Shopify and WooCommerce are the two platforms most Canadian small stores end up choosing between. Shopify is a Canadian company that charges a monthly plan fee in CAD and runs everything for you. WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin where you pay for hosting, extensions, and payments separately and run the site yourself.
This comparison is research-based. We did not build a store on either platform. Every price, fee, and feature below comes from the vendors' official pricing pages and help documentation, checked in September 2026. Squarespace is included as a third option for small catalogues.
The short answer
For most small Canadian stores, Shopify is the easier pick: CAD billing, Canada Post rates built in on every plan, and a tax engine you do not maintain. WooCommerce makes sense if you already run WordPress or need custom functionality; for a small store it costs about the same once you add hosting, extensions, and payments.
- Shopify costs CAD $49/month on Basic (CAD $37/month billed yearly) and 2.8% + 30¢ CAD per online card payment through Shopify Payments.
- WooCommerce is free software. Your real costs are hosting, a domain, paid extensions, and payment fees (WooPayments charges 2.9% + $0.30 per domestic card in Canada).
- Squarespace starts at CA$30/month (CA$21/month yearly), but its Basic plan adds a 2% transaction fee on store sales. Core at CA$45/month removes it.
| Feature | Shopify | WooCommerce | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan (monthly billing) | CAD $49/mo (Basic) | Free plugin | CA$30/mo (Basic) |
| Entry plan (yearly billing) | CAD $37/mo | n/a | CA$21/mo |
| Hosting included | |||
| Online card rate (entry plan) | 2.8% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ (WooPayments) | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Extra fee with outside gateway | 2% on Basic | None | Not applicable |
| Platform transaction fee | None | None | 2% on Basic, 0% on Core |
| Automated Canadian sales tax | Shopify Tax | WooCommerce Tax plugin | Manual province rates |
| Canada Post rates at checkout | Built in, all plans | Paid extension | Not verified |
| Chit Chats integration | |||
| Canadian company |
How much does Shopify cost in Canada?
Shopify Basic costs CAD $49/month billed monthly, or CAD $37/month if you pay for a year up front. Most of your Shopify spend, though, will be card processing, not the plan.
Shopify's Canadian plans, all priced in CAD:
- Basic: $49/month monthly, $37/month yearly. Online card rate 2.8% + 30¢.
- Grow: $132/month monthly, $99/month yearly. Online card rate 2.6% + 30¢, up to 5 staff accounts.
- Advanced: $517/month monthly, $389/month yearly. Online card rate 2.4% + 30¢, up to 15 staff accounts.
- Plus: from $3,400/month.
On Basic, Amex and international cards cost more: 3.5% + 30¢ CAD online. In-person card payments are 2.6% and Interac is 15¢ per transaction if you also sell at markets or a shop.
The main fee to plan around is the third-party gateway surcharge. If you process payments through a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds 2% per transaction on Basic, 1% on Grow, and 0.6% on Advanced. On CAD $40,000 of sales, that is CAD $800 a year on Basic, on top of the other provider's own fees. Unless you have a strong reason to use another processor, Shopify Payments is the cheaper route.
Shopify's current trial offer is 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months. That is a promotion, so it is not in our cost estimate.
How much does WooCommerce cost in Canada?
WooCommerce itself costs nothing, but a working store does. You pay for hosting, a domain, any paid extensions, and payment processing, and each of those is billed by a different company, sometimes in USD or euros.
The main cost lines:
- Hosting. WooCommerce's own pricing page puts hosting at $25 to $350 a month "for most stores," scaling with traffic. Entry shared hosting costs less. For example, SiteGround's StartUp plan lists a regular price of USD $17.99/month (prepaid yearly), with a first-year promotional price of USD $2.99/month.
- Domain. A .ca domain at Rebel, a Canadian registrar, was CAD $11.99 for the first year.
- Theme. Storefront, WooCommerce's own theme, is free. Premium themes cost extra.
- Extensions. WooCommerce says most paid extensions cost $29 to $299 a year each. The Canada Post Shipping Method extension, for example, was listed at CAD $153 a year.
- Payments. WooPayments has no setup or monthly fee for online payments. In Canada it charges 2.9% + $0.30 per domestic card, plus 1% for international cards and 2% when currency conversion is needed.
You can also connect other processors. Stripe's own Canadian rate is 2.9% + CA$0.30 per domestic card, plus 0.8% for international cards. Square for WooCommerce and Helcim for WooCommerce are both free plugins; Square's Canadian online rate is 2.8% + 30¢, and Helcim uses interchange-plus pricing. See our Square vs Moneris vs Helcim comparison for how those rates compare.
