Shopify vs WooCommerce for Australian stores: costs, GST, shipping and upkeep

Shopify suits a store that wants hosted ecommerce with fewer infrastructure jobs. WooCommerce suits businesses needing WordPress or more control, with a plan for hosting and updates. Neither is automatically cheaper or better for SEO. Test your payments, shipping and sales workflows first, then compare the full running costs.

Two operating models

Shopify hosts the commerce software for you. You still run the store itself:

• products, claims and tax settings

• accounts, apps and staff access

• customer service and fulfilment

WooCommerce adds a store to WordPress. It needs suitable hosting and maintenance, from you or a provider you appoint. Either way, the core software price isn't the cost of running the store.

Control is worth defining in practical terms:

• changing hosts or editing code

• choosing supported extensions

• exporting your data and moving the domain

• bringing in another supplier

Neither platform gives you unrestricted rights to every theme, app or asset. Check the licence terms and test an export before you rely on it. Neither always needs custom code. Neither always blocks a custom integration either.

Prove the workflow before you score anything

Ask for a demonstration of your real workflow on the proposed plan and extensions. A feature name or an integration logo proves little. Record each essential in a register:

Note the cost of each plan or extension beside it. A failed essential pauses the decision. Compare preferences, like editing comfort, only after the essentials pass.

Payments and fees in Australia

Payments decide more than the fee you pay. Check eligibility, the gateway and when the cash actually lands.

The processor moves the money. The gateway connects your checkout to it. Keep four charges apart when you compare:

• the plan subscription

• the processor's fee on each payment

• any extra platform transaction fee

• a surcharge on the customer, with its own rules

Shopify's third party transaction fees apply when an outside provider takes the payment. They're 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced. The exceptions matter:

• Shopify Payments, manual payments and point of sale (POS) orders don't attract them

• PayPal is exempt when Shopify Payments is your main provider

• stores created from 12 May 2025 pay them on gift card and store credit portions

The fee isn't returned when you refund an order.

We checked Shopify's Australian pricing in October 2026. Domestic online card rates were 1.7% on Basic, 1.55% on Grow and 1.35% on Advanced, each plus 30c. American Express, international and in person payments had their own rates.

On the same day, Stripe's standard Australian rate for domestic online cards was 1.65% plus A$0.30, GST included. Shopify Payments isn't your own Stripe account. Currency conversion, disputes and add on services can cost more on either.

Since 1 October 2026, businesses can't surcharge Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos payments. The ACCC's surcharge page says card networks and payment providers enforce that. Remove any card surcharge rule from checkout. Relabelling it as a service fee isn't the answer. Other surcharges, like a public holiday fee, can stay if they're displayed correctly.

Check eligibility and cash flow

Check you're eligible before you build around a provider. Shopify Payments in Australia needs non individual businesses registered here, with an Australian business address. Sole traders without an ABN sign up as individuals. Payouts need an AUD account with an Australian bank. Savings and multi currency accounts don't qualify.

Shopify may ask for photo ID if it can't verify your details. Some business types aren't allowed at all. The payment account should belong to the business rather than a developer. A common mistake is assuming a payment plugin means the provider will approve your business.

Test a payment, the order it creates, the payout report and a refund. A paid order isn't cash you can spend yet, because funds can settle later. Keep a cash buffer for stock and refunds.

Buy now pay later options

Shop Pay is Shopify's accelerated checkout. Shop Pay Installments is a different product, available only to stores in the US, Canada and the UK. Afterpay is separate again, with its own Shopify integration. Your store address and currency must match your Afterpay account region. That was the rule when we checked in October 2026.

Check Afterpay's own terms for your business. Don't count on a sales lift from any of these options.

GST and price display

Three GST questions often get mixed up:

• GST on the goods you sell

• GST on platform and service invoices

• GST inside processing fees

Platform settings don't decide whether you must register or whether a product is taxable. Confirm that with your accountant, then test what the store actually produces.

Take a GST registered seller with a fully taxable domestic sale. A $110 GST inclusive price is $100 plus $10 GST. The GST portion is $110 divided by 11 rather than 10% of $110.

Enter that $110 as a price excluding tax and the store adds 10% on top. The customer then sees $121.

WooCommerce's tax settings and Shopify's tax inclusive pricing both let you choose. Check that the product, cart, checkout and invoice agree, with discounts and shipping included.

