An honest comparison
Shopify vs WooCommerce vs an all-in-one system
These three are usually compared as if they were competing products of the same kind. They are not. Shopify is hosted software you rent. WooCommerce is free software you host and maintain. An all-in-one retail system is neither — it is the system that runs your business, of which the storefront is one view.
Comparing them on feature counts therefore produces a useless answer. The question that actually decides it is what kind of responsibility you want, and whether you have a physical counter that needs to share stock with the store.
What follows is written to be fair to all three, including where each beats us. Anything said here about Shopify or WooCommerce is about their well-documented architecture rather than about current pricing or feature details, which change too often to be reliable on a page like this — check those on their own sites.
What you get
What this gives you
Shopify: rented, hosted, maintained
A subscription for hosted ecommerce with a large theme and app ecosystem. Fastest route to a polished online-only store; in-store selling is a separate product in the same family.
WooCommerce: free software, your infrastructure
An open-source plugin for WordPress. No licence fee, and you provide hosting, updates, security and extensions. Enormous flexibility in exchange for real ongoing responsibility.
A custom build: exactly yours
Sometimes the right answer for an unusual requirement. Highest cost, total control, and maintenance permanently yours or your agency's.
All-in-one: the shop, of which the store is a view
The counter, the stock, the storefront and the books as one system. Fewer storefront bells; no reconciliation between what you sell in person and what you sell online.
The question that separates them
Do you have a physical counter? If not, the first three are strong choices. If you do, ask each one how stock stays correct between the shop and the site.
The cost that is never quoted
Whatever keeps two systems in agreement — a connector subscription, an app, or somebody's evenings. Over three years this is frequently the largest line.
What each one actually is
Shopify is software as a service. You pay monthly, they run everything, and you work inside their system — themes for design, an app store for functionality beyond the core, and their own point of sale product if you also sell in person. The appeal is that almost nothing is your problem technically. The constraint is that you are working within the boundaries of someone else's platform, and that functionality outside the core often arrives as apps with their own subscriptions.
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a shop. The software costs nothing; everything around it costs something. You choose and pay for hosting, you keep WordPress, the plugin and your extensions updated, and you own the consequences when an update breaks a combination that used to work. In exchange you get flexibility that hosted platforms cannot match, and no platform between you and your own code.
An all-in-one retail system starts from the other end. It is built to run a business that sells things — inventory, purchasing, counter, customers, accounts — and the online storefront is generated from that. It is not trying to compete with a dedicated ecommerce platform on storefront features; it is removing the problem of having two systems.
Who each one suits
Choose a hosted platform if you are selling online and only online, you want to launch quickly, you value a mature theme and app ecosystem, and you would rather pay a subscription than maintain anything. This is a genuinely strong choice for online-first brands and we would not try to talk you out of it.
Choose a self-hosted platform if you have technical capacity in-house or a developer you trust, you want control over hosting and code, and you would rather pay in effort than in subscriptions. Also choose it if your site is already a WordPress site with content and search authority you do not want to disturb.
Choose an all-in-one system if you have a physical counter and the thing costing you time is not the storefront but the gap between the storefront and the shop. If your recurring frustration is stock figures, oversold orders or an evening a week making two systems agree, no amount of storefront capability fixes it, because it is not a storefront problem.
The in-store question, which is where this is usually decided
Every route can sell in store. The difference is how. A hosted platform typically offers its own POS product — one vendor, generally well integrated, and priced as an additional subscription per location. A self-hosted platform relies on a POS plugin or a third-party system with a connector, which works but adds a component with its own updates and failure modes.
An all-in-one system does not integrate the counter with the store because they were never separate. That is the whole of the difference, and it only matters if you sell in both places — which is exactly why this comparison should start with that question rather than with themes.
One more practical note: you do not have to choose all at once. sell.ke integrates with WooCommerce, so a shop with an established WooCommerce store can put sell.ke behind it as the system of record and stop doing manual stock work without touching the storefront. Moving the storefront itself is a separate decision, best made later and on its own merits.
Compare
The three routes, side by side
Architecture and responsibility, not feature counts — those change monthly and are best checked on each vendor's own site.
| What you are comparing | Shopify (hosted) | WooCommerce (self-hosted) | sell.ke (all-in-one) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | A subscription to hosted software | Free software you run yourself | The system that runs the business |
| Who maintains it | The vendor | You | The vendor |
| Storefront flexibility | High, within the theme system | Very high | Moderate — conventional by design |
| Extending it | App store, mostly paid | Plugins, free and paid | Built in; fewer extension points |
| Selling in store | Their POS, priced separately | A POS plugin or a connector | Same system, included |
| Inventory across both | Integrated | Via a plugin you maintain | One record, nothing to integrate |
| Accounting | Export or an app | Export or a plugin | Double-entry, from the Growth plan |
| Best for | Online-first brands | Technical teams wanting control | Shops that sell in person and online |
Shopify and WooCommerce are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with sell.ke. Rows describe each platform's publicly documented architecture; pricing and feature specifics change and should be checked with each vendor directly.
