2.9% on every sale, forever?
Shopify is great until you realize you’re paying $39+/mo + Shopify Payments’ 2.9% + 30¢ on every transaction… forever. For most small Oklahoma businesses doing under 200 orders a month, our E3 Full Store math wins by year 2. Plus you own the store code outright — Shopify never lets you take the platform with you.
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.
$60k/year in sales? Shopify costs you $2,200/year just in fees.
$60k × 2.9% transaction fee = $1,740. Plus $39×12 Basic = $468. Plus theme apps. Total: $2,200+ before you do anything fancy. SWS E3 is $250/mo flat — $3,000/year. Year 1 you pay for the build ($5,500). Year 2 you’re saving real money.
| 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+ ongoing (at $60k sales) | $3,000–$4,500/yr | $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)
- × 2.9% Shopify Payments markup on transactions (Stripe direct now)
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.
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+, LocalBusiness schema on every page, Google indexing within 7 days, mobile-tappable phone everywhere, contact form delivers in 60 seconds, 301 redirects from every old URL, 30-day overlap window, daily ranking monitoring for week 1. 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.