Vlastní e-commerce vs Shopify: Kalkulace operátora
Shopify processes $236 billion in annual GMV. It's the default choice for anyone starting an online store, and for good reason — you can go from nothing to a functional store in a weekend. Payments, shipping, inventory, and a checkout flow that converts at 5.2% (the highest in the industry) are all included.
The calculus changes as you scale. At $100,000/year in revenue, Shopify's fees and app costs are negligible. At $1,000,000/year, you're paying Shopify $20,000+ in transaction fees alone. At $10,000,000, the total platform cost (fees, apps, Plus subscription) can exceed $200,000/year — enough to fund a dedicated engineering team building and maintaining a custom solution.
The question isn't which is better. It's at what point the tradeoff flips.
The Shopify Value Proposition
Shopify genuinely excels at three things:
Speed to market. A functional e-commerce store with product listings, payment processing, shipping calculations, and a mobile-optimized checkout can be live in 1-3 days. No developer required. The theme ecosystem provides professional designs. The admin panel is intuitive enough for non-technical operators. For validating a product-market fit, nothing is faster.
Checkout conversion. Shopify's checkout is the result of millions of A/B tests across 236 billion dollars of transactions. Shop Pay (accelerated checkout) converts 1.72x better than standard checkout. One-click purchasing, saved payment methods, and optimized form flows are included. Building a checkout flow this optimized from scratch would cost hundreds of thousands in development and testing.
The app ecosystem. 13,000+ apps cover every e-commerce feature imaginable — email marketing, reviews, subscriptions, loyalty programs, returns management, and wholesale pricing. Most cost $10-50/month each. For a business that needs five specialized features, the app ecosystem provides them at $50-250/month total, versus $50,000-200,000 in custom development.
These advantages are real and substantial. Shopify isn't overrated for businesses in their first 1-3 years of e-commerce.
The Shopify Cost Curve
Shopify's pricing is designed to feel cheap at launch and become expensive at scale. Here's the real math:
Basic plan ($39/month): 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (using Shopify Payments). On $100,000 annual revenue, that's $3,230 in transaction fees plus $468 in subscription costs. Total: ~$3,700/year.
Shopify plan ($105/month): 2.6% + $0.30 per transaction. On $500,000 annual revenue: $13,500 in fees + $1,260 subscription = ~$14,760/year.
Advanced plan ($399/month): 2.4% + $0.30 per transaction. On $1,000,000 annual revenue: $24,600 in fees + $4,788 subscription = ~$29,388/year.
Shopify Plus ($2,300/month): 2.15% + $0.30 per transaction (negotiable). On $5,000,000 annual revenue: $110,000+ in fees + $27,600 subscription = ~$137,600/year.
Now add apps. The average Shopify store runs 6-8 paid apps. At a conservative $30/month average:
| Annual Revenue | Shopify Fees | Apps (~$250/mo) | Theme/Dev | Total Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | $3,700 | $3,000 | $500 | $7,200 |
| $500,000 | $14,760 | $3,000 | $2,000 | $19,760 |
| $1,000,000 | $29,388 | $3,000 | $5,000 | $37,388 |
| $5,000,000 | $137,600 | $6,000 | $15,000 | $158,600 |
| $10,000,000 | $222,600 | $12,000 | $25,000 | $259,600 |
The cost curve is not linear — it's exponential relative to revenue. At $10M GMV, you're paying Shopify over a quarter million dollars per year. For that budget, you could hire two full-time engineers and host your own platform with significantly lower transaction fees (Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30, but negotiable to 2.2% at volume).
The hidden cost is customization friction. When Shopify's standard flow doesn't match your business logic — custom pricing rules, B2B wholesale portals, complex product configurations, multi-warehouse fulfillment — you're either buying expensive apps, hiring Shopify developers at $150-300/hour, or hacking Liquid templates in ways that break on the next platform update.
Custom E-commerce Architecture
Modern headless e-commerce platforms provide the backend infrastructure (products, carts, checkout, payments, orders) as an API, letting you build whatever frontend experience you want.
Medusa.js is open-source, self-hosted, and Node.js-based. It provides all core e-commerce functionality out of the box: products, carts, orders, payments (Stripe, PayPal), fulfillment, discounts, and a robust plugin system. Hosting a Medusa backend costs $20-50/month on a VPS. Transaction fees are only what your payment processor charges (Stripe: 2.9%, negotiable). No platform fees.
Saleor is Python/GraphQL-based and open-source. It's more opinionated about its stack (Django, PostgreSQL, GraphQL) and has a polished dashboard. Good for teams with Python experience. Self-hosted or Saleor Cloud ($200-2,000/month).
Shopify Hydrogen is Shopify's own headless solution — you use Shopify's backend but build a custom React/Remix frontend. You keep Shopify's checkout, payments, and admin while getting full frontend control. The pricing is Shopify Plus ($2,300+/month) plus Hydrogen hosting.
