Choose Shopify when selling products online is the core of the business, and WordPress when content, services or bookings lead. WooCommerce suits shops that need heavy customisation. With our prices, a three-year cost is roughly AED 19,500 to 24,500 for a WordPress business site and AED 21,500 to 36,500 for a Shopify launch store, once care plans are included.
A clinic group, a perfume brand and a property consultancy all asked us the same question in one month: WordPress or Shopify? They needed three different answers.
The honest short answer
Shopify is a commerce product with a website attached. WordPress is a publishing system you can extend into commerce. That one sentence decides most cases.
If your revenue comes from people adding products to a basket, Shopify removes a large amount of work: payments, tax, inventory, checkout and security are handled and maintained for you. If your revenue comes from enquiries, bookings, content or a mix of services, WordPress gives you a more flexible site.
A decision framework
Answer these six questions in order. The first honest yes usually settles it.
- Is the main goal selling physical products online, with a catalogue and checkout? Choose Shopify.
- Is the main goal enquiries, bookings, reputation or content? Choose WordPress.
- Do you need unusual product logic, memberships or integration with an existing WordPress site? Consider WooCommerce.
- Will non-technical staff manage the store daily? Shopify is simpler to run.
- Do you need strong control over layout, content types and editorial workflow? WordPress is stronger.
- Will you sell in several countries or currencies soon? Shopify Markets is built for it.
Comparison at a glance
| Shopify | WordPress | WordPress + WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Online stores | Corporate, services, content | Stores needing custom logic |
| Hosting and security | Managed by Shopify | You or your agency manage | You or your agency manage |
| Checkout and payments | Built in, Apple Pay, Tabby and Tamara supported | Via plugins | Via plugins and gateways |
| Design freedom | High within themes and Liquid | Very high | Very high |
| Ongoing upkeep | Low | Updates and backups needed | Higher: updates plus plugin conflicts |
| Our starting price | AED 4,950 | AED 3,950 | AED 22,000 |
| Arabic and English | Supported, built per theme | Supported, built per theme | Supported, built per theme |
✓ Shopify plan prices, app availability, payment provider support such as Tabby and Tamara, and WooCommerce plugin pricing change regularly. Last checked October 2026. Confirm with each provider before relying on it.
Cost over three years in AED
The build price is the smaller number. Over three years, hosting or platform fees, care and extras matter just as much. These figures use our own prices, excluding 5% VAT, plus planning assumptions that we label as such.
| Item (3 years) | Shopify launch store | WordPress business site | WordPress + WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | 4,950 | 3,950 | 22,000 |
| Care plan at AED 395 a month x 36 | 14,220 | 14,220 | 14,220 |
| Platform or hosting (our assumption) | About 5,000 to 15,000 | About 3,000 to 8,000 | About 4,000 to 10,000 |
| Plugins, apps, licences (our assumption) | 0 to 20,000 | 0 to 5,000 | 2,000 to 10,000 |
| Rough total | About 24,000 to 54,000 | About 21,000 to 31,000 | About 42,000 to 56,000 |
Read the table as a range, not a quote. Care plans are optional, and you can run a site on a lower plan or look after it yourself. If you remove them, the gap between WordPress and Shopify narrows to the build price plus platform fees.
✓ Shopify bills in US dollars and hosting prices vary by provider, so the platform and licence rows are planning assumptions only. Last checked October 2026. Confirm with Shopify and your host before relying on it.
When WordPress is the right call
- Professional services, clinics, real estate, law, education and B2B companies where the site generates enquiries.
- Content-heavy sites with blogs, resources, case studies and landing pages.
- Sites that need custom post types, multilingual structure or integration with CRM and booking tools.
- Teams that already have a WordPress site and a developer who knows it.
Our WordPress business site starts at AED 3,950 and a custom WordPress site at AED 9,950. See our WordPress agency page for what is included.
