Platform guide

Shopify, WooCommerce or Custom: Which for a Bosnia Store?

Choose Shopify if you want a managed store and a fast start. Choose WooCommerce if WordPress already holds your content and you want control over the catalogue and the code. Build custom commerce only when a real business rule breaks both. In Bosnia, confirm payment and delivery terms before you pick the platform.

Last updated: 2026-09-21 · Author: Konzept team

What should you decide before you pick a platform?

Describe the path from product to a confirmed order. Who adds products? How do variants, prices and stock work? Who confirms the order? How does the customer pay? How is delivery priced? Who handles a return? These answers decide the platform faster than any feature list.

For a store in Bosnia and Herzegovina, check the commercial terms first. Confirm which payment methods your company can actually offer, what your bank or provider requires, and how card payment, cash on delivery and bank transfer are each processed. Confirm delivery zones, thresholds, tracking and returns with your courier. A platform can support a general process; your contracts decide the real one.

Do not promise an integration before you have read the provider’s documentation. If the first phase can handle orders manually and safely, that is a reasonable start. If staff must retype the same order into a second system every day, the integration belongs in the scope.

How do the three options compare?

Decision criterion	Shopify	WooCommerce	Custom commerce
Cost	Platform fee plus apps. Predictable, and it grows with sales and add-ons.	No platform fee. You pay for hosting, plugins, security and maintenance work.	Highest build cost. Then hosting, maintenance and your own roadmap.
Time to launch	Fastest when the order flow is standard.	Moderate. More setup decisions about WordPress, hosting and plugins.	Slowest. Discovery, architecture, build and test before the first order.
Who can edit it	A shop manager, inside the admin the platform allows.	A WordPress editor for content and products; a developer for the rest.	Your development partner or internal team, anywhere in the system.
Scale limits	Plan tiers, app limits and platform rules on checkout and data.	Your hosting, your database and how well the plugin stack is maintained.	Your architecture and budget. No vendor ceiling.
Lock-in	High. Theme, apps and checkout follow the platform.	Medium. WordPress and the database are yours; plugins still bind you.	Low on vendors. High on the team that maintains the code.
When it is wrong	Your business rules or checkout needs do not fit the platform’s rules.	No one on your side will own updates, security and backups.	A standard platform already does the job. You rebuild solved work.

This table does not price third-party licences, apps or hosting. Those change and depend on your plan. Read the vendor’s own pricing page before you compare totals.

Choose Shopify when

You want the vendor to run the platform, the hosting and the checkout.
Your order flow is standard and you want to sell this quarter.
Your team is small and nobody can own server updates and security.
You accept platform rules on checkout, data and apps in exchange for less technical work.
Your confirmed payment and delivery methods work with the platform or a supported app.

Choose WooCommerce when

WordPress already holds your content, blog and landing pages.
You need a flexible product model, custom fields or unusual catalogue rules.
You want control over the code, the database and the hosting.
You have a partner or an internal owner for updates, backups and security.
Content and commerce must sit in one editorial system, not two.

Choose custom commerce when

Your catalogue, stock sources or pricing rules break both standard platforms.
You sell through several channels and one system must be the source of truth.
The storefront experience is a competitive advantage, not a template choice.
You have a budget for a long-term product, not only for a launch.

If none of those bullets is true for you, custom commerce is the expensive answer to a solved problem.

How do catalogue, content and SEO change the choice?

Product count is not the measure. Categories, attributes, variants, promotions, images, availability, filters and search rules decide the work. A small catalogue with many combinations can be harder than a large, tidy one with a clean import file.

For search, plan a logical category hierarchy, stable URLs, real product descriptions and internal links. If you move an existing store, map every old URL, set redirects and check the result after launch. Konzept runs that work as a continuing service under SEO and AEO performance.

Measure at least product view, add to cart, checkout start and confirmed order. Before launch, check that events do not fire twice and that order value passes correctly. A few trusted numbers beat many nobody believes.

What does it cost, and who maintains the store?

Konzept publishes starting project prices on the pricing page. Growth starts from EUR 14,500, Scale from EUR 29,500 and Enterprise from EUR 44,000. Monthly partnership plans start at EUR 1,200 for Support, EUR 2,350 for Core and EUR 3,450 for Accelerate. These are published starting prices for Konzept’s work. Platform fees, apps, hosting and payment charges come from those vendors.

Decide who runs the store after launch. Name the person who adds products, fixes prices, checks failed orders, updates content and answers a security alert. Shopify removes some server work and does not remove the duty to review apps, permissions and platform changes. WooCommerce gives more control and requires regular WordPress and plugin updates, backups and compatibility checks.

Konzept’s e-commerce service covers storefront, catalogue, checkout, stock and analytics as one product. For the surrounding site build, see web development.

What should you do next?

Build a small test catalogue: one simple product, one product with variants, one discounted product and one that is out of stock. Walk through browse, search, cart, checkout, confirmation and return. Count the steps your team needs for a daily order. The platform that survives that test is usually the right one.

For budget context, read website cost in Bosnia. A Bosnian version of this platform comparison is at Shopify ili WooCommerce za BiH.

When your catalogue, payment methods and delivery rules are written down, get a quote. Send the requirements, not the platform name. We will tell you which platform fits and what the launch takes.

all Konzept guides

Proof in our work

Selected projects

WAGA

A handcrafted home-decor brand, built into a storefront that sells the feeling.

Evapify

A bold, shoppable vape brand built to move fast.

FAQ

Questions buyers ask

Is Shopify or WooCommerce better for a store in Bosnia?

Neither is better in every case. Shopify suits a team that wants a managed platform and a standard order flow. WooCommerce suits a team that already runs WordPress content and wants control over the catalogue and the code. Your payment, delivery and catalogue rules decide the answer.

Does Shopify work with Bosnian payment and delivery providers?

Check it before you choose, not after. Support depends on your merchant agreement, your bank or provider, and whether an app or API connection exists. Do not assume a local provider is supported because the platform is popular. Ask your provider for its own documentation and test a real order.

Is WooCommerce cheaper because it is open source?

No. The plugin is free and the store is not. You pay for hosting, plugins, security, updates, backups and compatibility work. Shopify moves some of that cost into a platform fee and app fees. Compare the total work your team must do, not one line on an invoice.

When does a store need custom or headless commerce?

When a standard platform cannot hold your catalogue, your stock sources or your business rules safely. Custom gives control over the storefront and the integrations. It also adds development scope, more decisions and a longer maintenance duty. Write the requirement down before you accept that cost.

Which platform is better for SEO?

Both can rank well. Category structure, stable URLs, product descriptions, internal links, page speed and clean analytics matter far more than the platform name. If you move an existing store, map the old URLs, set redirects and check the result after launch.

What does an online store cost at Konzept?

Konzept publishes starting project prices. Growth starts from EUR 14,500, Scale from EUR 29,500 and Enterprise from EUR 44,000. Catalogue size, payments, delivery rules, integrations and languages move the scope. Platform licence and app fees are separate and come from the vendor, not from Konzept.