What you're currently paying on Shopify
Shopify's published pricing starts at $39/month, but stores that actually use Shopify for anything beyond basic selling end up paying considerably more. The transaction fee alone — 2% on Shopify Basic and 1% on Standard, charged on every sale processed through a non-Shopify payment gateway — can cost hundreds per month for a store doing real volume.
| Shopify plan | Monthly subscription | Transaction fee (non-Shopify Payments) | Annual cost (sub only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39/mo | 2% | $468/yr |
| Standard ("Shopify") | $105/mo | 1% | $1,260/yr |
| Advanced | $399/mo | 0.5% | $4,788/yr |
On top of the subscription: Shopify apps average $15–$30/month each. A store running a review app, a loyalty program, a subscription billing tool, and a upsell app is spending $60–$120/month in app fees before the subscription. Most of those functions are free WooCommerce plugins or have cheaper equivalents.
Shopify pricing as of April 2026. Annual billing reduces monthly cost by ~25%; figures above use monthly billing for a conservative comparison.
Migration tool costs compared
You have four realistic options for moving data from Shopify to WooCommerce: a dedicated WordPress plugin, a SaaS migration service, a general-purpose import tool, or manual CSV. Each has a different cost structure and a different risk profile.
- Unlimited products and orders per run
- Starter: products + categories + coupons + redirects
- Pro: + orders and customers
- Agency: + 10 migration runs
- Data stays on your server — no third-party access
- Price scales with entity count (products × orders × customers)
- Each re-migration is billed separately
- Data routes through Cart2Cart servers
- SaaS — no WordPress plugin to install
- Lower entry price but scales with store size
- Delta-sync available (re-sync changed orders)
- Data routes through LitExtension servers
- SaaS — no WordPress plugin to install
- Export from Shopify → import via WooCommerce importer
- Products only — no orders, customers, or redirects
- No image sideloading
- High time cost for any store over 100 products
Cart2Cart and LitExtension quotes are estimated ranges based on published pricing tiers for a store with 500 products + 2,000 orders. Actual quotes depend on entity counts at time of purchase. StoreShift pricing is fixed regardless of data volume.
WooCommerce ongoing costs
WooCommerce itself is free. The costs on WooCommerce are hosting, theme, and any premium plugins you need. These are typically a fraction of what the equivalent Shopify plan costs.
| Cost item | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress hosting | $10–$30/mo | Shared: SiteGround, Cloudways. VPS for larger stores. |
| WooCommerce | Free | Open-source, no subscription |
| WooCommerce theme | $0–$100 one-time | Storefront (free), Astra, GeneratePress, OceanWP — all viable |
| Payment gateway | Free plugin | WooCommerce Stripe, PayPal — free to install; gateway fees apply per transaction (not Shopify's additional transaction fee) |
| SSL certificate | Free (Let's Encrypt) | Most hosts provide this automatically |
| SEO plugin | Free | Yoast SEO or Rank Math — free tiers cover all standard SEO needs |
| Reviews plugin | $0–$20/mo | Judge.me has a WooCommerce version; Trustpilot integrations vary |
| Email marketing | $0–$30/mo | Klaviyo, Mailchimp — same tools available on both platforms |
| Total monthly (typical) | $10–$80/mo | vs $200–$500/mo for an equivalent Shopify setup |
WooCommerce doesn't charge transaction fees beyond standard payment processor rates (2.9% + 30¢ for Stripe, same as Shopify Payments). If your current Shopify plan has a 1–2% additional transaction fee on top of gateway fees, eliminating that alone can save hundreds per month.
The transaction fee difference
A store doing $20,000/month in sales on Shopify Standard (1% transaction fee on non-Shopify Payments) pays $200/month in transaction fees alone. On WooCommerce with Stripe, you pay 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction — no additional platform fee. For high-volume stores, this differential is often the primary financial reason to migrate.
Hidden costs to budget for
The line items above are predictable. These show up less obviously:
Your time
Data migration is the fast part. Configuration takes longer: tax rules, shipping zones, payment gateway setup, SMTP email configuration, and testing. For a first-time WooCommerce migration, budget 6–12 hours of hands-on work beyond what StoreShift handles automatically. If you bill $75–$150/hour, that's a real cost to factor in.
Developer fees (if you hire someone)
If you're not comfortable doing the WordPress setup yourself, a WordPress developer charges $50–$150/hour. A clean migration setup — install, theme, payment gateway, StoreShift import, go-live — takes 4–8 hours for an experienced developer. Budget $200–$1,200 for professional setup.
