkout, the URL structure) is not portable. Stop paying and the storefront goes dark. Want to leave? You are rebuilding, not moving.
With WooCommerce, the store is property. It is a set of files and a database on hosting you control. You can change hosts, change developers, or sell the business with the store included, the same way you would sell a building you own instead of a lease you hold. We have moved stores between hosts for clients in an afternoon. Nobody has to ask a platform’s permission.
For a business doing real volume, that difference compounds. Your customer relationships, your order history, and your search rankings are assets. On rented software, those assets live in someone else’s building.
The honest case for each
We build on WooCommerce, but we will not pretend the platforms are a scam. They are good software with a real place.
A subscription platform is the right call when:
- You are testing an idea and might shut it down in six months.
- You have 10 products, no budget, and time to DIY a template.
- You genuinely do not care about owning the store and never will.
WooCommerce is the right call when:
- The store is a core part of your business, not an experiment.
- You want to keep every dollar of a sale after standard card processing.
- You need something a template cannot do: custom pricing rules, local delivery logic, a catalog in the hundreds or thousands.
- You want the store to be a sellable asset of the business.
The pattern we see in real shops: the platform is where stores start, and WooCommerce is where they move once the monthly rent, the app fees, and the template limits start costing more than ownership would.
The third option: own it without managing it
The usual objection to WooCommerce is fair: “I don’t want to manage a website, that’s why I was looking at the platforms.” The DIY comparison charts are right about that part. Nobody running a shop wants to be their own webmaster.
That is the exact gap our ecommerce subscription exists to fill. It works like a platform (one monthly payment, from $499/mo, and we handle the design, hosting, security, updates, and edits) with one structural difference: it ends in ownership. After the 24-month term, the store is yours outright, products and customer data included, and the plan goes month-to-month. There are no per-order platform fees at any point. You keep every dollar after your card processor’s standard rate. A typical store launches 6 to 10 weeks from completed intake.
If you would rather pay once and self-manage, our custom builds start at $5,000 fixed price, and you own the site from day one.
Frequently asked questions
Is WooCommerce really free?
The software is free and open source. The real costs are hosting (roughly $40 to $80/mo managed) and building the store, either a one-time build or a managed subscription. What you never pay is a monthly software rental or a per-sale platform fee on top of card processing.
Can I move my store from Shopify to WooCommerce?
Yes. Products, customers, and order history export from Shopify and import into WooCommerce. The storefront itself (theme, apps, checkout) is rebuilt rather than moved, and old product URLs need redirects so you keep your Google rankings. It is a project, but a routine one.
What does a WooCommerce store cost per month to run?
If you self-manage: managed hosting at roughly $40 to $80/mo, plus whatever you spend on help when something breaks. If you want it fully handled, our ecommerce subscription starts at $499/mo and includes hosting, security, updates, and content edits, with ownership at the end of the term.
Do I lose my customer data if I leave a subscription platform?
You can export customer and order CSVs before you cancel, so export early and often. What you cannot take is the store itself: themes, apps, and checkout configurations stay behind. On WooCommerce, the customer database lives in your own site and goes wherever the site goes.
I only sell a few products. Is WooCommerce overkill?
Maybe, honestly. If you are testing an idea with a handful of products, a $39/mo platform plan is a reasonable start. The move to WooCommerce makes sense when the store proves itself and the rent, fees, and template limits start costing more than owning would.
Who owns the store on DietzenDev’s ecommerce subscription?
You do, at the end of the 24-month term, including the design, the code, the product catalog, and the customer data. Cancel early and you pay out the remaining months, and the store still transfers to you in full. There is no version where we keep your store.
The bottom line
The WooCommerce vs. subscription store decision comes down to one question: is this store a test, or is it the business? A test belongs on rented software at $39/mo. A business deserves an asset you own, with no platform taking a cut and no landlord able to turn it off. If you want the ownership without becoming your own webmaster, that is exactly what we built the ecommerce subscription for. Not sure where your current site stands? Start with a free website review and we will give you the honest version, the same way this post did.