WooCommerce or Shopify for an Indonesian Business?

We build on both. We've written free WooCommerce plugins and the Shopify connector for Odoo, so we don't have a side to sell. Here's how the choice usually goes for a business selling in Indonesia.

The short version

• Shopify if you want a store that runs itself, you don't have anyone technical, and your margins can take a small extra fee per order.
• WooCommerce if you want to own everything, need custom local features, or sell enough that a percentage per order adds up.

What it costs each month

At the time of writing, Shopify's prices for Indonesia are Rp 445,000 a month for Basic, Rp 1,150,000 for Grow and Rp 7,100,000 for Advanced, less if you pay yearly. Hosting, security and updates are included. Paid apps come on top, and stores usually end up with a few.

WooCommerce itself is free. You pay for hosting, a domain, any paid plugins, and someone to keep it updated. Good hosting for a small store in Indonesia costs less than Shopify Basic. The real cost is the upkeep: updates, backups and security are your job, or the job of whoever builds it.

Payments: the part people miss

Shopify Payments, Shopify's own payment processor, isn't available in Indonesia. To accept bank transfers to virtual accounts, e-wallets or QRIS, you use a local gateway like Midtrans or Xendit, which both offer Shopify apps.

When you use a gateway that isn't Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top of the gateway's: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced. On Rp 100 million of sales a month on Basic, that's Rp 2 million a month to Shopify, before the gateway takes its share.

On WooCommerce, the same gateways have free plugins, and you pay only the gateway's fees. For a growing store, this one difference often decides it.

Shipping

Customers here expect live shipping costs from couriers like JNE, J&T and SiCepat at checkout. Both platforms get there through apps or plugins that pull courier rates. Try the actual checkout with a real address in a smaller city before you commit; this is where stores most often lose orders.

Selling on marketplaces too

Most Indonesian brands also sell on Shopee and Tokopedia. Neither platform keeps stock in sync with them on its own; you'll need a connector or a back-office system that keeps stock right across every channel. If you already run Odoo, connecting the store to it is usually the cleanest way.

Which one, then?

Choose Shopify if you're starting out, the team is small and not technical, you want a polished checkout without thinking about servers, and you're fine with the extra fee in exchange for not worrying about upkeep.

Choose WooCommerce if you already have a WordPress site with content that ranks, you need features specific to how you sell (wholesale prices, minimum quantities, restock alerts), or you sell enough that 1–2% per order is real money.

And if the store has to talk to an ERP, a warehouse or a marketplace, plan that first, because it's harder to change later than the storefront.

Not sure which fits? Tell us what you sell and how, and we'll give you a straight answer, even if it's “you don't need us for this”. Our Shopify work is here.

Keep reading: Connecting Shopify to Odoo 19 Community, Step by Step, or WordPress 7.2 Lands December 8: What We're Testing in Our Plugins.