Shopify or a custom store?

Does going custom save on card fees?

Not by enough to matter, because someone still processes the card. On a $100 sale with a standard card, Shopify Payments on the Grow plan takes $3.00 (2.7% + 30¢). Stripe's standard rate on a custom store takes $3.20 (2.9% + 30¢).

A premium card turns that around: Shopify's rate on Grow rises to 3.3% + 30¢, or $3.60, so Stripe comes out 40¢ ahead. At that gap, every $1,000 a custom build costs needs $250,000 of premium-card sales to pay for itself.

The fee custom does remove is Shopify's extra charge for using another payment provider: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. That's only worth counting if you have a reason to avoid Shopify Payments.

When should I stay on Shopify?

• You sell products through a normal cart and checkout.
• Your team needs to run the store day to day without a developer.
• You've got a problem with how the store looks or how fast it is. A better theme fixes that for far less than a rebuild.

When does custom win?

• The sale isn't a cart. OnsiteOil books a service against a customer's vehicle and keeps the jobs and history in a CRM behind it. That's software with a checkout, not a store.
• The account is the product. AmmoIQ is a calculator and saved loadouts behind a Stripe-backed account, so the app and the billing are one thing.
• You're paying for Plus anyway. At $82,800 or more over three years, a custom build can be the cheaper way to get what you need. It isn't automatic, because the build and every month of upkeep both count, so run your own sums first.

What's the catch with custom?

You own the upkeep. Security fixes, tax rules, and every feature Shopify's app store would have handed you become work someone has to do and pay for, every month the store runs. Count that beside the build when you compare it with what Shopify would cost you. See how long a build takes before you plan around one.