Shopify vs. Custom Platform

Commerce just works on Shopify

You built your custom platform because it was the right choice at the time. Switching to Shopify is the right one today.

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Join the movement from custom to innovation

Thousands of brands are trading custom solutions for faster innovation on Shopify.

Faster innovation

Do more impactful work on Shopify

Commerce moves fast, which makes it really tough to keep up with the competition on your own. People switch to Shopify from custom platforms because we have thousands of engineers building and shipping new features that solve the most complex challenges in commerce—freeing you up to focus on growth, instead of playing catch up.

Shopify Editions

800 significant features and improvements released by Shopify since 2021.

Watch our 2024 Summer Edition

Commerce focus

Strong commerce focus, even stronger features

At Shopify, we put our money where our mouth is. In 2023 alone, Shopify invested $1.7 billion into R&D, all of which was earmarked for continuous development of our products. On a custom platform, a simple update may cost tens of thousands of dollars to build, take months to implement—and there’s no guarantee it’ll even work.

The world of ecommerce moves very fast. With our custom proprietary technology, we weren't able to keep up with that same pace.
Mark Nagelmann — Director of Web Operations, LullRead case study

Revenue acceleration

Shopify accelerates revenue growth

Shopify gives you a comprehensive suite of first-party tools that work seamlessly across the platform and allow you to automate repetitive tasks, improve conversion, and increase return on ad spend (ROAS). Integrating just one third-party application into your custom platform may require hours of upfront work, not to mention ongoing maintenance to ensure it stays compatible.

36%

Shopify’s overall conversion rate outpaces the competition by up to 36%.*

50%

lower customer acquisition costs with hyper-targeted ad campaigns on Shopify Audiences.**

15%

higher average order value on Shop Pay than orders processed with another checkout method.***

*According to research commissioned by Shopify and conducted by a leading independent consulting firm to study TCO across major platforms in North America.

**Ad campaigns using the latest version of Shopify Audiences Retargeting Boost lists have seen as much as 2 times more orders for every marketing dollar spent on retargeting. This finding is compared to the next-best available tactic. Learn more.

***We determined this by comparing based on the comparison of average order values between transactions processed via Shop Pay and those processed via other checkout methods in Q1 2023. Learn more.

A big focus for us is frictionless commerce. A large part of that is how quickly and easily customers can checkout and the experience tracking their order post-purchase. You get out of it what you put into it, so we’re taking full advantage of the Shopify Payments ecosystem and we see that in the customer experience and results.
Stephen Pinto — Director of Products, Ecommerce, Dr. SquatchRead case study

Revenue expansion

Reach new customers with Shopify

We’re constantly improving Shopify’s platform to unlock new revenue streams, channel partnerships, and international expansion for brands worldwide. This allows you to drive even more value than you could with a custom platform where brands are forced to build these channels from scratch—risking disjointed experiences for buyers and internal users alike.

Unified commerce

Shopify’s expansive solutions across B2C, B2B, and retail are built on the same infrastructure.

Social channels

Strategic partnerships with Google, Meta, Pinterest, Amazon, and TikTok fuel seamless product discovery and fast checkouts directly on social platforms.

Internationalization tools

Easily expand to more than 150 countries with International Sales Tools and Shared Markets to provide localized shopping experiences.

Sales channels

Reach new, highly engaged customers to drive growth and create more opportunities for conversion with proprietary tools like the Shop app (with its more than 150 million users) and Shopify Collabs.

47%

Increase in online transactions for Pinalli after migrating to shopify

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7

Retail stores launched in just 18 months for Oz Hair and Beauty after migrating to Shopify

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Less maintenance, more value

Innovate without the technical debt

Shopify’s technical infrastructure, updates, and security free your teams up from time-consuming maintenance work—so you can work on projects that have a greater impact on growth.

Improve security

Managing your security posture is all risk, no reward

At Shopify, we proactively make meaningful changes to our infrastructure to reduce the burden on brands. Shopify covers all the boring and tedious work your teams don’t want to do, enabling compliance with frameworks like PCI for secure payments, SSL encryption, and SOC for retailers. With a custom platform, a single regulatory change in just one location can derail innovation and send your teams scrambling to secure everything.

