The Decision That Is Hard to Reverse
Migrating ecommerce platforms is one of the most disruptive technical projects a business can undertake — it risks losing SEO rankings, creating customer data issues, and causing extended downtime. Choosing the right platform from the start is worth significant upfront research.
This guide is not about finding the "best" ecommerce platform in the abstract — it is about finding the right one for your specific situation.
The Questions That Drive the Decision
What are you selling?
Physical products, digital downloads, services, subscriptions, and B2B wholesale all have different platform requirements. Shopify handles physical and digital products well and has strong subscription app integrations. WooCommerce is more flexible for unusual product types. Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy are built specifically for digital products and handle tax compliance as Merchant of Record. For services and courses, dedicated platforms like Kajabi or Teachable may serve you better than a general ecommerce platform.
How large is your product catalogue?
A store with 10 products has very different needs from one with 10,000. Shopify handles large catalogues well. WooCommerce can handle very large catalogues but requires good hosting to maintain performance at scale. BigCommerce was built for larger catalogues with features like faceted search and bulk pricing natively included.
How important is design customisation?
Shopify themes are professional but customising beyond the theme's options requires Liquid (Shopify's templating language) and a developer. WooCommerce on WordPress gives you unlimited design flexibility if you have developer access. Squarespace Commerce is the most design-constrained but produces the most consistently beautiful results without customisation.
What are your transaction volume and growth plans?
Shopify charges transaction fees (0.5-2%) unless you use Shopify Payments. On high-volume stores these fees are significant. BigCommerce has no transaction fees. WooCommerce on your own hosting has no platform transaction fees — only payment processor fees. Model out your projected annual revenue and calculate total platform cost including transaction fees before deciding.
Platform Recommendations by Situation
Best for beginners launching their first store: Shopify. Fastest path to a live store, easiest checkout, excellent support, best ecosystem of apps for growing.
Best for WordPress users: WooCommerce. Free, unlimited flexibility, you already know the CMS. Requires good hosting to perform well.
Best for high-volume or B2B: BigCommerce. More built-in features than Shopify, no transaction fees, strong B2B pricing and catalogue management.
Best for digital products and creators: Gumroad (simplest) or Lemon Squeezy (global tax handled as Merchant of Record).
Best for design-led small stores: Squarespace Commerce. Beautiful storefront, limited catalogue size, lower transaction volume.
Total Cost Considerations
Platform subscription fees are just the starting point. Factor in: payment processing fees (typically 1.4-2.9% + fixed fee per transaction), transaction fees if not using the platform's native payment processor, app and plugin subscriptions for features not included in your plan, theme costs, developer costs for customisation, and email marketing, shipping, and accounting tools.
A Shopify Basic plan at £25/month with £100/month in apps and 2% transaction fees on £10,000/month revenue adds up to £325/month in platform costs. Model your real costs before committing.