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
Loox vs. a Custom Photo-Review Gallery: Buy or Build?
BUYBuying Loox wins the photo-review matchup for most mid-market stores. Build the custom gallery only when owned media rights and page speed become strategy.
Reviews & UGC
Advanced Shipping Rules vs. Native Rates: App or Included Logic?
CUSTOMIZENative profiles plus a small delivery Function cover most mid-market rate logic; Advanced Shipping Rules earns its fee when blended rate math outgrows profiles.
Checkout & Conversion
Advanced Shipping Rules vs. ShipperHQ: Which Weight Class?
BUYAdvanced Shipping Rules wins per-vendor and product-group rate math; ShipperHQ wins when dimensional, freight, or multi-carrier scope arrives.
Checkout & Conversion
AfterSell vs. Built Checkout UI Extensions: Rent or Own Upsells?
BUYAfterSell wins while post-purchase offers are still in testing; build on checkout UI extensions once one proven offer holds and volume pricing stings.
Upsell, Cross-sell & Personalization
AfterSell vs. Zipify OneClickUpsell: Which Earns the Slot?
BUYAfterSell wins the post-purchase slot at specialist tiers; Zipify OCU wins when multi-step funnel sequencing is the program you'll actually run.
Upsell, Cross-sell & Personalization
AfterShip vs. Native Order Tracking: Buy the App or Stay Native?
DEPENDSAfterShip earns its tiers for multi-carrier stores without a dev bench; native order status answers WISMO free early, and a custom build wins at volume.
Support & Self-Service
Algolia vs. Athos Commerce: Which Search Vendor Wins?
BUYAlgolia wins most mid-market catalogs past 10K SKUs as the consolidation-free vendor; Athos earns merchandising-led picks with merger risk priced in.
Search & Discovery
Algolia vs. Boost AI Search & Filter: Which Search Upgrade?
BUYAlgolia wins past roughly 10K SKUs where payback runs 6–9 months; Boost wins the middle band on predictable app tiers; native covers under 1K SKUs free.
Search & Discovery
Appstle Memberships vs. Native Primitives: Buy or Build Perks?
CUSTOMIZEAppstle Memberships is the fast pilot; customer accounts, entitlement metafields, and Functions are the program. Member-count tiers decide who wins when.
Subscriptions & Memberships
Athos Commerce vs. Boost AI Search & Filter: Which Engine?
BUYBoost wins the self-serve mid-market zone; Athos Commerce wins for quote-led merchandising depth. The metafield facet schema comes first either way.
Search & Discovery