Shopify is good. It is not universal. What follows is for everyone the pitch keeps missing.
Shopify is perfect for you
You can't go to a commerce event in 2026 and avoid the pitch. No,
not a Commerce event. The other one. The category, not the company. Stay
with me. You can't open LinkedIn. You can't watch a Shopify demo
without it landing in the first three slides.
Shopify is perfect for you.
It doesn't matter who "you" are. B2B distributor with company
hierarchies and negotiated pricing? Shopify. European DTC brand running
B2C and wholesale on the same SKUs? Shopify. Headless team trying to
build the agent-native commerce stack? Shopify Hydrogen. Bootstrapped
developer with $40 a month to spend? Shopify. A creator selling
services, products, and bookings out of one cart? Shopify. Heineken?
Apparently not. They picked Medusa.
The pitch never adjusts to the merchant. It adjusts to whoever is sponsoring the lunch.
So let's adjust it.
The pitch is bigger than Shopify
I went looking for a Shopify exec saying "Shopify is for
everyone." I didn't find one. Shopify itself is more careful than the
pitch its industry creates. Shopify Plus marketing segments by use case
(B2B, omnichannel, DTC). Tobi Lütke at Editions 2025 talked about
helping the merchants on Shopify do well, not about being right for
every merchant on the planet.
The universal pitch comes from somewhere else. It comes from
agency partners with quotas. It comes from SEO posts like "Why Shopify
Will Dominate eCommerce Growth in 2026," positioning Shopify as the
"go-to choice for both global enterprise brands and direct-to-consumer
creators" in one breath (Ayatas Infotech, 2026). It comes from posts
like "The Future of Shopify: How the Platform Will Transform Online
Selling in 2026," framing Shopify as a "Complete Business Operating
System" for any merchant alive (Fourfoldtech, 2026).
That's the pitch I'm taking apart. Not Shopify the platform. The
industry-default reflex that recommends Shopify before anyone has asked
who the merchant is.
The Six Platforms Shopify Forgot To Mention
Shopify is real. $378.4 billion in GMV across 5.6 million active
stores (DigitalApplied 2026). Excellent at what it was built for.
Nothing here is a hit piece.
But "everyone" is doing a lot of work in the universal pitch.
Stop asking "is Shopify good?" Start asking: who is this merchant,
and what does the platform cost them in flexibility, ownership, and
fit?
I asked that question across six platforms. Each one wins for a
different merchant. Each one has been told Shopify is perfect for them.
Each one has a better answer.
I write this for the merchant in the audience who got told Shopify
is perfect for them at NRF, ShopTalk, eTail, or some podcast last week
and hasn't asked the question since. The merchant deserves a real
comparison. The merchant deserves to know there are six other names in
this conversation. The platforms deserve to be in it.
I have written about my own paradox before. I built a Shopify app
even after years of explaining the platform's limitations, because that
is where the customers are (My Shopify Paradox, ACG, July 2025). The paradox is real. The pitch is the problem.
Six because of time and space. The list could go longer
(commercetools, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Spryker, Saleor, Vendure,
OroCommerce, PrestaShop, Centra). Each has its merchant. These six are
where to start.
Let's start with the one that just changed its name.
1. Commerce (formerly BigCommerce)
The merchant: SaaS without the walled garden, with agentic commerce baked in.
BigCommerce has a great product. Let me say that twice.
BigCommerce has a great product. The platform ships an enterprise-grade
SaaS that you can extend with Catalyst, Makeswift for visual editing,
and Feedonomics for product feeds across Google, Meta, TikTok, and
Amazon. Mountain Warehouse just launched a composable storefront on
Catalyst with Vercel, Contentful, and Algolia (Commerce press, April
2026). That's a real merchant doing real composable work without leaving
the platform.
Catalyst sidesteps a problem I wrote about before (The Headless Trap,
ACG, August 2025). The framework is opinionated. The platform is
opinionated. The merchant doesn't have to assemble both from scratch.
