I’ve Tested Shopify vs BlueHost: Which is Best for Ecommerce?

shopify vs bluehost

Shopify vs BlueHost: Which is best for ecommerce store owners?

If you want the quick answer, based on my experience, Shopify is the much better option. It’s a more robust solution, specifically designed for omnichannel selling.

It excels in delivering comprehensive website building tools, features to boost ecommerce rates, and exceptional security.

However, BlueHost is still a decent competitor, offering not just a versatile web hosting service, but also straightforward design tools, ecommerce capabilities (via WooCommerce), advanced security, and no transaction fees on any plan.

Here, I’ll give you all the insights you need to make the right choice.

Quick Verdict, Pros and Cons

In my tests, Shopify outperformed BlueHost in virtually every category. It delivers exceptional design tools, fantastic ecommerce capabilities, and even amazing hosting quality.

However, BlueHost did have an edge in terms of simplicity, as Shopify can have a slightly higher learning curve.

Shopify Pros and Cons:

Pros:

  • Excellent themes and website design tools
  • Innovative AI capabilities
  • Powerful ecommerce features for omnichannel selling
  • Thousands of integrations with third-party tools
  • Fantastic inventory and order management
  • Strong marketing capabilities

Cons:

  • Slight learning curve
  • More expensive than BlueHost

BlueHost Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Versatile and easy to use website builder
  • Affordable pricing for beginners
  • No transaction fees on any plan
  • Excellent security features
  • New buil-in AI Features
  • Great selection of plugins and integrations
  • Decent range of design templates

Cons:

  • Limited ecommerce functionality

Shopify vs BlueHost: The Core Features

Here’s a detailed comparison table for Shopify vs BlueHost: Which is Best for Ecommerce Store Owners?:

FeatureShopifyBlueHost
Core PurposeDedicated ecommerce platform with website building and omnichannel selling.Web hosting platform with WordPress and WooCommerce integration for ecommerce functionality.
Ease of UseSlight learning curve but streamlined tools with AI support (Shopify Magic, Sidekick).Beginner-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality.
Website DesignExtensive ecommerce-focused themes and advanced AI-powered customization tools.300+ pre-installed WordPress templates, mobile responsive and SEO-friendly.
Ecommerce ToolsRobust sales tools, omnichannel support, built-in Shopify POS, and advanced inventory management.Relies on WooCommerce for ecommerce, which requires more manual setup and configuration.
AI CapabilitiesAI tools like Shopify Magic (content generation) and Sidekick (business management).Limited AI tools via Bluehost WonderSuite. Additional AI requires WordPress plugins.
Marketing FeaturesAdvanced ecommerce marketing tools, Google Ads integration, and social media tools.Strong blogging/SEO features from WordPress, but limited native ecommerce marketing options.
ScalabilityHighly scalable with thousands of apps in Shopify’s App Store.Scalable through WordPress plugins, though setup can be more complex.
Customer Support24/7 support via email, chat, and phone, with robust online resources and community forums.24/7 general support, but technical support is limited to certain hours.
Hosting PerformanceProprietary cloud hosting optimized for high-traffic ecommerce stores.99.9% uptime guarantee with global data centers.
Security FeaturesPCI compliant payment processing, end-to-end encryption, and two-factor authentication.Advanced hosting security features but less ecommerce-specific protection.
Mobile ManagementDedicated mobile app for store management.No mobile app; can only edit through mobile browsers.
PricingStarter plan: $5/month (basic selling tools). Core plans: $39–$399/month. Enterprise: ~$2,300/month.Hosting plans: $2.95–$13.95/month. WooCommerce hosting starts at $9.95/month.
Transaction FeesTransaction fees for third-party payment gateways (none for Shopify Payments).No transaction fees on any plan.
Best ForBusinesses focused on ecommerce, looking for advanced tools and omnichannel sales.Beginners or small businesses needing affordable web hosting with basic ecommerce capabilities.

Overall, BlueHost and Shopify are two very different solutions for today’s business leaders. BlueHost is a versatile hosting platform that makes it easy to build an impressive online store with WordPress.

Shopify is a complete ecommerce platform and website builder.

However, there are some overlapping features available from both vendors. Let’s look at them side-by-side.

Website Design: Themes and Editors

First, both BlueHost and Shopify give you the tools necessary to build an attractive website.

However, Shopify’s vast range of free and premium themes are better for ecommerce in my opinion, they’re especially designed to help you showcase products and deliver a great shopping experience.

BlueHost’s WordPress website builder gives you more than 300 pre-installed templates to choose from, and they are designed to be both mobile responsive and SEO-friendly.

However, I think they’re better suited for everyday business websites, rather than online selling.

