Canadian ecommerce reached $73.7 billion CAD in 2024, growing 9.0% year-over-year according to Statistics Canada's Annual Retail Trade report. Every week, Toronto business owners ask us the same question before they start building: WooCommerce or Shopify?
It's not a simple answer — and anyone who tells you it is probably hasn't built both. We've been developing WooCommerce and Shopify stores for Toronto clients since 2017, and the right choice depends on your business model, your technical comfort, and how much you want to own your platform long-term.
Here's an honest comparison.
Key Takeaways
- As of July 2026, WooCommerce powers 48.4% of all detectable ecommerce platforms globally (W3Techs), while BuiltWith data shows Shopify has a higher raw store count at 26.2% vs WooCommerce's 20.1% — both are correct, they measure different things.
- Shopify's Basic plan costs CA$588/year before transaction fees. WooCommerce itself is free — your costs come from hosting, plugins, and development.
- Canadian ecommerce grew to $73.7 billion CAD in 2024 (Statistics Canada). Toronto businesses that pick the wrong platform early often spend more fixing it than they would have spent building it right the first time.
In July 2026, W3Techs found that WooCommerce holds 48.4% of all websites where an ecommerce platform can be detected — making it the most-used ecommerce system on the web by that measure. At the same time, BuiltWith data across all 500 million+ indexed websites shows Shopify ahead at 26.2% versus WooCommerce's 20.1%. Both numbers are right. They count different things.
What does that mean in practice? WooCommerce dominates among websites that run a known ecommerce system — largely because it runs on WordPress, which itself powers 41.2% of all websites globally (W3Techs, July 2026). Shopify reported $378.44 billion USD in gross merchandise volume in fiscal 2025, up 24% year-over-year, according to their Q4 2025 financial results.
Neither platform is going anywhere. The question isn't which one is bigger — it's which one fits your business.
As of July 2026, WooCommerce accounts for 48.4% of websites using a detectable ecommerce platform globally (W3Techs), while Shopify generated $378.44 billion USD in GMV in fiscal 2025 (Shopify Q4 2025 Press Release). Toronto businesses choosing between them in 2026 are picking between the world's two dominant ecommerce systems — each with genuine strengths.
This is where the comparison gets interesting — and where Toronto businesses often underestimate Shopify.
Shopify charges monthly platform fees regardless of whether you make a sale. In 2026, Canadian pricing is CA$49/month for Basic, CA$132/month for Grow, and CA$517/month for Advanced (annual billing, per Shopify's official pricing page). On top of that, if you use a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, you pay an additional surcharge: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced. Even with Shopify Payments, online transaction fees are 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction on the Basic plan.
WooCommerce itself is free. Your costs are hosting (CA$15–$50/month for decent managed WordPress hosting), a premium theme (CA$60–$200 one-time), and plugins as needed. The catch is development: a professionally built WooCommerce store in Toronto runs CA$2,500–$8,000 for a standard build, compared to a basic Shopify setup that a non-technical owner can configure themselves for CA$49/month with no dev cost.
So which is cheaper? It depends on your volume. At CA$500/month in sales, Shopify's transaction fees are negligible. At CA$50,000/month, they add up fast.
In 2026, Shopify's Canadian pricing starts at CA$49/month (Basic, annual billing) rising to CA$517/month (Advanced), with online transaction fees of 2.9% + $0.30 per order on Basic with Shopify Payments (Shopify pricing page, July 2026). WooCommerce has no monthly platform fee — your recurring costs are hosting and plugin licences, typically CA$75–$920/year for a self-managed store (Codeable, 2026).
WooCommerce wins here — and it's not close.
Because WooCommerce runs on WordPress, you own your store completely. Your product data, customer records, and design all live on your hosting server. You can export everything, move hosts, and change developers without asking anyone's permission. WooCommerce's official marketplace lists 1,282 extensions (barn2.com citing WooCommerce.com, January 2026), and the broader WordPress plugin directory supports 7 million+ active WooCommerce installations globally.
Shopify is a hosted platform. That means Shopify controls your uptime, your checkout experience, your URL structure, and — critically — the rules you operate under. They can change pricing, restrict apps, or modify terms. If Shopify ever shuts down a payment gateway integration you rely on, your options are limited.
For Toronto businesses with complex requirements — custom B2B pricing, multi-tier wholesale accounts, unique shipping rules, or industry-specific checkout flows — WooCommerce custom plugin development is often the only viable path. We've built custom WooCommerce plugins for Toronto clients in healthcare, wholesale distribution, and professional services where no off-the-shelf Shopify app existed.
From our experience: In 2025 we migrated a Toronto wholesale distributor from Shopify to WooCommerce because their B2B pricing structure — different rates per client account — couldn't be handled cleanly without expensive Shopify Plus ($2,000 USD/month). The WooCommerce build cost CA$8,500 once. Platform fees dropped to zero.
See our WooCommerce development packages in Toronto — starting at CA$2,500 with a 3-month warranty and full code ownership.
WooCommerce is the right choice when one or more of these apply to your business:
You're already on WordPress. If your existing website runs on WordPress, adding WooCommerce is a natural extension. You keep your content, your SEO history, and your design system in one place — no migration required.
You need custom functionality. Standard Shopify apps cover 80% of ecommerce use cases. If you're in the other 20% — custom pricing rules, complex product configurators, Canadian-specific shipping integrations, or regulated industry requirements — WooCommerce gives your developer full access to the codebase.