The rebrand is the problem. In July 2025, BigCommerce announced it
was becoming "Commerce" (Wikipedia). The ticker changed from BIGC to
CMRC around August 1, 2025. Three product lines (BigCommerce,
Feedonomics, Makeswift) now sit under one parent brand. CEO Travis Hess
called it "a clear declaration" focused on "agentic commerce"
(EcommerceNews EU, 2025). The agentic commerce read is right. The naming
is muddled. Calling the company "Commerce" and the product
"BigCommerce" might work in the long run. Maybe.
Let's call BigCommerce BigCommerce.
The product earned the rebrand. The rebrand hasn't earned the product yet.
Pro: Open SaaS with real composable hosting and a feed manager (Feedonomics) that the rest of the category copies. Con: The strategic message got diluted in the rename, and merchants are still figuring out what to call what. Real merchant: Mountain Warehouse on Catalyst (April 2026). Agentic readiness: Commerce
Companion AI in admin, Feedonomics with Google Cloud Gemini for product
enrichment, agent-enabled checkout work in the roadmap. Best for: Mid-market
merchants who want SaaS stability and composable flexibility without
writing a headless storefront from scratch. Catalyst gives them the
framework. Makeswift gives them visual editing on top, so non-developers
can ship storefront changes. Feedonomics handles cross-channel feeds
across Google, Meta, TikTok, and Amazon. They run multi-channel selling,
they want headless without a full engineering team, and they are done
with Shopify Plus telling them which composable extensions are allowed.
2. Shopware
The merchant: complex B2B. Companies with hierarchies, sales reps,
custom catalogs per customer, quoted pricing, and approval workflows.
Shopware wins 54% of the deals it competes for in this category (per
Shopware). DTC merchants run on it too, but B2B is the headline.
The time is now for Shopware. You own your data. You don't rent it
back from a SaaS company that decides one day to change your fees, your
checkout, or your app permissions. You make any change you want, any
customization you need, because the license lets you. You get support
from a team that picks up the phone.
Then there is the pricing. Shopify charges by volume. Transaction
fees on every sale. App store fees that compound. Plus tiers that scale
with revenue. The bigger the merchant, the bigger the bill. Shopware
caps the platform cost through licensing. The busier the merchant, the
better the unit economics. That is not a small thing for a brand doing
$20M, $50M, or $200M GMV. When the merchant grows, the merchant keeps
the upside.
Then there's the funding story. PayPal first invested in Shopware
in February 2022 as part of a $100 million round with Carlyle Group
(Shopware press release, 2022). In October 2025, PayPal increased its
stake from 11% to roughly 41% by buying Carlyle's shares (EcommerceNews
EU, 2025). PayPal is now Shopware's largest external shareholder. That
isn't a partnership announcement. That's a payments company putting real
ownership behind a platform built for merchants who want B2B, DTC, and
ownership in one stack.
The US momentum is the new story. Shopware North America reported
300% year-over-year growth in the first half of 2025 (Shopware press,
2025). Named US client wins included UPPAbaby, Good360, Eagle Crusher,
BlueAlly, Noble, and Dynamic Team Sports. New US partnerships landed
with Klaviyo, BlueSnap, PayTrace, Webscale, and Liquid Web. Shopware
hosted Shoptoberfest in NYC in September 2025 to celebrate the company's
25th anniversary on US soil (PR Newswire, 2025-09-16). Store Leads data
showed Shopware net-gained 2,995 merchants from competitive platforms
over the prior 90 days (Store Leads, Q1 2026).
Shopware is closing deals and making waves in the US market. The
agencies told you Shopify Plus could do B2B. Shopify Plus does company
logins. Shopware does company hierarchies, native quoting, sales rep
tools, and custom catalogs per customer. That's B2B. The other thing is a
feature flag.
