Renting your store, forever?
Shopify is genuinely good software, and if you are on bare Basic with no apps it is cheaper than we are. Where it stops making sense is when the app subscriptions pile up, $200 to $500 a month for reviews, subscriptions, upsells and page builders, and none of it is ever yours. You own the store code outright with us - Shopify never lets you take the platform with you. Card processing is 2.9% + 30¢ either way, so that is not what this is about.
When Shopify is actually better.
We’ll tell you when staying is the right call. We don’t want a switch we can’t make worth your while.
• You do 500+ orders/month and rely on Shopify's app ecosystem heavily (inventory sync, multi-channel, complex fulfillment).
• You sell on Amazon, eBay, AND your own store, and Shopify Channels integrates them.
• Your business depends on enterprise tools like Shopify Flow, Shopify POS, or Shopify Capital.
• You want to scale to $1M+/year and the Shopify Plus tier ($2,000/mo) is on your roadmap.
If any of those describe you, stay on Shopify. We’re a better fit for the local-business store that does 20-200 orders a month and is tired of paying $200-$500+ in monthly Shopify costs.
Card fees are the same either way. The apps are what add up.
Straight math, and we are not going to fudge it. The 2.9% + 30¢ card fee is the bank’s cut and you pay it either way, on Shopify or with us. Nobody escapes that. What actually differs is what sits on top: Shopify Basic runs $39/mo, and app subscriptions stack on top of it: reviews, subscriptions, upsells and page builders each carry their own monthly, which is how a stack reaches $200 to $500 a month. That is $2,900 to $6,500 a year for software you rent forever. SWS E3 is $250/mo flat with those pieces built in. If you are on bare Basic with no apps, Shopify is genuinely cheaper and we will tell you that.
| Cost | Shopify Basic | SWS E3 |
|---|---|---|
| Setup / theme dev | $2,000-$5,000 (custom theme) | $5,500 once (full store) |
| Monthly platform | $39 + apps ($40-$120) | $250 |
| Transaction fees | 2.9% + 30¢ per sale | Stripe direct (2.9% + 30¢) - no platform markup |
| Year 2+ platform + apps (card fees excluded, identical both sides) | $468 + $2,400-$6,000 in apps | $3,000/yr |
| Code ownership | Locked to Shopify | Yours forever, transferable |
SWS E3 includes admin panel, cart, inventory, Stripe checkout, order notifications, and up to 150 products. See our e-commerce tiers for the full breakdown including E1 (catalog only) and E2 (buy-now buttons).
What gets kept, what gets rebuilt.
Shopify exports cleanly. We migrate products, customers, and order history. New checkout runs on Stripe.
Kept
- ✓ Domain (DNS flip, no rebrand)
- ✓ Product catalog (CSV export from Shopify, imported to SWS Store)
- ✓ Customer accounts + email list
- ✓ Order history (archived for your records)
- ✓ SKUs / inventory counts
Rebuilt
- ↻ Storefront UI (hand-coded, mobile-first, no Shopify runtime)
- ↻ Checkout (Stripe direct - same Visa/MC/Apple Pay support, no Shopify markup)
- ↻ Product schema (Product + Offer + AggregateRating JSON-LD per item)
- ↻ Order notifications (email + SMS via SWS infrastructure)
Left behind
- × Shopify subscription (cancelled launch month)
- × Shopify Apps (most replaced with self-hosted equivalents in $250/mo hosting)
- × $200-$500/mo in app subscriptions you rent and never own
Features that don’t directly migrate.
Shopify is the most feature-heavy platform on this list. Some stores genuinely shouldn’t leave. Here’s the honest list of what migrates cleanly vs what doesn’t.
Before you switch from Shopify, real talk:
If you’re doing $50K+/year, have 20+ apps installed, run abandoned-cart automations, or rely on Shopify POS for in-person sales - switching may cost you more than you save. SWS E3 is excellent for clean catalog stores with straightforward checkout. It’s not a 1:1 Shopify replacement for full-stack operations.
Shopify Apps (your 5-30 installed apps)
Replacement: Most don’t have direct equivalents. We replace common ones (email capture, reviews, upsells) with simpler self-hosted patterns. Niche apps (recharge subscriptions, complex shipping rules, B2B portals) usually require either keeping Shopify or accepting reduced functionality.
Shopify POS (in-person sales)
Replacement: Outside scope. Keep Shopify POS running standalone (it can run without an online store) or switch to Square / Stripe Terminal. SWS E3 is online-only.
Shopify Subscriptions (recurring orders)
Replacement: Stripe Subscription products in SWS E3. Migration of existing subscribers requires customer-by-customer reauth in most cases (Shopify doesn’t expose card data). Plan for some churn during cutover.
Shopify Email Marketing
Replacement: Klaviyo (de-facto standard for e-commerce), Mailchimp, or Resend. Customer list exports as CSV. Email templates rebuild needed.
Shopify Shipping Labels / fulfillment
Replacement: ShipStation or Pirate Ship (both work standalone). If you’re fulfilling 50+ orders/day, the Shopify ecosystem is genuinely hard to replicate - be sure before switching.
Shopify Reviews / customer accounts
Replacement: Reviews migrate as static HTML (we pull and embed them). Customer login accounts don’t carry over - SWS E3 uses guest checkout + Stripe Customer Portal for self-service order lookup.
If after reading this you’re still curious, get a quote. We’ll ask about your monthly volume + which apps you actually use and give you a real answer - including telling you "stay on Shopify" if that’s the honest call.
Cheaper way in
Don’t want a redesign? You don’t need one.
A Site Transfer rebuilds what you already have on our stack for $400 one-time plus a monthly plan. Same words, same layout, same photos. What changes is the part Google reads.
Want the version we would have built instead? Add it for $350, during the transfer or a year later.
Get the math for your store.
Drop your average monthly Shopify bill + sales volume into the quote form. We’ll send back a real 3-year ROI comparison along with the migration timeline. Switcher special: SEO Onboarding fee ($400 value) is waived - you already have an established catalog and customer base.
8 measurable promises by day 30.
Lighthouse 90+ or we fix it free, LocalBusiness schema on every page, submitted to Google on launch day, mobile-tappable phone everywhere, contact form delivers through a relay we run and health-check end to end every week, 301 redirects from every old URL, 30-day overlap window, weekly ranking monitoring from launch. Miss a technical promise, we fix in 7 days or refund 25% of that month’s hosting.
No 12-month contracts. Month-to-month hosting. You own your code. Your domain stays in your name. One-click site export in your client portal anytime.