The custom TCO comparison at scale:
| Annual Revenue | Shopify Cost | Medusa (Self-hosted) | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $19,760 | $8,600 (hosting + Stripe fees) | $11,160 |
| $1,000,000 | $37,388 | $12,500 | $24,888 |
| $5,000,000 | $158,600 | $38,000 | $120,600 |
| $10,000,000 | $259,600 | $65,000 | $194,600 |
Custom e-commerce costs include: hosting ($50-200/month), payment processing (Stripe 2.5-2.9%), development maintenance ($2,000-5,000/month), and infrastructure (monitoring, backups, security). The initial build cost is $30,000-100,000 depending on complexity — which is typically recouped within 12-18 months at $1M+ revenue.
The Decision Framework
Score your business on these criteria:
| Factor | Shopify Wins If | Custom Wins If |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Under $500K/year | Over $1M/year |
| Time to launch | Need to be live in weeks | Can invest 3-6 months |
| Team | No developers | 1+ developers on staff |
| Customization | Standard retail flow | Complex business logic |
| Integrations | Standard tools (Klaviyo, etc.) | Custom ERP, warehouse, CRM |
| Multi-channel | Shopify POS + online | Complex B2B + B2C hybrid |
| Checkout | Standard consumer checkout | Custom checkout flow needed |
Choose Shopify if: Revenue under $500K, non-technical team, standard retail business, need to launch fast. Shopify is the right tool — don't over-engineer.
Choose custom if: Revenue over $1M with growth trajectory, technical team available, complex business logic that doesn't fit Shopify's model, B2B commerce requirements, or you're spending more on Shopify fees than it would cost to maintain a custom platform.
The gray zone ($500K-$1M): Start planning the migration. Build your custom frontend now while using Shopify as the backend (via Shopify Hydrogen or Storefront API). This gives you the custom frontend experience with Shopify's backend reliability. When ready, swap the backend to Medusa/Saleor without rebuilding the frontend.
Migration: Moving Off Shopify
A Shopify-to-custom migration involves five phases:
Phase 1: Data export (Week 1). Export products, customers, orders, and collections via Shopify's Admin API. Shopify's CSV export misses metadata, variants, and relationships — always use the API for a complete export. Map Shopify's data model to your new platform's schema before importing.
Phase 2: Platform build (Weeks 2-8). Set up your headless e-commerce backend, build the storefront, integrate payments, and implement all business logic. Test the checkout flow exhaustively — this is where money moves, and bugs are expensive.
Phase 3: URL preservation (Week 8). Map every Shopify URL to its new equivalent. Shopify uses /products/slug, /collections/slug, /pages/slug patterns. Implement 301 redirects for every URL. Broken product URLs mean lost Google rankings for those products — potentially months of recovery.
Phase 4: Parallel testing (Weeks 9-10). Run both systems simultaneously. Process test orders on the new platform. Verify inventory sync, payment processing, email notifications, and fulfillment workflows. Involve the operations team — they'll find issues developers miss.
Phase 5: DNS cutover (Week 11). Switch your domain to the new platform. Keep Shopify active for 30 days to handle any in-flight orders, subscription renewals, or redirect failures. Monitor SEO rankings and conversion rates daily for the first month.
Timeline: 10-14 weeks for a standard store (100-500 products). Longer for complex catalogs, subscription commerce, or multi-currency setups.
FAQ
Do I lose Shop Pay if I leave Shopify? Yes. Shop Pay is exclusive to Shopify. However, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other accelerated checkout options are available through Stripe and other payment processors. The conversion rate difference between Shop Pay and these alternatives is measurable (~10-15%) but offset by the savings in platform fees at scale.
How do I handle PCI compliance without Shopify? Use Stripe Elements or a similar tokenized payment solution. The customer's card data goes directly to Stripe — it never touches your servers. This puts you in PCI SAQ-A scope (the simplest level), which requires a self-assessment questionnaire but no external audit. Shopify handles this for you, but Stripe's approach is equally compliant and well-documented.
What about inventory management? Medusa and Saleor both include inventory management. For multi-warehouse operations, integrate with a dedicated WMS (ShipBob, ShipHero) via API. Shopify's inventory management is basic for complex operations anyway — most serious operations use a third-party WMS regardless of their e-commerce platform.
Can I accept multiple currencies? Both Stripe and Medusa support multi-currency natively. Stripe automatically converts pricing based on the customer's location and currency. Medusa allows setting currency-specific prices per product. This is actually easier to customize on a custom platform than on Shopify, where multi-currency pricing requires Shopify Markets and has limitations.
What if the migration fails? Keep your Shopify store active in maintenance mode during the transition. If critical issues arise on the new platform, you can switch DNS back to Shopify within minutes. The cost of running two platforms simultaneously for 2-4 weeks is negligible compared to the risk of lost sales from a botched migration.