01Shopify
Rent a platform
A hosted service: you pay a monthly plan, add apps for what the plan lacks and pay a fee on every order unless you use Shopify Payments. Quick to start, but the platform is rented, not yours.
Why a custom Medusa store and not WooCommerce or Shopify?
Our packages cost more up front than a Shopify plan or a WooCommerce theme. Here is what that price buys, what the alternatives cost over time - and when one of them is the better choice for you.
Comparison · Sources · As of October 2026← E-commerce packages
Short answer
Three ways to run an online store.
Each one is a fair choice for someone. The difference is who owns what, and what you keep paying for every month.
02WooCommerce
Plugins on WordPress
A free, open-source plugin for WordPress. The software costs nothing; hosting, paid extensions that renew every year and keeping WordPress, the theme and every plugin updated are yours to arrange.
03Maina · Medusa
Your own store
Open-source Medusa (MIT licence) and a Next.js storefront, built for your business and hosted by us on a dedicated server for your store alone. Medusa's modules cover multiple regions, promotions, inventory, orders and tax. Your code, your data - on an open-source platform, hosted and run by us.
Side by side
Nine questions worth asking of any platform.
The same criteria for all three, with figures from the vendors' own pages - the sources are at the bottom.
Who owns the server, the data and the code
- Shopify
- Shopify. It is a hosted service (SaaS): you rent the platform and your store runs on it. You can download your theme and export your data, but the platform stays rented.
- WooCommerce
- Whoever hosts WordPress - you or your hosting provider. WooCommerce itself is open source (GPL).
- Maina · Medusa
- The code and the data are yours: whenever you ask, you get the code (in your own repository or on a USB drive), a database export and the files. The server is ours - we host and run a dedicated server for your store alone, with no account or server bill on your side. Medusa is open source (MIT).
Monthly platform fee
- Shopify
- Basic €27, Grow €74, Advanced €384 a month (€19, €56, €289 billed annually); Plus from €2,100.
- WooCommerce
- None for the core - it is free. You pay for hosting and for the paid extensions you use.
- Maina · Medusa
- No platform licence. Hosting on a dedicated server is part of the required Essential care - its price is with the care plans on the packages page.
Fee per order
- Shopify
- With a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds 2% (Basic), 1% (Grow), 0.6% (Advanced) or 0.2% (Plus) per order.
- WooCommerce
- The platform takes no fee per order - you pay only your payment provider's charges.
- Maina · Medusa
- The platform takes no fee per order - you pay only your payment provider's charges.
Paid add-ons and renewals
- Shopify
- Apps are billed monthly, in US dollars. For example, Bulgarian courier apps at $5–79 or $13.99–97.99, a НАП audit-file app at $5.99–39.99, reviews and loyalty free and then $15–199 a month.
- WooCommerce
- Paid extensions renew every year: Subscriptions €249, Bookings €223, Points and Rewards €160, Gift Cards €71, the ePay.bg gateway €71.
- Maina · Medusa
- Features come in the package or as add-ons with a price published in our catalogue, built into your store once.
Freedom in the checkout
- Shopify
- Apps in the information, shipping and payment steps and the Checkout Branding API are Plus-only.
- WooCommerce
- Changed through the theme, plugins or custom code.
- Maina · Medusa
- Part of your own Next.js storefront, so no plan decides which steps you may change.
Bulgarian couriers, payments and invoices
- Shopify
- Through apps, each with its own monthly fee - for the couriers and for the НАП audit file.
- WooCommerce
- The official Econt and Speedy modules are free; the ePay.bg gateway is €71 a year.
- Maina · Medusa
- Bulgarian couriers, cash on delivery and bank transfer in every package; invoices from the Growth package up.
Updates and security
- Shopify
- Shopify maintains the platform; each app is maintained by its developer.
- WooCommerce
- WordPress, WooCommerce, the theme and every plugin need updating, and the server needs PHP 8.3+, MySQL 8+ or MariaDB 10.6+ and 256 MB of memory. 91% of the 11,334 new WordPress vulnerabilities in 2025 were in plugins.
