Finding the Right Fit: Shopify or Custom-built Website?
By Sam Nguyen
This article will help you understand the Shopify and Custom-built website pros and cons, features, and performance to decide which one you should invest in for your e-commerce business.
Key Takeaways
- Shopify offers a comprehensive e-commerce solution for merchants to build and run an online store on a low-budget and easy-to-use platform with ready-made themes and no technical knowledge required.
- Custom-built websites indeed provide a higher degree of control in terms of aesthetics and functionality, though this comes with the necessity of possessing coding skills for their construction and ongoing management.
Shopify vs Custom-built Website: Quick Comparison
The key differences between Shopify and a custom-built website lies in the degree of control and the ease of use.
Shopify serves as a cloud-based platform, a SaaS solution designed to help non-tech business owners swiftly build their ecommerce store and start selling their products to vast global customers. It offers built-in templates, drag-and-drop interfaces, and various pre-built integrations, making it easy to set up without any need for coding. Shopify also handles all aspects of online sales, including inventory management, payment processing, and shipping.
For custom-built websites, you’ll have to start from the ground up. This means working closely with a development team to construct the site, securing your own domain and hosting services, and managing data storage. Additionally, it’s your responsibility to set up payment gateways and maintain the website, which requires more time, resources, and effort. However, you can create a unique design that fits your brand perfectly and build custom features and functionalities as per your business needs.
Shopify vs. Custom-built Website: Pros and Cons
The below table will show the advantages and disadvantages of Shopify and Custom-built Websites
| Shopify | Custom-built website | |
| Pros | All-in-one e-commerce solution Customizable store-front design Easy to setup User-friendly interface No coding requiredIntuitive dashboard for management Integrated payment gateways Cost-effectiveIntegration ability with apps to enhance functionality 24/7 customer support Scalability | Complete control over your website Infinite customization Unique branding |
| Cons | Limited customization options Transaction fees | Require technical knowledge High budget Effort and time-consuming Self-maintenance and updates Limited support options. |
Shopify vs Custom-built Website: Detailed comparison
Pricing
Shopify
- Monthly fees: From $39 to $2,000+/month
- Free trial: 3 days
- Special deal: $1/month for the first three months
The fees are for merchants in the US. Check Shopify’s monthly fees in your country here.
Custom-built website
The cost of a custom-built website can range widely, from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on your needs and the complexity of the site. If you have coding skills, you can save costs by building the website yourself. Otherwise, you’ll need to budget for a development team. Let’s break down the potential costs you might incur based on current market rates:
- Hosting fees: $30-$500/year
- Buying domain: $10-$20/year
- SSL certificate: $70-$80/year (on average)
- Theme & template: $0 to $100
- Web development: $100 to $5,000 (and more)
- Payment providers: $100 – $1,000
The verdict
When it comes to fees, Shopify is clearly much cheaper than a custom-built website.
Shopify provides you with the whole package on a lower budget. You can start your online business instantly and receive maintenance, 24/7 support as well as a wide range of features. Having a custom-built website involves various expenses. Apart from the initial development costs, any additional features you want to incorporate will likely require more resources.
Ease of use
Shopify
Shopify is purpose-built for eCommerce, offering an intuitive interface that even those lacking technical skills can easily use.
Shopify provides a rich array of templates, plugins, and add-ons. This variety ensures you can effortlessly customize your online store to suit your needs.
The process to set up your Shopify store is straightforward. You simply need to provide an email address, create a password, and name your store. Upon completion of the setup process, the following features are included:
- Ready-made (.myshopify.com) domain, or you can buy a custom domain with Shopify
- 150+ themes & templates (both free and paid)
- Available CMS to edit and recognize content
- Built-in payment gateway – Shopify Payments and 100+ integrated third-party provider
- Data storage on Shopify’s server.
- 8000+ apps on the Shopify App Store to enhance your store’s functionality
Custom-built website
Setting up a custom-built website is a more complex process. It begins with researching the design that best fits your brand and the features you need on your site. You’ll then need to hire a design and development team to bring your vision to life. Storing data is also a consideration, requiring you to find a reliable solution yourself.
