Find Your Perfect eCommerce Platform
Answer 6 questions about what you sell, your budget, and what matters most — and get matched to the platform that fits.
What makes the right platform?
Picking an eCommerce platform is one of the most consequential decisions you’ll make as an online business. Get it right and the platform stays out of your way for years. Get it wrong and you’ll spend months working around limitations, or starting over.
The “best” platform doesn’t exist. The best platform for you depends on what you sell, how much you’re spending to build, how technical you (or your team) are, what volume you’re aiming for, and how much customisation you need.
This picker scores 10 real platforms — Shopify, Shopify Plus, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, Magento, OpenCart, the Takealot/Bidorbuy marketplace route, and fully custom headless builds — against your specific situation. Top 3 matches with an honest note on each, plus a stack/cost/scale breakdown on the top recommendation.
Honesty disclaimer: We’re a Shopify Certified Partner and most clients end up on Shopify or WooCommerce. The picker reflects that bias by being honest about it. If your situation genuinely fits Wix or Magento better, the scoring will say so — and we’ll tell you on the quote call too.
Frequently asked questions
Different tools for different jobs. Shopify is faster to launch, easier to run day-to-day, scales without you touching infrastructure — but you pay a monthly fee and transaction fees. WooCommerce gives you total control and no transaction fees, but you’re responsible for hosting, security, performance, and updates. If you want to focus on selling, Shopify. If you want to own everything and have someone (or yourself) to maintain it, Woo.
Shopify supports Paygate, Payfast, Yoco, Peach Payments, and Ozow natively. WooCommerce supports all of those plus PayGenius and direct EFT plugins. BigCommerce has Payfast but Yoco needs custom integration. Wix has Payfast but limited beyond that. Squarespace only supports Stripe natively — weakest SA payment story of any major platform.
A Startup Shopify store is typically 10–14 working days from deposit to launch, assuming we have your product data on hand. Pro stores with custom design run 3–5 weeks. Migrations or B2B builds run 6–10 weeks. WooCommerce is similar timing but has more variables since you also need hosting decisions sorted.
Shopify Basic is R750/mo platform + R250–R800/mo in essential apps (reviews, email, analytics) + 2% transaction fee if you don’t use Shopify Payments. So roughly R1,500–R2,500/mo all-in on Basic. WooCommerce is R400–R1,500/mo hosting + R200–R500/mo in premium plugins (security, backups, performance) = R700–R2,000/mo all-in. The big variable is paid apps you add as you grow.
Yes, but it’s painful. Product data migrates cleanly. Customer accounts and order history migrate. URL structure and SEO equity are the hard part — you need a proper 301 redirect map or you’ll lose rankings. Most platforms can be migrated to Shopify in 2–6 weeks. The worst migration story is leaving Wix — they don’t let you export your site, only your data.
As your only sales channel, no — you don’t own the customer, you can’t market to them, and you pay 10–30% commission per sale. As an additional channel alongside your own store, absolutely — especially Takealot’s audience for SA-based brands. We can help you sync inventory and orders between your Shopify store and Takealot Marketplace via apps like CedCommerce.
After you pick your platform
Get a free build quote
Send us 2 lines about your business and we’ll come back with a real quote, real timeline, and an honest opinion on the platform you picked.
Request your quote → ALREADY ON ANOTHER PLATFORM?Platform migration to Shopify
100+ migrations done. Zero rankings lost. WooCommerce, Magento, Wix, Squarespace — we move you across cleanly.
See how migration works → WANT PROOF?See 400+ live stores
Real SA businesses we’ve built for — Mossop Leather, Red Espresso, Mad Dogs Clothing, and 27 more in the portfolio.
View the portfolio →