Shopify vs WordPress vs a Custom-Built Website: Which Should a Small Business Choose?

Choose Shopify if selling products online is the core of the business and you want hosting, security patches and a payment-compliant checkout handled for a monthly fee. Choose WordPress if content and editorial flexibility matter most and someone will keep its plugins and themes updated. Choose a custom build when the website has to do something neither platform does well, such as quoting, bookings or a customer portal, or when performance, security and full ownership of the code justify a larger upfront investment.

This guide is for small-business owners in the UK, the US and Canada deciding how to build a new website or replace an old one.

What is each option best for?

Each one suits a different kind of business. None is the right answer for everyone.

• Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform. Every plan includes web hosting and a free SSL certificate (Shopify, accessed Oct 2026), and Shopify runs and updates the platform for you. It suits retailers and product brands that want to sell online, in person and across sales channels from one admin.
• WordPress is open-source software released under the GPLv2 (or later) licence (WordPress.org, accessed Oct 2026). You install it on hosting you choose. It suits content-led businesses, such as service firms, publishers and organisations with several people editing pages. For selling, WooCommerce, which describes itself as "the open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress", is free and reports more than 7 million active installations (WordPress.org plugin directory, accessed Oct 2026).
• A custom build is written for your business on a modern framework chosen for the project. We host custom builds on AWS (Amazon Web Services). It suits businesses whose website is part of how they operate: quoting, booking, client portals, dashboards, or integrations with a CRM or accounts system.

What does each option cost to run?

Look past the headline price. Every option has costs in six categories: subscription, apps and plugins, themes, hosting, maintenance and transaction fees.

Shopify

Subscription. These prices were shown on Shopify's pricing pages for each country between 20 and 23 October 2026. "Yearly" is the monthly equivalent when billed annually. Check at checkout whether VAT, GST/HST or sales tax is added.

• UK (Shopify UK, accessed 23 Oct 2026): Basic £25 a month, or £19 billed yearly. Grow £65, or £49 yearly. Advanced £344, or £259 yearly. Plus starts at £1,800 a month.
• US (Shopify, accessed Oct 2026): Basic $39 a month, or $29 billed yearly. Grow $105, or $89 yearly. Advanced $399, or $359 yearly. Plus starts at $2,300 a month.
• Canada (Shopify Canada, accessed 23 Oct 2026): Basic CA$49 a month, or CA$37 billed yearly. Grow CA$132, or CA$99 yearly. Advanced CA$517, or CA$389 yearly. Plus starts at CA$3,400 a month.

Transaction fees. If you use Shopify Payments, you pay card rates. Online standard rates start at 2% + 25p on Basic in the UK, 2.9% + 30¢ in the US and 2.8% + 30¢ CAD in Canada, and fall on higher plans. If you use a third-party payment provider instead, Shopify adds a fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, on top of that provider's charges (pricing pages above).

Apps. Recurring app subscriptions are added to your Shopify bill, one-time app purchases are invoiced separately, and some third-party apps bill you directly outside Shopify (Shopify Help Center, accessed Oct 2026). Apps are usually where Shopify running costs grow.

Themes. Free themes are developed by Shopify. Paid themes are made by third-party developers, are licensed to a single store, and are a final sale (Shopify Help Center, accessed Oct 2026).

Hosting and maintenance. Hosting is included. Budget for a developer's time for theme changes and app set-up.

WordPress

Subscription. None. The software is free to use under its open-source licence.

Hosting. You pay for this separately. WordPress recommends PHP 8.3 or greater, MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.11 or greater, and HTTPS support (WordPress.org, accessed Oct 2026). When we host WordPress for clients, it runs on AWS.

Themes and plugins. Many are free. Premium ones are sold by third-party developers on their own terms, so check whether the licence must be renewed to keep receiving updates. WooCommerce itself is free, but it "offers additional paid commercial upgrades or support" (WordPress.org).

Transaction fees. WooCommerce itself is free, so the main cost per sale is your payment provider's charges.

Maintenance. This is the cost most often missed: updates, testing after updates, backups and security monitoring, every month.

A custom build

Subscription. None to a website platform.

Hosting. You pay for the cloud resources the site uses on AWS, typically with Amazon CloudFront as the content delivery network.

