Disclosure: Lowthian Design is a Shopify Partner. I may earn a referral commission if you sign up for Shopify through links on this site. I only recommend platforms I actually use for client work.
When a client tells me they need an online store, the first question I ask is not “what platform do you want?” It is “what does this store actually need to do?” The platform should follow the answer — not the other way around.
That said, after years of working across multiple e-commerce platforms, I have landed on Shopify as my primary recommendation for most clients. Here is an honest account of why, including where it falls short and when I would recommend something different.
What Shopify gets right
The case for Shopify is not really about features. Most mature e-commerce platforms have feature parity in the areas that matter. The real case for Shopify is about what you do not have to worry about.
Security and PCI compliance are handled at the platform level. Shopify is a certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant platform — which means the infrastructure protecting cardholder data is maintained by Shopify, not by a plugin you installed three years ago and forgot about. For a small nonprofit or a founder running a mission-driven shop, that is a meaningful thing to hand off.
Hosting is included and managed. There is no server to maintain, no PHP version to upgrade, no plugin stack to audit after a WordPress core update. The store is either working or Shopify fixes it. For clients who are not technical and who have real work to do outside their website, that reliability is worth a lot.
Shopify Payments is also genuinely good. It is built in, it accepts credit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay out of the box, and it eliminates the need for a separate payment gateway account in most cases. For US-based clients, card processing through Shopify Payments runs around 2.9% + $0.30 on the entry-level plan — rates vary by country and plan, and I keep a running comparison at ldw.me/gateways. Fewer accounts, fewer moving pieces, fewer ways things can go wrong.
The development experience — and what it means for your build
One practical benefit that I think gets overlooked in most platform comparisons: as a Shopify Partner, I build your store on a free development environment before anything goes live. You pay nothing to Shopify while I am in the build phase.
For clients who move through a project slowly — and many do, for good reasons — this matters. A build that takes four or six months does not accumulate four or six months of platform subscription fees before the store has made a single sale. The clock on your Shopify plan starts when you are ready to launch, not when I start building.
That is a real savings, and it shapes how I prefer to work. I build everything I can on the development store first: the theme, the product catalog, collections, navigation, URL structure, shipping zones, and app configuration. The handoff to your live store is clean and complete.
Customization and themes
Shopify’s theme ecosystem has matured considerably. The official theme store has free and paid options, and there is a healthy market of third-party theme developers beyond that. The Dawn theme — Shopify’s free reference theme — is solid and genuinely performant if you want to start lean.
That said, Shopify does have design constraints that do not exist on some other platforms. You are working within Shopify’s theme architecture, and while the Online Store 2.0 editor has added real flexibility through sections and blocks, some custom layouts still require theme code work. It is not as locked down as its reputation suggests, but it is also not a blank canvas.
For clients with specific brand requirements or unusual layouts, I factor in that some customization will happen at the code level rather than purely through the editor. That is fine — it is just something to plan for.
The app ecosystem
Shopify’s app store is large — Over 17,000 apps. Reviews, subscriptions, loyalty programs, upsells, wishlists, custom forms, advanced filtering: there is almost always an app for it.
The upside is that you can extend a store significantly without custom development. The downside is that apps add cost and complexity. A store running fifteen apps is harder to maintain than a store running five. I am conservative about app recommendations — I would rather build a leaner store that works reliably than a feature-heavy one that breaks when an app updates.
When Shopify is not the right answer
I believe in honest recommendations, so here is where I would point you somewhere else.
Very simple stores — If you have fewer than five products, no variants, and just need a basic checkout experience, you might not need Shopify at all. A simple WooCommerce setup on an existing WordPress site, or even Stripe payment links embedded in a page, might be enough. Shopify’s monthly subscription is a recurring commitment — why carry that overhead if the store does not need what Shopify provides?
Highly custom or enterprise requirements — Shopify is built around a commerce model that works for the vast majority of stores. If your store requires deeply custom pricing logic, complex B2B account structures, or very specific integrations with enterprise systems, you may hit the limits of what Shopify can do cleanly. Platforms like BigCommerce (which I still work with for existing clients) or a headless architecture might be a better fit.
Clients heavily invested in WordPress — If a client already has a well-established WordPress site with significant content infrastructure, WooCommerce can be a reasonable path — especially if the store is secondary to the content. I am selective about this recommendation because WooCommerce introduces maintenance overhead, but it is the right call in the right context.
My honest take
Shopify is not perfect. There are monthly subscription fees, and the transaction fee on third-party gateways is a design choice that rewards you for staying inside their ecosystem. Some design or functionality requirements will push you into theme code or app costs.
But for a client who needs a reliable, secure, well-supported online store — especially a nonprofit or cause-driven business without a full-time tech staff — Shopify is consistently the platform I trust most. It does what it says, it stays out of your way, and when something breaks, there is a clear path to fixing it.
That is what I build on, and that is what I recommend.
Have questions about whether Shopify is the right fit for your project? Get in touch — I am happy to think through it with you.
-Geoffrey
