WooCommerce or Shopware?

We are constantly asked about WooCommerce and why we prefer Shopware.  Here is an attempt at an answer. 

1. origin and target group

Shopware is a German software that is also available for the US market. 
WooCommerce is an American software that is also available for the German market. 
You can try to adapt WooCommerce to the German legal situation with the help of another plugin ("WooCommerce Germanized"). Whether the plugin creator is always up to date with the latest legal requirements and can cover all legal cases? We don't know. Nor do we want to rely on it.
There are all kinds of plugins for Shopware in the area of mail order law - whether it's about used items, the return of old electrical appliances or WEEE numbers. 

2. customization

Shopware 6 offers a large number of extensions in the Shopware Store, which are gradually being tested and the repertoire of plugins expanded. This means you already have extensive options for customizing your store and the plugins in the Shopware Store meet the Shopware quality requirements. You also have the option of making further customizations with the help of a developer. We also offer you the development of individual extensions if these are not available in the Shopware Store. There are also plugins for WooCommerce, but significantly fewer than for Shopware. In addition, the focus here is increasingly on US users. Many plugins are only available in English.

3. future & progress

Shopware is in a state of continuous development. With Shopware 6, you get programming that is "state of the art", i.e. very modern. Even if your company grows dynamically, this is no problem at all. Whether you are a beginner or a large corporation - Shopware can be used by everyone. Thanks to the flexible tariffs, Shopware can keep pace with your success. An upgrade is possible without any problems.

Shopware can also be plugged into all kinds of platforms, such as Google Shopping, Amazon, etc.
You can quickly add additional domains via the admin area and turn the store into a real multi-shop system, either to display the store in several languages or to manage completely different stores via a single admin.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, is in our opinion only suitable for small businesses. If you only want to sell a few products from your website, it is certainly a practical solution. However, as soon as there is a desire to develop your business further, it could become difficult. Online commerce is evolving rapidly and as a plugin, WooCommerce struggles to adapt quickly enough.

4. setup and use

Both systems are relatively intuitive to understand and use. You don't need a programmer for many things. In Shopware in particular, the so-called rule builder provides for easy-to-present "if - then" processes. If you want to go into more detail, there are forums and documentation for both systems - for WooCommerce, however, mainly in English. The Shopware documentation is available in German and English.
If there are things to program, Shopware is easier for the programmer to understand because it has a more logical and modular structure.
5. warehouse and checkout
If you have a store or warehouse management, you should definitely use Shopware. A connection via API interfaces is easily possible here. We even have customers for whom the Shopware store is the linchpin. If someone pulls a product over the checkout in the store, it may disappear from the store. And at the end of the day, the store sends all the data to the tax consultant and DATEV.

6. costs

Both Shopware and WooCommerce are free in the basic version. 
As far as the creation costs are concerned, it depends on the design of both.  If you stick with the standard design and configure the store yourself, the main issue is "running costs". 
As far as hosting is concerned, Shopware is slightly more expensive because it requires its own server. The minimum requirements for WooCommerce are lower than for Shopware. 

Conclusion

Shopware is an e-commerce system with many plugins and interfaces - in principle, you can plug in anything that has an interface. It has shopping worlds and other online marketing tools.  The store has German documentation and German support from a German manufacturer. There is a public roadmap where you can see what the next feature will be, and you can also report bugs there. Security gaps are quickly closed through updates.  Shopware is quite large and requires its own server. 

WordPress is a blog system and WooCommerce is nothing more than a plugin for it. The programming work for this is relatively complicated, the code unclean and not always well documented. The focus is on the US market. The adaptation to German legal requirements is uncertain and not always the focus of the developers. There is the option of sending newsletters and the SEO options are quite good, but there are no shopping worlds.

Please pay attention not only to the costs, but also to the possibility of keeping your store up to date with the latest legal requirements and developing it further over the years.