If you are starting AliExpress dropshipping on a tight budget, the platform choice you make in week one shapes your speed, costs, and growth options for months. This guide compares WooCommerce and Shopify with current numbers, realistic first‑90‑day budgets, and practical tradeoffs. You will also see where WooDropship can remove friction whether you prefer WordPress or Shopify.

What really matters for beginners in the first 90 days

Your early wins come from launching fast, avoiding recurring expenses that drain cash, and spending most of your funds on traffic and product validation rather than software. In practice, the key variables are:

• Total cost to operate in month one and month three
• Time required to launch a store that can accept payments and fulfill orders
• Per‑order payment fees that change your margins
• How easily you can optimize listings, test offers, and scale

The latest pricing facts you should know in 2025

Shopify’s published plans make it simple to understand baseline platform costs. According to the official Shopify pricing page, Basic is listed at 29 dollars per month when billed yearly, with card rates starting at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents online and a 2 percent third‑party payment provider fee on the Basic plan. The same page lists Grow at 79 dollars per month billed yearly with a 1 percent third‑party fee, and Advanced at 299 dollars with a 0.6 percent third‑party fee. The page also promotes the $1 for 3 months trial offer regularly.

On payment processing, the benchmark non‑platform gateway rate remains steady. The Stripe pricing page lists 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per domestic online card transaction in the United States, with 1.5 percent extra for international cards. For PayPal, the current U.S. merchant fee schedule shows PayPal Checkout at 3.49 percent plus a fixed 0.49 dollar fee for domestic transactions, with an additional 1.5 percent on international transactions.

For WooCommerce, the software is free, but you pay for hosting, a domain, and any premium tools you choose. The official Woo team explains in its 2025 cost breakdown that quality hosting typically starts around 250 dollars per year, about 20 dollars monthly, and domain registration begins around 15 dollars per year, as detailed in WooCommerce’s pricing guide. SSL can be free through Let’s Encrypt, and WordPress itself remains open source. If you prefer a deeper glossary view, the overview on hosting and ssl certificate in our wiki is a quick refresher.

There is one more nuance on Shopify fees that beginners often miss. The Shopify Help Center explanation of third‑party transaction fees confirms those fees apply when you use a third‑party provider. If you use Shopify Payments, Shopify does not charge third‑party transaction fees on payment methods like Shop Pay and PayPal Express Checkout. That policy matters because many new dropshippers want to accept PayPal from day one.

Speed to launch: where you save time vs where you gain control

Shopify was built for quick setup and hosted convenience. The pricing page even asserts that the “Shopify checkout converts 15 percent better on average than other commerce platforms,” which is one reason many beginners start there. You do not manage servers or updates, and you can sign up for a Shopify free trial to build a store immediately.

WooCommerce offers more flexibility and ownership. The famous WordPress “five‑minute install” exists, and the steps in the WordPress installation guide show that the core setup is straightforward once hosting and a database are ready. The extra time usually goes into choosing a host, pointing your domain, and configuring plugins.

To compress that timeline, WooDropship offers two beginner‑friendly shortcuts:

• If you want WordPress control with AliExpress automation, the WooDropship plugin is a one‑time 89 dollar lifetime license with a free trial. It imports AliExpress products in one click, helps you optimize titles and descriptions with AI, syncs and fulfills orders using a Chrome extension, and lets you set pricing rules and bulk edits without monthly charges.
• If you want the fastest Shopify path, the prebuilt Shopify dropshipping stores package is a one‑time 49 dollar setup delivered in 7 days, including 30 vetted products, a premium theme, legal pages, PayPal and Stripe setup, core SEO, and conversion add‑ons like bundles, popups, countdowns, bought together, and quick view. You launch on a production‑ready store rather than a blank theme.

Either route keeps non‑technical founders moving and reduces the chores that stall launches.