When it comes to editing your site’s appearance, Shopify’s solution is more advanced, yet again, particularly now that the company offers a range of AI-powered tools, like Shopify Magic, to help you create content for your pages and product descriptions.

sidekick example

I do think Shopify’s editing solution has a slightly higher learning curve than BlueHost’s solution, which simplifies everything with drag-and-drop functionality.

However, you have a little less control over making sure your store really stands out.

Plus, with Shopify, you get a dedicated mobile app you can use to customize aspects of your store on the move.

BlueHost will allow you to edit components of your store from a mobile browser, but there’s no app, which significantly damages the user experience, in my opinion.

Ecommerce Capabilities and Business Management

As I mentioned above, Shopify is definitely the better platform for ecommerce. It supports omnichannel selling, allowing you to sell products through your own store, marketplaces, and social media.

Plus, it comes with access to built-in point of sale software (Shopify POS).

You get more advanced inventory management capabilities with Shopify, access to robust shipping tools and even bonus fulfillment services, and a powerful integrated payment processor.

Shopify even has one of the world’s best checkout solutions, although it’s difficult to customize the checkout.

Additionally, Shopify does technically allow users to sell anything, from physical products to digital downloads and subscriptions, although you may need extra apps to sell some items.

BlueHost doesn’t actually deliver ecommerce functionality directly.

Instead, it integrates with WooCommerce, which allows you to access features for product listings, shopping carts, payment processing, and inventory management.

WooCommerce is an excellent tool for ecommerce to a certain extent, but I’ve found it can be extremely difficult to master for beginners.

There’s a lot of configuration work to do if you want to set everything up to ensure your store runs smoothly.

I’ve also found the inventory and order management solutions aren’t as intuitive, which can cause problems as your business begins to scale.

Marketing Capabilities and Artificial Intelligence

Both BlueHost and Shopify support excellent marketing capabilities, but the better option for you will depend on what type of marketing you want to invest in.

Since BlueHost supports users in building a store on WordPress, you get excellent blogging tools, and great SEO potential.

Shopify does have its own blogging capabilities, and built-in SEO features, but they’re not quite as good as those offered by WordPress, in my experience.

Both platforms also offer email marketing campaign tools, although I’d recommend using third-party apps like MailChimp or Klaviyo for more robust features and templates.

They also both allow you to create promotions for sales campaigns, but Shopify’s ecommerce marketing capabilities are a little more advanced.

You get more tools for ad campaign management and analytics, and can even integrate with Google Ads and social media tools.

From an AI perspective, Shopify is definitely the winner, thanks to the suite of solutions it introduced recently, including Shopify Magic, and Shopify Sidekick.

Shopify Magic is great for creating content and helping you to build personalized shopping experiences for customers.

Sidekick is fantastic at helping companies with business and inventory management.

BlueHost does give you help to build a website with AI, through the BlueHost WonderSuite, but you don’t get nearly as many AI capabilities.

Of course, you can always use WordPress extensions and plugins to access extra AI functionality.

AI Capabilities: Shopify vs BlueHost

When it comes to AI-powered features, Shopify takes the lead, thanks to its robust suite of innovative tools specifically designed to enhance ecommerce. BlueHost, on the other hand, offers basic AI functionality but lacks the same depth and sophistication.

Shopify’s AI Capabilities

Shopify has been investing heavily in AI to make ecommerce management more intuitive and scalable.

Shopify magic homepage

Here’s what you get:

  • Shopify Magic: This AI tool simplifies content creation, allowing users to generate product descriptions, blog posts, and marketing copy in seconds. It’s a huge time-saver and ensures your content remains engaging and relevant.
  • Shopify Sidekick: A built-in virtual assistant that helps store owners manage tasks like inventory updates, sales analytics, and even business decision-making. Sidekick is a game-changer for entrepreneurs looking to streamline operations.
  • Personalized Customer Experiences: Shopify’s AI tools enable dynamic product recommendations, personalized upsells, and smarter search results, boosting sales conversions.
  • Automation Tools: Shopify uses AI to automate workflows, like sending abandoned cart emails, improving efficiency without requiring third-party apps.

Overall, Shopify’s AI features are specifically built for ecommerce, helping sellers improve efficiency, scale faster, and create tailored experiences for their customers.

BlueHost’s AI Capabilities

bluehost ai wondersuite

BlueHost doesn’t have the same focus on ecommerce-specific AI. Its AI solutions come primarily from BlueHost WonderSuite, a basic AI-driven setup assistant for WordPress. Key features include:

  • Guided Website Creation: WonderSuite uses AI to walk users through the process of building a website. This tool is helpful for beginners but lacks depth for ecommerce.
  • Content Suggestions: The AI offers limited suggestions for website copy and layout improvements. While useful for general websites, it doesn’t provide specialized ecommerce capabilities.
  • Third-Party AI Plugins: Since BlueHost supports WordPress, users can integrate plugins like ChatGPT, RankMath AI, or Jasper AI to add custom AI features. However, this requires extra setup and can lead to compatibility issues.

