5000+ Words: Ultimate Comparison of 3 Major Global Selling Platforms - Shopify vs Shopline vs Wordpress

This article contains no sponsored content. All opinions are based on my personal first-hand experience and are for reference only.

The content is extensive. There's a summary at the end for those who want to skip ahead.

Evaluation Criteria

• Costs (subscription fees, payment processing rates, payout schedules)
• Store Design (component availability, ease of use)
• Store Features (infrastructure, daily operations)
• Operations & Marketing (SEO, traffic channels, optimization, expansion)
• Ecosystem (apps, themes, community, tutorials)
• Customer Service (response time, problem-solving ability)

Evaluation Context: Based on US market, white-hat compliant business practices.

Costs

1. Subscription Fees

Comparing basic annual plans in USD for the US market:

1. Shopify

• $240/year
• Limited offer: first 3 months at $1/month, averaging approximately $16.2/month

2. Shopline

• $288/year, approximately $24/month

3. Wordpress

• More complex because WP itself is free and open-source
• You need to rent servers or use hosting services
• Server costs depend on performance requirements
• Using Hostinger as an example, minimum can be $65/year
• However, as traffic and content mature, basic services become insufficient and require costly upgrades

Subscription Fee Summary: Shopify > Shopline, Wordpress cannot be directly compared.

2. Payment Processing Rates & Transaction Fees

Comparing US-based entities:

1. Shopify Payments

• Note: International orders incur an additional 2% currency conversion fee
• Third-party payment gateways incur additional fees of 2%, 1%, or 0.6% (depending on plan)
• Bonus: When Shopify Payments is activated, PayPal transactions are not charged the extra 2% fee

2. Shopline

• Note: International orders incur an additional 2% currency conversion fee
• Third-party payment gateways incur additional fees of 2%, 0.8%, or 0.4% (depending on plan)

3. Wordpress

• Completely depends on which payment gateway you integrate
• Using standard US Stripe as an example, rates are relatively lower

Payment Processing Rate Summary: WP > Shopify > Shopline

3. Payout Schedule

1. Shopify Payments

• Fastest can be T+1
• No reserve or security deposit held

2. Shopline

• Holds a percentage of revenue as security deposit
• Payout T+2 to T+9 depending on individual seller's volume and plan

3. Wordpress

• Depends on your payment gateway

Overall Cost Summary

Overall, Shopify is the clear winner. Shopline and Wordpress depend on individual circumstances.

Store Design

Shopify

Shopify's free Dawn theme provides 17 Sections on pages, 10+ Blocks in product information, and 20+ global settings.

The operation is almost drag-and-drop and very easy. However, some small but essential features perform poorly, such as the inability to upload separate images for PC and Mobile in the official free theme.

Shopline

Shopline's free Modern theme provides 25+ sections on pages and 16+ blocks in product information.

Importantly! Shopline officially integrates a free advanced page builder component library, essentially pre-building common functions and scenarios. I personally think this is a blessing for new store builders!

The operation is identical to Shopify.

Wordpress

Wordpress store design completely depends on which third-party theme or page builder you use. For example, Elementor, the most commonly used page builder, has 86+ widgets in its paid version, and you can continue loading Elementor plugins.

For user-friendliness in store design: Shopline > Shopify > Wordpress; for freedom/flexibility, the reverse is true.

If you're reading this article, I can probably assume you're a beginner, so I suggest not considering the "freedom" dimension—freedom means less guidance and constraints.

Store Features

This section has too many detailed differences, so I recommend experiencing them yourself.

Shopify

Pros:

1. Official complete EDM solution with unlimited email contacts and 10k free emails per month
2. Official Shop marketplace where you can automatically list and get orders if you meet certain conditions
3. Official B2B wholesale marketplace Faire where qualified sellers can list and get orders
4. For overseas sellers, official integration of logistics fulfillment and tax services

Cons:

1. Shopify Basic only supports 3 custom markets
2. Shopify Basic doesn't support additional staff accounts
3. Official automatic translation only supports 2 languages
4. Many basic features are not integrated or perform poorly in Shopify official, requiring apps or even paid apps and custom code

Shopline

Pros:

1. Basic plan supports additional staff
2. Basic plan supports up to 50 custom markets
3. Official integration of Google Translate plugin for unlimited frontend "machine translation"
4. China-region Amazon sellers can easily have Buy With Prime
5. Many humanized detailed features are directly integrated into free settings or free apps

Cons:

1. Official EDM potential costs may be high—if you need to reach 5000 customers, you'll need at least $62/month

Wordpress

As mentioned above, WP itself has no features. You need to install numerous plugins to solve your needs. For those fantasizing about "free, low-cost" WP, I'm advising against it again.