The verdict
Undoubtedly, Shopify is a perfect choice for merchants with no technical expertise. Shopify has streamlined its user interface by minimizing unnecessary steps or sections. Everything is optimized for the easiest user experience.
Ecommerce features
Shopify
Shopify provides sellers with an extensive array of eCommerce tools. Some of these notable features include:
- Product management: You can easily add and manage an unlimited number of products with information, including titles, descriptions, high-resolution images, videos, and more.
- Built-in payment gateways: Shopify Payments is user-friendly, secure, and integrates perfectly with your online store. It allows you to accept and manage payments from various methods such as credit cards, debit cards, and other popular payment solutions, simplifying the checkout process for your customers. Plus, by using Shopify Payments, you’ll avoid additional transaction fees.
- Shipping: You can choose to offer free shipping, flat rates, or exact cost shipping, depending on what works best for your product range and target customers. Furthermore, Shopify partners with leading carriers such as USPS, UPS, DHL Express, and Canada Post, offering discounted shipping rates of up to 88%.
- Fraud analysis: Shopify provides a fraud analysis feature that helps identify fraudulent orders and reduces chargebacks by gathering evidence for disputed charges.
Custom-built website
Custom-built websites offer a different kind of flexibility when it comes to eCommerce features, primarily based on the fact that they are built from scratch.
Custom-built websites do not come with integrated options like Shopify, meaning that store owners have to manually seek out and integrate the payment gateways for their online store. Depending on the provider, this can involve additional fees, further technical integration and could also mean dealing with the security aspects of online transactions. It requires research and decision-making to choose the best payment provider.
The verdict
Clearly, Shopify provides better built-in e-commerce functionality to suit SMEs or multimillion dollars companies’ needs.
Integrations
Shopify
Shopify simplifies the process of enhancing your online store by offering over 8,000 third-party apps through the Shopify App Store. This vast collection ensures there’s a solution for virtually any business requirement you might have.
One of Shopify’s standout features is its ability to support your business’s growth by integrating multiple sales channels, including Amazon, Pinterest, and Facebook to broaden your reach. Plus, Shopify offers seamless integration with Shopify POS for effective in-person selling.
Custom-built website
Integrating custom websites with different apps, plugins, or point-of-sale systems can be more intricate and time-consuming.
Finding the most appropriate plugin for your website involves significant analysis, research time, and substantial fees.
The verdict
Undoubtly, Shopify offers great integration compared to custom-built websites. The integration ability to the Shopify ecosystem allows merchants to save a lot of time and money. Otherwise, with a custom-built website, it might be risky and also costly.
Security
Shopify
When you opt for a hosted platform like Shopify, there are fewer concerns to worry about. Shopify takes care of security tasks in the background, leaving you minimal responsibilities. This platform provides free SSL registration for all online merchants and automatic updates. SSL certificates offered by Shopify offer several advantages:
- Enhanced security: By using HTTPS instead of HTTP, Shopify adds an additional layer of authentication to your store, improving security.
- Customer trust: The SSL icon is displayed next to your online store’s URL, which helps to instill confidence and gain customer trust.
Fortunately, all Shopify stores are certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, meaning they meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. This standard ensures the security of data for any company accepting card payments. With Shopify, you can rest assured that all your data and customer information are highly secure.
Custom-built website
A comprehensive web security plan should incorporate tools to handle potential disaster scenarios, such as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. It should also include a robust strategy for recovery. Businesses and organizations must be knowledgeable and prepared for cyber attacks. Therefore, you may spend a lot of money and time on a custom-built website.
The verdict
In terms of security, Shopify has the advantage over custom-built websites. It provides free SSL certification and assists with all data security setups. On the contrary, creating custom-built websites requires extensive knowledge of security and significant investments of time and financial resources.
Content and marketing
Shopify
Shopify provides a diverse selection of apps and offers a wide range of tools and features to assist with marketing management, such as SEO, Email marketing, Live chat, Lead generation, Content marketing,… The part support blogs, About us, and FAQs page for you to tell the story about your store with no additional cost.
In addition, Shopify provides a vast selection of customizable templates and themes that enable you to build your online store. With over 100 templates available in the Shopify theme store, finding a design that suits your needs is effortless.