Apps, plugins and themes. None in the marketplace sense. Features are built rather than bought, which is why the upfront cost is higher.

Transaction fees. Only your payment provider's charges.

Maintenance. A support agreement for security updates, monitoring and small changes.

For typical build costs in each country, see our guide to website and app development costs in the UK, US and Canada.

Who owns the website, and how locked in are you?

You own your content and customer data on all three. What differs is how easily the rest moves.

• Shopify. You can export products, customers, inventory, and admin and POS users as CSV files. Orders and discounts can be exported but not imported (Shopify Help Center, accessed Oct 2026). Shopify themes use Liquid, Shopify's template language, to generate the store's pages (Shopify.dev, accessed Oct 2026). The design and any app features would need rebuilding if you moved platforms.
• WordPress. The GPL licence means you can take your files and database to any host that meets the requirements. Premium plugin and theme licences belong to their vendors' terms.
• Custom. Ownership depends on your contract. Ask for a written assignment of copyright in the code, the code in a repository your business controls, and the AWS account in your company's name.

How do security and updates compare?

Each platform divides the responsibility differently. Knowing where your share starts is what matters.

Shopify states: "Shopify is certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant", and that "this compliance extends by default to all stores powered by Shopify" (Shopify, accessed Oct 2026). Shopify patches the platform itself. Your share is staff accounts and permissions, and the apps you install: some apps "inject code directly into your theme's code" (Shopify Help Center, accessed Oct 2026), so install only what you need and remove what you stop using.

WordPress puts more of the work on the site owner. Its hardening guide warns that "older versions of WordPress are not maintained with security updates", and advises keeping plugins updated, deleting unused ones, installing them only from trusted sources, and backing up regularly (WordPress Developer Resources, updated 14 Oct 2026). Minor core updates install automatically by default, but plugins and themes generally do not update automatically unless that is turned on (WordPress Developer Resources, accessed Oct 2026). A well-maintained WordPress site can be very secure. A neglected one is a risk.

A custom build on AWS follows AWS's shared responsibility model: "AWS is responsible for protecting the infrastructure that runs all of the services offered in the AWS Cloud", while what the customer must secure depends on the services they choose (AWS, accessed Oct 2026). There is no plugin marketplace to monitor, but your developer is responsible for every line of the application, so a support agreement is part of the cost.

What data protection law expects

Whichever you choose, the legal duty to protect customer data stays with your business.

• UK. UK GDPR requires "appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk". The ICO recommends encryption for personal data stored or sent over the internet. Any supplier that processes personal data for you must give "sufficient guarantees" about its security, under a written contract (ICO, accessed Oct 2026; ICO contracts guidance). That can include your platform, host and app developers.
• Canada. PIPEDA requires safeguards appropriate to how sensitive the information is, including up-to-date tools such as "passwords, encryption, firewalls and security patches" (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, accessed Oct 2026).
• US. A growing number of states, including California, have their own consumer privacy laws with different thresholds (IAPP state tracker, updated 8 Sep 2026).

A custom build also lets you choose where data is stored. AWS has regions in London, Canada (Central) and Calgary, as well as in the US (AWS, accessed Oct 2026).

This is general information, not legal advice.

Which is best for SEO?

None of them ranks better simply by being chosen. Google says, "There are no secrets here that'll automatically rank your site first," and notes that most content management systems turn the titles you write into <title> elements, and some create sitemaps automatically (Google Search Central, updated 10 Dec 2025).

What matters is whether you can control the essentials on every page: titles, meta descriptions, headings, URLs, image alt text, structured data and redirects. Shopify and WordPress both provide these, sometimes through apps or plugins. A custom build provides whatever is specified, so put SEO controls in the brief. Make sure pages are rendered on the server or pre-rendered: Google says this "is still a great idea because it makes your website faster for users and crawlers", and "not all bots can run JavaScript" (Google Search Central, updated 4 Mar 2026).

Which is fastest?

Speed depends more on how a site is built than on the platform's name. On Shopify, the theme and the number of apps decide most of it. On WordPress, the theme, plugins and hosting do. A custom build can be the fastest of the three, because nothing is loaded that the page does not need, but only if the developer sets a performance budget and keeps to it.

