Building an online store is easy. Choosing the right foundation is the hard part. The market is dominated by three major approaches: Hosted, Plugin-based, and Headless.
1. Shopify (The Hosted Solution)
Best for: Businesses that want to sell now and don't want to manage servers.
- Pros: Easy setup (zero code), 24/7 support, PCI compliance handled for you, and a massive app ecosystem.
- Cons: Monthly fees ($39-$399/mo) add up. You pay transaction fees (up to 2%) if you don't use Shopify Payments. Customization is limited to what the theme editor allows unless you hire a Liquid developer.
2. WooCommerce (The WordPress Plugin)
Best for: Content-heavy sites or businesses that already love WordPress.
- Pros: Free (Open Source), infinite customization (it's just PHP), and you own your data completely. There are no platform transaction fees.
- Cons: You are the SysAdmin. You manage hosting, security updates, and backups. If a plugin conflict breaks the checkout, you have to fix it. Scaling to 10k+ products requires expensive hosting.
3. Custom Build (Headless / Next.js + Stripe)
Best for: Enterprise brands or unique business models (subscription boxes, digital products).
- Pros: 100% custom UX. You can build blazing fast Frontends using React/Vue and connect to any backend (Shopify Headless, BigCommerce, or rolling your own with Stripe).
- Cons: High initial development cost ($10k+). Requires a dedicated engineering team to maintain.
Verdict: Start with Shopify to validate the business. Move to Headless when you hit $2M-$5M/year revenue and need unique functionality.
E-commerceShopifyWooCommerce
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