Custom-built website
Building a custom website entails working with a team dedicated to your business. The process begins with a creative phase to understand your target audience, marketing strategy, and the desired functionality and design of the website. You will need to find a suitable marketing service provider, SEO team, and UI UX design team to ensure the entire operation of your website.
The verdict
Shopify offers many convenient content and marketing tools that significantly streamline your online business operations. Leveraging these tools can save valuable time, effort, and money. Shopify’s integrated solutions provide a comprehensive suite of features, such as content management, email marketing, SEO optimization, and social media integration.
These capabilities empower you to efficiently manage and promote your products or services efficiently efficiently, ultimately enhancing your online presence and driving customer engagement. Instead of a custom-built website, you can spend a lot of time and money.
Maintainance and updates
Shopify
When working towards the growth of your online business, it is crucial to recognize the significance of consistent maintenance and upgrades. Shopify simplifies this process by taking full responsibility for its platform’s technical maintenance and security updates. This means store owners can have peace of mind, as they do not need to concern themselves with software upgrades or security patches.
Shopify’s team of experts diligently ensures that the platform remains up to date at all times, effectively handling all the technical aspects. As a result, business owners can entirely focus on managing their enterprises.
Moreover, the Shopify app store offers merchants the convenience of effortlessly incorporating new features and integrations into their stores without hiring a developer.
Custom-built website
On the other hand, custom-built websites require regular maintenance and management to ensure smooth operation. Owners of custom websites bear the responsibility of updating software and plugins, as well as ensuring the security of their websites.
This time-consuming task demands substantial technical expertise, mainly if a dedicated web developer is separate from the team. And you would need to pay additional fees to attain the same level of security and encounter complex setup processes.
The verdict
Without a doubt, Shopify is more accessible to approach than custom-built websites for business owners in terms of maintenance and updates. Shopify provides maintenance services with its highly trained team. Instead of finding support from an outsourcing dev team.
Customer support
Shopify
Shopify is renowned for its exceptional customer support, offering 24/7 assistance through various channels such as phone, email, and live chat. Their support team comprises knowledgeable and experienced professionals who efficiently resolve any technical issues or challenges users face.
Furthermore, Shopify’s extensive collection of help articles, tutorials, and forums equips users with the necessary information to address problems independently and optimize their website’s performance. Additionally, Shopify builds a vibrant community of experts and users who generously share their experiences and expertise with others.
Custom-built website
Unlike Shopify, with custom-built websites, the support available relies on the developer or web design agency chosen. However, the quality of support can vary significantly depending on the skill and experience of the developer. Some developers may offer exceptional support and be highly responsive to user needs, while others may take a more hands-off approach, leaving users to troubleshoot issues independently.
The verdict
Certainly, Shopify is the winner regarding customer support, not only in comparison with custom-built websites and other platforms. Users can receive support via many types of channels quickly.
Shopify vs Custom-built Website: Who Should Use
Shopify is ideal for
- Beginners who want to set up an online store quickly and easily.
- Entrepreneurs without technical or coding skills.
- Small to medium-sized businesses looking for a cost-effective ecommerce solution.
- Businesses planning to scale and expand their operations across multiple sales channels.
- Sellers who want an all-in-one platform with integrated payment gateways, shipping arrangements, and abundant third-party app integrations.
Custom-built websites are suitable for
- Businesses with specific and unique requirements that cannot be fulfilled by existing ecommerce platforms.
- Companies with substantial resources (both financial and time).
- Businesses need a high level of customization and control over their online store’s design, functionality, and user experience.
- Companies who want complete control over their stores and are ready to manage their own data security and backups.
Bottom Line
That’s how Shopify compares to Custom-built websites. If you’re seeking an affordable and user-friendly e-commerce platform that offers a wide range of convenient integrations, Shopify is a comprehensive choice. It provides a robust solution that simplifies building and managing an online store, making it an excellent option for many businesses.
Shopify vs Custom-built Website: FAQs
- Buy Button: If you have a website that’s separate from Shopify but you want to sell products on it, you can use the Shopify Buy Button.
- APIs: If you have a custom-built website and you want a more seamless integration, you might use Shopify’s APIs.
However, it is recommended to have a custom domain for your business to establish a professional online presence. Shopify offers the option to purchase a custom domain directly through their platform or connect an existing domain you already own.
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