Custom online store vs. Shoptet
Off-the-shelf solutions such as Shoptet are a great starting point. But if your business hits their technical boundaries and you are losing orders because of it, renting a template is no longer enough. You are deciding between dependency on someone else's platform and investing in your own, custom-designed digital asset.
| Criterion | Custom solution | Shoptet |
|---|---|---|
| Business logic and flexibility | Absolute freedom. Reservations of unique items in the cart, dynamic pricing, or a specific wholesale process. The code adapts to your business. | Your business must adapt to the system. You are strictly limited by what the platform and its standardized plugins natively allow. |
| Operating costs and fees | A larger initial investment in development, but stable and low operating costs. No turnover commissions or monthly licenses for dozens of modules. | A low entry point, but permanently increasing monthly fees. You pay for higher plans, data load, and rental of third-party plugins. |
| Data ownership and vendor lock-in | 100% independence. The source code, customer database, and architecture are your exclusive property from day one. | Data sits in a closed ecosystem. Migrating out or deep export analytics tend to be technologically and financially painful. |
| Speed and user experience | Performance sized for extreme load. Instant catalog and filter loading built for the highest conversion rate. | The performance ceiling of shared infrastructure. As the number of products and plugins grows, speed falls. |
| Speed of launch | Weeks to months. Architecture, design, and logic are built and tested precisely for your target group. | Days. The template is finished and ready to use virtually immediately after paying for a plan. |
When a custom store (kypyx) makes sense
When your online store has outgrown the "box" or you sell such a specific product that a standard cart is not enough (as in the Fotobazoš.cz project). Choose a custom solution when a slow website and clumsy filters demonstrably destroy your conversions and you no longer want to give up part of your margin for rented plugins. You build independence with it.
When to choose Shoptet
For starting online stores and startups with a standard assortment, where quick launch, market validation, and minimizing initial costs are the absolute priority. If you do not have a validated business model and a basic template without modifications is enough, it does not make sense to pay for a senior developer.
Case study
Fotobazoš.cz
View the case study →