Pro: Native
B2B depth (54% win rate per Shopware), licensing model that doesn't tax
growth, US momentum backed by 41% PayPal ownership. Con: The brand is still earning US recognition, which means agencies still default to Shopify Plus on first reference. Real merchant: Eagle Crusher (heavy equipment B2B) and UPPAbaby (premium DTC), both US. Agentic readiness: Shopware AI Copilot for product data, content, and customer service. Best for: Mid-market
and enterprise merchants running complex B2B. Company hierarchies,
sales rep accounts, custom catalogs per customer, quoted pricing,
approval workflows. Shopware closes 54% of the deals it competes for in
this category (per Shopware). DTC merchants run on it too, but B2B is
the headline. They want ownership over rent, customization their lawyer
can approve, a team that picks up the phone, and a pricing model that
doesn't punish them for growing. Increasingly US-based: 300% YoY North
American growth, named wins like Eagle Crusher and UPPAbaby.
3. Wix
The merchant: the creator whose storefront IS the brand presence.
Wix is the new up-and-comer, and the AI tools they are adding are
fantastic. You get world-class content and commerce in one easy-to-use
package.
We underestimate Wix because it sells to people we don't talk to
at conferences. The creator running services, products, and bookings
doesn't need Plus, doesn't want headless, and has been told for a decade
that Shopify is the answer to a question they never asked. Wix shipped
one of the most credible AI site builders in the category. The Wix AI
Site Generator writes product descriptions, generates images, designs
layouts, fills in SEO and meta tags, and runs your ad copy (EasyApps
comparison, 2026). Inside the same dashboard. Without an app store tax.
The thing Wix gets right is the merchant nobody else builds for:
the brand whose content and commerce are the same business. Bookings,
services, products, blog, email, all in one cart, all in one editor.
Shopify will sell you Plus to bolt that together. Wix ships it as the
default. 1,000 product variants per item versus Shopify's 100. 6+ option
sets versus Shopify's 3. 900-plus templates with full drag-and-drop
(EasyApps 2026). Built-in Semrush integration and ad management without
paying for a higher tier.
For the merchant whose audience IS the storefront, that isn't a feature gap. That's a category.
I made this case before (Don't Underestimate Wix Commerce, ACG, October 2025). The case has only gotten stronger.
Pro: Native bookings, services, and products in one cart with AI tooling baked into the editor. Con: Less credible the higher you go in catalog complexity and headless ambition. Real merchant: Wix's
strength is in the long tail of creator and service brands rather than
headline DTC names, which is itself part of the story. Agentic readiness: Wix AI Site Generator handles content, layout, SEO, and ad creative end-to-end. Best for: Creators,
service-led brands, and small businesses where the storefront IS the
brand presence. Yoga studios. Photographers. Coaches. Boutique
consultancies selling services, products, and bookings in one cart. They
want AI to write product descriptions, design layouts, and run their ad
copy without paying $2,500 a month for Shopify Plus. They are not
building headless. They want one editor and one tool.
4. Hyvä Commerce on Mage-OS
The merchant: done renting their stack.
Magento. Adobe. Let's face it. Adobe does not care about Magento.
They see it as a threat. Hello, Magento IS Adobe. They should be gaining
sites TO Adobe FROM Magento. It's the perfect funnel. Instead, Adobe
sees Magento as competition.
The lack of focus on commerce shows up in poor support, poor
performance, and no real roadmap. When I say no real roadmap, I
challenge anyone from Adobe to show me their commerce roadmap. No
feature ever. No feature planning. Nothing new. Did I mention nothing
new?
I got to a lot of Magento conferences. Same slides. No new
commerce features. No new commerce features. No new commerce features.
I will not pull punches on Adobe.
One warning before we leave Adobe. The European Magento community
sees Hyvä shipping, sees Mage-OS shipping, and assumes the US Magento
ecosystem looks the same. It does not. Adobe stopped marketing Magento
in the US. Are they signing new US agencies? I doubt it. The US Magento
community has been left to fend for itself while Adobe's attention went
to AEM and AEP. That's not a Hyvä problem. That's not a Mage-OS problem.
