Almost every ecommerce enquiry we get in the UAE comes down to the same question in the first call: Shopify or WooCommerce? We build both, so we have no reason to push either. The honest answer depends on a handful of UAE-specific facts that most comparison articles, written for the US or UK, get wrong or leave out. The biggest one is about payments.
The fact that changes the maths: Shopify Payments in the UAE
Shopify's own payment processing is how the platform avoids charging you an extra fee on every sale. In the UAE, Shopify's Help Center says it plainly: Shopify Payments is in early access and "available only to certain merchants."
If your store is not one of them, you connect a third-party gateway such as Telr, Network International's N-Genius or Checkout.com, all of which have Shopify apps. That works well. But Shopify then adds its own transaction fee on top of the gateway's fee, according to its pricing page:
| Shopify plan | Extra fee without Shopify Payments |
|---|---|
| Basic | 2% |
| Grow | 1% |
| Advanced | 0.6% |
| Plus | 0.2% |
On a store turning over AED 1 million a year on the Basic plan, 2 percent is AED 20,000 before the gateway takes anything. That single line is often what decides the comparison, and it is why the subscription price on its own is misleading.
What each platform actually costs
Shopify. The UAE pricing page shows Basic from $24, Grow from $69 and Advanced from $299 a month, which are the yearly-billed rates; monthly billing costs more. Plus starts from $2,300 a month. Hosting, security and a global content delivery network are included, and paid apps and a premium theme usually add to the monthly bill. Prices vary by location, so check the live page.
WooCommerce. The core plugin is free, with no monthly subscription and no revenue share. You pay for hosting instead, which WooCommerce itself estimates at $25 to $350 a month for most stores, plus any paid extensions and, realistically, someone to maintain the site. Its own payment service, WooPayments, lists the UAE as a supported country, with one condition: UAE businesses cannot use the Individual account type. WooCommerce adds no platform fee on top of whichever gateway you choose.
The pattern: Shopify is cheaper to start and more expensive to scale if you cannot use Shopify Payments. WooCommerce costs more attention to run and less as revenue grows. We break down build costs in what a website really costs in the UAE.
Payments UAE customers expect
- Local gateways. Telr and N-Genius both publish official integrations for Shopify and WooCommerce, as do most regional acquirers. Network International lists plugins for both.
- Buy now, pay later. Tabby has an official Shopify app, which accepts orders for billing addresses in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and an official WooCommerce plugin. Tamara has both too. On Shopify, Tamara's app supports a single store currency, which matters if you sell across GCC currencies.
- Cash on delivery. Still a real share of UAE orders. Shopify supports COD as a manual payment method and does not charge third-party transaction fees on manual payments. WooCommerce includes COD in the free core plugin.
Arabic and right-to-left
Neither platform gives you a good Arabic store automatically. Both depend on the theme.
- Shopify tells merchants to check that the theme supports right-to-left languages, and allows up to 20 languages on Basic, Grow and Advanced, and 30 on Plus. Many popular themes handle Arabic poorly in the details: mirrored icons, cart drawers, number formatting.
- WooCommerce runs on WordPress, which has had RTL support built into its core for years, and multilingual plugins such as WPML support Arabic fully. The same caveat applies: the theme must be built for RTL.
In practice, Arabic quality is a build decision, not a platform decision. We set out what a proper Arabic store needs in our guide to building an online store in the UAE.
VAT is the same on both
The Federal Tax Authority's guidance is that prices advertised to consumers must include VAT, and tax invoices must show the words "Tax Invoice", the supplier's details and TRN. Both platforms can display VAT-inclusive prices and generate compliant invoices, usually with an app or extension for the invoice format. Set it up at launch, not after the first customer asks.
Speed and maintenance
Shopify hosts every store on its own infrastructure, and its Help Center says storefronts run on a content delivery network run by Cloudflare. You do not manage servers, updates or security patches. That is Shopify's strongest argument.
WooCommerce is as fast as the hosting and the build. A well-built WooCommerce store on good hosting is fast; a cheap one loaded with plugins is not. It also needs updates and backups on a schedule. We covered the hosting side for UAE audiences in our website speed article.
Which one we would choose
This is our professional view from building both, not a rule.
| Your situation | Our pick |
|---|---|
| New brand, small team, standard products, launch in weeks | Shopify |
| No in-house or agency support for maintenance | Shopify |
| High revenue on Basic or Grow without Shopify Payments | Run the fee maths; often WooCommerce or a higher Shopify plan |
| Content-heavy brand, blog and SEO are a main channel | WooCommerce |
| Custom pricing, B2B rules, bookings or unusual product logic | WooCommerce |
| Already on WordPress with traffic you want to keep | WooCommerce |
The wider version of this decision, for sites that are not stores, is in WordPress or custom-coded.
What we would do first
- Ask Shopify whether your business qualifies for Shopify Payments in the UAE. If yes, most of the fee argument disappears.
- Estimate year-two revenue and multiply by the third-party fee for the plan you would use. Compare that with WooCommerce hosting and maintenance.
- List the payment methods your customers use: cards, Apple Pay, Tabby, Tamara, COD. Confirm each on the platform before choosing.
- Test Arabic on the actual theme, on a phone, through to checkout, before you commit.
If you want someone who builds both to run those numbers for your store, that is exactly what our ecommerce website work in Dubai starts with. We also build and maintain WordPress and WooCommerce sites. Send us what you sell and we will tell you which platform fits.