Shopify is the fastest way to start selling: a monthly plan, a theme, and apps for everything else. A custom store costs more up front but has no monthly platform fee, no extra cut of sales, and no apps to rent. Once a store sells steadily, owning usually costs less within two to three years.
| Shopify | Custom store you own | |
|---|---|---|
| Up front | $0, a paid theme is about $200 to $450 once | A one-time build, typically $10,000 to $40,000 from a studio |
| Monthly plan | $29 to $299 billed yearly (Basic to Advanced), Plus from about $2,300 | No platform fee, only hosting |
| Apps | Often $50 to $500 a month for reviews, loyalty, COD, invoices, upsells | Built in, no monthly app fees |
| Extra fee per order | 0.6% to 2% when you use another payment gateway | None, only the gateway's own fee |
| Local setup | Apps per country, e.g. COD and GST invoices in India | Built for the countries you sell in |
| India | From ₹1,499 a month, and 2% on Basic for every Razorpay or UPI order | No extra fee on any gateway |
| Who owns it | Shopify owns the platform, theme code is yours | You own the code, data and design outright |
| Leaving | Rebuild the theme and apps elsewhere | Nothing to leave, move hosts any time |
If you are testing a product, selling a handful of items, or have no budget for a build, Shopify is a sensible start. You can be live in a weekend, and the app store covers almost any feature. We tell brands this when it is true.
The plan is the smallest part of the bill. A typical growing store adds a review app, a loyalty or referral app, an upsell app, a subscription or bundle app and an email tool, each billed every month and often priced by order volume. Outside the countries where Shopify Payments works, Shopify also takes 0.6% to 2% of every order on top of your gateway fee.
In India, Shopify Payments is not available, so a store on Basic that sells ₹1 crore a year through Razorpay pays Shopify about ₹2 lakh a year in transaction fees alone, before the plan and apps.
An owned store is a codebase you hold: storefront, checkout and admin panel. You pay once to have it built, then only for hosting and the payment gateway. Features you would rent as apps, like reviews, loyalty points, COD rules and GST invoices, are part of the store.
TitanCommerce, our demo store, is built this way: a full storefront and admin panel, set up for any country, with no platform fee.
See the TitanCommerce case studyWith Shopify, someone else handles security patches, uptime and new features. With an owned store, that is your studio or developer, so budget for a support plan or a few hours a month. And a custom store takes weeks to build, not a weekend.
A full online store and admin panel the brand owns outright, with no monthly platform fee
In the first year, almost always. Over three to five years, often not. Add up the plan, every app, the theme, and any extra transaction fees, then compare that with a one-time build plus hosting. For a store doing steady sales, the owned store usually costs less by year two or three.
Yes. Shopify Payments is not offered in India, so stores use Razorpay, PayU or similar, and Shopify charges an extra 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced for every order paid through them. That fee is on top of the gateway's own fee.
Yes. Products, customers and order history export from Shopify as CSV files and can be imported into a new store. Redirects from old product URLs keep your search rankings. We plan the move so the new store goes live without a gap in sales.
Whoever built it, under a support plan, or your own developer, since you own the code. Ongoing work is mostly new features, content and the occasional update.
