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
Sesami vs. BookThatApp: Which Booking App Wins on Shopify?
BUYBookThatApp wins under 1,000 bookings a month on price; Sesami wins for Shopify Plus and multi-location operations; build only when scheduling is the business.
Commerce Models
Build or Buy Ship-from-Store & Endless Aisle on Shopify?
WAITShip-from-store and endless aisle start native on Shopify: multi-location inventory, routing rules and POS ship-to-customer are included with your plan.
Shipping, Delivery & Fulfillment
ShipHero vs. Brightpearl: Do You Need an OMS on Shopify?
WAITNative orders, routing rules and Flow cover a single-brand store; ShipHero fits your own warehouse, Brightpearl a multi-channel back office; both are quote-based.
Inventory & Operations
Build or Buy a Shipping Cost Calculator on Shopify?
BUILDBuilding a shipping cost calculator wins for Shopify stores with anyone already in the theme: 1–3 dev days against Shopify's own shipping-rates endpoint.
Shipping, Delivery & Fulfillment
Should You Build or Buy Shop-the-Look & Lookbooks on Shopify?
BUILDBuilding shop-the-look wins for mid-market Shopify brands with a design team: a metaobject per look plus a hotspot section you own, not a widget that owns your data.
Content & Storefront
Build or Buy Site Speed Optimization on Shopify?
BUILDSite speed optimization on Shopify is a BUILD: removing dead app embeds, trimming theme JavaScript and fixing LCP media beats an app that only preloads and defers.
SEO & Site Performance
Build or Buy Sitemap & Indexing Control on Shopify?
WAITSitemap and indexing control on Shopify is a WAIT: automatic sitemap.xml, an editable robots.txt.liquid and per-resource noindex are all native, at no cost.
SEO & Site Performance
Avada SEO vs. Booster SEO: Which Wins, and Do You Need Either?
CUSTOMIZEWith a dev bench, Liquid templates plus native fields beat both suites; Avada wins the mid tier on price, Booster the top tier on bulk actions and reporting.
SEO & Site Performance
Build or Buy B2B Tax Exemption & Certificates on Shopify?
WAITB2B tax exemption on Shopify is a wait for known accounts: native exemptions cover customers, products and locations; buy only when certificate volume arrives.
B2B & Wholesale
Should You Build or Buy Your Blog & Content SEO Stack on Shopify?
DEPENDSBlog and content SEO apps are a DEPENDS on Shopify: stay native for a few posts a month, buy an app for multi-author editorial teams.
SEO & Site Performance