Shopify automatically translates two languages. A Canadian store selling into Quebec needs exactly two. That single detail settles the question for a lot of businesses here, and it appears in none of the big comparisons, because they are written for a single-language market.
This guide compares the two platforms on what matters when you sell from Canada: bilingual capability, tax, day to day maintenance, and what you keep if you leave. For pricing, our guide on what an online store costs already covers that ground.
Before the platform, decide who maintains it
Both platforms can produce a good store. I have seen weak Shopify builds and excellent WooCommerce ones, and the reverse. What separates the projects that survive three years comes down to one question: in six months, who applies the updates?
Shopify answers it for you. The platform is hosted, secured and updated by Shopify, and your job stops at the catalogue and the content. WooCommerce hands you the controls, which also means it hands you the responsibility. You pick the hosting, you track updates for WordPress, WooCommerce and every extension, and you sort out the conflicts when two plugins disagree.
If nobody in your business wants that job and you have no maintenance retainer, Shopify is the honest answer.
Shopify: who it suits, and what you accept
Shopify suits the merchant who wants to sell rather than administer a website. Catalogue, payments, security, certificates and backups come with the subscription. The checkout is optimized by a team working on it full time, and it converts well without you touching it.
What you accept in exchange deserves saying plainly.
You work inside a frame. The URL structure is fixed. Some customizations require an app, and apps accumulate. The theme is written in Liquid, a Shopify-specific language, so it does not follow you anywhere else. And if you do not use Shopify Payments, an additional commission applies to every sale.
For a small business with a few dozen to a few hundred products, that frame is rarely an obstacle. It is a time saving.
WooCommerce: who it suits, and what it actually demands
WooCommerce suits stores that need to do something specific, or that slot into a WordPress site already running well.
The software is open source and you control all of it: the database, the code, the templates, pricing rules, integrations. If your inventory lives in another system, if you price differently per customer, or if your order process is unusual, WooCommerce bends where Shopify needs an app or simply says no.
What it actually demands is the part people underestimate. You need hosting built for a store, well above the few-dollars-a-month plan. You need to track updates, because an abandoned plugin becomes a security hole. You need backups someone has actually tested. And you need someone available when an update breaks the cart on a Friday night.
That is the price of flexibility, and it is paid in attention as much as in money.
Bilingual: the constraint US comparisons skip
This is where the decision actually turns in Canada, and where international comparisons stop being useful.
A store selling to Quebec consumers has to be available in French, in a version of comparable quality to the other one. That is a legal obligation, and it applies whether your business sits in Toronto, Vancouver or Chicago. The details are in our guide on selling online into Quebec.
Shopify. Every plan lets you sell in up to 20 languages from a single store. The built in automatic translation, through the Translate & Adapt app, covers two of them. English and French land squarely inside what is included. Two limits are worth knowing: past two languages translation becomes manual, and the app offers no true preview, so a translation gets verified only once it is live on the storefront.
WooCommerce. Multilingual is not native. It runs through a plugin: WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress or Weglot. WPML has the deepest WooCommerce integration, covering products, categories, attributes, variations and checkout pages. Watch for one common trap: free Polylang does not cover WooCommerce. You need the Polylang for WooCommerce add-on, which requires a paid Polylang licence.
What this means for a Canadian store
The English and French case is exactly the one Shopify covers with no additional extension. WooCommerce handles it too, but it is one more component to choose, pay for and maintain. If bilingual is your only unusual requirement, this tilts toward Shopify. If you have other hard constraints, it is not enough on its own to decide.
Either way, the translation work stays yours. No platform writes your product pages in correct French, and machine output left untouched is obvious to a Quebec reader within one sentence.
Tax, payments and shipping in Canada
Both platforms calculate GST, HST and QST from the regions you configure, and both apply tax to shipping charges. The difference sits elsewhere.
Shopify ships with Canadian tax rules preconfigured and updates them when they change. WooCommerce expects you to configure the rates, by hand or through an extension, and to keep them current yourself.
Neither one decides whether you need to register for GST and QST, or which of your products are taxable. Those questions belong to the Canada Revenue Agency, Revenu Québec and your accountant.
On payments, Shopify pushes toward Shopify Payments and charges an additional commission if you use another provider. WooCommerce lets you connect whichever gateway you want with no platform penalty. For shipping, both integrate with Canadian carriers, but negotiated rates and region-specific rules are configured more precisely on the WooCommerce side.
Who owns the store if you leave
Ask this before signing.
Your data is yours on both sides, but access is not equivalent. With WooCommerce the database sits on your server. You export everything, whenever you want, without asking permission.
With Shopify you export products, customers and orders as CSV files, which covers what a migration needs. What does not travel is the theme, because it is written in Liquid, along with customizations delivered through apps. The store lives on Shopify for as long as the subscription runs.
The real risk is administrative: an account opened in the agency's name instead of yours. That takes a minute to get right at the start and becomes painful years later. Confirm the Shopify account, the domain name and the hosting are all in your name, whoever builds the store.
How to choose, in three questions
- ◆Who applies the updates in six months? Nobody, or you without enthusiasm, take Shopify. A technical team or a maintenance retainer, and WooCommerce is back on the table.
- ◆Do you have a requirement Shopify does not cover? Inventory tied to another system, per-customer pricing, an unusual order process. If yes, WooCommerce. If no, the flexibility you are paying for will sit unused.
- ◆Is bilingual your only unusual constraint? Then Shopify already covers it, and that is one less moving part.
Most small businesses I meet arrive at Shopify through the first question, well before the third. What they need is for it to keep working while they sell.
If you want it settled for your specific case, we build on both and deliver at a fixed price: see our online store service. The choice gets made on the first call, from your answers to the three questions above.
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Get a free quote in 60 seconds ↗Frequently asked questions
01Can Shopify run a proper bilingual English and French store?
Yes, and it is the case it handles best. Every plan lets you sell in up to 20 languages from one store, and the built in automatic translation covers two of them at no extra cost. English and French, which is exactly the Canadian requirement. Past two languages, translation becomes manual work.
02What does WooCommerce ask for that Shopify does not?
Three things Shopify includes by default: hosting, updates and multilingual support. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, so you supply the server, you track updates for WordPress, WooCommerce and every extension, and you add a translation plugin. That is the cost of flexibility; the question is who in your business is going to do it.
03Can I switch platforms later?
Yes, though not at equal cost in both directions. Products, customers and orders export from either side. What does not travel is the theme and your customizations: a Shopify theme is written in Liquid and runs nowhere else. Plan a migration over weeks rather than a weekend, and budget for a complete redirect map so you do not lose your rankings.
04Which one is better for SEO?
Neither, by default. Both produce clean URLs, editable meta tags and a sitemap. WooCommerce gives you more technical control because you own the server and the code. Shopify imposes a URL structure you cannot change, which rarely constrains a small business. Content and links decide rankings far more than the platform.
05Who owns the store and the data?
The data is yours either way, but access differs. With WooCommerce the database sits on your server, so you can export everything immediately without asking anyone. With Shopify you export products, customers and orders as CSV files, which covers a migration, but the store itself lives on Shopify while the subscription is active. The thing worth checking is whose name the account is in. It should be yours rather than your agency's.
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