Shopify or a custom-built store? An honest guide
I build on Shopify and I build custom stores in Next.js, so I don’t have a side to sell you. Most of the time the answer is Shopify. Here’s how to tell when it isn’t.
Arthur, ELMFOLD · Southampton · · 8 min read
Start with what Shopify does brilliantly
Shopify handles the parts of ecommerce that are hard, risky and boring: payments, security, checkout, stock, tax, shipping rates, order emails and fraud checks. Millions of shops run on it, so those parts are well tested.
If you sell products with normal options (sizes, colours, scents) and want to spend your energy on the brand rather than the plumbing, Shopify is almost always the right starting point.
What “custom” actually means
There are three different things people mean by a custom store:
- A custom-designed Shopify store. Shopify underneath, but the design and code of every page written for your brand instead of a bought theme. This is what most of my stores are.
- Shopify plus custom parts. Shopify for products and checkout, with something custom built beside it: a set builder, a configurator, a customer portal, a production app.
- Fully custom. A store built from scratch in a framework like Next.js, with payments handled by Stripe (or Shopify behind the scenes, called headless).
Five signs you need more than standard Shopify
- Customers need to build, configure or approve something before they buy (a set, a portrait, a quote).
- Your product has rules Shopify’s variants can’t express: compatibility, made-to-measure, dependencies.
- You need to connect to a system Shopify can’t talk to easily, like your own production or booking software.
- Speed and design control matter so much that theme limits are costing you.
- You run several brands or markets that need to behave very differently.
If none of these apply, a beautifully designed Shopify store is the answer, and anyone who says otherwise is selling a bigger project.
A real example from my own brands
Emilie Pearled Candle runs on Shopify, with a custom set builder that teaches people a new product while they choose wax and bowls. Vincenzo Atelier runs on Shopify too, with a separate private app, Vincenzo Studio, that turns each order into an approved portrait and a print file.
Both are the hybrid: Shopify for what it’s great at, custom code only where the business needs it. You can see both on the work page, including the real builder running live.
Costs and ownership
| Custom-designed Shopify | Shopify + custom parts | Fully custom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly running costs | Shopify plan + apps | Shopify plan + hosting for the custom part | Hosting + payment provider |
| Build cost | Lowest of the three | Middle | Highest |
| Who handles checkout security | Shopify | Shopify | Your payment provider and your developer |
| Design freedom | High | High | Total |
| Lock-in | Shopify | Low | None |
Whichever you choose, insist that the code, the accounts and the domain are in your name. With me, they always are.
Questions people ask
Is Shopify good for small businesses in the UK?
Yes. It handles payments, VAT settings, shipping and checkout well, and it scales from a first product to thousands of orders.
What is headless Shopify?
Shopify keeps running products and checkout, while the shop front is a separate custom site. It gives total design freedom, at a higher build and running cost.
Can you move my store off Shopify later?
Yes. Products, customers and orders can be exported, and a custom store can take over with redirects so search rankings survive.
Want me to look at yours?The free project plan takes about four minutes and gives you a written plan with a fixed price. You keep it whether or not we work together.
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