Shopify offers an integral platform that is secure. We don't have to worry about things like privacy, security, and we can focus more on what matters to our business, like content management, marketing, and product development.
Mark Nagelmann — Director of Web Operations, LullRead case study

PCI Compliance

Shopify provides PCI compliance for all built-in features, which allows brands to securely process payments without the hassle of independent code compliance and auditing required by competitors.

SOC Compliance

Shopify is SOC 1, 2, and 3 compliant, providing a secure environment for retailers, while other enterprise offerings require costly development to achieve the same level of security.

SSL Encryption

Shopify includes SSL encryption for all online stores, safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring secure communication between customers and the website.

Fraud prevention

Shopify’s built-in fraud analysis tools integrate with leading fraud detection services to help brands identify and prevent fraudulent activities.

Data protection

Brands enjoy robust data protection and security measures like encryption, firewalls, and audits, consent management via the Shopify Privacy & Compliance app.

Learn more about Shopify’s PCI and SOC reports here.

Improve business continuity

Shopify future-proofs your tech stack

Building a custom commerce solution requires a team of developers that has a deep knowledge of the intricacies of your tech stack. When even one developer leaves a company, they take valuable knowledge with them, making it more difficult for those who stay to maintain, troubleshoot, and innovate. But because Shopify relies on popular development frameworks—and is always backed by our best-in-class strategic support teams—it's easier for businesses to share knowledge, collaborate more effectively, and build faster.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Reduce ongoing costs with Shopify

According to research commissioned by Shopify and conducted by a leading independent consulting firm, our TCO is up to 36% better than the competition*. Choosing Shopify doesn’t just save costs—it eliminates entire cost categories, like compliance, hosting, and security, while also providing an extensive app and partner ecosystem. By comparison, building and maintaining a custom tech stack is time consuming—and often requires more development resources and manpower than you might expect.

Shopify's TCO is up to 36% better than the competition

Use our TCO Calculator to see how much you could save when you switch to Shopify.

Calculate your TCO

Graph highlighting how Shopify's total cost of ownership (TCO) is 36% better than the competition

*This research was commissioned by Shopify to study TCO across major platforms in North America.

Man standing next to a mattress manufactured by lull at the company's office

25%

Lower infrastructure and software costs for Lull after migrating to Shopify.

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Men's haircare and shaving products from dollar shave club, including razor, shave butter, and facial scrubs

40%

Lower tech maintenance resources for Dollar Shave Club after switching to Shopify.

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Seamless migration

Shopify simplifies the migration process

Migrating from a custom platform can feel daunting. Shopify simplifies migrations with our intuitive UI, which can be supplemented with a powerful suite of data migration tools and best-in-class professional services team. We also have a simpler fee structure and an extensive network of partners ready to help with planning and implementation to ensure a smooth transition from your custom platform.

37%

A new Shopify storefront can be implemented 37% faster than with the average competitor.*

*This research was commissioned by Shopify to study TCO across major platforms in North America.

Not ready for a complete migration? Add the world’s best converting checkout to your existing platform with the Shop Pay Component.

Learn more

Improved checkout conversion

Get to revenue faster with Shopify

Shopify invests significant resources to fine tune our checkout—and now we have real data that shows it’s the world’s best-converting. A study completed in April 2023 with a Big Three global management consulting company found that Shopify’s overall conversion rate outpaces the competition by up to 36%. The same study found that Shop Pay can boost conversion by as much as 50% compared to a guest checkout.

Having the rock solid foundation of the Shopify checkout was a huge deal for us because checkouts are really hard to get right if you don't have a team that's dedicated to stability and handling all the edge cases that happen.
David House — Principal Engineer, ButcherBoxRead case study

person holding barbell in a gym, wearing a pair of nobull sneakers

92%

lift in conversion for NOBULL after switching to Shopify.

