Costed comparison
We start from what the shop must handle eighteen months out, not from whatever is fashionable. You receive a short note covering subscription, commission, paid apps and the ceilings of each option, totalled across three years.
Not everything belongs on WordPress. A shop with an ordinary buying journey often runs better on a subscription platform, where hosting, patches and security sit with the vendor. Other projects demand full command of the code instead. Take a cosmetics brand selling into France and Belgium: its needs bear little resemblance to a manufacturer carrying two thousand lines and negotiated prices. We say plainly where each option is comfortable, and the point at which it starts holding you back.
The platform is chosen once, and that single decision governs the budget, the schedule and how far the shop can grow before it has to move house. So we spend time on it before building anything.
We start from what the shop must handle eighteen months out, not from whatever is fashionable. You receive a short note covering subscription, commission, paid apps and the ceilings of each option, totalled across three years.
A sound fit for selling into several European countries. We set up languages, VAT rates, card payments, Colissimo and Mondial Relay delivery, instalments through Alma and an invoicing app producing the Factur-X format.
A well-established French option, installed on a server of yours, with a broad module catalogue and flexible pricing rules. More freedom also brings more duties: patches, security and module compatibility stay with you or with us.
For intricate catalogues, cross-border selling and firms that must encode their own trading rules. These foundations assume a technical team after launch, which we say beforehand rather than midway.
A Next.js front end split from the content system, fed by Shopify or by an API of your own. Very fast pages and complete design freedom, though a developer stays in the picture for good.
Whoever runs the shop is coached over video on your own records: orders, returns, discounts, building a product page. They work unaided from the first week.
A subscription shop usually opens sooner than a headless build, where far more is written by hand. Dates are fixed once the requirements are on paper.
Features expected, traffic forecast, number of lines, links required, then that list held up against the ceilings of each platform.
A bespoke look, or a commercial theme carefully reworked when the budget is tight.
Products, apps, payment methods, carriers, audience measurement and test orders end to end.
Domain attached, certificate issued, redirects from the old shop, consent-aware measurement and training.
The shop account has to be opened in your company name, never in the agency one. On Shopify as anywhere else, we work through a dedicated user with narrow rights that you can revoke whenever you choose. A shop sitting inside a supplier account cannot simply be reclaimed: the domain may be yours, the shop is not, and that conversation rarely ends in your favour.
Shopify spares you every worry about hosting and patching, in exchange for a monthly fee and commission. PrestaShop is cheaper to run, tolerates unusual pricing rules and keeps your records with a French provider, but demands regular upkeep. We cost both routes against your order volume.
Subscription platforms have the lowest entry price, then bill every month, sometimes a slice of sales and almost always extra apps. A shop installed on your own infrastructure costs more up front plus an upkeep budget, yet carries few recurring fees. The crossing point often falls somewhere in the second year.
Products, customers and order history do transfer, but something always has to be rebuilt: the theme, the apps, the product addresses. Better, then, to choose with two or three years of headroom than to move house after twelve months.
With heavy traffic, several sales channels, or a journey no standard theme can carry. For fifty product lines it is money thrown away. The choice assumes an ongoing development budget, and that has to sit in the decision from the outset.
Describe your catalogue, your volumes and where you expect to be in eighteen months. We answer with a reasoned recommendation and a budget range.
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