Build vs. Buy on Shopify
Build, buy, customize, or wait — decided with numbers. Capability-by-capability verdicts with honest 3-year cost math.
Custom wins on 3-year cost or fit — with maintenance counted honestly.
The app wins your scenario — we say so plainly.
Buy the app, build the glue: very often the honest mid-market answer.
Shopify is shipping this natively. Don't spend yet; we'll tell you when it flips.
Latest Decisions
Should You Build or Buy B2B Deposit Payments on Shopify Plus?
CUSTOMIZEPlus's native B2B deposits collect the percent up front, but the balance is never auto-captured. Both purpose-built B2B deposit apps had 0 reviews when checked.
B2B & Wholesale
ERP vs. Shopify: Who Should Own B2B Pricing?
DEPENDSShopify's B2B integration page names three sanctioned ERP paths and never says which system should own pricing. Channel count decides the answer, not the platform.
B2B & Wholesale
Does 'Built for Shopify' Mean an App Passed Security Review?
BUILDBuilt for Shopify certifies Core Web Vitals, admin latency and 50 net installs. No security or data-handling requirement appears anywhere in the criteria.
Trust, Legal & Compliance
Should You Build or Buy Bulk Channel Publishing on Plus?
BUILDNo app bulk publishes products to your own channels and markets. On Plus, a small custom app on two exclusive GraphQL mutations does the job.
International & Localization
Should You Build or Buy a Historical Order Export Tool?
WAITShopify emails any order export past 50 orders and estimates 400,000 items at around 4 hours. The mechanics are identical on every plan, Plus included.
ERP, Accounting & Integrations
Are Bulk Operation Timeouts a Platform Ceiling or Your Bug?
BUILDA Shopify bulk query allows five total connections, two levels of nesting and 10 days to finish (verified Sep 2026). Plus raises none of the three.
ERP, Accounting & Integrations
Cart Transform vs. a Bundle App: Who Owns Pricing?
BUYOverriding a bundle line's price, title and image with Cart Transform's lineUpdate works only on development stores or Shopify Plus; bundle apps cover the rest.
Checkout & Conversion
Should You Run a Custom Cart Transform Alongside an App's?
CUSTOMIZEShopify caps cart transform functions at one per app rather than one per store, and runs every app's function, so a custom one can sit beside a bundle app's.
Checkout & Conversion
Can Shopify's Catalog Model Hold 30+ Price Tiers?
DEPENDSA company location holds a maximum of 25 B2B catalogs (verified Sep 2026). Model 30+ tiers as volume breaks, or split the account across company locations.
B2B & Wholesale
Branding API vs. the Free Checkout Editor: Do You Need Code?
CUSTOMIZEThe free checkout and accounts editor covers most branding on every plan; Plus API overrides add precision, and the Checkout Blocks branding editor ends 2026-12-31.
Checkout & Conversion