Shopify vs WooCommerce for EU sellers: costs, VAT and the third option

In short: choose Shopify for a hosted store with no technical upkeep, and accept a 2% fee on Basic if you use your own payment provider. Choose WooCommerce if you run WordPress and have a developer. For OSS VAT, VIES checks and a 0% fee on sales built in, CloudCart is a third option from €14/month billed annually.

This comparison is for ecommerce sellers anywhere in the EU. Competitor prices come from the official pages linked in the text.

Is Shopify or WooCommerce better for an EU store?

Shopify is better for an EU seller without a developer, and WooCommerce is better for a seller who already owns a WordPress site and wants full control of the code. The difference is who does the technical work: on Shopify the platform runs hosting, security and updates for a monthly fee, while on WooCommerce you or your agency run them on your own server.

• Shopify is a hosted (SaaS) ecommerce platform. In Ireland the Basic plan costs €24/month billed yearly or €32 billed monthly (Shopify pricing, Ireland).
• WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress. It has no monthly subscription; the WooCommerce site lists hosting at $25 to $350 a month and extensions at $29 to $299 a year each (WooCommerce pricing).
• CloudCart, the European ecommerce platform from Sofia, Bulgaria, is hosted like Shopify, charges a 0% fee on sales with any payment provider, and includes EU VAT with OSS and VIES on every plan.

Shopify vs WooCommerce vs CloudCart: comparison table

The table compares the points that change an EU seller's monthly bill or legal risk.

Criterion	Shopify	WooCommerce	CloudCart
Model	Hosted (SaaS)	Open-source plugin for WordPress, self-hosted	Hosted (SaaS)
Entry price	€24/month billed yearly, €32 billed monthly (Basic, Ireland)	No subscription; hosting $25 to $350/month	€14/month billed annually, €19 billed monthly (Baby Pack)
Intro offer	3-day trial, then €1/month for 3 months	None	€1/month for the first 3 months on every plan
Fee on sales with your own payment provider	2% Basic, 1% Grow, 0.6% Advanced; 0% with Shopify Payments	None from the software	0% on every plan
Card fees with the platform's own payments	Shopify Payments, Basic: 2% + €0.25 standard online cards, 3.1% + €0.25 international, excl. VAT	Your provider's rates	CloudCart Pay: 0% through Dec 31, 2026, then 1.29% + €0.05 for EEA consumer cards
EU VAT with OSS	With Shopify Tax or Basic Tax; you file the return	Manual rate tables in core; automation and VAT number checks through extensions	Built in: rates by zone, OSS, VIES check at checkout
Paid add-ons	Apps from the Shopify App Store	Extensions at $29 to $299/year each	Couriers, payments and marketing are apps in the admin
Hosting, SSL, platform updates	Included	You or your developer	Included; daily backups are a paid add-on
Code ownership	No access to platform code	Full access	No access to platform code; Admin API from Starter Pack up

Important: Shopify prices differ by country; the figures above are from shopify.com/ie/pricing. WooCommerce lists its costs in US dollars. CloudCart prices exclude VAT and are on the pricing page.

EU VAT and OSS: how Shopify and WooCommerce handle it

Shopify supports OSS only through its own tax services, and WooCommerce leaves VAT automation to extensions. Both still leave the filing to you.

The One Stop Shop (OSS) lets an EU seller declare the VAT due in each customer's country in one quarterly return filed at home. The €10,000 yearly threshold for cross-border sales to consumers applies across all EU countries combined; above it, you charge the VAT rate of the customer's country (European Commission, VAT One Stop Shop).

Shopify

A Shopify store can use OSS only when it runs Shopify Tax or Basic Tax as its tax service, and Basic Tax is no longer available to stores that newly start collecting EU tax (Shopify Help Center, EU tax setup). The help page puts the duty to file and remit VAT on the merchant and does not describe a VIES check of business customers' VAT numbers.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce core gives you tax rate tables per tax class, with rows by country, postcode and city, and CSV import and export. Automated tax calculation comes from the WooCommerce Tax extension (WooCommerce, setting up taxes). That page does not cover OSS or EU VAT number validation, so a B2B store that sells to companies in other member states needs another extension or custom work for VIES checks and reverse-charge invoices.

