Why a Shopify Partner Recommends WooCommerce for Manufacturers

MAXBURST is a New York agency that builds websites for manufacturers, aerospace and defense suppliers, engineering firms, and industrial B2B companies. They’re a Pressable Pro Partner and a Shopify Solution Provider, so they build on both platforms. Their new article, WordPress vs Shopify for Manufacturing & B2B Industrial: The Real Test, compares WooCommerce and Shopify for the industries they work with.

The article gives Shopify a fair hearing, including its recent B2B improvements, before making the case for WooCommerce. MAXBURST then argues that many industrial companies pick a platform before they’ve figured out what kind of site they need. Their buyers are usually engineers matching specifications, and most sales end in a quote. For those companies, the website has to help a buyer confirm a product fits and then pass a qualified inquiry to sales. The article includes a six-question test to help manufacturers sort out which kind of site they’re building.

For companies that need a site built around product specifications, the article covers where Shopify gets in the way, including limits on product options and custom fields, B2B catalog caps below Shopify Plus, and API rate limits that make large ERP syncs harder to run.

Catalog mode

Most of the industrial WooCommerce sites MAXBURST builds don’t have a checkout. WooCommerce stores the product data, with structured specs, faceted search, and documentation attached to each product, and buyers submit quote requests.

Two of their clients use this approach, and both run on Pressable. One is Couristan, a long-established flooring and rug brand whose site has a cart that never takes payment. Designers and dealers build selections and submit them to Salesforce, where the sales team prices them. It’s a headless build, with the WordPress backend and product data on Pressable. Read how MAXBURST runs Couristan’s backend on Pressable. The other is a laser manufacturer with a catalog-only site organized by pulse regime, wavelength, and application, which is how its engineering buyers search. That whole site runs on Pressable.

Where Pressable comes in

MAXBURST sees operations as Shopify’s biggest advantage, since Shopify handles scaling, patching, backups, and uptime for its merchants. They recommend Pressable’s managed WordPress hosting to get that same support while keeping ownership of the code, database, and data model. For regulated manufacturers and defense suppliers, that ownership also matters for compliance and long-term continuity.

The article also covers what it takes to keep a large catalog fast as it grows. Our free guide, Building Fast B2B Product Catalogs on WooCommerce, goes deeper on that, from caching and crawlers to plugins and checkout, and how to tune each one on Pressable.

Read the full article

You can read MAXBURST’s full comparison on their blog. MAXBURST is also listed in the Pressable partner directory.

Suzanne Kolpakov

Suzanne leads Product Marketing at Pressable, where she focuses on translating complex hosting technology into clear, empowering solutions for creators and businesses. Driven by a passion for the WordPress community, she strives to show how the right platform can be a catalyst for growth and innovation. Suzanne believes that great marketing starts with authentic storytelling and making high-performance tech feel accessible to everyone. She lives in the Metro Atlanta area with her two children and two cats. When she’s not scaling the Pressable brand, you’ll find her navigating the local trails or enjoying the vibrant energy of the South.