Should we use Shopify or WooCommerce?

Shopify if you want to launch fast with a conventional catalogue and would rather not think about hosting. WooCommerce if you need custom logic or want to eliminate platform fees at scale. Our full comparison sets out the conditions in detail.

Can you migrate us from Shopify to WooCommerce, or the reverse?

Yes, both directions. Products, customers and orders export cleanly. What does not carry across is the theme and the apps, so budget for a front-end rebuild rather than a copy across.

Why is our Shopify store slow?

Usually apps. Each one injects scripts into every page, and a store with a dozen apps is carrying a lot of third-party JavaScript. An app audit is normally the fastest available improvement.

Do you work with Shopify Plus?

Yes. The main practical difference is checkout customisation, which unlocks things that are simply not possible on lower plans, worth knowing if checkout logic is central to your model.

Part of Website Development

Shopify, Built Properly for the Indian Market

We prefer WooCommerce for brands that need custom logic, and we will say so. But for a conventional catalogue that needs to be selling in weeks, Shopify is often the better commercial decision, and it deserves to be built properly rather than left on defaults.

Talk to us about this All Website Development

What is Shopify development?

Shopify development is customising a Shopify store beyond what the admin interface allows: theme code, Liquid templates, app integration and, on higher plans, checkout customisation. Because Shopify is hosted, you are working within its constraints rather than owning the stack. That is a genuine trade: less freedom, but no servers, no security patching and no plugin conflicts.

We are not a Shopify-only agency and we are not going to pretend it is the right answer for everything. What we can do is tell you honestly whether it fits, and if it does, build it so it is not a default theme with eleven apps quietly costing you more than the platform.

The most common problem we see on Indian Shopify stores is not the platform. It is app sprawl: a subscription for reviews, another for upsells, another for COD, another for invoicing, another for shipping, each adding a monthly fee and a script to every page load. Six months in, the app bill exceeds the plan cost and the store is slower than the WooCommerce build it was meant to avoid.

Scope

What the work covers

Not a feature list. These are the areas where the work actually changes the outcome.

Theme development and customisation

Working in Liquid rather than fighting a page builder. A theme customised properly loads faster and behaves consistently, and it does not break when the theme vendor pushes an update over your changes.

Indian payment gateways

Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree and CCAvenue configured correctly. Note that Shopify Payments is not available in India, so an additional transaction fee applies on top of your gateway, worth modelling before you commit, not after.

COD and RTO controls

Cash on delivery is app-dependent on Shopify rather than native. We configure OTP verification, pincode restrictions and order-value rules through the appropriate apps, and tell you which ones are worth their monthly fee.

GST-compliant invoicing

Shopify does not produce compliant Indian invoices natively. This needs an app, configured to your accountant's requirements rather than left on defaults.

Shipping and logistics

Shiprocket, Delhivery and similar integrations, with serviceability and rate rules set so customers are not surprised at checkout.

App audit and rationalisation

For existing stores, this is frequently the highest-value work: cutting the app stack down to what earns its fee, which reduces both cost and page weight. We have seen stores drop several apps with no functional loss.

Product feed and Merchant Center

Feed configuration for Google Shopping and Meta catalogue, with the attribute and policy work that gets approval rather than rejection.

Conversion and speed

Theme-level speed work within Shopify's constraints, and checkout optimisation to the extent your plan permits. Checkout customisation is limited below Shopify Plus and it is better to know that before you design around it.

How it runs

The sequence

In this order, because each step depends on what the previous one found.

01
Confirm Shopify is the right call

A short, honest conversation about whether your requirements fit inside the platform. If checkout customisation you need is not available on your plan, better to know now.
02
Build and configure

Theme, catalogue, payment gateways, tax, shipping and the minimum viable app set.
03
Feed, tracking and compliance

Merchant Center and Meta catalogue, GA4 and platform conversion tracking verified against real orders, GST invoicing configured.
04
Launch and rationalise

Go live, then review app usage and page weight after a few weeks of real traffic and cut what is not earning its place.

What you receive

Deliverables

A properly configured store

Theme customised in code, not assembled from a page builder.

Payments, tax and shipping working

Tested with real transactions across every method including COD.

A justified app stack

Each app present for a stated reason, with its monthly cost documented.

Verified tracking and feed

Conversions reconciled against backend orders; catalogue approved in Merchant Center.

How this is scoped and charged

Shopify projects are fixed fee, and generally lower than an equivalent WooCommerce build because less is being written from scratch. Note that the platform fee and app subscriptions are ongoing costs you carry directly. We will model the realistic monthly total during scoping rather than letting it accumulate unnoticed.

See indicative pricing

FAQ

Questions we get asked about this

Shopify if you want to launch fast with a conventional catalogue and would rather not think about hosting. WooCommerce if you need custom logic or want to eliminate platform fees at scale. Our full comparison sets out the conditions in detail.
Yes, both directions. Products, customers and orders export cleanly. What does not carry across is the theme and the apps, so budget for a front-end rebuild rather than a copy across.
Usually apps. Each one injects scripts into every page, and a store with a dozen apps is carrying a lot of third-party JavaScript. An app audit is normally the fastest available improvement.
Yes. The main practical difference is checkout customisation, which unlocks things that are simply not possible on lower plans, worth knowing if checkout logic is central to your model.

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