While BlueHost provides basic AI tools for setting up and managing a website, it lacks advanced AI for ecommerce tasks like inventory management, personalized shopping experiences, or automated marketing.

Verdict on AI Capabilities

If AI tools are a priority for your ecommerce business, Shopify is the clear winner. Its tools are tailored to ecommerce workflows, helping you save time, optimize content, and deliver personalized customer experiences.

BlueHost’s AI capabilities are more beginner-focused, making it a better choice for small-scale websites or those just starting out.

Ease of Use and Scalability

I’ve experimented with Shopify a lot in the past, and can definitely say the platform has become easier to use over the years, with a more streamlined editor and dashboard, and its new AI tools.

However, there’s still a slight learning curve to get your head around, particularly if you want to take advantage of all the features Shopify has to offer.

BlueHost is slightly more intuitive. It was clearly designed for beginners who don’t want to have to fumble with code to create and run a great store.

While you don’t get as much functionality from BlueHost, you’ll be able to set up a website a little faster.

One caveat though, is that if you are using WooCommerce for ecommerce, this particular plugin can be difficult to master.

Notably, both platforms are fantastic if you’re looking for scalability, as they both support a huge number of plugins and integrations.

BlueHost works with countless tools connected to the WordPress ecosystem.

Since WordPress is one of the most popular CMS solutions out there, you’re definitely going to be spoiled for choice.

However, it’s worth noting that Shopify has thousands of apps in its app store too, giving you more than enough freedom to access tools for just about any purpose.

Customer Support, Performance, and Security

If you need any assistance when managing your online store, Shopify delivers a better level of customer support.

You get 24/7 support through email, chat, and phone on every plan, and there are tons of online resources to help you, from tutorials and blogs, to webinars, and videos. There’s also a fantastic community forum.

BlueHost also offers 24/7 support through chat and phone if you just have general enquiries, but you’re limited to technical assistance between 7am and 12am EST.

There are also fewer online resources, as far as I can tell.

In terms of performance, I actually expected BlueHost to offer better hosting capabilities, with it’s 99.9% uptime guarantee and worldwide data centers.

However, Shopify’s proprietary cloud-based hosting seems to do a lot better at supporting high-traffic online stores.

You also get a few more security features with Shopify to ensure your business and customers are protected, from end-to-end encryption to PCI compliant payment processing and two-factor authentication.

That doesn’t mean BlueHost’s security services are poor, however, they’re just designed less for online selling, and more for general protection.

Shopify vs BlueHost: Fees and Pricing

There’s no denying that BlueHost is cheaper than Shopify overall. You’re really just paying for a hosting service, and connecting free solutions like WordPress and WooCommerce to your technology stack.

Prices range from $2.95 per month to $13.95 per month. However, you’ll need a $9.95 per month plan if you want to access WooCommerce as an automatically installed feature.

bluehost online store pricing

There are also no transaction fees to worry about with BlueHost, since you’ll be using WooCommerce for payment processing. Alternatively, Shopify is a little more expensive.

While you can start selling online with a Starter plan for $5 per month, this doesn’t give you Shopify’s website builder, and it comes with hefty transaction fees (5%).

After a 3 day free trial, Shopify’s you’ll get the option to pay only $1 per month for the first 3 months. After the offer ends, plans start at $39 per month for the Basic plan, $105 for Shopify, and $399 for Shopify Advanced.

shopify pricing

The more you pay, the more features you get, such as extra staff accounts and more advanced analytics. There’s also an enterprise plan (Shopify Plus) with custom pricing that starts at around $2,300 per month for much larger stores.

Notably, Shopify does also charge transaction fees for anyone using a third-party payment processor, which can eat into your profits slightly.

Plus, there may be extra fees to pay for additional services, like Shopify Fulfillment, or extra apps on the marketplace.

BlueHost vs Shopify: The Verdict

For ecommerce companies, Shopify is definitely the better choice overall.

It might be more expensive, but it features more advanced sales tools, incredible AI capabilities, stronger themes and a better range of inventory and business management features.

BlueHost is more affordable, and a good choice for building a basic website on WordPress, but it lacks the flexibility that Shopify offers.

If you really want to boost your chances of successful selling online, I’d stick with Shopify.

Bogdan Rancea is the founder and lead curator of ecomm.design, a showcase of the best ecommerce websites. With over 12 years in the digital commerce space he has a wealth of knowledge and a keen eye for great online retail experiences. As an ecommerce tech explorer Bogdan tests and reviews various platforms and design tools like Shopify, Figma and Canva and provides practical advice for store owners and designers. His hands on experience with these tools and his knowledge of ecommerce design trends makes him a valuable resource for businesses looking to improve their online presence. On ecomm.design Bogdan writes about online stores, ecommerce design and tips for entrepreneurs and designers.

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