The question isn't which is best, but who will maintain it, what it has to talk to, and how much of your team's time it will take. A comparison by criteria, with the cases where each one is right.
by Nadia Maar ·
Most platform discussions start from the wrong question — "which is best?" — and end with the answer of whoever is asked: people who work on Shopify say Shopify, people who live on WordPress say WooCommerce, people who build custom say off-the-shelf always hits a wall. They're all right, in their own case.
The questions that actually discriminate are three, and none is about technology: who will keep the store running in two years, which systems it has to talk to, and how much of your people's time it can absorb. From there the choice mostly makes itself.
| Criterion | Shopify · WooCommerce · Custom |
|---|---|
| Who updates the platform | The platform · You or your supplier · You or your supplier |
| Predictable recurring cost | Subscription plus fees · Hosting plus maintenance, more variable · Maintenance and evolution |
| Time to go live | Shortest · Short if the site already exists · Longest |
| Freedom over checkout | Limited, but secure and maintained · Wide, with the responsibility that follows · Total, with the compliance weight |
| Unusual integrations | Good where apps exist; custom via API · Very open, quality varies · Custom by definition |
| Complex B2B logic | Possible with work · Possible with work · The ground where it wins |
| Main risk | Dependence on apps and subscription · Neglected maintenance · Upfront cost and a single supplier |
No row in this table says "better". They say where the work ends up: it has to live somewhere, and the choice is deciding where it suits you for it to live.
In these cases the subscription isn't a cost to avoid: it's the price of not owning a problem you can't handle. The real work moves to catalogue, content and integrations — which is where it produces value.
WooCommerce has no subscription, but it has maintenance: core, plugin and theme updates, backups, security, decent hosting. A WooCommerce store left alone for a year is the most common compromised site I come across. If nobody will do that work, the absence of a subscription is an accounting illusion.
Custom isn't chosen for taste: it's chosen when the way you sell is what sets you apart, and no off-the-shelf product represents it without distorting it.
Here the upfront cost is higher and the timeline longer: it has to be justified by a return, not by the wish to own something unique. A common and sensible middle ground: the ready-made platform for standard selling, custom for the piece nobody covers.
No choice is forever, but they cost differently to undo. It's the question almost nobody asks before signing, and the only one that protects you from a wrong decision.
| What you take with you | What you leave behind |
|---|---|
| From Shopify: products, customers, orders as exports | The theme and the apps, which live only there; URLs change shape |
| From WooCommerce: the whole database, because it's yours | Plugins and customisations tied to WordPress |
| From custom: the code and the data, if the contract says so | Nothing, if the contract says so; everything, if it doesn't |
Hence a practical rule that holds for all three roads: get it written into the contract who owns the code, the data and the accounts, and check you can export catalogue and customers in a readable format. Anyone who won't put that in writing is selling you a rental, not a store.
Comparisons include subscriptions, fees and quotes. They never include the most expensive line: your people's hours. How many go every week into loading products, handling orders, answering customers, fixing what doesn't add up.
That's the line that decides which platform really pays, because it's the only one that grows with sales. A platform that saves you two hours a week repays, on its own, subscription differences that looked decisive in a spreadsheet.
The three opening questions — who maintains it, what it talks to, how particular your selling is — have different answers in every company. That's why no platform is best in the abstract.
In the free audit we answer those three questions with your data, and tell you which road makes sense. Including when the answer is to stay where you are.
It depends on who maintains the store. Shopify updates itself and suits companies where nobody can handle updates and security. WooCommerce makes sense when a genuinely maintained WordPress site already exists and content weighs as much as the catalogue.
When the way you sell is what sets you apart: customer price lists, tiered discounts and credit limits, product configurators, processes that continue after the order. The upfront cost is higher and has to be justified by a return.
There's no subscription, but there is maintenance: core, plugin and theme updates, backups, security and decent hosting. If nobody does that work, the absence of a subscription is an accounting illusion — and a neglected store is the most common compromised site.
Your people's hours: loading products, handling orders, answering customers. It's the only line that grows with sales, and the one that decides which platform actually pays.