Choosing an eCommerce platform is one of those decisions that feels reversible and rarely is. Your products, customers, order history, search rankings and daily workflows all end up tied to it. Moving later is possible, but it costs time and money, and often some traffic. So it is worth choosing with care.
The market offers three broad routes. You can rent a hosted platform, such as Shopify, where the provider runs everything for a monthly fee. You can use an open source store, most commonly WooCommerce on WordPress, which you host and control yourself. Or you can commission a custom-built store designed around your exact needs. Each is the right answer for some businesses and a poor fit for others.
This guide compares them honestly on the things that matter: cost over time, control, flexibility, performance, search visibility, maintenance and growth. It ends with a simple way to decide. If you want a budget view first, our eCommerce website cost guide shows typical ranges for each type of store.
The three options in plain language
A hosted platform is a complete store as a service. You sign up, choose a theme, add products and start selling. Hosting, security, updates and payments are handled for you. You pay a subscription, often plus transaction or app fees, and you work within what the platform allows.
An open source store such as WooCommerce is software you install on your own hosting. You own the code and data, choose your hosting, and extend the store with plugins. You have far more control, and far more responsibility for updates, security and performance.
A custom store is built specifically for you, often on a framework such as Laravel. Nothing is included that you do not need, and anything you need can be built. It costs more to start and gives you the most freedom.
Quick comparison
| Factor | Hosted platform | Open source (WooCommerce) | Custom build |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | Days to weeks | Weeks | Months |
| Upfront cost | Low | Low to moderate | Highest |
| Running cost | Monthly fee, app fees, transaction fees | Hosting, plugins, maintenance | Hosting and maintenance |
| Control over checkout and logic | Limited | High, with plugins or code | Complete |
| Technical upkeep | Handled by provider | Yours | Yours |
| Scalability | Strong, with plan upgrades | Depends on hosting and setup | Designed for your needs |
| Best for | Standard stores that want speed | Content-led shops, moderate customisation | Unusual workflows, B2B, marketplaces |
Hosted platforms
Why businesses choose them
- Speed. A working store in days.
- Less to manage. Security patches, uptime and payment compliance are the provider's job.
- Polished basics. Checkout, discounts, shipping rules, abandoned carts and reporting are built in.
- A large app ecosystem for extra features.
- Predictable experience that customers already recognise and trust.
Where they fall short
- Fees add up. The monthly plan is only part of it. Paid apps, transaction fees if you do not use the platform's own payment service, and higher tiers as you grow can make the total significant.
- Limits on customisation. Checkout and core logic can be adjusted within rules, but not freely rewritten.
- Platform dependence. Pricing, features and policies are set by the provider.
- App bloat. Each extra app can slow the store and add a monthly cost.
- Your data lives on someone else's system, although export is usually possible.
Best for
New stores, small and mid-sized catalogues, teams without developers and anyone who wants to start selling quickly and learn before investing more.
WooCommerce and open source stores
Why businesses choose them
- Ownership. You own the code, data and hosting.
- Flexibility. Thousands of plugins and unlimited theme options, and developers can change almost anything.
- No platform fee. You pay for hosting, extensions and work, not a percentage of sales.
- Content and commerce together. WordPress is excellent for blogs, guides and landing pages, which helps with search traffic.
- A huge pool of developers who know the platform.
Where they fall short
- Maintenance is yours. WordPress, themes and plugins need regular updates. Neglected stores are a common target for attacks.
- Plugin quality varies. Conflicts and performance problems are common when many plugins are stacked.
- Performance needs attention. Good hosting, caching and careful plugin choices matter.
- Costs are less obvious. Premium plugins, hosting upgrades and developer time accumulate.
- Scaling has limits. Very large catalogues and heavy traffic need specialist setup.
Best for
Content-led businesses, stores with moderate customisation needs, and teams with access to a developer or agency who will look after the site.
Custom-built stores
Why businesses choose them
- Exact fit. Pricing rules, approval flows, catalogues and checkout can match your business, not the other way round.
- No platform fees. Costs are mainly build and maintenance.
- Performance by design. Only the features you need are included.
- Deep integration. Inventory, accounting, CRM, shipping and other systems connect the way you want.
- Room for unusual models. B2B pricing, subscriptions, marketplaces with multiple sellers and configurators are natural fits.
