Shopify or WooCommerce for a Québec online store in 2026?

"Shopify or WooCommerce?" is usually the first question a Québec merchant faces when going online. Both platforms run thousands of successful stores. The right choice depends less on features than on how you want to run your business day to day.

The short answer

• Shopify suits merchants who want a hosted platform where security, hosting and checkout are handled for them, and who are comfortable paying a monthly subscription plus apps.
• WooCommerce suits merchants who already run WordPress, want full control over their data and design, or have unusual catalog, pricing or B2B needs.

How they differ

Hosting and maintenance

Shopify is a hosted service: you never touch a server, updates are automatic and the checkout is maintained by Shopify. WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress, so you choose your hosting and are responsible for updates, security and backups, or you hire someone to be.

Costs

With Shopify you pay a monthly plan, transaction or payment fees, and often several paid apps (reviews, subscriptions, advanced shipping). The bill grows with the number of apps.

WooCommerce itself is free, but you pay for good hosting, a few premium extensions, and maintenance. Costs are more predictable on large catalogs, and less predictable if updates are left unmanaged.

Compare both over three years, not one month: setup, monthly fees, apps or extensions, payment fees and maintenance.

French and English

Both can run a fully bilingual store, which matters in Québec since commercial information must be available in French. Shopify handles languages through its Markets settings and translation apps. WooCommerce relies on a multilingual plugin such as WPML or Polylang. In both cases, plan for translated product pages, URLs, emails, checkout and policies, not just the menu.

Taxes: GST and QST

Both platforms can charge GST (5%) and QST (9.975%) correctly for Québec customers, and HST or other provincial rates for the rest of Canada. Set your tax registration numbers in the store and test an order shipped to each province you sell to. Remember that QST registration becomes mandatory once your taxable sales exceed the small-supplier threshold of $30,000.

Payments

Shopify Payments works in Canada and keeps payment management in one dashboard. WooCommerce connects to Stripe, Square, PayPal, Moneris and others. If you also sell in person, check that your point-of-sale system syncs inventory with the online store.

SEO and AI search

Both can rank well. WooCommerce gives more control over URL structure, structured data and page templates. Shopify is solid out of the box but imposes some URL patterns (for example /products/ and /collections/). On either platform, what matters most is the content: unique product descriptions, clear categories, real photos and complete product data (price, availability, brand) marked up with structured data, so Google Shopping and AI assistants can read it.

Questions to ask before choosing

1. Do you already have a WordPress site you want to keep?
2. Who will handle updates and security?
3. How many products and variants will you have in two years?
4. Do you need B2B pricing, quotes, subscriptions or bookings?
5. Do you sell in a physical store too?
6. What is your three-year budget, all costs included?

Our approach

We build on both. When a merchant has a simple catalog and wants zero technical overhead, we usually recommend Shopify. When the store lives next to an existing WordPress site, or needs custom logic, WooCommerce is often the better long-term choice. Either way, we design for speed, bilingual content and Law 25-compliant tracking from day one.

See our e-commerce website design service, or book a free call to compare both options for your catalog.