One cost that does not appear on an invoice is maintenance. WordPress, WooCommerce, your theme, and each plugin need updates, and you (or someone you pay) are responsible for backups, security, and fixing conflicts after an update. Shopify handles that layer for you.
First-year cost estimate: Shopify vs WooCommerce vs Squarespace
In our estimate, a small Canadian store doing CAD $40,000 in online sales pays roughly CAD $1,960 in year one on Shopify Basic, CAD $1,870 on a lean WooCommerce setup, and CAD $1,950 on Squarespace Core. Card fees make up roughly 70% to 75% of each total, so the platform fee matters less than most people expect.
This is an estimate, not a quote. Every number is either a published list price (cited in Sources) or one of these stated assumptions:
- CAD $40,000 in online sales, 800 orders at a CAD $50 average, all paid with domestic Visa or Mastercard.
- Monthly billing for each platform (yearly billing figures noted below the table).
- One .ca domain at CAD $11.99. Free themes on all three. No paid apps beyond what is listed.
- WooCommerce hosting on SiteGround StartUp at its regular USD $17.99/month, converted at 1.41 CAD per USD (the Bank of Canada rate was 1.4145 on September 25, 2026).
- Sales below Shopify Tax's CAD $100,000 free threshold, so no tax calculation fee.
- Excludes sales tax on your own subscriptions, inventory, shipping labels, marketing, and the value of your time.
| Cost item (CAD, year one) | Shopify Basic | WooCommerce | Squarespace Core |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform plan | $588.00 | $0.00 | $540.00 |
| Hosting | Included | $304.39 | Included |
| Domain (.ca) | $11.99 | $11.99 | $11.99 |
| Card processing | $1,360.00 | $1,400.00 | $1,400.00 |
| Canada Post live rates | Included | $153.00 | Not included |
| Automated sales tax | $0.00 | $0.00 | Manual rates |
| Estimated total | $1,959.99 | $1,869.38 | $1,951.99 |
How the card processing lines are calculated: Shopify Payments at 2.8% of $40,000 ($1,120) plus 30¢ on 800 orders ($240). WooPayments and Squarespace at 2.9% ($1,160) plus 30¢ on 800 orders ($240).
What changes the totals:
- Yearly billing lowers Shopify Basic to $444 for the year (total about $1,816) and Squarespace Core to $384 (total about $1,796).
- Promotional hosting would lower the WooCommerce total. At SiteGround's first-year USD $2.99/month, hosting is about CAD $51 for year one, but the plan renews at the regular price.
- Using Stripe on Shopify instead of Shopify Payments would add Shopify's 2% gateway fee, about $800 more on these numbers.
- International customers raise card costs on all three: Shopify charges 3.5% + 30¢ on international cards on Basic, and WooPayments adds 1%.
The takeaway is that the platform bill is a small part of a small store's total cost. On these assumptions the gap between the cheapest and most expensive option is about CAD $90 a year. Choose on fit, not on the sticker.
Which handles Canadian sales tax better?
Shopify is more hands-off for Canadian sales tax because Shopify Tax is built in and free until your store reaches CAD $100,000 in sales. WooCommerce can automate Canadian tax too, through the free WooCommerce Tax plugin, but you set it up and connect it to WordPress.com yourself.
Shopify. Shopify Tax is available to Canadian stores. For stores created on or after May 13, 2026, it is free until the store reaches CAD $100,000 in lifetime sales. After that, Canadian stores on Basic, Grow, or Advanced pay 0.25% on orders where tax is calculated, capped at CAD $0.99 per order. Stores created before that date have an annual threshold instead of a lifetime one. Shopify's help centre is clear that it "doesn't remit or file your taxes for you."
WooCommerce. WooCommerce core lets you enter tax rates manually for each province. WooCommerce Tax, a free plugin in the WordPress.org directory, adds automated calculation and lists Canada as a supported store country. It requires a WordPress.com connection. Its documentation notes it calculates for your store's primary tax location and that manual rates you add alongside it are not updated automatically, so test checkout to each province you sell into.
Whichever platform you use, the rules are the same. Once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, the CRA requires you to register for GST/HST. You then charge based on where the buyer is: 13% HST in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and PEI, and 5% GST elsewhere, plus provincial tax where it applies. Our GST/HST/PST rates by province guide covers the provincial side, and our GST/HST registration guide walks through signing up. This is general information, not tax advice: an accountant can tell you exactly which registrations your store needs.
