Outgrown Shopify?
Build Custom Instead

The clearest signals: your fulfilment logic (multi-warehouse, staged shipping, made-to-order) doesn't fit Shopify's model; you need B2B or wholesale pricing rules Shopify apps only half-solve; your subscription or recurring billing needs are outgrowing what Shopify natively supports; you're paying for five-plus apps that are still duct-taped together and still breaking; or you've been told by a Shopify developer that what you want "isn't really possible" on the platform.

If none of those apply, Shopify is probably still the right tool. Custom software makes sense once you're spending more time working around the platform than the platform is saving you.

Migrations typically start from $30,000 for a focused rebuild of your core storefront and checkout logic, scaling based on how much custom fulfilment, pricing, or integration logic needs to be built. Businesses with complex subscription or B2B pricing rules usually land higher, since that logic is exactly what Shopify couldn't handle natively.

We scope and price as a fixed fee before work begins. The real cost comparison isn't Shopify's subscription fee versus a custom build - it's the ongoing cost of app fees, transaction fees, and workarounds you're already paying for on Shopify, weighed against owning the platform outright.

No, not if the migration is planned properly. Product data, customer records, and order history are migrated into the new platform, and URL structure is preserved or 301-redirected so existing SEO rankings and backlinks carry across rather than resetting to zero. This is standard practice on every migration we run - it's planned for from the start of the project, not fixed after the fact.

Yes - this is one of the main reasons businesses move. Shopify's native pricing and subscription logic is built for simple, single-tier consumer stores. Once you need account-level pricing, tiered wholesale rules, custom recurring billing schedules, or approval workflows for B2B orders, you're relying on third-party apps stacked on top of Shopify rather than logic built into the platform itself. Custom software builds that logic natively, so it behaves exactly the way your business actually operates.

Both, depending on what's worth keeping. We audit your existing Shopify setup first - product data, customer records, order history, and any custom logic in your current theme or apps - and migrate what's usable directly into the new platform. The storefront and checkout experience are rebuilt custom on Laravel, since that's where Shopify's constraints actually live.

More apps usually means more monthly fees, more points of failure, and more workarounds stacked on top of each other - without ever actually removing the underlying platform limitation. If you've already got several apps trying to patch the same problem, that's a sign the constraint is coming from Shopify itself, not from a missing app. At that point, custom software usually costs less over 2-3 years than continuing to pay for app subscriptions and the staff time spent working around their limits.