Shopify vs WooCommerce vs Custom: Which E-Commerce Platform Is Right for You?

"Should I use Shopify or build custom?" We get asked this weekly. The answer depends on what you're actually building, how fast you need it, and where you see your business in 2-3 years.

Here's an honest breakdown of each option.

The Quick Answer

Shopify: The Safe Choice

Shopify is the iPhone of e-commerce. It's polished, opinionated, and works great for 90% of use cases.

Shopify Costs

• Basic: $39/month + 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction
• Shopify: $105/month + 2.7% + 30¢ per transaction
• Advanced: $399/month + 2.5% + 30¢ per transaction
• Plus (enterprise): $2,300+/month

Plus apps ($50-300/mo each), themes ($0-400 one-time), and potentially developer costs for customizations.

Choose Shopify If:

• You're selling physical products with standard variations
• You want to launch quickly (days, not months)
• You don't have technical resources in-house
• Your business model is straightforward (buy product → checkout → ship)

WooCommerce: The Flexible Option

WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns WordPress into an online store. It's the Android to Shopify's iPhone—more flexibility, more complexity.

WooCommerce Real Costs

"Free" is misleading. Realistic annual costs:

• Hosting: $200-600/year (good managed WordPress hosting)
• Theme: $60-200 (one-time)
• Essential plugins: $200-800/year (payment gateways, shipping, security)
• Maintenance: $1,200-3,600/year (or your time)

Total: $1,700-5,200/year minimum for a properly run store.

Choose WooCommerce If:

• You already have a WordPress site with significant content/SEO
• You have technical resources to manage it
• You need deep customization Shopify can't provide
• Content marketing is core to your strategy

Custom Build: The Power Option

Building custom means creating an e-commerce system from scratch (or near-scratch) using frameworks like Next.js, Laravel, or Django with services like Stripe or Medusa.

Custom Build Costs

• Initial development: $30,000-150,000+ (depending on complexity)
• Ongoing development: $3,000-15,000/month
• Infrastructure: $200-2,000/month (scales with traffic)

Choose Custom If:

• Your business model doesn't fit standard e-commerce (marketplace, subscriptions with complex rules, B2B pricing)
• You've outgrown Shopify and need better performance or lower fees at scale
• E-commerce is core to your business (not just a side channel)
• You have budget and patience for proper development

Decision Framework

Ask yourself these questions:

1. How fast do you need to launch?
   Days → Shopify. Weeks → WooCommerce. Months → Custom.
2. What's your technical capability?
   None → Shopify. Some → WooCommerce. Strong team → Consider custom.
3. How unique is your business model?
   Standard retail → Shopify/Woo. Unique pricing, complex rules → Custom.
4. What's your budget?
   <$5K → Shopify. $5-20K → WooCommerce with dev. $30K+ → Custom possible.
5. Where do you see the business in 3 years?
   $10M+ revenue → Likely custom eventually. Under $1M → Shopify is fine.

Our Recommendation

Start with Shopify unless you have a clear reason not to. It's the fastest path to revenue, and you can always migrate later.

Only go custom if Shopify genuinely can't do what you need—not because it's "cooler" or you want to avoid transaction fees (the math usually doesn't work out until you're doing $1M+/year).

Build custom for your marketplace component if you're creating something like HalalHQ's multi-vendor marketplace—platforms like Shopify aren't designed for that.