For a Pakistani business this decision is not settled by features. It is usually settled by payments, and that is the part most comparison articles written elsewhere never mention.
The payment question, first
Shopify Payments is not available in Pakistan. That means using a third party gateway, which is supported but adds a transaction fee on top of Shopify’s own, and the local options that integrate cleanly are more limited than they are for WooCommerce.
WooCommerce, being open, has plugins for essentially every Pakistani gateway: JazzCash, Easypaisa, Alfalah, HBL, PayFast and others. If your business depends on local wallet and bank payments, this is a real advantage.
Cash on delivery, still a large share of Pakistani ecommerce, works on both, but the surrounding workflow (order confirmation calls, COD reconciliation with couriers, return handling) usually needs customisation, and that is easier on WooCommerce or a custom build.
Settle this before comparing anything else. It eliminates one option for a meaningful number of businesses.
Shopify
Right for: businesses that want to launch quickly, have straightforward products, and would rather pay a subscription than maintain anything.
- Hosting, security, updates and performance are handled. You will not be hacked because of an outdated plugin.
- Reliable and fast without any work on your part.
- A large app ecosystem, though the apps carry monthly fees that accumulate.
Costs: subscription in dollars, transaction fees for using an external gateway, plus app subscriptions. A modest store commonly ends up at 15,000 to 40,000 PKR per month all in, and paying in dollars requires an international card, which is its own obstacle.
Limits: you cannot change what the platform does not allow. Unusual checkout flows, complex pricing rules, or deep integration with a local ERP will run into walls.
WooCommerce
Right for: most Pakistani SMEs. Local payment support, local hosting in rupees, and a large pool of developers who can maintain it.
- Complete control over checkout, pricing and workflow.
- Every local gateway and courier has an integration.
- No transaction fee to the platform.
- Hosting and maintenance paid locally, in rupees.
Costs: hosting 30,000 to 200,000 PKR per year depending on traffic, plugin licences 20,000 to 100,000 per year, and maintenance, which is not optional. Budget 60,000 to 200,000 per year for updates, security and backups.
Limits: it is your responsibility. An unmaintained WooCommerce store is a security incident waiting to happen, and performance degrades as plugins accumulate. See our note on what actually makes sites slow.
Custom build
Right for: marketplaces with multiple vendors, businesses whose pricing or ordering logic does not fit a product catalogue, high volume operations where platform fees exceed development cost, and companies where the store must be deeply integrated with an existing ERP or POS.
Wrong for: a normal shop selling normal products. Custom building standard ecommerce is spending money to rebuild something that already exists and works.
Costs: 800,000 to 4,000,000 PKR to build, plus 15 to 20 percent per year to maintain.
Three year cost comparison
For a store doing moderate volume:
- Shopify: roughly 700,000 to 1,600,000 PKR over three years, mostly subscription and apps, with no build cost.
- WooCommerce: roughly 500,000 to 1,400,000 over three years, including a 150,000 to 400,000 build.
- Custom: roughly 1,500,000 to 5,000,000 over three years.
The numbers are closer than people expect. The decision should be made on fit and on who maintains it, not on a spreadsheet.
Four signals you have outgrown your platform
- Your pricing rules do not fit. Customer specific pricing, quantity breaks that vary by segment, or B2B pricing alongside retail.
- You are running the business in a second system. If orders are exported to a spreadsheet daily to actually be fulfilled, the store is a catalogue rather than a system.
- Your inventory is wrong. If the store’s stock and your warehouse or branch stock are separate numbers, you are overselling. See when stock data outgrows a spreadsheet.
- Plugin count is doing the work. Twenty plugins holding together core business function is a maintenance liability, not a feature set.
What most Pakistani businesses should do
Start on WooCommerce with a small, deliberately chosen plugin set and decent hosting. It supports local payments, costs rupees, and any local developer can maintain it.
Move to custom when the four signals above appear, and consider Shopify if you specifically want to avoid maintenance responsibility and your payment mix works with an external gateway.
Whichever you choose, the thing that decides whether the store makes money is not the platform. It is product pages, page speed and whether people can find you, which is covered in ecommerce SEO.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Shopify in Pakistan?
Yes, with a third party payment gateway rather than Shopify Payments, which adds a transaction fee. The subscription must be paid in dollars on an international card.
Which is cheaper, Shopify or WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is usually cheaper over three years and shifts cost from subscription to maintenance. Shopify costs more predictably and removes the maintenance obligation.
Is WooCommerce secure?
WooCommerce and WordPress core are actively maintained. Almost all incidents come from outdated plugins and poor hosting. Fewer plugins and disciplined updates resolve most of the risk.
When should I build custom ecommerce?
When you are a marketplace, when your pricing or ordering logic does not fit a catalogue, or when the store must be deeply integrated with an ERP or POS you already run.
Ezitech builds ecommerce on WooCommerce, Shopify and custom platforms, and integrates them with POS, ERP and courier systems. Tell us what you sell and how.