Shopify Payments fees in Australia include 10% GST. Stripe's quoted fees include GST too, so don't add another 10% to either.

Shopify adds 10% GST to its subscription and shipping labels. You're exempt once you're GST registered and add your ABN. That only applies to invoices issued afterwards. Customer prices must show the full total, as the ACCC's price display rules set out.

Australian shipping and fulfilment

Shipping covers separate jobs, from showing a rate to handling returns. Check each one on the integration you'll actually use.

Shopify connects to Australia Post through a MyPost Business account, on any plan. You don't need carrier calculated shipping to use it. It shows Australia Post rates and buys labels in the admin. It doesn't support eParcel accounts. Parcels can't exceed 22 kg or 105 cm a side.

Sendle stopped shipping on 11 January 2026. Shopify no longer supports it for Australian labels. A common mistake is trusting an old app listing for a carrier that's gone.

For WooCommerce, pick a maintained carrier extension and check your account type. A generic shipping plugin may quote rates without buying labels.

Then run one realistic test with:

• correct weights and dimensions

• metro, regional and PO box addresses

• a free shipping threshold and a mixed cart

• pickup, labels, tracking and a refund

• an unavailable destination

Name the stock source of truth, the sync direction and an owner for unmatched orders. Our ecommerce launch checklist covers the full release test. Don't assume a platform brings a carrier discount. With Shopify, Australia Post rates depend on your own account.

A complete 12 month cost comparison

These two stores are example planning models. They aren't our clients or market averages. All figures are AUD cash outlays including any GST, before GST credits.

Both stores are GST registered, with the ABN entered for Shopify's billing exemption. The lower sales level is $120,000 from 1,200 orders. The higher one is $600,000 from 6,000 orders. Every payment is a $100 domestic online Visa or Mastercard, with no refunds, disputes or POS sales.

Processed sales include customer GST and delivery. They aren't net revenue. Each order has one capture, with no currency conversion, subscriptions or gift cards. Both stores sell the same catalogue with the same functions. Confirm invoice treatment with your accountant.

Shopify's plans, before any invoice tax, as checked in October 2026:

The model uses Basic on yearly billing, run by one person. Basic has no extra staff accounts, while Grow includes five and Advanced 15. Introductory offers are left out.

The other fixed costs are stipulated example quotes, not platform prices:

Shopify care here covers content, apps and operations rather than servers. WooCommerce care includes updates, backups and restore tests. Count any bundled row once.

WooCommerce's fixed budget is $816 higher here, mostly from care and hosting. Both models leave out email, postage and wages. Stock, advertising and POS hardware need budgets too. The one off build is a separate $6,000 for Shopify and $7,000 for WooCommerce.

At $120,000 from 1,200 orders:

At $600,000 from 6,000 orders:

On these inputs, Shopify Basic costs less at both levels. WooCommerce's lower card rate saves only $60 or $300 a year. That's not much. Change the support, apps, gateway or card mix and the answer can flip.

A common mistake is ignoring the fixed 30c on every order. Our guide to website costs covers the items quotes leave out. The website cost estimator gives an early build range before you ask anyone for a quote.

Test the plan choice

At the higher volume, check whether Grow pays for itself. It costs $864 more a year than Basic on yearly billing. Its card rate is 0.15 percentage points lower. At $600,000, that saves $900.

So Grow comes out $36 a year ahead, at $14,303 against $14,339. The rate only crossover is $864 divided by 0.0015, or $576,000 a year. That assumes every payment qualifies and nothing else changes. It isn't a point where you must upgrade. Needing staff accounts can justify Grow much earlier.

Monthly billing adds $168 a year to Basic. The continuing totals become $4,907 and $14,507. On monthly billing, Grow costs $1,116 more than Basic. The crossover moves to $744,000.

Monthly billing costs more. In return, it buys flexibility and spreads the cash.

Test the sensitivity

Order count matters as much as sales. At $120,000, doubling orders to 2,400 adds $360 in fixed fees. The percentage fee doesn't change.

Other inputs move the total too:

• one extra $50 app a month adds $600 a year

• 20 more support hours at $120 add $2,400

Value owner time separately, with the tasks and hours stated. It doesn't show either platform sells more.

Performance, security and upkeep

Ask your WooCommerce host how it handles cart and checkout pages without page caching. Then ask the host or developer about:

• staging and safe updates

• backup frequency and restore tests

• monitoring and support response times

WooCommerce's server requirements are a compatibility floor. They don't prove speed under your store's load. Our guide to WordPress security covers the basics.

