Custom Shopify theme or template: how to decide
What changes between adapting an existing theme and building your own, and what to check before choosing for your Shopify store.
Read articleShopify vs BigCommerce: how to compare both platforms
Shopify and BigCommerce are managed ecommerce platforms. Both can serve businesses of different sizes; the decision should rest on catalogue, payments, channels, B2B and integrations. It is inaccurate to classify Shopify as a small-business solution and BigCommerce as an alternative exclusively for large companies.
Shopify and BigCommerce are managed ecommerce platforms. Both can serve businesses of different sizes; the decision should rest on catalogue, payments, channels, B2B and integrations. It is inaccurate to classify Shopify as a small-business solution and BigCommerce as an alternative exclusively for large companies.
The best comparison prepares the same working scenarios and asks for them to be performed in both. Also review current commercial conditions: an outdated price table can change the conclusion completely.
Check BigCommerce plans carefully
The current BigCommerce pricing page presents Core, Growth, Scale and Performance, with conditions tied to sales volume and payment provider. Do not keep using old Standard, Plus and Pro tables without checking them.
Request conditions for Spain, your currency, volume and payment method. For Shopify, use Spanish pricing and your chosen billing period. Do not automatically convert dollars into euros or compare amounts without checking taxes and included services.
A requirements matrix before demos
| Area | Question the test must answer |
|---|---|
| Products | How are variants, personalisation, bundles and attributes represented? |
| B2B | Which catalogues, prices, terms and permissions are included in the proposal? |
| International | How are domains, languages, currencies, companies and local content managed? |
| ERP and logistics | Which system is authoritative for products, prices, inventory and orders? |
| Marketing | Which events and consents reach acquisition and retention tools? |
| Editing | Which changes can the team publish without development? |
Separate platform features, app subscriptions and custom development. A feature advertised on a sales page may have plan conditions or need configuration absent from the demo.
Payments and fees: avoid slogans
The absence of a particular platform fee does not mean payment processing is free. Review provider costs, local methods, currency conversion, refunds and the fees applicable to your contract.
For BigCommerce, check how embedded or external provider conditions affect your proposal. For Shopify, distinguish Shopify Payments rates from additional fees that may apply when using other providers. A single “sales commission” percentage rarely describes every scenario for an international store.
Catalogue and B2B: test your complex cases
A catalogue with many products is not always complex. A few items with customer-specific prices, minimum quantities, configurations and partial deliveries can be harder to operate. Select samples representing those rules and demonstrate how they are created, sold, returned and synchronised.
Shopify B2B availability has changed since older comparisons: features are present across several plans, with differences in catalogues and advanced capabilities. Compare that matrix with the specific BigCommerce B2B solution being quoted, without assuming every ecosystem feature is included.
Design and team autonomy
Both platforms support themes and custom development. Final quality depends on the project: well-planned components, structured content and real catalogue tests. An editor that allows dragging elements is not enough.
Ask the team to perform three tasks in the demo: create a campaign, edit a product page with several attributes and publish a reusable page. Record what needs technical support and what reasonable training could resolve.
SEO and internationalisation
Review paths, redirects, canonicals, pagination, translated content and structured data on specific pages. Both platforms offer SEO tools, but neither ensures better rankings simply by being installed. Architecture should let each important search find a useful, distinct page.
If you switch platforms, the migration plan must preserve resources that already work, including categories and articles as well as products. Also compare how you will manage markets and when separate stores are needed instead of variations of the same site.
Total cost and maintainability
Calculate an equivalent operating period: platform, implementation, theme, apps, integration, payments and support. Include contractual conditions tied to growth or usage. An initial budget says little unless you know who handles a failed synchronisation and which changes are included.
The choice also depends on the providers you can sustain. A theoretically flexible solution can be impractical if your team cannot access support experienced in your configuration. Ask for documentation, ownership of developments and an exit procedure.
How to make the decision
Choose the alternative that best demonstrates your priority requirements at a manageable cost and maintenance level. If both resolve them, team autonomy and provider quality can matter more than a marginal feature.
In Shopify consulting, we can help assess its fit with your business dependencies. Identifying an incompatibility in a focused test is better than discovering it after the design is finished.
Continue working on your store
- Criteria for choosing an ecommerce CMS
- Shopify and PrestaShop comparison
- Shopify versus Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce
Sources and review
- BigCommerce: current plans and conditions
- Shopify plans and pricing in Spain
- Shopify B2B: features by plan
- Google Search Central: site moves and URL changes
Editorial review: the Migraciones.io team · 30 October 2026. Features, plans and availability are checked against the linked sources.