- Maina · Medusa
- One open-source platform (Medusa, v2.21 of 28 September 2026) and your storefront. From the Standard care plan up, updates go through staging and a regression check before production.
Speed
- Shopify
- Depends on the theme and the apps you install.
- WooCommerce
- 45% of WordPress sites pass Core Web Vitals on mobile (Web Almanac 2025).
- Maina · Medusa
- A Next.js storefront, with technical SEO verified against the running site by our own audit engine.
Who you call when something breaks
- Shopify
- Shopify support for the platform, and each app's developer for their app.
- WooCommerce
- Your hosting provider, the plugin's author or a developer - depending on which piece broke.
- Maina · Medusa
- Us - we built it and we host it. For the first 3 months after launch, the warranty covers bugs in what we built free of charge. With Essential care, which every store has, we act on the alerts: restart, restore from a backup.
Figures from the vendors' own pages, as of October 2026. Our own prices are on the packages page and come from our live catalogue.
Where the costs come from
The same store, different bills.
A fair comparison counts more than the first invoice.
- 01 · Shopify: a subscription that grows with you
The plan every month, each app's monthly fee in US dollars, and a fee per order if you use a gateway other than Shopify Payments. More freedom in the checkout means the Plus plan - from €2,100 a month.
- 02 · WooCommerce: free software, paid upkeep
Hosting that meets the server requirements, a yearly renewal for every paid extension, and someone's time to keep WordPress, the theme and the plugins updated - which is where most WordPress vulnerabilities are found.
- 03 · Maina: the build, then the care
A one-time build price from our catalogue - higher than a theme, because the store is designed and built for your business, with a free 3-month warranty after launch. After that: the required Essential care, which includes hosting on a dedicated server, and Standard or Growth care if you want more.
Honestly
When WooCommerce or Shopify is the better choice.
A custom store isn't right for everyone. We would rather say so here than in a meeting.
A small catalogue and a tight budget
Shopify Basic starts at €19 a month billed annually. For a handful of products that is hard to beat.
You want to run and change everything yourself
If you would rather install, configure and change every part of the store yourself, a platform made for that will suit you better than a store built for you.
You need a large app ecosystem right away
If your plan depends on many ready-made integrations from day one, the Shopify App Store and the WooCommerce extension directory offer more off the shelf than any custom build.
You are still validating an idea
Before investing in a custom store, test demand on a SaaS platform. Move to your own store when the revenue justifies it.
Next step
Compare it with our prices.
The packages and their prices come from our live catalogue, and the configurator puts a package and its add-ons into one quote.
Let's talk
Not sure which way suits your store?
Tell us about the catalogue and the budget. If Shopify or WooCommerce suits you better, we will tell you.
Sources
Where the figures come from.
Checked in October 2026.
- Shopify - plans and pricingshopify.com/bg/pricing
- Shopify Help Center - checkout extensibilityhelp.shopify.com/en/manual/checkout-settings/checkout-extensibility
- Pratka (Shopify App Store)apps.shopify.com/pratka
- CourierHub (Shopify App Store)apps.shopify.com/courierhub
- Oditto - НАП audit file (Shopify App Store)apps.shopify.com/oditto
- Judge.me (Shopify App Store)apps.shopify.com/judgeme
- Smile.io (Shopify App Store)apps.shopify.com/smile-io
- WooCommerce Subscriptionswoocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-subscriptions
- WooCommerce Bookingswoocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-bookings
- WooCommerce Points and Rewardswoocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-points-and-rewards
- WooCommerce Gift Cardswoocommerce.com/products/gift-cards
- ePay.bg payment gateway for WooCommercewoocommerce.com/products/epay-bg-payment-gateway
- WooCommerce - server requirementswoocommerce.com/document/server-requirements
- Patchstack - State of WordPress Security in 2026patchstack.com/whitepaper/state-of-wordpress-security-in-2026
- Web Almanac 2025 - CMS chapteralmanac.httparchive.org/en/2025/cms
- Medusa on GitHub (MIT licence)github.com/medusajs/medusa
- Medusa docs - commerce modulesdocs.medusajs.com/resources/commerce-modules