Questions
Shopify vs WooCommerce vs all-in-one — questions
Is Shopify or WooCommerce better?
Neither is better in general; they are different purchases. Shopify is the stronger choice if you want everything maintained for you and you are happy working inside one platform's boundaries. WooCommerce is stronger if you have technical capacity, want control over hosting and code, or already run a WordPress site whose content you do not want to disturb. The deciding factor is usually who is going to maintain it.
Should I build a custom ecommerce website instead?
Only for a requirement no platform serves, and with clear eyes about maintenance. A custom build gives you exactly what you specify and then makes every future change a project. Most businesses that commission one wanted a normal shop and paid a large premium to get one that only their developer understands.
Which is best if I also have a physical shop?
Ask each option how stock stays correct between the counter and the site, and what happens when that mechanism fails. Hosted platforms answer with their own POS; self-hosted answers with a plugin; an all-in-one system answers that there is nothing to keep correct because there is one record. If you sell in both places, that question matters more than anything on a theme comparison.
Can I move from WooCommerce or Shopify to sell.ke?
Yes. Products export from both as CSV and import here with variants, prices and stock. Two things deserve planning rather than assumption: URL structure, so existing search rankings are preserved with redirects, and your payment provider setup. A good approach is to run sell.ke as the system of record behind your existing store first, and move the storefront later if you decide you want to.
Can I keep my WooCommerce store and still use sell.ke?
Yes — that is a supported and fairly common arrangement. sell.ke integrates with WooCommerce, so the counter and the storefront share stock while the storefront stays exactly as it is. It removes the manual reconciliation without asking you to give up a site you have invested in.
How much does sell.ke cost?
Plans run from USD 12/month for a single-location till to USD 115/month for unlimited scale, with the online store on your own domain included from USD 23/month. In Kenya the same plans are KES 1,499 to KES 14,999/month, billed in shillings. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial and no card, and there is no per-terminal licence and no commission on your sales. There is no hardware to buy either — sell.ke runs on a phone, tablet or laptop you already own.
Can I bring across the products I already have?
Yes — bulk import from CSV or Excel, including photos, variants, pack sizes, prices, cost prices and opening stock counts. If what you have is a supplier price list rather than a clean spreadsheet, Amina can build the catalogue from a photo or a PDF of it, which is usually faster than retyping.
How long does setup take?
A single-counter shop is usually selling the same day. The work is the product list, not the software: import a spreadsheet, scan barcodes, or let Amina build products from a supplier invoice or a photo of your price list. A multi-location business with thousands of SKUs and opening stock counts should plan about a week and run the old system alongside for a fortnight. The 14-day trial is long enough to do exactly that.
What happens to my data if I leave?
You export it. Products, customers, suppliers, stock movements and transactions are all exportable, and the accounting side produces standard statements rather than a proprietary format. We would rather you stayed because moving is not worth it than because moving is not possible — a business whose records are hostage is a business that resents its software.
Read next
The other pages that answer the question you are probably about to ask.
Ecommerce website builder
An online store on your own domain, built from the catalogue you already sell from.
What an online store costs
The four cost shapes, what is genuinely unavoidable, and where budgets overrun.
POS that syncs with your website
Real-time stock between counter and storefront — because they are the same system.
All-in-one POS, inventory & online store
One system for the counter, the stock and the website — not three that sync.
How to set up an online store
The seven steps, in order, with the one that actually takes the time flagged.
Best POS for a small business
How to judge one honestly, and the trap that catches most first-time buyers.
Shopify alternatives with mobile money
What changes when the wallet, not the card, is how your customers pay.
Go deeper on a feature
An online shop off the same stock
A branded storefront on your own domain, reading the same products, stock and prices as the till.
Selling at the counter
Split payments, held orders, manager-gated discounts and a drawer count that reconciles.
Stock you can trust
Batch and expiry, serial numbers, reorder levels, stock takes and the formulas behind them.
See it for your trade
Clothing boutique
Size-then-colour variants, per-variant stock, the online shop as a second branch.
Electronics & phone shop
IMEI and serial tracking, warranty by unit, consignment stock, high-value write-offs.
Stationery & office supplies
School-season bulk orders, quotations to institutions, credit invoicing.
Try it on your own products
Fourteen days, no card. Import your product list or let Amina build it from a photo of your price list, and run it alongside whatever you use now.