Features: Shopify and Shopline each have pros and cons, WP is hard to compare.

Ongoing Operations

SEO

Shopify and Shopline have almost the same SEO logic, but Shopline is more beginner-friendly due to its officially integrated SEO plugin.

Wordpress, with its richer content fields, allows more room for SEO for professional and diligent store owners.

Traffic Channels

Shopify and Shopline both have good integration for traffic channels.

Shopify has done excellently in ecosystem, with deep or shallow direct partnerships with major platforms like Meta.

Shopline has optimized some aspects for Chinese users, such as GMC account checks.

Wordpress—you'll have to figure it out yourself.

Daily Optimization

Whether it's website design optimization, content optimization, or user experience optimization, Shopify and Shopline allow store owners to focus more on the global selling business itself.

Shopify's robust ecosystem is definitely beneficial for every individual's long-term growth.

Wordpress, for beginners, is an absolute disaster. You'll struggle daily fixing basic function bugs, plugin bugs, theme bugs, server bugs. In the end, you won't know anything about core marketing and traffic generation, becoming a coder instead.

Expansion Playbooks

For many WP veterans, there are more expansion playbooks available. Since opening a store itself doesn't cost much, and with the support of various tech tools and plugins, they can replicate site networks at lower cost.

Therefore, for ongoing operations, if you're willing to focus on conventional global selling itself, then Shopline > Shopify > WP.

Ecosystem

Apps

• Shopify: Over 10k+ various apps
• Shopline: Currently only 200+, with a strategy to self-develop and integrate more basic common app functions into the core platform
• Wordpress: Thanks to being fully open-source, plugins are more abundant, roughly 70k+

Themes

• Shopify: 200+ official free and paid themes; Themeforest third-party has 400+ paid themes
• Shopline: 30+ official themes
• Wordpress: TF has over 1500 third-party themes

Community & Tutorials

• Shopify: Official help center documents, blog articles, and user communities provide大量优质 content and user discussions
• Shopline: Official help documents and videos provide basic instruction
• Wordpress: Community is larger and more complex. As long as you encounter problems, you can search for answers from various corners

Ecosystem: Wordpress > Shopify > Shopline

Customer Service

Customer service is a very subjective judgment:

• Shopify: Due to risk control, people often complain about customer service being unhelpful or giving official-speak. But they solve what they can solve
• Shopline: As a domestic team, can provide more localized and differentiated service and response levels
• Wordpress: Zero service. You didn't pay WP, why would WP serve you?

Service: For most people, perhaps Shopline > Shopify > Wordpress

Final Summary

Shopify

If you're a beginner with strong hands-on ability and research skills, choose Shopify without hesitation.

Lower overall price (3 months at $3) + rich growth ecosystem allows you to dive deeper into the international seller community and better understand this internationally-born e-commerce playbook.

Best for: Diligent individual sellers or internationally-oriented teams and companies. Mature ecosystem, rich learning resources, high cost-performance ratio.

Shopline

If you're a small team (such as committed business partners, existing domestic small brands or businesses, particularly dissatisfied with WP or other SaaS and want to switch, Amazon or other platform veterans), you can try Shopline.

Down-to-earth features and services may help you land your business faster without too much learning cost.

Best for: Domestic small teams/brands/foreign trade transformation tool. Localized features lower operational barriers.

Wordpress

Not recommended!

If you're a geek who enjoys self-torture and isn't in a hurry to get results from global selling itself, you might try Wordpress, though I don't recommend it.

WP is suitable for players who clearly know what they want and know that certain playbooks cannot be satisfied by other SaaS.

Special reminder: I especially advise bosses to carefully choose WP, because if your WP operator leaves, subsequent people will have a hard time continuing! Just think about the logic behind why SaaS like Feishu and DingTalk exist, and you'll understand what I'm saying.