Total cost comparison for realistic beginner scenarios

This section models common budgets and shows where your money goes. Card fees are variable and apply regardless of platform, so the comparison focuses on platform costs you control. When payment fees matter to your margin planning, use our wiki intros on payment gateways and payment processing fees to sanity check your assumptions.

Scenario A: 150 to 250 dollars to validate a niche in two weeks

You want the lowest friction and a usable store quickly. Two good paths:

• Shopify path

  • Platform: Basic plan shown as 29 dollars per month when billed yearly on the Shopify pricing page. Many beginners start monthly at a higher rate, but the math is similar for the first month.
  • Store build: 49 dollars one‑time for a production‑ready store using WooDropship’s prebuilt Shopify stores delivered in 7 days.
  • Payment fees: If you use Shopify Payments, card fees start at 2.9 percent plus 0.30 dollar in the U.S. per the pricing page. If you use a third‑party gateway, the Basic plan lists a 2 percent third‑party fee on top.
  • Marketing: Whatever remains from your 150 to 250 dollars goes to testing one or two creatives. You could follow our starter tips in AliExpress Dropshipping 101 and experiment with a small budget.

• WooCommerce path

  • Platform: Hosting around 20 dollars monthly and domain from 15 dollars yearly, based on WooCommerce’s own pricing guide.
  • Store build: 89 dollars one‑time for WooDropship’s plugin lifetime membership with free trial. Use a free WordPress theme to start and upgrade later. Our roundups of WooCommerce themes can speed your pick.
  • Payment fees: Stripe at 2.9 percent plus 0.30 dollar per domestic online card per Stripe pricing or PayPal at 3.49 percent plus 0.49 dollar per the PayPal merchant fees. The fee you choose depends on your audience trust profile.

Bottom line: if your priority is the absolute fastest path to a polished store, the Shopify route with a prebuilt store is tough to beat in setup time. If you want to avoid monthly platform fees from day one and you are comfortable with light WordPress tasks, the WooCommerce route lets you own more and reduce recurring costs.

Scenario B: 300 to 600 dollars for a 30‑day sprint to first sales

You can invest a bit more so you want higher conversion confidence and a cleaner catalog.

• Shopify path

  • Platform: Basic plan as listed on Shopify pricing.
  • Store build: 49 dollar prebuilt store to ship in 7 days, then spend your remaining budget on traffic and product testing.
  • Conversion: The Shopify pricing page claims the “world’s best checkout” with an average 15 percent conversion lift compared to other platforms. That advantage often offsets the small time you would spend optimizing a Woo checkout stack.

• WooCommerce path

  • Platform: Hosting and domain as above, then 89 dollars for the WooDropship plugin. Add optional paid tools only if they move the needle.
  • Optimization: Use the plugin’s AI product editor to improve titles and descriptions, then review our short guides on conversion optimization and abandoned cart recovery to capture quick wins.

Bottom line: at this budget, both paths work. Shopify gives you a faster perceived checkout and less technical overhead. WooCommerce keeps more control and long‑term cost efficiency, especially as your plugin is a one‑time purchase.

Scenario C: 1,000 to 2,000 dollars for a 90‑day growth runway

With more budget, the calculus shifts to scalability and TCO. On Shopify, plan tiers reduce third‑party fees as you upgrade, and the hosted stack handles traffic without your intervention. On WooCommerce, you can choose better hosting, curate extensions, and still keep ownership of your data and stack. The official WooCommerce cost guide shows how you can spend more where it truly helps and stay lean elsewhere.

For both paths, your per‑order fees dominate margin math. The Stripe rate and PayPal rate schedule give you the expected ballpark. If you sell internationally, read Shopify’s currency conversion fee explanation and PayPal’s international add‑ons to avoid surprises.

