Shopify vs WooCommerce vs custom web shop in Croatia
Shopify vs WooCommerce vs a custom web shop for a Croatian business: hosting, fees, updates, fiscalisation, anchor prices, B2B price lists and exit, compared.
Shopify, WooCommerce and a custom web shop split the work differently: who hosts, who patches, how fees grow with turnover and how easily you can leave. Here is the comparison for a Croatian company, with the local rules most comparisons skip.
Quick answer
- Shopify suits a shop that wants to sell quickly with no server to run. You pay a plan, plus a fee per sale with an outside payment gateway.
- WooCommerce is free and runs on your own hosting, with no revenue share, but someone must keep WordPress and its plugins updated.
- A custom web shop pays off when the shop is your process: customer-specific prices, configurators or wholesale ordering.
- Croatian rules apply on every platform. Fiscalised receipts, eRačun for companies and the new anchor-price display are never fully built in.
- Most small shops do not need custom. Start on a platform, and move when the platform starts costing more than it saves.
The comparison table
| Shopify | WooCommerce | Custom web shop | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who hosts | Shopify | Your hosting provider | Your server or cloud account |
| Fee model | Monthly plan; extra fee per sale with an outside gateway | Free core; you pay hosting and paid extensions | No platform fee; you pay hosting and the build |
| Who patches | Shopify (platform); app vendors (apps) | You or your partner: WordPress, WooCommerce, plugins, PHP | Whoever maintains the code |
| Fiscalised receipts | Through an app or connector | Through a plugin or connector | Built into the order flow |
| eRačun for companies | Through an eRačun provider | Through an eRačun provider | Through an eRačun provider |
| Croatian card gateways | Only if the gateway supports Shopify, and with Shopify’s extra fee | Any gateway, no platform fee | Any gateway |
| Anchor price and 30-day lowest price | Theme change or an app | Plugin or custom fields | Fields you define |
| B2B price lists | Up to 3 B2B catalogs below Shopify Plus | Through extensions | Any pricing logic you need |
| Data and exit | CSV export; theme and app logic stay behind | Your database and files | Your code, if the contract says so |
Sources: Shopify pricing and WooCommerce pricing, both checked on 30 October 2026. What a Croatian Shopify store must connect for payments, fiscalisation and OSS is in our Shopify Croatia guide.
Two Croatian price rules every shop must show
The 30-day lowest price. During a sale or seasonal discount, the Consumer Protection Act requires you to show the lowest price you charged in the 30 days before it, which is also the reference for the discount (Article 19, as amended in NN 59/2026). It is the Croatian form of the EU Omnibus rule.
The anchor price (“sidrena cijena”). A Government decision requires retailers and service providers to show, next to every retail price, the price that applied on 10 September 2026, including on websites and in online ads (NN 101/2026). The start was moved from 1 October to 17 November 2026 (NN 110/2026). Goods already covered by the 2025 decision keep 2 May 2025 as their reference date.
On a sale day a product can carry three prices: sale, 30-day lowest and anchor. Shopify’s “compare-at” field and WooCommerce’s “regular price” hold only one old price, so every platform needs extra work here. This is not legal advice - check the details with your lawyer or accountant.
Worked example: €20,000 a month in sales
Illustrative example, not a client case. A Croatian shop sells €20,000 a month. Card processing is paid on every platform, so the table shows only what the platform adds. List prices as published on 30 October 2026 (Shopify’s global page is in USD; signup shows local currency).
| Monthly cost | Shopify Basic + Shopify Payments | Shopify Basic + Croatian gateway | WooCommerce | Custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | $29 (yearly billing) or $39 | $29 or $39 | €0 | €0 |
| Platform fee per sale | 0 | 2 % = €400 | 0 | 0 |
| Hosting | Included | Included | $25-350, Woo’s estimate | Depends on the setup |
| Paid add-ons | Apps, priced per app | Apps, priced per app | $29-299 a year per extension | Built in, not licensed |
The Croatian gateway column adds €4,800 a year on top of the gateway’s own fees. Moving up a plan changes the maths: Shopify Grow charges 1 % ($79 a month on yearly billing) and Advanced 0.6 % ($299). At this turnover Grow costs about €200 in fees plus the plan, roughly €150 a month less than Basic if you treat dollars and euros as about equal. Grow pays off over Basic once outside-gateway sales pass about $5,000 a month, because the $50 plan difference equals 1 % of that turnover.
WooCommerce has no fee per sale; its cost is monthly update work, budgeted in our web shop maintenance cost guide. A custom shop removes both licences and plugin churn, but you pay for the build - see how much a web shop costs.
When you don’t need a custom web shop
- You sell standard products at one price to consumers.
- Fewer than a few hundred orders a month, and no wholesale customers with their own prices.
- Shopify Payments works for you, or WooCommerce with a Croatian gateway covers your payment methods.
Then a platform is cheaper and faster. As in our custom software vs SaaS guide: buy what is standard, build what sets you apart.
Signals that it is time to migrate
- WooCommerce: every update breaks a plugin, the shop is slow on mobile, or you run 40+ plugins that nobody fully understands.
- Shopify: the fee per sale or the app bills grow faster than revenue, or the checkout cannot do what your customers need.
- Either: wholesale customers want their own prices, credit limits and reorder lists - see what a B2B ordering portal needs.
- The previous agency is gone and nobody can change the code safely.
Migrating is not always the answer. Often the shop just needs someone to take it over and fix the risky parts - that is our web shop maintenance and upgrades work, usually as a monthly maintenance and development partnership, and the steps are in our guide to taking over software from another agency. When the platform is the limit, we build a custom web shop and move products, customers, orders and rankings across.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Shopify or WooCommerce better for a small business in Croatia? Shopify if you want no server work and use Shopify Payments. WooCommerce if you want a Croatian gateway without a platform fee and have someone to maintain WordPress. Both need fiscalisation added.
Does Shopify charge a fee per sale? Only when you use an outside payment gateway: 2 % on Basic, 1 % on Grow, 0.6 % on Advanced, according to Shopify’s pricing page on 30 October 2026. With Shopify Payments there is no extra platform fee, only card processing.
Do Shopify and WooCommerce support the Croatian anchor price? Not out of the box. Both have one field for an old price, while Croatian rules can require the 30-day lowest price and the anchor price too, so you need a theme change, an app, a plugin or custom fields.
Related Articles
- Shopify Croatia: payments, fiscalisation, eRačun and OSS
- How much does a web shop cost in Croatia?
- Web shop maintenance cost: what you pay each month
Choosing a platform for your web shop?
Tell us what you sell, to whom and how you get paid, and we will tell you honestly which option fits - including when you don’t need us. The first call is free, our hourly rate is €40-60 (excluding VAT), and the price of any build is agreed in writing before work starts.
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