When WooCommerce makes sense
WooCommerce is WordPress with a shop. It is the right tool when the commerce is secondary to content, or when the product logic is unusual: bookings with deposits, memberships, quote-based products, complex B2B pricing. It costs more to build, from AED 22,000 with us, and more to maintain, because you own the hosting, updates and security.
It is rarely the best answer for a straightforward store. We often talk clients out of WooCommerce when they only need to sell a few hundred products with Arabic and Tabby.
When Shopify is the right call
- Fashion, fragrance, jewellery, food and any brand where the product is the business.
- Teams without a developer who still want a stable, secure store.
- Brands planning growth into Saudi, Kuwait or Qatar, or into wholesale.
- Stores that need Apple Pay, Tabby, Tamara and cash on delivery working on day one.
Our Shopify launch store is AED 4,950, a custom theme AED 14,500. If you are weighing a bespoke theme, our comparison of custom and premium themes covers it.
Who looks after it
This is the cost nobody puts in the proposal. Shopify updates itself, patches security and keeps the checkout running. Your job is content, products and apps. WordPress and WooCommerce are software you host: core, theme and plugins all need updating, backups need testing, and a plugin update can break a page on a Friday evening.
That is manageable with a care plan or a developer on call, which is why we price it in the three-year table. It is unmanageable if the site was built by someone who has since disappeared. Before choosing WordPress, decide who will own updates and security for the next three years, and what they cost.
A practical test: ask who on your team will log in every week. If it is a marketer adding products and running promotions, Shopify's admin is built for that. If it is a communications manager publishing articles and updating service pages, WordPress's editor feels more natural. Choosing the tool your own team will actually use is worth more than any feature list.
Speed, SEO and Arabic
Neither platform wins on SEO by default. Both can rank when the site is fast, structured and has good content. Shopify has fixed URL patterns, which is occasionally limiting. WordPress gives full control but depends on good setup, caching and a careful plugin list.
Arabic works on both, but a proper right-to-left design is built, not toggled. Budget for it either way.
Integrations that tip the decision
Look at what the website must talk to. Shopify has a deep app ecosystem for payments, shipping, loyalty and accounting, and clean connections to ERP and warehouse systems. WordPress is stronger when the site must work with CRMs, booking engines, membership tools or custom forms, because developers can write exactly what is needed.
- Payments: both support cards and Apple Pay through a gateway. Tabby and Tamara are native options on Shopify and plugins on WordPress.
- Accounting and ERP: both can connect to Zoho, Odoo and QuickBooks; Shopify usually needs less custom code for orders and stock.
- WhatsApp: order updates and an assistant can be added to either platform.
- Bookings: WordPress with a booking plugin or custom build is usually more flexible.
If you can already see an ERP or WhatsApp workflow in your future, mention it at the start; the integration cost often outweighs the difference in platform price.
What we would do for three typical Dubai businesses
| Business | Our usual recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Perfume brand with 80 products | Shopify | Checkout, Tabby, inventory and speed matter most |
| Clinic group with five locations | WordPress | Service pages, bookings and bilingual content lead |
| Corporate gifting with quote-based pricing | WordPress + WooCommerce | Custom pricing logic beats a standard checkout |
If you are still unsure, tell us what you sell and how customers buy. The answer is rarely about technology and almost always about how your business makes money. For budgeting beyond the platform, see how much a website costs in Dubai.
Questions
For most product businesses, yes, because payments, tax, security and checkout are managed. WordPress with WooCommerce is better when you need unusual product logic or the site is mainly content.
To build, our WordPress business site starts at AED 3,950 against AED 4,950 for a Shopify launch store. Over three years the totals are closer than the build prices suggest, once hosting, care and plugins are counted.
Yes. Content, products and redirects can be migrated. The key is a complete redirect map so search rankings are preserved.
Yes. Both support right-to-left layouts, but the design and content must be built for it. A proper Arabic storefront is part of the build, not a switch.