i love wordpress+woocommerce instead of shopify because it's an easier system to manage security + hosting + speed + code if you know what you are doing. You don't really need paid plugins, just some PHP along the way and some free plugins will get you a long way. Esp paying < $100 for a shared cpanel or 1 of the better hosts $100-200/yr is still cheaper than Shopify's 30-70 USD a month.