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Overall running costs

On paper it looks a lot cheaper to self-host a WordPress site vs a monthly subscription on Shopify for example, but this isn’t necessarily a true reflection of your monthly costs.

Some of the premium plugins for WordPress that help run an online business better have an annual subscription fee.

Conversely platforms like Shopify often include some business tools that are built into their monthly fee.

However, Shopify charges a transaction fee, while WooCommerce, being a self-hosted platform, does not.

During my research I found almost all platforms have extensions and features that are quite important that you still need to buy in addition to the standard offering.

It’s very difficult to calculate which option is more cost effective due to the differences in both features and monthly costs, and often they all need “extras” you didn’t count on.

If you want to do a quick test of that, do a search for “Compare WooCommerce and Shopify”. You’ll find many articles listing the differences, some will be feature related, others will be fee related. It can get quite confusing!

This is why I recommend getting a better handle of what’s important to you in terms of the features, flexibility and ease of use. Then consider how much it’ll cost. These all play a role. Making a decision purely on cost may not be the best choice for you.

As your online business grows, your monthly running costs will increase. But if you’re running your business well, the benefit of these additional services should outweigh the expense. As an example, paying to have my own server to increase the speed of my website (which in turn improves customer experience) is very beneficial, the additional cost is worth every penny.