Whichever you choose, judge it on Google's Core Web Vitals, measured from real visitors on mobile, rather than on a supplier's demo. We serve custom builds through Amazon CloudFront, which delivers content from more than 750 points of presence worldwide (AWS, accessed Oct 2026).

Who maintains it?

• Shopify: Shopify maintains the platform. Your team runs products, orders and content. A developer handles theme changes and app set-up, and the theme developer supports and updates a paid theme.
• WordPress: someone must apply and test updates, keep backups and watch for security problems every month. That can be you, your developer or a maintenance plan, but it must be someone.
• Custom: your developer, under a written support agreement covering security updates, monitoring, response times and documentation, so another team could take over if needed.

When is a custom build worth it?

When the website is part of how the business operates, not just how it presents itself. Typical signs:

• Customers need accounts, quotes, bookings or dashboards that off-the-shelf plugins handle awkwardly.
• The site has to exchange data with your CRM, accounts, stock or scheduling systems.
• Different users need different permissions, such as staff, clients and suppliers.
• You handle sensitive personal data and want control over where it is stored and who can access it.
• Plugin or app costs, and the conflicts between them, have grown to the point where building is the better long-term option.

Build Hive is an example from the UK: a custom construction procurement and project management platform for UK builders, with quotes, purchase orders, a supplier portal and role-based access for admins, managers, workers and suppliers (case study). That kind of workflow would be hard to assemble from plugins. A five-page brochure site for a local trade, on the other hand, rarely needs a custom build. Our full-stack development page covers how we approach builds like this.

A decision checklist

Work through these in order. The first few answers usually decide it.

1. Write down what the site must do, beyond showing information: sell, book, quote, log in, integrate.
2. If it is mainly an online shop with standard checkout needs, start with Shopify, and price the apps you would need before committing.
3. If it is mainly content with many pages, articles and editors, consider WordPress, and decide now who will maintain it every month.
4. If two or more must-haves need heavy customisation on either platform, get a quote for a custom build.
5. Add up three years of costs for each option: subscription, apps or plugins, themes, hosting, transaction fees and maintenance.
6. Check ownership: what you can export, who holds the accounts, and who owns the code and design.
7. Check data protection: where customer data is stored, which suppliers process it, and whether you have contracts with each.
8. Ask for proof of speed: live sites your supplier has built on the same platform, tested in PageSpeed Insights on mobile.
9. Agree maintenance in writing before launch: who updates what, how often, and how quickly security issues are handled.

Frequently asked questions

Is WordPress really free?

The software is free under the GPL licence. Hosting, premium themes and plugins, and ongoing maintenance are not, and maintenance is the cost most often overlooked.

Does Shopify charge transaction fees?

If you use Shopify Payments, you pay card rates that fall on higher plans. If you use a third-party payment provider, Shopify adds a fee of 2% on Basic, down to 0.2% on Plus, on top of that provider's charges.

Can I move from WordPress to Shopify, or the other way, later?

Yes, but not everything moves. Shopify's guide to migrating from WooCommerce says products, customers and fulfilled order history can be moved, but reviews cannot be exported directly (Shopify Help Center, accessed Oct 2026). The design and any app or plugin features have to be rebuilt. Plan redirects from old URLs to protect search rankings.

Is a custom website more secure than Shopify or WordPress?

Not automatically. It removes plugin and app risk, but security then depends on how well it is built and maintained. On AWS, Amazon secures the infrastructure and your developer secures the application.

Which platform is best for SEO?

All three can rank well. What matters is control over titles, descriptions, URLs, structured data and redirects, plus fast pages and useful content.

When is Shopify Plus worth considering?

When you need what the plan adds, such as unlimited staff accounts, a fully customisable checkout or B2B catalogues (Shopify, accessed Oct 2026), and your sales volume justifies a price that starts in the thousands each month.

About the author

Arjun Raj is the founder of Digital Architect, a web, app and digital marketing studio founded in 2023. It is headquartered in LB Nagar, Hyderabad, with a studio in Bengaluru, and delivers for clients across India, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, including Build Hive, a construction platform for UK builders. Arjun holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering, specialising in cybersecurity, from IIT Guwahati. More about Arjun

Not sure which way to go? Tell us what your website needs to do and who maintains it today, and we will tell you which option we would choose and why. Talk to Digital Architect.