Shipping with Canada Post and Chit Chats
Shopify has Canada Post built in on every plan, while WooCommerce needs an extension or a third-party service. Both work with Chit Chats.
Shopify. Shopify Shipping in Canada includes Canada Post, and Shopify's help centre says carrier-calculated rates from its built-in carrier integrations are available on all plans. Shopify advertises discounts off Canada Post rates (for example, up to 37% on Xpresspost) and lists Purolator and UPS as well. Note that if you want live rates from your own Canada Post business account instead of Shopify's, that requires the Advanced or Plus plan, or the Grow plan with yearly billing or an added monthly fee.
WooCommerce. The official Canada Post Shipping Method extension (CAD $153/year) pulls live rates from Canada Post's rating API at checkout and requires your store to use Canadian dollars. WooCommerce's own shipping label plugin is described as being for US merchants, so plan on another tool for Canadian labels.
Chit Chats, a Canadian shipping service, lists integrations for Shopify, WooCommerce, and Squarespace. It imports your orders so you can buy postage and print labels in one place. Its Shopify app is free to install, with postage charged separately.
French storefronts and selling into Quebec
Shopify supports a French storefront with its free Translate & Adapt app. On WooCommerce, you typically add a multilingual plugin such as WPML, which is a paid annual licence.
Shopify. You can sell in up to 20 languages on Basic, Grow, or Advanced. Translate & Adapt is free and auto-translates up to two languages at no cost; you can also add translations by hand or with CSV files.
WooCommerce. WordPress itself runs in French, but a bilingual English and French store needs a multilingual plugin. WPML's Multilingual CMS plan, which includes WooCommerce translation, is €99 a year (about CAD $160 at the Bank of Canada's September 25, 2026 rate).
Data residency: where does your store data live?
Neither platform guarantees that your data stays in Canada, so check before you rely on it. Shopify is headquartered in Ottawa, but its privacy policy says it may send personal data outside your province or country, "including to the United States."
With WooCommerce, you choose the host, so you can pick one that offers Canadian data centres if that matters to you. Your payment processor, email tools, and plugins that call outside services (WooCommerce Tax, for example, uses WordPress.com servers) may still process data elsewhere. If data location is a contractual or regulatory requirement for you, check each provider's documentation rather than the platform's marketing.
Who should pick which?
Pick Shopify if you want to sell rather than run a website. Pick WooCommerce if you already have a WordPress site or need something Shopify apps do not do, and you have the time or budget to maintain it.
1. Shopify: best for most small Canadian stores
Shopify bundles hosting, security, checkout, Canada Post rates, and Canadian tax calculation into one CAD bill. Basic at CAD $49/month is enough for a new store, and the move to Grow at CAD $132/month makes sense once the lower 2.6% card rate or staff accounts pay for the difference.
The trade-offs are running on Shopify's platform and the gateway surcharge. Paid apps and themes add monthly costs worth budgeting for, and using a processor other than Shopify Payments costs an extra 2% on Basic.
For plans, payment fees, shipping, and tax in more depth, read our full Shopify review.
Shopify
Strengths
- Canadian company, plans billed in CAD
- Canada Post rates at checkout on every plan
- Shopify Tax free until CAD $100,000 in sales
- Hosting, security, and updates handled for you
- Free French translation app
Good to know
- Using another payment processor adds 2% per transaction on Basic
- Rates from your own Canada Post account come with Advanced or Plus
- Paid apps are billed as recurring costs
- Your store runs on Shopify's hosted platform; self-hosting gives more control
2. WooCommerce: best if you already run WordPress
WooCommerce is free, open-source software with no platform fee or revenue share, and you own the site. It suits stores that need custom features, sellers who already have a WordPress site with traffic, and anyone who wants to choose their own host and processor.
By our estimate a lean setup costs about the same as Shopify Basic in year one, and you handle updates, backups, and troubleshooting. Several of the pieces you need bill in USD or euros, so your costs move with the exchange rate.
WooCommerce
Strengths
- Free, open-source core with no revenue share
- Choose your own host, including Canadian data centres
- No surcharge for using any payment processor
- WooCommerce Tax plugin supports Canadian stores
- Full control over code and data
Good to know
- You, or someone you hire, handle updates, backups, and security
- Hosting and many plugins bill in USD or euros
- Canada Post live rates come through a CAD $153/year extension
- Bilingual storefronts use a paid multilingual plugin such as WPML
WooCommerce
3. Squarespace: best for small, design-led catalogues
Squarespace now shows Canadian pricing in CAD: Basic at CA$30/month (CA$21 yearly) and Core at CA$45/month (CA$32 yearly). Basic charges a 2% transaction fee on online store sales, which Core removes, so most stores should budget for Core. Card processing is 2.9% + CA$0.30 on Basic and Core.