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Increased agility

Get more done with Shopify

With Shopify, business users get autonomy back through our intuitive back-office UI. This allows them to get meaningful work done and drive value—without asking developers to make every change. Custom tech stacks put business users across your company at the mercy of a development backlog. Simple tasks like creating products and building promotions often take a backseat to engineering’s critical, yet time-consuming maintenance tasks.

Our website [experience] is absolutely seamless. It is easy for the customer. It was easy for us to make. It is easy for us to make changes on the website.… We just go in and make a huge difference. We’ve seen crazy revenue jumps. The power of Shopify.
John Modi — Chief Imagination Officer, MakerFloRead case study

Platform flexibility

The possibilities are endless on Shopify

Shopify is as customizable as you want it to be—by anyone who wants to innovate. Our ecosystem includes over 10,000 easy-to-install applications and pre-built integrations, each vetted by a 100-checkpoint review before it hits the Shopify App Store. Instead of adding feature requests to engineering's long backlog, business owners can test new promotions and customer acquisition channels on Shopify with just a few clicks.

We felt confident that Shopify’s ecosystem would be able to support our changing needs through changing market trends, industry shifts, and evolving consumer behaviors.
Kyle Iwamoto — Vice President of Ecommerce, Dollar Shave ClubRead case study

Development flexibility

Build the way you want to build

Shopify encourages you to use the tech stack that makes sense for your business. Engineers can easily swap Shopify-native capabilities for the third-party back-end systems or software you prefer or already use. Use our full platform or explore a headless or modular solution with Storefront API and Hydrogen + Oxygen, Shopify’s official development stack for headless commerce.

Shopify also makes it easy to customize or extend the platform with powerful REST and GraphQL APIs, custom apps, Shopify Functions, Metafields, and Flow—which all integrate into the Shopify admin.

Migrating from a complex, homegrown tech stack to a confined platform was frightening. Would our unique identity fit into the confines of the Shopify infrastructure? The answer: Yes.
Mark Nagelmann — Director of Web Operations, LullRead case study

Checkout flexibility

Make the world’s highest-converting checkout your own

The best checkout experiences are incredibly difficult to build. With abandoned cart rates hovering over 70%, it’s never been more important to get it right. Shopify Checkout gives you the highest-converting checkout experience in commerce out of the box. Plus, it’s customizable.

Customize the front end with the GraphQL Branding API and extend checkout functionality with Checkout UI, post-purchase, and discount extensions—all powered by UI components and APIs that run in a secure sandbox environment.

Shopify converts up to 36% better than the competition

Analyst validation

The experts choose Shopify

2023 Leader in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™

70%

Shopify’s market share from the top 800 global DTC brands, according to 2PM.

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83%

Number of rising apparel brands on Shopify, according to 2PM.

Read it on 2PM

Forrester

Shopify achieves highest possible scores in The 2024 Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions for B2C

Shopify received the highest scores possible across 12 criteria, including Cart and Checkout, Payments, Innovation, and more. Get the report to dive into the Shopify strengths that led to our high designation.

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Forrester

Shopify named Leader in The 2024 Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions for B2B

Our commitment to delivering powerful solutions for B2B has paid off. Read the full report to learn more about why Shopify earned the Leader designation, including the highest possible scores in Innovation, Market Presence, Partner Ecosystem, and more.

Get the report

IDC

IDC names Shopify a Leader due to rapid stand-up time, reduced standup time, and more

Shopify is a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide B2C Digital Commerce Platforms for Midmarket Growth 2024 Vendor Assessment. From our proven DTC track record and low TCO to built-in payments and vast third-party ecosystem, IDC reports that “Shopify will be particularly attractive to buyers looking for a multitenant SaaS digital commerce platform.”

Read the report

Gartner® Magic Quadrant™

Shopify is once again a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™

Shopify continues our tradition of excellence and innovation in commerce, being named a Leader for the 2nd consecutive year in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™.

Read the report

Migration partners

Migrate with support from the world’s largest commerce partner ecosystem

Ready to make the leap from your custom platform to Shopify? Our global ecosystem of Shopify Partners has the expertise you need to navigate even the most complex migration challenges.

10,000+

App and technology partners

100+

Shopify Plus Certified App Partners

Featured migration partners

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