The one-line summary
- Shopify = less effort, predictable monthly cost, someone else handles the plumbing. Best if you want to focus on selling, not maintaining.
- WooCommerce = maximum control and lower licence cost, but you own hosting, security and updates. Best if you (or your agency) want deep customisation.
Cost, honestly
Shopify charges a monthly subscription plus transaction/payment fees. It’s predictable — you always know the bill. Apps for extra features add up over time.
WooCommerce is free as software, but the real cost is hosting, a premium theme, plugins, and ongoing maintenance. “Free” rarely means cheap once you total the year.
For most small and mid-sized German brands, the total yearly cost ends up closer than people expect. Decide on effort and control first, price second.
GDPR and German legal requirements
This matters more here than in most markets. You’ll need a proper cookie consent solution, a compliant Impressum and privacy policy, correct VAT handling, and clear terms.
- WooCommerce gives you full control to host data in the EU and configure consent exactly — but you are responsible for getting it right.
- Shopify handles much infrastructure for you and offers German-market apps, though you should confirm data-processing and consent setups meet current standards.
Neither is automatically compliant. Both can be made compliant with the right setup.
Payments German customers expect
German shoppers expect specific methods — SEPA direct debit, PayPal, credit card, and often “buy now, pay later” and invoice/Rechnung. Check that your chosen platform and payment provider support these cleanly. Both can, but the configuration differs, and invoice payment in particular needs the right provider.
Effort and who maintains it
This is the deciding factor for most.
- Choose Shopify if you don’t want to think about servers, security patches or downtime.
- Choose WooCommerce if you have a reliable technical partner and want a shop tailored down to the last detail.
Our recommendation
For most German brands launching or relaunching a shop, we lean Shopify — the reduced operational burden lets you spend energy on product and marketing. We choose WooCommerce when a project needs deep custom logic, tight integration with existing WordPress content, or full data control.
We build and migrate both. See our Shopify work or ask which fits your case.
