Is Shopify better than WooCommerce for a small store?

For most small stores, yes — because somebody else is responsible for uptime, security and payments. WooCommerce is cheaper on paper and costs more in attention.

Why the answer is what it is

WooCommerce wins where you need unusual control or already have WordPress expertise. Shopify wins where the alternative to a subscription is the store owner becoming a part-time system administrator.

What this looks like in practice

Most Shopify performance problems are the theme and the images, not Shopify.

Shopify handles the parts that are genuinely hard and genuinely regulated: payments, taxes, order records. That is what the subscription is for.

The apps in the Shopify store are where the cost quietly grows. Six at twenty dollars a month is more than the plan.

Where a mobile app comes into it

A mobile app sits on top of Shopify rather than replacing it — the catalogue syncs, and checkout stays Shopify’s.