Growth tradeoffs you should weigh before you commit

• Ownership and flexibility vs bundled convenience. WooCommerce lets you choose hosting, extend at will, and avoid platform lock‑in. Shopify handles hosting, updates, and infrastructure for you.
• Checkout and conversion confidence. Shopify’s claim of a 15 percent better checkout performance on the pricing page is a strong reason to consider it when speed to revenue matters. On WooCommerce, you can reach strong performance too, but it usually requires a little curation and testing. Our wiki entries on search engine optimization and landing page optimization are solid starting points.
• App costs vs plugin investments. On WooCommerce you can choose free or paid extensions and keep a tight budget. On Shopify you might rely on multiple paid apps. WooDropship reduces the need for extra tools on both sides by covering import, AI copy, sync, fulfillment, and bulk pricing.
• Third‑party gateway fees on Shopify. Using a gateway other than Shopify Payments adds a plan‑based fee per Shopify policy. If you can activate Shopify Payments where you operate, you trim those extra costs and keep the stack simpler.

How WooDropship fits either platform choice

If WooCommerce is your path, the WooDropship plugin is a single upfront cost with a free trial. It plugs into WordPress and WooCommerce, integrates a Chrome extension for one‑click AliExpress import and order fulfillment, and gives you AI content tools, price rules, and bulk edits without monthly billing. If this is your first WordPress store, our how‑tos on how to start WordPress dropshipping and automating your AliExpress business simplify setup.

If Shopify is your path, you can skip the blank‑theme grind and order a prebuilt Shopify dropshipping store that ships in 7 days with 30 vetted products, a premium theme, essential policies, payment gateways configured, and conversion boosters already installed. Combine that with the official Shopify free trial to build momentum inside a week.

Either way, you can always reach our team through Contact us for quick guidance.

Practical decision framework for beginners

Ask yourself three short questions and pick the best‑fit path.

• Do you need a store that looks polished and can take orders by this weekend with minimal setup? Pick Shopify, start the free trial, and order a prebuilt store to deploy in 7 days.
• Do you want to minimize recurring platform fees and keep data and stack ownership? Pick WooCommerce and use the WooDropship plugin plus a reputable host, then focus your budget on testing offers and traffic.
• Are you planning to scale quickly or internationally in the next 3 to 6 months? Both can scale, but factor in Shopify’s built‑in checkout performance and plan‑based third‑party fee reductions versus WooCommerce’s flexibility to swap hosts, tune extensions, and control TCO.

Budgeting tips that save beginners the most money

Keep platform costs predictable, then push the bulk of your spend to traffic testing and product validation. A few small optimizations will help you hold margin:

• Choose one primary gateway and understand its fees. Stripe’s 2.9 percent plus 0.30 dollar baseline per Stripe pricing is simple and widely accepted. If your audience prefers PayPal, budget for the 3.49 percent plus 0.49 dollar domestic rate per PayPal’s schedule.
• If using Shopify, activate Shopify Payments where possible to avoid the additional third‑party percentage per Shopify docs.
• Avoid paid apps or extensions you do not need. On WooCommerce, start with essentials and upgrade only after you see a revenue impact. On Shopify, pick a plan and app stack that fits your first 90 days and reassess monthly.
• Use AI to optimize product pages quickly. The WooDropship plugin includes AI editing for titles and descriptions so you can ship pages faster and spend time on traffic.

The bottom line for new dropshippers

If your top priority is speed to launch, fewer moving parts, and a high‑converting checkout out of the box, Shopify plus a WooDropship prebuilt store is the smoothest path and leaves more of your energy for ads and creatives. If your top priority is cost control and ownership, WooCommerce plus the WooDropship lifetime plugin keeps recurring costs low while still automating AliExpress import and fulfillment.

Your choice is not permanent. Many successful sellers start where they can move fastest and revisit the stack once product‑market fit appears. Keep your first 90 days focused on learning what converts, use transparent pricing data from Shopify’s plans, Stripe’s fees, PayPal’s fees, and WooCommerce’s cost overview, and upgrade only when the numbers demand it. If you want to explore SEO, payments, and growth concepts in more detail, our wiki on dropshipping, customer acquisition, and conversion rate can guide your next step.

Happy WooDropshipping!