Platform consultancy

Which one should you build on?

We build on all three. That’s the only reason this comparison is worth reading, because we don’t need the answer to be any particular platform.

	PrestaShop	WooCommerce	Shopify
Hosting and control	Self-hosted, full control	Self-hosted, full control	Hosted by Shopify, less control
Cost model	Open source, no licence or transaction fee. You pay hosting and development.	Open source, free core. You pay hosting, development and some paid extensions.	Monthly subscription plus transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments.
B2B and multi-store	Strong native multi-store and B2B	Via plugins	Via Shopify Plus, which is costly
Catalogue at scale	Built for thousands of SKUs and complex variants	Fine to a point, then needs work	Handles scale, within Shopify’s rules
Customisation	Deep: PHP, Symfony, modules and overrides	Deep: PHP, hooks and a large plugin library	Constrained: Liquid and apps, and checkout is locked unless you’re on Plus
Data residency in SA	Host in South Africa if you choose	Host in South Africa if you choose	Hosted offshore by Shopify
Admin learning curve	Moderate	Familiar if you know WordPress	Easiest of the three
Who we’d pick it for	Catalogue-heavy, multi-store, B2B	Content-led stores already on WordPress	Speed to market over control

We build on all three, so we have no reason to push you at one. The right answer is usually decided by your catalogue and how much control you want.

The short answer

Build on each one when.

Pick it when

A large or structured catalogue, real B2B needs, or a multi-store setup where one admin runs several storefronts.

Pick it when

The site is content-led, or already lives in WordPress and you want the store to sit in the same place.

Pick it when

You want the simplest possible operation, and you’re happy to trade control and margin for that.

If you want this properly, a short paid consultancy ends with a written recommendation. If the answer isn’t us, you keep the document anyway.

Next step

Twenty minutes on your catalogue and how you sell, and we’ll tell you which one we’d use and why.