Shopify vs WooCommerce vs Custom Website: Which Is Best for an Online Store in India? (2026)

Quick comparison

Shopify: fastest to launch

Shopify is a hosted platform: you pay a monthly subscription and Shopify handles hosting, security and updates. You pick a theme, add products, connect a payment gateway and you can be selling within days.

What Indian sellers should know about cost: at the time of writing (November 2026) the Basic plan is listed at about ₹1,499 a month when billed yearly, with 18% GST added. Shopify Payments is not available in India, so stores use a third-party gateway such as Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree — and Shopify then adds its own transaction fee on online payments (2% on Basic, lower on higher plans), on top of the gateway’s charge. Cash on delivery orders are not charged that fee. Many features also come from paid apps, which add monthly costs.

• Good for: first-time sellers, small catalogues, fashion, beauty, gifting and D2C brands that want to launch quickly
• Watch out for: transaction fees as sales grow, app costs adding up, and less freedom to change how checkout and some URLs work

WooCommerce: control at a lower monthly cost

WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin that turns a WordPress website into a store. There is no platform subscription or platform transaction fee, but you pay for good hosting, a domain, your theme, paid extensions you need, and — importantly — someone to keep WordPress, the theme and plugins updated and secure.

Because it is WordPress, it is excellent for content: blogs, guides and category pages that help with SEO. It also has plugins for almost everything Indian stores need, including GST invoices, COD rules and shipping integrations.

• Good for: stores that also want a strong blog, businesses with an existing WordPress site, owners who want ownership without monthly platform fees
• Watch out for: slow sites from cheap hosting or too many plugins, and security issues when updates are skipped

Custom-built store: when your needs are not standard

A custom store is built specifically for your business — for example a React or Next.js front end with your own product and order system. There is no platform fee and no limit on how checkout, pricing or product pages work, and it can be the fastest option, because nothing loads that your store does not need.

The trade-off is a higher build cost and time, and you depend on developers for new features. It makes sense when you have rules the standard platforms handle badly: dealer and retail pricing, B2B bulk orders, custom product builders, subscriptions, multiple warehouses, or very high traffic.

• Good for: manufacturers and wholesalers with B2B pricing, brands with complex products, high-traffic stores that need top speed
• Watch out for: choose a team that documents the code and hands over every account, so you are not locked in

What it really costs to run each one

The build cost is only part of the picture. Before you choose, list the running costs for the next two to three years:

• Platform plan or hosting, plus 18% GST where it applies
• Payment gateway charges on every online order — check the current rates of Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree
• Platform transaction fees (Shopify, when using a third-party gateway)
• Paid apps, plugins and premium themes, often billed monthly or yearly
• Maintenance, updates, backups and security
• Shipping and COD handling (Shiprocket, Delhivery and similar)
• Marketing: SEO, Google Shopping, Meta ads and content

Payments, COD and GST in India

• Payment gateways: Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree and others work with all three options; UPI is a must for Indian buyers.
• Cash on delivery: still popular in many categories. Plan COD limits, extra COD charges or OTP confirmation to reduce fake orders and returns.
• GST invoices: make sure your store can generate GST-compliant invoices with your GSTIN, HSN codes and the right tax split.
• Shipping: integrate a shipping aggregator early so orders, tracking and returns are not handled manually.

SEO and speed: what matters for ranking

All three can rank well on Google. What matters more than the platform is how the store is built: fast-loading pages on mobile, unique product and category descriptions (not copied from the manufacturer), clean URLs, product schema, and category pages that match how people search — “cotton kurta sets for women”, not just “Collection 3”.

Speed is where the platforms differ most in practice. A Shopify store with many apps, or a WooCommerce store on cheap hosting, can become slow. A well-built custom store can be the fastest. Whichever you choose, test your pages in PageSpeed Insights before launch.

Which should you choose?

1. 01

   Choose Shopify if…

   you want to start selling within weeks, have a small team, a standard catalogue and want the least technical work.

2. 02

   Choose WooCommerce if…

   you want to own everything, avoid platform fees, publish a lot of content, and have (or can hire) someone to maintain WordPress.

3. 03

   Choose a custom build if…

   you have B2B or dealer pricing, complex products, high traffic or specific checkout rules — and the budget for a proper build.

Not sure? Many brands start on Shopify or WooCommerce and move to a custom build once sales and requirements grow. Plan your product data and URLs from day one so that move is easy later.

Need help choosing or building your store?

Orizova Digital builds e-commerce websites on Shopify, WooCommerce and custom code for D2C brands, retailers and manufacturers across India — with payments, COD rules, GST invoices and SEO set up from the start. We will recommend the platform that fits your business, not the one we prefer to build. Get a free consultation.

Planning a regular business website instead? Read how to get a business website made in India.