BigQuery costs $5/month from WooCommerce. It costs $500/month from Shopify. Same data warehouse. Same analytics capabilities. 100x price difference. The gap isn’t BigQuery’s fault—it’s how your platform lets you get data there.

Everyone quotes BigQuery’s affordable pricing when recommending data warehouses. They’re right about BigQuery itself: 10GB free storage, 1TB free queries monthly, $0.05 per GB for streaming inserts (Google Cloud, 2025). What they don’t mention is the cost of actually connecting your ecommerce data to BigQuery. That’s where platform choice becomes a $6,000/year decision.

The Real Cost Breakdown: WooCommerce vs Shopify#

Let’s do the actual math that most BigQuery guides skip.

WooCommerce to BigQuery: The Direct Path

WooCommerce stores own their data completely. Your WordPress database is yours. This means you can stream events directly to BigQuery without any middleware.

Monthly costs for a typical WooCommerce store:

• BigQuery storage: Free (under 10GB threshold for most SMBs)
• BigQuery queries: Free (under 1TB monthly)
• Streaming inserts: $0.05 per GB × ~50-100GB/month = $2.50-$5
• Middleware: $0 (direct connection via server-side tracking)

Total: $5-20/month for most stores.

The technical path is straightforward: server-side tracking captures WooCommerce events and streams them directly to BigQuery’s Streaming Insert API. No extraction tools. No transformation layers. No connector subscriptions.

Shopify to BigQuery: The Expensive Detour

Shopify stores don’t own their database. It’s Shopify’s infrastructure, and they control access to it. Getting your own data out requires one of two paths:

Option 1: Third-Party ETL Connectors

• Fivetran Shopify connector: $500+/month minimum (Fivetran Pricing, 2025)
• Stitch Data: Similar pricing tier
• Airbyte (self-hosted): “Free” but requires DevOps infrastructure

Option 2: Shopify Plus Native Integration

• Shopify Plus subscription: $2,000+/month minimum (Shopify, 2025)
• ShopifyQL access: Included with Plus, but limited query capabilities

Total: $500-$2,000+/month just to access your own data.

You may be interested in: WooCommerce Events to BigQuery Without GA4

Why the 100x Cost Difference Exists#

The price gap comes down to architecture, not features.

WooCommerce = Open Architecture

WordPress gives you complete database access. You can read, write, export, and stream data anywhere because it’s your server, your database, your rules. BigQuery streaming inserts cost $0.05 per GB because you’re sending data directly—no intermediary taking a cut.

Shopify = Walled Garden

Shopify hosts your store on their infrastructure. Your data lives in their database. To get it out, you need tools that negotiate with Shopify’s API, transform the data, and load it elsewhere. Those tools charge for that service—typically based on data volume or “active rows.”

Fivetran’s Shopify connector doesn’t cost $500/month because the technology is expensive. It costs that because Shopify’s architecture requires it, and businesses will pay to access their own data.

The 5-Year Total Cost of Ownership#

Here’s what each path costs over five years:

WooCommerce + Direct BigQuery Pipeline:

• BigQuery costs: ~$10/month average = $600 over 5 years
• Server-side tracking tool: ~$150/month = $9,000 over 5 years
• Total: ~$9,600

Shopify + Fivetran + BigQuery:

• Shopify plan: ~$79/month (Basic) = $4,740 over 5 years
• Fivetran connector: $500/month minimum = $30,000 over 5 years
• BigQuery costs: ~$10/month = $600 over 5 years
• Total: ~$35,340

Shopify Plus + Native BigQuery:

• Shopify Plus: $2,000/month = $120,000 over 5 years
• BigQuery costs: ~$10/month = $600 over 5 years
• Total: ~$120,600

The WooCommerce path costs 73% less than Shopify + Fivetran—and 92% less than Shopify Plus.

You may be interested in: Build Your Own Analytics Stack: WordPress to BigQuery to Looker

Why This Matters in 2026#

BigQuery isn’t just for enterprise analytics anymore. It’s becoming the affordable foundation for AI and machine learning.

Google’s BigQuery ML lets you build predictive models directly on your ecommerce data—customer lifetime value predictions, churn risk scoring, product recommendations—without moving data or hiring data scientists. But you need your data in BigQuery first.

For WooCommerce stores: BigQuery ML is essentially free to experiment with. Your data already flows there. Start building models today.

For Shopify stores: BigQuery ML requires $500-$2,000/month just to get data into position. That’s a significant barrier before you’ve even started analyzing.

The stores that will leverage AI effectively in 2026 are the ones whose data infrastructure doesn’t charge $6,000/year in middleware fees.

The WordPress Data Advantage#

Platform choice used to be about themes, checkout flow, and app ecosystems. In 2026, it’s also about data infrastructure economics.

WooCommerce’s open architecture means you can build a complete analytics stack—from event capture to data warehouse to visualization—at costs that would be middleware fees alone on Shopify.

Transmute Engine™ is a first-party Node.js server that runs on your subdomain (e.g., data.yourstore.com), capturing WooCommerce events and streaming them directly to BigQuery alongside GA4, Facebook CAPI, and other destinations. No ETL connectors. No middleware subscriptions. Your data flows directly from your store to your data warehouse.

Key Takeaways#

• BigQuery itself is affordable: 10GB storage free, 1TB queries free, $0.05/GB streaming
• The cost gap is in connectivity: WooCommerce direct ($5/month) vs Shopify middleware ($500+/month)
• 5-year difference: $9,600 (WooCommerce) vs $35,340+ (Shopify + Fivetran)
• Architecture determines cost: Open database access eliminates middleware dependency
• AI readiness requires data access: BigQuery ML capabilities are only useful if data is there affordably

Frequently Asked Questions#

Platform choice in 2026 is a data infrastructure decision. The math is clear: build your analytics stack on open architecture.