We build on both, so we have no horse in this race. The right answer depends on what you sell, who runs the store day to day, and how you feel about monthly dollar billing.
Where Shopify wins
Reliability and speed to launch. Hosting, security and updates are someone else's problem, and the admin is friendly enough that your team needs no training. The trade: monthly fees in dollars, transaction costs, and customisation that gets expensive the moment you leave the template.
Where WooCommerce wins
Control and rand-based costs. You own the whole stack, local payment gateways like Payfast and Ozow integrate cleanly, and customisation has no platform ceiling. The trade: it runs on WordPress, so hosting quality and maintenance discipline decide whether it stays fast.
The honest decision rule
Catalogue of standard products, small team, no developer on call: Shopify. Custom pricing, local integrations, content alongside commerce, or cost sensitivity to the dollar: WooCommerce. We built Cape To Cope's Danish wine store on Woo for exactly those reasons.
Budgeting the build? Our pricing note covers store ranges. Or skip ahead and send the brief; we will recommend the platform with reasons, not preferences.