Theme purchase and customization
Free WooCommerce themes (Storefront, Astra, GeneratePress) work well out of the box. If you want a theme closer to your Shopify design, expect to spend $50–$100 on a premium theme and 2–4 hours on customization. Matching a heavily customized Shopify theme takes more time and may require a developer.
App replacements
Shopify apps you pay monthly for may have free WooCommerce equivalents — or may not exist at all on WooCommerce. Check your Shopify app list before migrating. A $30/month Shopify loyalty app might cost $20/month on WooCommerce — lower, but not zero.
Subscription billing (recurring orders) is the most common functionality gap. Shopify has several mature subscription apps; WooCommerce Subscriptions is $279/year. If your store does subscriptions, factor this in before migrating.
Break-even analysis
The break-even point is when your monthly WooCommerce savings cover the migration cost. For most stores, this is sooner than expected.
Example: Shopify Basic → WooCommerce
Example: Shopify Standard → WooCommerce
These examples use conservative estimates. Stores with higher Shopify spend or transaction fee exposure break even faster. The analysis changes if you're hiring a developer — add $400–$800 to the migration cost and the break-even point extends to 2–4 months, still worth it for any store that plans to stay on WooCommerce for more than a year.
Ready to run the numbers for your store?StoreShift's flat fee means the math is simple — one payment, then monthly savings from day one.
See pricingDIY vs paid migration tools
You can migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce without paying for a dedicated migration tool. WooCommerce has a built-in product importer that accepts CSV. Shopify can export a CSV. This approach has real limitations:
- Products only — WooCommerce's CSV importer handles products. Orders, customers, coupons, and redirects need separate handling
- No image sideloading — product images import as Shopify CDN URLs, not local WordPress media library files. Those URLs will break when you cancel Shopify
- Variable products are fragile — Shopify's CSV format for variable products doesn't map cleanly to WooCommerce's attribute format. Manual cleanup is often needed
- No redirect handling — 301 redirects from Shopify URLs to WooCommerce URLs need to be created manually
- Time cost — a 500-product CSV migration with cleanup typically takes 4–8 hours vs 30–45 minutes with StoreShift
The free path makes sense for very small stores: under 50 products, no order history to keep, and willingness to spend a few hours on manual cleanup. For stores with any meaningful data, the time savings from a dedicated migration tool are worth the cost many times over.
Cart2Cart and LitExtension route your store data through their servers during migration. For stores with sensitive customer data, this is worth considering — your orders, customer emails, and addresses pass through a third-party system. StoreShift runs entirely on your WordPress server and talks directly to Shopify's API without routing data externally.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce?
Migration tool costs range from $0 (manual CSV) to $79–$249 one-time (StoreShift) to $100–$400+ per run (Cart2Cart, LitExtension). Add $10–$30/month for hosting, $0–$100 for a WooCommerce theme, and $0–$50/month for plugins. Total first-year cost on WooCommerce typically runs $200–$600, versus $500–$4,800/year for an equivalent Shopify plan.
How long until switching from Shopify to WooCommerce pays off?
Most stores on Shopify Basic ($39/month) break even within 2–4 months after migration costs. Stores on Shopify Standard ($105/month) typically break even within 1–2 months. Stores on Shopify Advanced ($399/month) often recover migration costs within the first month of switching.
Is WooCommerce cheaper than Shopify?
For most stores, yes. WooCommerce is free software. You pay for hosting ($10–$30/month), optionally a theme ($0–$100 one-time), and any premium plugins you need. Shopify charges $39–$399/month plus 0.5–2% transaction fees on external payment processors. A store spending $200/month on Shopify typically runs WooCommerce for $20–$50/month.
Are there hidden costs in a Shopify to WooCommerce migration?
The common ones: time spent on manual configuration (tax rules, shipping zones, payment gateway setup), developer fees if you hire someone, and premium WooCommerce plugins that replace Shopify app subscriptions. StoreShift handles the data migration — the remaining costs are standard WooCommerce setup work.
Does Cart2Cart charge per migration or per entity?
Cart2Cart's pricing scales with the number of entities you migrate — products, orders, and customers each add to the total. A store with 500 products and 2,000 orders typically costs $100–$200 per run. LitExtension uses a similar tiered model. StoreShift charges a flat one-time fee regardless of how many products or orders you migrate.