Shopify vs Custom Website: Which One Do You Need?

Short version: if you're selling a real catalogue of products online and want to move fast, Shopify is a reasonable choice. If you're not, a custom-built site is usually cheaper and better suited to what you actually do.

When Shopify makes sense

Shopify is built for one job: running an online store. If that's genuinely your business — dozens or hundreds of products, ongoing inventory changes, a need for a mature app ecosystem — it's a solid, proven platform. You'll pay a monthly subscription fee on top of whatever your site costs to build, and you'll be somewhat locked into Shopify's way of doing things, but for pure retail, that trade-off is often worth it.

When it doesn't

A lot of small businesses get pushed toward Shopify (or WordPress plus a dozen plugins) by default, even when they don't run a large product catalogue. A restaurant taking table bookings, a tradie taking quote requests, an accountant with a client portal — none of these are "store" problems, and forcing them into store software usually means paying for features you'll never use, plus a recurring subscription for the privilege.

A custom-built website:

• has no ongoing platform subscription fee (you pay for the build, then just domain + hosting)
• is built around what your business actually does — bookings, quotes, forms, client portals — not a retrofit onto e-commerce software
• loads faster, because it's not carrying a general-purpose platform's overhead for features you don't use

Our take

We build both. If you're running a genuine online store, our e-commerce package gets you a full cart and secure payments, starting from $1,800. If you're not — if what you actually need is bookings, quotes, or a portfolio — a custom site for your specific type of business usually costs less and does more of what you actually need, starting from $277 for the simplest sites.

Not sure which one fits? Tell us what your business does and we'll tell you straight — in writing, no sales pitch.