Comparison
WooCommerce or Opustack: the honest comparison
We delivered dozens of WooCommerce shops before building Opustack, and we still maintain some. So this is not a competitor discovering WooCommerce: it is written by people who have used it long enough to know where it shines and where it costs.
At a glance
| At a glance | WooCommerce | Opustack |
|---|---|---|
| Who builds it | You, or a contractor | We do, migration included |
| Who maintains it | You, or a contractor if you still have one | We do, every day |
| Hosting | Chosen and paid for separately | Included, in Europe |
| Selling features | Extensions to install | In the platform |
| Languages | Through an extension | Three, included |
| Who answers | Your contractor, if you still have one | Someone who knows your shop |
| The price | Hosting, extensions, maintenance | One fixed price |
Two different things
WooCommerce
is an extension that turns a WordPress site into a shop. You choose the hosting, the theme, the extensions for payments, shipping, translation and email, and you put it together. The result is yours, along with its updates, its backups and its vulnerabilities.
Opustack
is operated infrastructure. The shop is built, migrated, hosted in Europe, monitored and updated by us. There are no extensions to install, because what they do is already in the platform. You sell; someone who knows your shop answers.
What it costs over a year
A Belgian shop with 300 products, 100 orders a month, in French and Dutch.
WooCommerce, done properly
- Hosting worthy of the name, not €5 shared hosting: €20 to €40 a month
- Premium theme: €60 to €90, once
- Paid extensions: Belgian payments, shipping, translation, SEO, cart reminders: €30 to €80 a month
- Newsletter: €30 to €60 a month
- Build by a contractor: €2,000 to €6,000, once
- Maintenance by a contractor: €40 to €150 a month, when there is any
- Your time: updates, extensions that break, the contractor to chase
First year€4,000 to €9,000
Not counting your time. Then €120 to €330 a month.
Opustack, Ensemble plan
- Setup: €1,990, or €0 with a 12-month commitment
- Subscription: €299 a month, with three languages, newsletter, cart reminders, members’ area, hosting, maintenance and three hours of requests
- Migration and the first 100 products entered, included
First year€3,588 to €5,578
Then €299 a month.
Payment and shipping fees are identical on both sides, at your providers’ rates.
What this shows: Opustack costs about what a well-maintained WooCommerce costs. The difference is that most WooCommerce shops are not.
When WooCommerce is the right choice
- You have a very specific need no platform covers: a configurator, an unusual pricing logic, a legacy integration. There is an extension for everything.
- Your site is first a publication, a blog, a magazine, that sells a little. WordPress is still the best tool in the world for that.
- You want to own the code and the server, and you accept carrying the load.
- You have someone in-house who enjoys maintaining WordPress and knows how.
- Your WooCommerce works, it is maintained, and it costs you no time. Keep it.
When Opustack makes more sense
- You want to sell without dealing with the technical side.
- You have already had a site break after an update, or a label extension that stopped working on Tuesday.
- You sell in two languages and you are tired of translation settings.
- You prefer one fixed price to a pile of small subscriptions.
- You want someone to pick up the phone.
The question of ownership
On WooCommerce, everything is yours: the code, the hosting, the data. On Opustack, your data is yours, exportable at any time, and your domain is in your name, but the platform stays ours. If you leave, you leave with your catalogue, your customers and your orders.
Owning a shop’s code also means owning its outages, its updates and its vulnerabilities. Most retailers want to own their customers and their revenue, not their server. Some want the server, and for them WooCommerce is the right answer.
Coming from WooCommerce?
It is the migration we do most often. Products, customers, order history and redirects are brought over, included in the setup. Your current shop stays online until you sign off.
Frequently asked questions
No. The platform has nothing to do with WordPress, which is one of the reasons there are no extensions to install and no updates to run on your side.
For everyday needs, yes: payments, shipping, reviews, cart reminders, newsletter, translation and SEO are in the platform. For a very specific need, we tell you in the first conversation, before you sign anything.
Not if the redirects are done. They are included in the migration, address by address.
Yes. If it is already open in your name, it connects to the new shop in two minutes.
Yes, with one month’s notice outside any commitment, and your data exported at any time in open formats.
Book your launch
Tell us what you sell and what your WooCommerce costs you today. We come back within one business day with a launch date and a firm quote.
Reply within one business day. No payment at this stage.