Shopify
E-Commerce Platforms
Shopify removes server maintenance, security patching and checkout reliability from your to-do list. It is not cheaper than a self-hosted stack in licence terms — the saving is the engineering time you no longer spend.
Strengths
- No server maintenance, patching or checkout reliability work
- Large app ecosystem covers most feature gaps
- Built-in POS for physical retail
- Handles traffic spikes without capacity planning
Trade-offs
- Ongoing subscription is a real cost, not a saving on its own
- Transaction fees apply when not using Shopify Payments
- Deeper checkout customisation needs higher tiers
- Compare against your own hosting and maintenance cost, not against zero