Introduction:

A few months ago, I met Emely, a Latina entrepreneur in the United States who runs a makeup service business. She recently started selling makeup to her network of clients. (By the way, she’s a mother to a two-year-old—keep that in mind, because it’s going to be important.)

The information I want to share with you is a historia basada en hechos reales—a real-life story—about how WooCommerce can sometimes feel like it “sucks” for people, just as it did for Emely. But (spoiler alert) it doesn’t completely suck. It all depends on how you use it, so let’s dive in.

The Shocking Truth About Creating a Store You’re Proud to Share

Imagine you’re Emely: you just had a baby, and your business depends on you providing makeup services in person. Naturally, that requires a lot of time, and to earn money, you have to work a certain number of hours each day. But your child, Mia, doesn’t understand that. To overcome this, Emely decides to start an online store to create an additional stream of income. She’s doing it on her own, so she looks up some YouTube tutorials and manages to set up her WooCommerce store.

Here’s the catch: she quickly realizes she needs to buy a theme, purchase a domain, install several SEO plugins, and figure out how to ensure everything works together. Then she discovers she needs even more features that WooCommerce doesn’t include by default. She has to keep watching video tutorials to piece it all together. If you’re a developer, this process might be straightforward. But for Emely—who mainly uses her devices for social media—navigating a dashboard, manually uploading data, and troubleshooting issues feels like climbing a mountain.

She wanted WooCommerce to save her time, but instead, maintaining and tweaking the store became a new source of stress—especially since she’s not an expert.

Maintainability: Fixing Without Losing Your Mind (Spoiler: It’s Hard)

So, Emely got her site up and running, and she already has two loyal customers making purchases directly from her online store. She’s thrilled—everything seems to be working perfectly. But after a few weeks and a few more sales, she learns—thanks to a customer’s feedback—that the payment page isn’t functioning properly when someone clicks “Buy.”

She panics and tries to fix the issue by updating a plugin, only to discover she’s broken something else in the process. In desperation, she follows a random YouTube tutorial titled “WooCommerce Payment Page Fix in 5 Minutes!” posted by some guy from India (she can’t even remember his name). Unfortunately, the steps in the video only make things worse. Frustrated, she thinks, “Why does this keep happening? They said WooCommerce should work!”

Despite her annoyance, Emely is determined to keep her side income going. She finally resolves the issue, but not without sacrificing hours of her time—and a good chunk of her sanity. The damage is done; now she’s left wondering when the next problem will arise.

Open Source vs. Closed Software: What’s Best for Your Business Idea?

With WooCommerce, Emely pays only $11 per month for a shared server, making it a budget-friendly option compared to Shopify’s higher monthly costs. This is a huge plus for her small business, which currently makes 2 to 10 sales per month. She’s proud of her progress but acknowledges that WooCommerce’s low cost comes at a price: time.

While Shopify provides simplicity and reliability, WooCommerce requires Emely to learn, tweak, and maintain her store—a difficult task for someone juggling a baby, a service business, and now an online store.

The Scalability Secret Experts Won’t Tell You

As Emely’s store grows, she’ll face scalability issues sooner or later. WooCommerce is great for small businesses starting out, but as traffic increases, so do the risks: plugin conflicts, performance slowdowns, and hidden costs. For non-technical entrepreneurs, these challenges can feel insurmountable.

For Emely and many others, scalability comes at the cost of hours spent tweaking, troubleshooting, and upgrading. It’s a trade-off between WooCommerce’s open-source freedom and the reliability of a closed platform like Shopify.

WooCommerce’s Popularity Explained

WooCommerce dominates e-commerce because of its integration with WordPress, which powers over 43% of the web. Tutorials, courses, and plugins make it a go-to option for entrepreneurs like Emely. She chose it because it’s everywhere—just like those relentless Temu ads on social media.

A Personal Note

If you don’t want to deal with all the technical headaches, consider an alternative like Shopify. Switching might seem daunting, but it could save you time and stress in the long run. If you’ve already started with WooCommerce and are feeling stuck, tools like NomadFlow.com can help you migrate easily.

Have a great day, and good luck with your store! 😊