Isn't WooCommerce free?

The plugin is. The store is not. A working Kenyan WooCommerce shop needs hosting (~KES 14,000/year managed), a domain (~KES 1,500/year), usually a premium theme (KES 8,000-17,000), an M-Pesa plugin licence (KES 3,500-15,000), and either your own time or a developer — Kenyan quotes for a WooCommerce store with M-Pesa start around KES 60,000. Add it up before comparing.

What actually goes wrong with WooCommerce?

Nothing dramatic, just steadily: WordPress core, the theme, WooCommerce and every plugin update on their own schedules, and occasionally one combination breaks something — often checkout, often unnoticed until sales go quiet. It is a well-understood maintenance burden, not a flaw. It is simply real, and it is why maintenance retainers exist.

Can I move my WooCommerce store to NaiForge?

Yes. Export products as CSV from WooCommerce, we rebuild on our stack in your chosen tier and point the domain across. 3-10 days depending on catalog size. Most merchants who move do it after a maintenance bill or a broken update convinces them they were paying for a system, not a shop.

Is WordPress better for SEO?

That reputation comes from plugins like Yoast making good SEO reachable for non-technical users — the platform itself has no inherent advantage. We build the same fundamentals in directly: server-rendered HTML, schema markup, clean URLs, sitemaps and Core Web Vitals headroom, with no plugin to configure. If anything the edge-rendered stack starts ahead on page speed, which is the part Google actually measures.

What if I want to leave NaiForge later?

You take the code. Full repository access on handover, no licensing strings, and any React developer can pick it up. That is the same ownership argument WooCommerce makes, and it is a fair one — we just did not want it to be a reason to choose them over us.

Comparison

NaiForge vs WooCommerce

Free software with a real bill attached — hosting, plugins, and someone to maintain it.

See NaiForge pricing All comparisons →

The cost reality

What you actually pay

NaiForge

KES 30,000-95,000 one-time

Recurring

Zero. Hosting included, no plugin licences, no update treadmill.

Per-transaction

M-Pesa via Pay-to-Till by default — no gateway, no gateway fee (just Safaricom's own ~0.55%). Automated M-Pesa (gateway STK push): KES 20,000 add-on, included in Premium, a gateway rate that depends on the provider (published: Paystack 1.5%, Flutterwave 2.9%, IntaSend 3%, Pesapal 3-3.5%).

Upfront

50% deposit (KES 15,000-47,500+), balance on delivery.

WooCommerce

'Free' — then ~KES 25,000-60,000/year

Recurring

The plugin is genuinely free. What is not: managed WooCommerce hosting from roughly KES 14,000/year (cheap shared hosting less, and it shows under load), .co.ke domain ~KES 1,500/year, and maintenance if you do not do it yourself — Kenyan retainers commonly start at KES 5,000/month.

Per-transaction

No platform cut. An M-Pesa plugin licence is typically KES 3,500-15,000 one-time, plus the gateway's own per-transaction rate if you use one.

Upfront

Software free; premium theme roughly KES 8,000-17,000 if you want one; M-Pesa plugin KES 3,500-15,000; and if you hire someone to assemble it properly, Kenyan developers quote from around KES 60,000 for a WooCommerce store with M-Pesa.

Not a money comparison

WooCommerce is free the way a puppy is free. Add hosting, a domain, a theme, an M-Pesa plugin and the developer who assembles it, and a properly built Kenyan WooCommerce store lands around KES 60,000-100,000 in year one — squarely in NaiForge Standard territory. The gap is not really price. It is that WordPress plus WooCommerce plus a payment plugin is a stack of independently-updating parts, and something in it will break at an inconvenient moment. Either you maintain that, or you pay roughly KES 5,000 a month for someone who does.

Side by side

Feature by feature

Feature	NaiForge	WooCommerce
Software cost	Included in the build	Free
Realistic year-one total	KES 30,000-95,000, all in	~KES 60,000-100,000 built by a developer
Hosting	Included, edge-distributed	~KES 14,000/yr managed; cheaper shared, slower
Maintenance	Optional KES 5,000/mo, not required	Required — DIY or ~KES 5,000/mo
M-Pesa	Pay-to-Till by default; automation a KES 20,000 add-on	Plugin licence KES 3,500-15,000 + config
Update risk	None — nothing auto-updates under you	Core, theme and plugin updates can break checkout
Speed on Kenyan mobile	Edge-rendered, tuned for CWV	Depends entirely on host and plugin load
Flexibility	What the tier includes; extensions quoted	Effectively unlimited via plugins
Developer pool	Us, or any React developer (code is yours)	Very large — every agency in Kenya

Where NaiForge wins

No plugin stack to keep in sync — the update that breaks checkout cannot happen
No separate hosting bill, and no shared-hosting slowdown on Kenyan mobile
Core Web Vitals and schema built in, not bolted on with three more plugins
No maintenance retainer required to stay secure
One quoted price rather than six line items discovered one at a time

Where WooCommerce wins

Enormous plugin ecosystem — almost anything you need already exists
Every Kenyan developer knows WordPress, so you are never stuck with one supplier
Full data and code ownership, self-hostable anywhere
Mature at scale for large catalogs and complex tax or shipping rules
Cheapest genuine option if you have the skills to run it yourself

The honest answer

Who should choose what

Choose NaiForge if…

You want a shop, not a system to administer. Nobody on your team wants to think about PHP versions, plugin conflicts, or whether last night's automatic update took checkout down. You would rather pay once and have the maintenance question not exist.

Choose WooCommerce if…

You or someone on your team is comfortable with WordPress, you need a specific plugin ecosystem (complex subscriptions, memberships, unusual shipping logic), or you want the widest possible pool of developers who can pick it up later. Those are real advantages and we are not going to argue them away.

Verdict

WooCommerce wins on flexibility and on developer availability, and it is the cheapest real option if you can run it yourself. NaiForge wins when you would rather sell things than administer a website. Compare year-one totals honestly — hosting, theme, plugin and setup included — and the price gap is far smaller than 'free' suggests.

Questions