Shopify or a custom online shop: the real three-year cost for a Belgian business

The monthly subscription is only the first line. Add transaction fees if you do not use Shopify Payments, paid apps for features the core does not cover, a premium theme, and often developer fees to adapt that theme.

For a Belgian business, check support for Bancontact, VAT-inclusive price display, compliant invoices and Bpost delivery options. Each of these may require an extra app.

At KRUZ, an online shop starts from €1,759, delivery of the site included, hosting and domain excluded. The final price depends on the catalogue, integrations and languages. There is no platform subscription and no commission on sales.

In return, every feature must be deliberately built. What is an app to install on Shopify is here a development: more durable, but to plan from the quote onwards.

Put on one sheet, for each option: initial cost, subscription or hosting, apps or integrations, estimated commissions on your volume, maintenance and likely evolutions. Three years is the reasonable horizon for a shop.

For a small volume, Shopify is often cheaper the first year and more expensive afterwards. For a business with several thousand euros of monthly sales, commissions and apps end up exceeding the cost of a dedicated shop.

A fast launch to test a market, a team that wants to manage everything without a supplier, a simple catalogue with standard needs. The platform is mature, stable and well documented.

It also suits cases where online sales are secondary to a physical business and nobody has time to run a development project.

A catalogue with particular business rules, integrations with the till or accounting, a clean multilingual site, performance or accessibility requirements, or simply the refusal to depend on a platform that can change its pricing.

Custom also suits businesses whose shop is the heart of the activity and who want to own their tool, their data and their margin.