Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop or a custom shop: which to choose?

Most independent shops in the UK and France end up on one of four routes: Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop or a shop built to measure. They differ in who looks after the servers, how the costs arrive, how far you can change things and how easy it is to leave later.

This guide compares them for an owner who sells physical products, often in more than one country. It gives no prices, because they change and depend on your shop. It explains what drives the cost instead.

The four options in brief

Shopify is a hosted platform. You rent the shop as a service: Shopify runs the servers, the security updates and the checkout, and you manage products, orders and design from its dashboard. Extra features come from apps in its app store.

WooCommerce is a free, open-source extension for WordPress. You or your provider host it, keep it updated and add features with plugins. Our guide on WordPress or a custom build covers the WordPress side.

PrestaShop is open-source shop software that started in France and is widely known among French merchants and agencies. Like WooCommerce, it is self-hosted and gets its features from modules, but it is a shop system in its own right, not an add-on to a website platform.

A custom shop is built for your catalogue and your rules, with a payment provider connected to it. Nothing is there by default: every feature is a decision, and every decision is built and then maintained.

Who runs it and how the costs arrive

With Shopify, hosting, security patches and keeping the checkout online are the platform's job. With WooCommerce and PrestaShop, they are yours or your provider's: the server, the backups, the updates and the security of every add-on you install. A custom shop runs on hosting you choose, maintained by whoever built it or by your own team. Our guide to website hosting explains what that work involves.

• Hosted platform: a recurring subscription, payment processing fees on each sale, and paid apps that are often billed every month.
• Open source: the software is free, but you pay for hosting, premium extensions or modules (often as yearly licences) and someone's time to keep it all updated.
• Custom: a larger build at the start, then hosting and maintenance. There is no platform fee, but the payment provider still charges on every sale.

On any route, the cost of the build depends on the size and shape of the catalogue, variants and options, the number of languages and markets, the payment and delivery rules, any import from another system, and whether photographs and product text are ready.

Add-ons, payments and selling across borders

Apps and extensions

The three packaged platforms have large catalogues of add-ons. Each one is code you did not write: it can slow pages down, conflict with another add-on or change its terms. List the add-ons your shop would need before you choose. If the list is long, the platform may not fit your business.

Loyalty programmes and price comparison sites

Loyalty points, product reviews and gift cards usually come as add-ons on Shopify, PrestaShop and WooCommerce; a custom shop builds them in. Price comparison sites and Google Shopping can bring buyers who compare offers before they buy. They read a product feed: a file of your products, prices and stock that the shop exports. Check that the platform can export a feed in the format each site asks for, and that prices and stock in the feed stay up to date.

Payment methods

UK customers expect cards and phone wallets, and PayPal keeps loyal buyers on both sides of the Channel. In France, most cards carry the national carte bancaire scheme, and French shoppers expect to see it at checkout; some also look for payment in instalments on larger orders. Check that yours supports the methods your customers use in each country, and what it charges for each.

VAT and currencies for the UK and the EU

The UK and the EU run separate VAT systems. Selling from one into the other can raise questions about VAT registration, customs and duties, and consumer prices are shown including VAT in both. The right rules depend on your business, so get them from your accountant before the shop is configured; this guide is not tax advice.

On the platform side, check that it can show prices in pounds and euros, apply the correct VAT treatment for each destination and produce matching invoices. Hosted platforms tend to offer several currencies through their own payment service. Open-source platforms usually add it through extensions. A custom shop builds it to your rules.

Running the shop day to day

Stock, shipping and returns

Every option tracks stock. The differences appear when stock also lives somewhere else: a warehouse, a supplier feed, accounting software or a till in a physical shop. Shipping rules (zones, weights, carriers) need the same attention. Customers in the UK and the EU have a legal right to cancel most online purchases, so the returns policy should be clear before checkout, not discovered after.

Catalogue size

A small catalogue works on any of the four. Differences show with large ranges, many variants, products the customer configures (a price calculated from dimensions, for example) or trade price lists. Hosted platforms limit how a product and its variants can be structured. A custom shop is the route when your product logic does not fit a standard product model.

Multiple languages

PrestaShop includes languages in its core. WooCommerce needs a multilingual plugin. Shopify uses its own settings and translation apps. A custom shop builds language into its structure from the start. Our guide to a multilingual website goes further.

Data, migration and design freedom

Every platform lets you export the core data, but what comes out differs. On Shopify you can export products, customers and orders, but the theme and app settings stay behind. With WooCommerce and PrestaShop, the full database and files sit on your hosting. With a custom shop you hold the database; check that the contract says who owns the code. On every route, you remain responsible for your customers' personal data under UK GDPR and the EU GDPR.

Changing platform later is possible but rarely clean. Product addresses change and need redirects to keep search visibility, customers often have to reset their passwords, and order history may arrive in a simpler form. If you expect to outgrow a platform, plan the exit before you enter.

On design, Shopify themes allow wide changes, but the platform controls much of the checkout. WooCommerce and PrestaShop give access to the theme code, within the structure of the platform and its plugins. A custom shop allows full freedom, checkout included, at the cost of building it.

A short decision checklist

• Who will update the shop each week, and which tools do they already use?
• Would you rather pay a platform to run servers and updates, or have someone do it on your own hosting?
• How many products, variants and options, and does any price depend on the customer's choices?
• Which countries, currencies and languages at launch, and which next?
• Which payment methods do your customers expect in each country?
• Where does stock live today, and what must the shop connect to?
• If you leave in a few years, what must you be able to take with you?

As a rough guide: Shopify suits owners who want no servers to think about and a standard catalogue. WooCommerce suits teams already working in WordPress. PrestaShop suits a French-facing shop with a team or provider who knows it. A custom shop suits catalogues and rules that a standard platform cannot model.

How DMC Kreatif handles it

We build on WooCommerce where the team already manages products that way, and a custom storefront where the catalogue or the rules demand it. The quote gives the reason for the choice.

Payment methods, tax display and delivery options are configured for each market, in its language, using the rules your business supplies. Every shop is tested through a complete order, on a phone first. Active clients keep a direct line for changes, new products and critical support. More detail is on our e-commerce service page.

Within 48 h you get a concrete approach, a realistic timeline and a clear quote. Describe your range and your markets on the quote page.