Open source e-commerce vs. a tailor-made solution: Which will be more favourable for you?

2020 has all shown us the full strength and benefits of e-commerce i.e., the sale of products and services via e-shops. This represented an impulse for many entrepreneurs to finally implement a full or at least a partial transformation of their business into the online world. If you’re considering an e-shop of your own as well, there are two journeys at your disposal that you can take: 

1. Open source or a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution
2. Creation of a tailor-made e-shop 

In order to objectively compare a custom and an open source solution, let's take a deeper look at their main pros and cons. 

Open source and SaaS e-commerce 

According to Techradar the most popular open source and SaaS e-commerce solutions in 2020 were Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix and Woocommerce, a smaller percentage of the market is covered by solutions such as Magento, BigCommerce or Yahoo Store. Each of these solutions brings a number of different aspects and particular functions, however, they have one thing in common - you’re getting a finished package of the e-shop’s source code either for free or for a small fee. You subsequently modify this code via a simple admin experience, implementation of themes and plug-ins to the shape of your desired e-shop. 

The benefit of the open source solution  (e.g., Woocommerce) is the fact that the entire code of the e-shop is at your disposal, runs on your server and you can modify it without restrictions. If you choose the SaaS solution (e.g., Shopify) you will receive access to a platform that runs on service provider’s servers, you can easily customise your e-shop but you don’t have access to the code. Therefore, the editing options are significantly limited by what the provider of the SaaS solution allows.  

Benefits of open source and SaaS e-commerce

1. The price. Some open source e-commerce solutions such as Woocommerce are available completely for free. You install Woocommerce into Wordpress while you have to pay only for some themes or plug-ins. However, if you don’t want to, you can download many themes and plug-ins for free as well and thus minimise the overall costs for the development of an e-shop to literally a few euros. Although paid e-commerce solutions such as Shopify require a certain initial investment but it ranges in dozens of euros. 
2. Simple editing options. You will receive a complete functional structure of an e-shop as part of the open source solution that you only modify according to your vision. You will simply “click through” the majority of modifications, however, more demanding modifications can result into a necessity to access the code itself which is enabled only in case of open source e-commerce solutions. You can constantly add and edit the functionalities of the e-shop by several clicks or installation of new plug-ins. 
3. Big communities and support options. Open source e-commerce systems have millions of supporters around the entire world who help each other, create new plug-ins and look for ways how to make the most of the particular system. Therefore, in case of any issue you can easily find an adequate solution, all you need to do is type your issue into Google. 

Drawbacks of open source and SaaS e-commerce

1. Limited customisation options. Although you can adjust open source e-commerce systems to your vision quite easily, not all details can by modified as you would wish. In case of many more complex requirements you have to edit the code itself. In such a scenario the open source solution is slowly transforming into a custom solution and you have to pay a substantial amount for the modifications. 
2. A more complicated integration of some elements. Linking an open source e-shop with some pay gates, analytical and marketing tools can be complicated and the resulting functionality doesn’t have to correspond to your ideas. 
3. Deteriorating functionality with a higher load. Open source and SaaS e-commerce solutions are robustly programmed in order to provide a wide range of configuration and editing options for everyone. However, thanks to the amount of excess code e-shops become slow and don’t handle large influxes of visitors. The integration of new functions, products and applications signifies a further decrease of the website’s speed which discourages potential customers and limits your options to grow your project to a larger scale. 

Tailor-made e-commerce solution

In case of a custom solution you aren’t limited by anything, only by the abilities of the company to which you entrust the creation of your e-shop. A tailor-made e-shop is developed by combining pre-prepared solutions with a tailor-made code, everything, to the last detail, can thus be customised for the purpose of the business and your requirements. 

Benefits of tailor-made e-commerce

1. Everything in one package. The aspects that you must solve by plug-ins and external applications in case of open source systems are given to you within a custom e-commerce solution and are incorporated directly in the source code. You can get any functions and elements you like integrated within it. Thanks to the “pure code” your e-shop can work more efficiently, smoothly and faster. 
2. Simple e-shop management. You can get the admin interface customised to your requirements so the management of the e-shop is as simple and quick as possible for you. It is possible to directly sync the e-shop with external systems thanks to which many processes run automatically without your interventions and need to manually enter data. 
3. Professional support. In case of any issues all you need to do is call the developer to solve it for you, you don’t have to take care of anything. The developers know the code and operation of the website very well, problem solving is thus easy and quick. You don’t have to worry about searching solutions on Internet forums or getting hold of people who would help you. 

Drawbacks of tailor-made e-commerce

1. The price. The development of a new e-shop from scratch won’t cost only a couple of hundreds for sure. In case of tailor-made solutions you simply always have to prepare for higher fees. 
2. Trust in the developer. You should entrust the creation of your tailor-made e-shop to a verified and reliable company. It may be that some providers of tailor-made e-commerce solutions can’t estimate to what extent the project will grow. Eventually various functionalities start missing, developers can’t add them flexibly, your time is ticking and the e-shop is literally collapsing before your eyes. In such scenarios all you can do is change the original supplier. However, it’s always better to prevent these situations at the beginning. Ask for testimonials and examples from previous projects from the developer before you agree on the cooperation in order to be sure that you’re entrusting your e-shop to professionals. 

Conclusion

Always clarify what you expect from your e-shop in advance. For many entrepreneurs who want to sell only in smaller quantities and aren’t fond of advanced functionalities a less expensive open source or SaaS e-commerce solution will often be enough. However, when investing look also into the future. As the e-shop grows new requirements, which open source or SaaS solutions might not be able to handle any more, will arise. 

For example there will be a need to add hundreds or thousands of new products which you won’t enter manually after all - automation as effective as possible will be inevitable. Your requirements regarding the speed of the website, option to optimise UX, entering various ad formats or special offers will increase as well. When the number of orders starts to increase, a lot of payments by bank transfer will occur as well, which you won’t be able to track and a sync between the e-shop and a bank will come in handy. Let alone potential complaints whose record keeping can be more time consuming and less well arranged in case of open source and SaaS solutions. 

What may initially seem like a larger investment into a tailor-made e-commerce solution can sooner or later reflect in significant time savings and simpler options to grow your project to a larger scale which will ultimately also have an impact on the faster return of investment. Therefore, when choosing an optimum e-commerce solution for yourself always carefully consider all aspects.