How much does an e-commerce website cost?

Our websites are fixed-price, so you know the total before we start: from **£477** for a Starter site, **£1,170** for Growth and **£2,370** for Complete. Care plans start at **£27 a month**, and SEO or a redesign of an existing shop is quoted per project.

How long does it take to build?

Most of our sites go live in **three to six weeks**, depending on how many products you have and how quickly we get your content and images. We agree the timeline with you up front, so there are no surprises.

Is Shopify cheaper than a custom site?

In the first month, usually yes. Over two or three years the gap narrows, because monthly plans, paid apps and transaction fees add up, while a custom build has no per-sale platform cut beyond your payment processor. It comes down to your sales volume and how many apps you'd otherwise need.

Can I move from Shopify to a custom site later?

Yes. Your products, customers and orders can be exported and brought across. Because a custom build means you own your site, domain and data outright, you're never locked in — which is exactly the freedom a hosted platform can't fully give you.

Which is better for SEO?

Both can rank well, but a custom build gives you more control over page speed, structure and technical detail, all of which feed into search. Whichever route you take, good local SEO and clear, genuinely useful content matter more than the platform badge.

Resources / Business

Shopify vs Custom E-commerce: What's Best for You?

By Mohammad Javad Samadi·2 January 2026·6 min read

If you sell online — or you're about to — sooner or later you reach the same fork in the road: Shopify vs custom e-commerce, and what's best for you. It's a genuinely good question, and the honest answer is that it depends on your products, your margins and how much you plan to grow. So let's walk through both options fairly, in plain English, so you can choose with your eyes open.

We build online shops for UK small businesses, so we've watched both approaches succeed and both come unstuck. This isn't a pitch for one side over the other. It's the same conversation we have with clients before a single line of code gets written.

What Shopify gets right

Shopify is a hosted platform, which is a tidy way of saying someone else looks after the plumbing. You pay a monthly fee and the hosting, security, software updates and payment setup are handled for you. For a lot of businesses that trade-off is exactly the right one.

If you're testing a new idea, selling a handful of products, or you simply want the lightest possible setup, Shopify is a sensible, respectable choice. Plenty of thriving UK shops run on it, and there's no shame in starting there while you find your feet.

→You can be up and selling quickly, often within days.

→Hosting, security certificates and PCI payment compliance are taken care of.

→It copes well with sudden spikes in traffic, like a Black Friday rush.

→There's an app store for almost any feature you can think of.

→The monthly cost is predictable and easy to budget for.

Where a custom build pulls ahead

A custom e-commerce site is built around your business rather than the other way round. Instead of bending your shop to fit a template and a stack of monthly apps, the site is shaped to how you actually sell.

That matters most when your products are unusual, your checkout needs to work in a particular way, or you lean on other systems — an EPOS till, a booking calendar, your accountant's software. A custom build can connect to those directly. You also get full control over design, page speed and the technical details that feed into good search rankings, which is harder to fine-tune on a locked-down template.

Say you run a Yorkshire farm shop that also opens a weekend café and sells hampers at Christmas. A custom site can handle stock, table bookings and seasonal bundles in one place, rather than three separate apps bolted awkwardly together.

“The real question isn't which platform is cheaper this month — it's which one still fits when you've doubled your orders.”

The questions that actually decide it

Forget the brand names for a moment. The right answer usually falls out of a few honest questions about your business, not out of a feature list.

If your answers lean towards simple, few products and a tight budget, a hosted platform tends to win. If they lean towards distinct products, connected systems and real growth plans, custom tends to pay you back.

→How many products do you sell, and how often do they change?

→Do you need to connect the shop to a till, booking system or accounting software?

→What are your margins — can you comfortably absorb transaction fees and monthly app subscriptions?

→Do you need full control of your design and checkout, or is a smart template genuinely fine?

→Where do you expect the business to be in two or three years?

The costs people forget to add up

The sticker price is never the whole story on either side. With Shopify, the monthly plan is only the start. Transaction fees can apply if you don't use its own payment system, and the apps that add reviews, subscriptions or product bundles each carry their own monthly charge. They stack up quietly, and you're renting the platform rather than owning it.

A custom build usually costs more up front and needs looking after — that's what a care plan is for. But there's no per-sale platform tax beyond your payment processor, and no app subscriptions creeping onto the bill every month. Over a few years, the sums often look very different from how they look in month one. You can see our fixed prices rather than guess at a moving total.

Shopify vs custom e-commerce: our honest take

Here's where we come down, and we'll not pretend otherwise. If you're a serious local business — a shop, a studio, a maker with a brand that matters and orders you want to grow — a professional build usually earns its keep. You own the site, the domain and your data, so you're never locked in. There's no monthly app creep, and it's yours to shape as the business changes.

That said, we'd tell you plainly if Shopify were the smarter call for where you are right now. Most of our shops go live in three to six weeks, at a fixed price agreed before we start, with 30 days of aftercare and a simple admin panel so you can manage products yourself. If you're not sure which side of the line you're on, a free teardown of your current setup is the quickest way to find out — a short, screen-recorded review with honest, specific advice and no obligation. You can tell us where you're stuck over on the contact page.

Key takeaways

✓Shopify is fast, hosted and low-hassle — ideal for testing an idea or selling a few products.
✓A custom build wins on ownership, connected systems and long-term control as you grow.
✓Add up the real costs: monthly apps and transaction fees on one side, upkeep on the other.
✓The best choice depends on your products, margins and growth plans, not the brand name.