CloudCart

CloudCart has VAT rates by geographic zone, OSS for EU sales and validation of the customer's VAT number through VIES at checkout built into every plan. When VAT is zero for a valid EU business customer, the invoice carries the explanation. Invoices and credit notes are issued from the order with your own numbering. See invoices, VAT and OSS.

Thresholds and the quarterly return are explained step by step in OSS VAT for cross-border EU sales.

Shopify vs WooCommerce cost in euros: a worked example

For a store with €40,000 in yearly sales, Shopify Basic costs about €1,288 a year in plan and card fees, WooCommerce starts around $445 a year before payment fees and developer hours, and CloudCart Starter Pack costs €390 a year before card fees.

The example assumes 800 orders of €50 a year, paid by consumer cards at Shopify's standard online rate and CloudCart Pay's EEA consumer-card rate, five paid WooCommerce extensions, prices excluding VAT, and annual billing.

Cost item, per year	Shopify Basic (Ireland)	WooCommerce	CloudCart Starter Pack
Plan or subscription	€24 × 12 = €288	None	€390
Hosting	Included	$300 to $4,200 ($25 to $350/month)	Included
Paid add-ons	Depends on the apps you install	5 extensions: $145 to $1,495	Depends on the apps you switch on
Card fees with the platform's own payments	Shopify Payments 2% + €0.25 = €1,000	Your provider's rates	CloudCart Pay: €0 through Dec 31, 2026; then 1.29% + €0.05 = €556
Extra fee with your own payment provider	2% = €800, plus that provider's card fees	€0	€0
Hosting, SSL and platform updates	Included	Your time or developer hours	Included

On Shopify, card fees and the 2% fee on third-party payments outweigh the plan price as sales grow. On WooCommerce, developer hours are the line most budgets miss. On CloudCart, the plan follows your revenue over six months, and the fee on sales stays at 0% on every plan.

CloudCart plans and limits:

Plan	Billed annually	Billed monthly	Products	Revenue over 6 months
Baby Pack	€168/year (€14/month)	€19/month	up to 100	up to €9,999
Starter Pack	€390/year	€39/month	up to 2,000	up to €24,999
CC Pro	€990/year	€99/month	up to 7,500	up to €249,999
CC Master	€2,990/year	€299/month	unlimited	up to €499,999

Every cost line of a new store is broken down in how much an online store costs.

Apps vs plugins: what you add to each platform

Both Shopify and WooCommerce reach EU-level features through add-ons, and each add-on is one more monthly or yearly bill and one more vendor to keep in sync.

A typical EU store needs VAT by country with VAT number checks, invoices, local couriers with lockers, local payment methods, cookie consent and a translated store per market. On Shopify these mostly come from the Shopify App Store. On WooCommerce each one is an extension or plugin, and each extension needs updating after WordPress and WooCommerce updates.

Run this test on each shortlisted platform before choosing:

1. VAT and invoices. Place a test B2B order from another EU country with a valid VAT number and check that the invoice shows zero VAT and the reason.
2. Couriers. Check that the courier you use in each country prints labels from the admin and shows lockers or offices in checkout.
3. Payments. Check that the payment provider works in your business's country and pays out in your currency, and note its fee per order.
4. Cookies and consent. Check that analytics and ad tags wait for consent.
5. A second market. Set up the second country's language, currency and prices and see how much work it takes.
6. The total. Add plan, apps or extensions, hosting, card fees and developer hours for year 1 and year 3.

In CloudCart, couriers, payments, marketplaces and ERP or POS systems are apps in the admin that you switch on without a developer: Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, GLS and DHL work across Europe, plus regional providers. As a labelled example from southeastern Europe, Econt, Speedy and BOX NOW in Bulgaria and Sameday and FAN Courier in Romania are direct integrations. See all integrations and the shipping options.

Maintenance: who updates and secures the store

On Shopify and CloudCart the platform hosts, updates and secures the store; on WooCommerce the store owner does.

WooCommerce runs on your own WordPress install, so you choose the host and you are responsible for WordPress core updates, WooCommerce updates, extension updates, the SSL certificate, backups and security monitoring. That control is the main reason to pick WooCommerce, and fixing a plugin update that breaks checkout is the main cost.

