Shopify or a custom online store?

A hosted store, a tested checkout, payment processing, an app ecosystem and someone else responsible for keeping it all running. It is also among the platforms co-developing the Universal Commerce Protocol for AI shopping agents, so stores on it are likely to be supported as that channel develops rather than needing their own integration.

Checkout is the most common one. On all plans you can brand the checkout and customise the thank-you and order-status pages, but apps that change the information, shipping and payment steps are available only on Shopify Plus. If your checkout needs to work differently — quotes, approvals, unusual delivery rules — that matters early.

Payments are another. Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments means third-party transaction fees apply on top of the provider's own. And while you can export products as a CSV file, images are not included, so leaving is possible but takes work.

You can keep Shopify for products, cart and checkout and build your own front end on top. Shopify's Storefront API supplies the commerce data, and Hydrogen is its toolkit for building that front end in a JavaScript framework. This suits brands that need a distinctive experience or content-heavy pages while keeping Shopify's checkout and operations. It also means you maintain a custom application again.

Write down how an order actually flows from browsing to delivery, and mark every step a standard Shopify store cannot do. If the list is empty or apps cover it, start on Shopify. If the list is long and central to how you make money, a custom or headless build is worth pricing. Either way, keep the domain, product data and customer data exportable and in your company's name.