Shopify Development for managed storefront delivery.

When you want hosted reliability, PCI compliance and a proven checkout without operating any of it, and your catalogue fits its model. WooCommerce suits content-led stores already on WordPress that need deeper customisation. The honest trade is control and cost predictability against operational burden.

Within defined limits, and those limits changed with checkout extensibility replacing the old script-based approach. Extensions can add fields, validation and content at supported points. Wholesale checkout rewrites are only available on Plus, and anything relying on the legacy scripts needs migrating rather than assuming it still works.

Buy where a well-maintained app genuinely covers the requirement — the app market is one of the main reasons to be on Shopify. Build when the requirement is specific to your operation, when app subscriptions stack up beyond the cost of building, or when several apps overlap and each adds storefront weight.

Almost always apps. Each installed app can inject scripts that load on every page, and a store carrying a dozen of them accumulates real weight regardless of theme quality. Audit what each app actually loads, remove ones no longer used, and check whether the theme is loading assets it never renders.

Products, variants, customers, order history, content and URLs, plus a redirect map for every changed address. The parts routinely underestimated are variant restructuring where the source models options differently, and replacing functionality that plugins provided on the old platform. Order history migration in particular needs deciding early — full, partial or archive-only.

Not inherently, but Shopify imposes its own URL structure — /products/, /collections/ — so almost every URL changes and a complete redirect map is mandatory. Collection pagination and duplicate product paths across collections also need canonical handling. The risk is entirely in the migration execution, not the platform.

Native B2B features exist on Plus, with company accounts, price lists and payment terms. On lower plans it is app-dependent and the gaps show quickly with complex tax rules, per-customer catalogues or approval workflows. Establish which specific B2B behaviours you need before choosing the plan, not after.

The plan, transaction fees where you are not using Shopify Payments, app subscriptions, and theme or development work. App costs are the most commonly underestimated — a store running eight to ten apps often pays more monthly in subscriptions than in platform fees. Model all four across a year before comparing platforms.