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
Celigo vs. Workato for Shopify: Which iPaaS Wins?
BUYCeligo wins the store-to-ERP job for mid-market Shopify; Workato wins org-wide automation; custom middleware wins 1–3 stable, high-volume flows.
ERP, Accounting & Integrations
Forter vs. Native Fraud Analysis: Do You Need the Platform?
WAITForter is enterprise fraud tooling; Shopify's native Fraud Analysis plus a review-ops loop covers most mid-market stores until fraud pressure scales.
Trust, Legal & Compliance
Global-e vs. Managed Markets: Which Merchant of Record Fits?
WAITManaged Markets wins for most mid-market Shopify stores; a direct Global-e contract earns its complexity only at enterprise cross-border scale.
International & Localization
Build or Buy Recently Viewed & Continue Shopping on Shopify?
BUILDBuilding a recently-viewed shelf wins for any Shopify store with dev access: days of theme work replace a monthly micro-app fee.
Upsell, Cross-sell & Personalization
Build or Buy Reservations & Inventory Holds on Shopify?
BUILDBuilding wins for inventory holds on Shopify where drops, B2B allocations, or pickups raise the stakes: custom hold logic on native inventory states.
Inventory & Operations
Build or Buy Sale Scheduling & Price Changes on Shopify?
BUILDSale scheduling and price changes are a BUILD at catalog scale: a scheduled job flips and reverts prices from a canonical source you control.
Discounts & Promotions
Should You Build or Buy Sales Rep Tooling on Shopify?
BUILDBuilding sales rep tooling wins on Shopify — the platform has no native rep concept, and rep workflows are too company-specific for template apps.
B2B & Wholesale
Build or Buy Save-for-Later & Shared Carts on Shopify?
BUILDSave-for-later and shared carts on Shopify are a light BUILD: cart permalinks do half the job, and a small Cart API build finishes it.
Wishlist & Registry
Build or Buy Search Analytics & Zero-Results Tracking on Shopify?
BUILDSearch analytics and zero-results tracking earns a lightweight build: an owned pipeline prices the gaps that Shopify's thin native reports only count.
Search & Discovery
Should You Build or Buy Session Replay & Heatmaps on Shopify?
BUYBuying session replay and heatmaps wins outright for mid-market Shopify stores: free tiers exist and no build case does.
Analytics & Attribution