For Canadian taxes, Squarespace's help centre describes setting a country rate for Canada and adding province rates on top, which is more manual than Shopify Tax. It fits a small catalogue where the website design matters most.
Squarespace
Strengths
- Hosting included, prices shown in CAD
- 0% transaction fee from the Core plan up
- Chit Chats integration available
Good to know
- 2% transaction fee on the Basic plan; Core removes it
- Canadian province tax rates set up manually
- Smaller app ecosystem than Shopify or WooCommerce
Squarespace
Related reading
If you are still at the planning stage, start with how to start an online store in Canada. If you are deciding how to structure the business behind the store, see sole proprietorship vs corporation.
Our verdict
4.5For most small Canadian stores, Shopify is the better choice: CAD billing, Canada Post rates on every plan, and Shopify Tax free until CAD $100,000 in sales, for a first-year cost close to a self-hosted WooCommerce store. Choose WooCommerce if you already run WordPress, need custom functionality, or want full control of your host and data, and budget time or money for maintenance. Choose Squarespace Core if you have a small catalogue and design is your priority. Whichever you pick, card fees will be your biggest platform cost, so compare processing rates before plan prices.
Frequently asked questions
Is WooCommerce cheaper than Shopify in Canada?
Not by much for a small store. In our estimate for CAD $40,000 in first-year sales, WooCommerce came to about CAD $1,870 and Shopify Basic about CAD $1,960, because card fees dominate both budgets. WooCommerce also needs your time for updates and maintenance, which the estimate does not price.
Does Shopify bill Canadians in CAD?
Yes. Shopify's Canadian pricing page lists plans in CAD: Basic at $49/month, Grow at $132/month, and Advanced at $517/month on monthly billing. WooCommerce extensions on the WooCommerce Marketplace also showed CAD prices from Canada, but many hosts and plugins bill in USD or euros.
Does Shopify collect and file GST/HST for me?
Shopify calculates sales tax at checkout, but its help centre states it does not remit or file your taxes. You still register with the CRA (and Revenu Québec or a provincial ministry where required) and file returns yourself or through an accountant.
Can I use Canada Post with WooCommerce?
Yes. The Canada Post Shipping Method extension shows live Canada Post rates at checkout and was listed at CAD $153 per year in September 2026. Chit Chats also lists a WooCommerce integration for importing orders and buying postage.
Do I need a French version of my store to sell in Quebec?
Quebec's Charter of the French Language requires catalogues, order forms, and similar commercial documents available to the public to be drawn up in French, regardless of the medium used. How that applies to your store depends on your situation, so check with a professional before you sell into Quebec.
Sources
- Shopify Canada pricing (checked September 2026)
- Shopify Help Center: Shopify Tax pricing (checked September 2026)
- Shopify Help Center: Canadian taxes (checked September 2026)
- Shopify Help Center: carrier-calculated shipping rates (checked September 2026)
- Shopify Help Center: calculated shipping with your own Canada Post account (checked September 2026)
- Shopify: Canada Post shipping rates (checked September 2026)
- Shopify Help Center: selling in multiple languages (checked September 2026)
- Shopify App Store: Translate & Adapt (checked September 2026)
- Shopify privacy policy (checked September 2026)
- WooCommerce pricing (checked September 2026)
- WooPayments fees (checked September 2026)
- WooCommerce Tax documentation (checked September 2026)
- WooCommerce Tax plugin on WordPress.org (checked September 2026)
- WooCommerce Marketplace: Canada Post Shipping Method (checked September 2026)
- WooCommerce Marketplace: Storefront theme (checked September 2026)
- Stripe Canada pricing (checked September 2026)
- Square Canada pricing (checked September 2026)
- Helcim for WooCommerce (checked September 2026)
- SiteGround WooCommerce hosting (checked September 2026)
- Rebel domain pricing (checked September 2026)
- WPML pricing (checked September 2026)
- Squarespace pricing (checked September 2026)
- Squarespace Help Center: manual tax rates (checked September 2026)
- Chit Chats integrations (checked September 2026)
- CRA: GST/HST rates by province (checked September 2026)
- CRA: when to register for and start charging GST/HST (checked September 2026)
- Charter of the French Language, section 52 (LégisQuébec) (checked September 2026)
- Bank of Canada daily exchange rates (checked September 2026)