You're concerned about long-term platform costs. At CA$132–$517/month for a mid-to-large store, Shopify's platform fees compound. A WooCommerce store on good Canadian-hosted managed WordPress runs CA$30–$50/month after the initial build. Over five years, the savings on a high-volume store can exceed the original development cost.
You want full data ownership. Under Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA and provincial equivalents), knowing exactly where your customer data lives matters. With WooCommerce on Canadian hosting, you control the data location. On Shopify, data lives on Shopify's infrastructure.
Our observation: Toronto clients who switch from Shopify to WooCommerce almost always cite the same two triggers — hitting a pricing ceiling on Shopify Plus, or needing a feature that Shopify's app ecosystem can't cleanly deliver. Both are predictable thresholds. If you're already at CA$10,000+/month in revenue and growing, WooCommerce economics typically win within 18 months.
Our WooCommerce development packages in Toronto start at CA$2,500 for a standard store and include a 3-month warranty, CA$100,000 in professional liability insurance, and full source code ownership. We've been building WooCommerce stores for Toronto businesses since 2017.
Shopify is the better choice in specific situations — and we build both, so this isn't a biased answer.
Choose Shopify if you're a non-technical business owner who needs to launch quickly without a developer, manage your own inventory day-to-day, and aren't at a revenue level where transaction fees sting. Shopify's hosted environment means no server updates, no WordPress core maintenance, and no plugin conflicts to troubleshoot.
It's also a strong choice for dropshipping businesses where integrations like DSers or Oberlo give you supplier catalogue access out of the box, and for businesses selling primarily through social channels (Instagram Shopping, TikTok Shop) where Shopify's native integrations are tighter.
If you do choose Shopify, our Shopify development team in Toronto can build a custom theme and configure your store properly — avoiding the performance and conversion issues that come with over-loaded premium themes.
After launch, whether you go WooCommerce or Shopify, your store needs ongoing maintenance — plugin updates, security patches, uptime monitoring, and speed optimisation. Our website maintenance plans start at CA$200/month and cover both platforms.
If you've read this far, you're probably leaning WooCommerce — or you need a developer who understands both platforms well enough to give you an honest recommendation.
MapilitMedia has built WooCommerce stores for Toronto businesses since 2017. Our packages start at CA$2,500 for a standard store (5 pages, up to 50 products) and include a 3-month warranty, CA$100,000 professional liability insurance, full ownership of your code, and ongoing support through our maintenance plans.
Get a Free WooCommerce Development Quote →
We'll review your requirements and tell you honestly whether WooCommerce or Shopify is the better fit — even if that means recommending the other platform.
WooCommerce's core plugin is free to download and install. Your actual costs come from WordPress hosting (CA$15–$50/month for managed hosting), premium plugins or extensions, and professional development if you need a custom build. A professionally built WooCommerce store in Toronto typically starts at CA$2,500 CAD for a standard setup.
Shopify's Canadian pricing in 2026 is CA$49/month (Basic), CA$132/month (Grow), and CA$517/month (Advanced) on annual billing. These are platform fees only — you'll also pay transaction fees (2.9% + $0.30 per order on Basic with Shopify Payments), plus app subscription costs and any theme or development fees.
Yes. WooCommerce migrations from Shopify are common and fully supported. A proper migration preserves your product data, customer records, order history, and URL structure — the last point is critical to avoid losing your Google rankings. We handle Shopify-to-WooCommerce migrations as part of our WooCommerce development services in Toronto.
A standard WooCommerce store (5 pages, up to 50 products) takes 2–4 weeks from kickoff to launch with MapilitMedia. A premium build with custom design, a larger catalogue, or third-party integrations takes 6–12 weeks. Timeline depends significantly on how quickly your business supplies product content and feedback.
Both platforms support solid technical SEO, but WooCommerce on WordPress has an edge because of the WordPress ecosystem — plugins like Rank Math give you granular control over meta tags, schema markup, XML sitemaps, and canonical URLs. Shopify's SEO tools have improved, but URL structure limitations (the /products/ and /collections/ path prefixes are fixed) remain a minor constraint for advanced SEO work.
WooCommerce and Shopify are both mature, capable platforms. For most Toronto businesses selling physical products with straightforward catalogues, Shopify gets you to market faster. For businesses that need full ownership, custom functionality, or long-term platform cost control, WooCommerce almost always wins.
The decision usually comes down to one question: do you want to rent your store or own it?
If you're ready to own it, see our WooCommerce development packages — or get in touch and we'll walk you through the options.
Sources:
W3Techs, WooCommerce Usage Statistics, retrieved July 30 2026, https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-woocommerce
W3Techs, WordPress Usage Statistics, retrieved July 30 2026, https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress
Shopify, Q4 2025 Financial Results, February 2026, https://www.shopify.com/news/shopify-q4-2025-financial-results
Shopify, Pricing Page, retrieved July 30 2026, https://www.shopify.com/pricing
BuiltWith via DemandSage, Shopify Market Share 2026, April 2026, https://www.demandsage.com/shopify-market-share/
BuiltWith via Mobiloud, WooCommerce vs Shopify Market Share, 2025, https://www.mobiloud.com/blog/woocommerce-vs-shopify-market-share-statistics
Statistics Canada, Annual Retail Trade 2024, 2025, https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/app/9013-annual-retail-trade-2024
barn2.com, WooCommerce Stats 2026, January 2026, https://barn2.com/blog/woocommerce-stats/
Codeable, WooCommerce Development Cost 2026, 2026, https://www.codeable.io/blog/woocommerce-development-cost/