Shopify and CloudCart include hosting, SSL and updates in the plan. Neither gives you the platform's source code. If you need root access to the server, WooCommerce is the right choice and both hosted platforms are the wrong one.

The full move, plugin by plugin, is in the WooCommerce migration guide.

GDPR and hosting: where your customers' data lives

Under the GDPR you are the controller of your customers' data and the platform or host is your processor, so on every platform you need a data processing agreement and a list of subprocessors (Regulation (EU) 2016/679).

• WooCommerce: the data sits on the hosting you choose, so you can pick an EU data centre, and the security of that server and its backups is yours.
• Shopify: the data sits on Shopify's infrastructure. Ask for its data processing terms and subprocessor list before you launch, and check where your payment and app providers store data too.
• CloudCart: an EU company with its team in Sofia. SSL, cookie consent and Google Consent Mode v2 are part of the platform, and access, deletion and portability requests arrive in one list in the admin, where you answer them.

The cookie banner and legal pages are covered in GDPR, cookies and legal pages for an online store.

Selling in several EU countries

Shopify sells to several countries from one store with Shopify Markets, WooCommerce does it with multilingual and multicurrency plugins or a WordPress multisite, and CloudCart gives each country its own store with a shared catalog and stock.

Shopify Markets lets one store translate the storefront, assign local domains and show prices in local currencies (Shopify pricing). It suits a brand whose catalog, prices and couriers are nearly the same everywhere. On WooCommerce, each new language and currency is another plugin to install, configure and keep updated, and a separate site per country usually means a multisite setup handled by a developer.

In CloudCart, multistore gives each market a separate store with its own domain, couriers, payments, currency, prices and VAT rate. The Multilang app copies products to each country's store, translates them and multiplies prices by your factor for that market, and Stores Sync updates stock across stores after every order. Each country store runs on its own plan. See how multistore works.

Shipping, returns and VAT across borders are in the guide to cross-border ecommerce in the EU.

Who should choose Shopify, WooCommerce or CloudCart?

Choose by your team, your markets and your three-year cost, using the table below.

Your situation	Best fit	Why
You already run a WordPress site with content and SEO, and you have a developer	WooCommerce	Content stays in WordPress, you own the code and choose the host
You need custom checkout logic or root access to the server	WooCommerce	Full code access; the hosted platforms do not give it
Most customers are outside the EU, or you depend on specific Shopify apps and agencies	Shopify	Thousands of apps, a partner network, and Shopify Payments in the countries where it is offered
You already sell well on Shopify and only add EU countries	Usually stay on Shopify	Test VAT, couriers and payments first; move only for a real blocker or fee problem
Small or mid-size store selling in one or several EU countries, no developer	CloudCart	OSS, VIES, invoices and European couriers built in, 0% fee on sales with any provider
You want a separate store per country with its own couriers and VAT rate	CloudCart	Multistore with a shared catalog and stock
You want to run the store from an AI assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini	CloudCart or Shopify	CloudCart connects Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini with a PAT token and one sentence; Shopify plans include Sidekick, its own AI assistant

CloudCart is the wrong choice if you need thousands of third-party apps or access to the platform's source code. WooCommerce is the wrong choice if nobody on your team will own updates and security. Shopify is the wrong choice if you want your own payment provider without a fee on every sale.

Switching from Shopify or WooCommerce later

A platform switch is safe when products, customers, orders and old URLs move together while the old store keeps selling.

CloudCart migrates from WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, OpenCart and any other platform, through a CSV or XML export, through the API, or directly from the old site. The team moves the store in up to 45 days with no pause in sales, and every old URL gets a 301 redirect, which tells Google the page has moved. If you prefer to move yourself, the admin has importers for WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento plus CSV and XML import; some imports are on higher plans. See migration and the move from Shopify.

Before you upload the full catalog anywhere, run the six-step test above on each shortlisted platform. On CloudCart that test costs €1 a month for the first 3 months on any plan, with no contract. Questions about your setup go to support@cloudcart.com.

A broader comparison that adds Magento is in the best ecommerce platform in Europe, and a step-by-step plan for the move is in the platform switch checklist.

Frequently asked questions