Shopify handles the infrastructure. You still own app permissions, theme changes and catalogue quality. Orders, accounts and customer data stay with you too. So does business continuity.

Removing unused apps can cut complexity. It won't guarantee a speed score or more sales.

Compare the same product, collection, cart and checkout pages under stated conditions. Themes, scripts and integrations matter on both platforms. Agree who does what before launch:

Agree what each export and backup actually includes. A common mistake is treating a product CSV as a full backup. On WooCommerce, agree how orders placed since the last backup get kept and reconciled.

Keep the domain and key accounts in the business. Give each supplier only the access they need. Confirm offboarding and licence replacement in case your developer becomes unavailable.

The ACSC's small business guide covers multi factor authentication, updates and backups. Our guide to website maintenance costs covers care plan prices.

POS, subscriptions and wholesale

Prove each workflow on the actual plan before you choose it.

Retail and POS

Shopify's paid plans include basic in person selling. POS Pro adds exchanges and retail staff permissions, priced per location. It doesn't remove hardware or processing costs.

WooCommerce Square syncs stock on a schedule rather than instantly. A later Square check can overwrite a quantity you entered by hand. Test online and shop sales at the same moment, plus an interrupted sync. No integration badge stops overselling.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions need both the extension and the gateway to support renewals. On WooCommerce, automatic renewals need a supporting gateway. Manual renewals work with any gateway, with customers paying each renewal themselves.

Shopify needs a subscription app and a supported gateway. Local or manual payment methods might not work. Check whether saved cards can move before any migration.

Wholesale and staff

Wholesale isn't Plus only. Shopify's B2B tools for business customers run on Basic, Grow and Advanced. Those plans allow up to three active catalogues across B2B markets, using the new Shopify Markets. Catalogues assigned directly to companies need Plus, and so do deposits and partial payments. Net payment terms work on all plans.

WooCommerce wholesale extensions need the same proof of approvals, support and licences. On either platform, don't share an owner login to make a cheaper plan fit. Collaborator access isn't a substitute for proper staff permissions.

SEO and the head to head comparison

Both platforms can support good ecommerce SEO. The real question is who does the work. Assess the category structure, product content and technical controls on each.

WordPress gives broad content and extension choice. Shopify gives a more standard commerce structure. Neither a plugin nor a platform guarantees rankings. Our guide to ecommerce SEO covers the work itself.

No row picks a winner, because your requirements decide which conditions matter.

Changing platforms

Migration is a real cost, so count it before you commit to a new platform. List everything that must move:

• products, variants and images

• customers and order history

• gift cards, store credit and subscriptions

• shipping, tax settings and integrations

• URLs and analytics

• records you must keep, with access and retention rules

Check how each item moves: natively, through an app or by hand. Passwords, saved cards, subscription mandates and gift balances may not move with a product CSV. Get written confirmation from the new platform and the payment provider.

Map important old URLs to relevant new pages. Google's site move guidance says to expect temporary ranking changes during a move. Redirects don't guarantee unchanged rankings. Recheck canonical tags and sitemaps afterwards, plus any product feeds. Our website migration checklist covers the redirect work.

Plan the switch. Set the change window and a stock freeze, then decide who owns orders and how payments route meanwhile. Define who approves launch and when you'd roll back. A rollback after new orders must reconcile those orders. Restoring an old database isn't enough.

A new platform should solve a stated problem. A fresh design alone doesn't justify a move.

Match the platform to your business

Start from your situation. Then test what could change the answer.

Shopify suits a store that values fewer infrastructure decisions. WooCommerce suits a team already running WordPress well. Our guide on whether WordPress is still worth it covers that call. Our guide comparing WordPress, Webflow, Shopify and custom builds covers the wider shortlist.

A points total can't override a failed requirement. How we scope store projects is set out in online store design and build.

The tool scores WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Webflow and custom builds from three questions. Its points are our editorial weights rather than measured performance. It can't check features, integrations or running costs. Results stay on your device. An enquiry doesn't automatically attach them.

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Written by Ajay K.Co-founder, Elev8d

Ajay is the co-founder of Elev8d and writes most of what you will read here. Psychology grad turned marketer, which is a fancy way of saying he cares about why people click, not just where things rank. Every guide is written in plain English for Australian businesses, tested on real campaigns before it earns a spot on this site.