- Full ownership of code, data and roadmap.
Where they fall short
- Higher upfront cost and longer build. Expect months, not days.
- You own the upkeep. Hosting, security and updates need a plan and a team.
- Risk if poorly built. The quality of the developer matters a great deal.
- More decisions. You must specify what you need, which takes thought. See how to write a software requirements document.
- Everything is yours to improve. Even basic features you would get free elsewhere must be built or integrated.
Best for
Businesses with unusual workflows, B2B selling, marketplaces, high volume where platform fees hurt, or a model that standard platforms cannot support.
Cost over three years
The most useful comparison is total cost over a few years, not the price on day one. A rough way to think about each route:
- Hosted: low build, then a steady stream of plan fees, app subscriptions and possibly transaction fees that grow with sales.
- WooCommerce: moderate build, then hosting, plugin licences and regular developer maintenance.
- Custom: higher build, then hosting and a maintenance budget, with no per-sale platform charge.
A small store with modest sales usually costs least on a hosted platform. As sales and complexity grow, the gap narrows, and for some businesses custom becomes the cheaper path. Do the arithmetic with your own expected volume. For a general view of budgets, see our custom software cost guide.
Performance and search visibility
Fast pages and clean structure affect both conversion and search ranking.
- Hosted platforms are generally well optimised out of the box, though heavy themes and many apps slow them down.
- WooCommerce can be fast with good hosting, caching and lean plugins, and slow without them.
- Custom stores can be the fastest because nothing unnecessary is loaded, but that depends on good engineering.
For search, all three can rank well when product pages have unique descriptions, clean URLs, structured data and quick loading. WordPress has an edge for content marketing, and a custom store gives you complete control over technical SEO.
Who looks after security?
- Hosted: the provider handles platform security and payment compliance. You still manage accounts, passwords and app choices.
- WooCommerce: you are responsible. Keep everything updated, limit plugins, use strong hosting and take backups.
- Custom: you are responsible, but a well-built store has a smaller attack surface. Insist on secure coding practices, automated tests and regular updates.
Whichever you pick, use a reputable payment provider so card data never touches your own servers.
Migration: how locked in are you?
Switching platforms later is possible. Products, customers and order history can usually be exported and imported, though formatting, variants and custom data often need cleaning. Plan for redirects from old addresses to protect search rankings.
This is another reason to start simple. A hosted store is the easiest place to begin, and moving to something more flexible later is a normal step for growing businesses, not a failure.
Questions to ask before choosing
- How many products will we sell, and how complex are they (variants, bundles, made to order)?
- Do we have special pricing, approval or delivery rules?
- Do we sell to consumers, businesses, or both?
- How much developer support will we have after launch?
- What other systems must connect: inventory, accounting, CRM, marketplaces?
- How fast do we want to launch?
- What are our expected sales in year one and year three?
- How important is content marketing and search traffic?
Quick decision guide
- Choose a hosted platform if you want to launch quickly, your needs are standard and you have no developer.
- Choose WooCommerce if content matters as much as products, you want ownership and have someone to maintain it.
- Choose custom if your workflows, pricing or scale do not fit standard tools, or platform fees and limits already cost you money.
A fourth route is worth mentioning: begin on a hosted platform and add custom pieces around it, such as a custom integration or a bespoke ordering portal for wholesale customers. This hybrid approach often gives the best balance. For growing retailers, our retail software and eCommerce solutions pages describe how we approach it, and eCommerce brands covers the online-first side.
Common mistakes
- Choosing on price alone. The cheapest plan can be the most expensive path.
- Over-customising a hosted store with many apps until it is slow and costly.
- Neglecting maintenance on an open source store. Out-of-date plugins are a leading cause of hacked shops.
- Building custom too early. Prove demand first, as we explain in what is an MVP.
- Ignoring migration. Plan redirects and data cleaning if you move later.
- Forgetting the operations side. Stock, shipping and customer service matter as much as the storefront.
Final thoughts
There is no universally best eCommerce platform. Hosted stores win on speed and simplicity, WooCommerce wins on control and content, and custom builds win on fit and long-term flexibility. The right choice is the one that matches your products, your team and your plans for the next few years.
If you are weighing the options, talk to us. We will look at your catalogue, your workflow and your growth plans, and tell you honestly which route we would take, even when that means recommending a platform we do not build on.