That's an Adobe problem. And the US merchant pays for it.
Hyvä is going gangbusters. New products coming out all the time,
pushing performance, building everything Adobe Commerce could be but
isn't. Hyvä Themes replaced Magento's Knockout.js with Alpine.js and
Tailwind, and agencies report 30 to 50% faster builds (Hyvä 2025 product
update). 6,400 live stores already run Hyvä (Hyvä 2025 product update).
On November 10, 2025, Hyvä Themes went open source under OSL3 and AFL3,
announced at Meet Magento Netherlands (iOvista, 2025-11-10). Hyvä
Commerce launched the same year as a separate product built to extend
Magento Open Source for ops, scalability, and merchant experience (Fluid
Commerce, 2025).
Mage-OS is the foundation. A community-governed,
upstream-compatible fork of Magento Open Source, run by the independent
Mage-OS Association rather than the Adobe-controlled Magento Association
(Mage-OS, ongoing). The fork exists because Adobe stopped investing.
Adobe Commerce starts at roughly $22,000 per year (Web-vision, 2025).
Mage-OS is free.
The merchant who picks Hyvä on Mage-OS is done renting. They want
code ownership, performance, and a community that ships. They got tired
of waiting for Adobe to come back. So they built without Adobe.
Pro: Open-source ownership, fastest frontend in the category, governed by a community that ships in the open. Con: Requires a development team. This isn't a "set it up in 30 minutes" platform. Real merchant: 6,400+ live Hyvä-powered stores across the Magento ecosystem. Agentic readiness: Open architecture means any agentic layer can be wired in. Nothing is gated by a vendor. Best for: Merchants
who picked Magento years ago, watched Adobe stop shipping commerce
features, and decided to keep their stack instead of starting over. They
want code ownership, not a SaaS subscription. They want the fastest
frontend in the category. They want a community-governed platform where
the roadmap is in the open. They have a development team or a partner
agency who can run it.
5. MedusaJS
The merchant: a team building commerce around the agent, not bolting an agent onto commerce.
I really like what Medusa is doing. The homepage tagline tells you
the whole story: "A Commerce Platform for Developers and Agents" (medusajs.com).
Not a marketing line bolted onto a SaaS product. The architecture
itself was rebuilt around how developers and AI agents work.
Bloom lets you chat to build. Agent Skills are baked into the
development experience. One Medusa case study reports 80% cost savings
on an AI-powered email-to-order workflow (medusajs.com). That isn't an integration. That's the product.
The proof is on the homepage. Heineken. EightSleep. Mitsubishi
Motors. None of those brands picked Medusa because it's free or easy.
They picked it because their teams wanted commerce built around how
their teams already work. With $29 entry pricing and no GMV tax, the
economics aren't the story either. The story is the architecture and the
team behind it.
I went deeper on Medusa in (A Look at Medusa Commerce, ACG, December 2025). What stood out then was the architecture. What stands out now is the merchant proof.
Every European platform trying to enter the US market, including
Medusa, hits the same wall. Shopify is the gorilla in the room. Shopware
is climbing. 300% year-over-year growth, named US wins, real
partnerships. Medusa is earlier in that climb. They need boots on the
ground in the US. They need US advocates willing to talk about what
they're doing well in the markets where Shopify is the default answer.
The platforms are good. The marketing fight against Shopify in the US is
the harder problem.
The merchant who picks Medusa is a developer-led team that read
"agentic commerce" and asked what commerce could look like if you
started from the agent, instead of asking how you bolt an agent onto
Shopify.
Pro: Architecture built around developers and agents, with named brand proof on the homepage. Con: The US market presence is still building. The community is smaller than Shopify's app ecosystem. Real merchant: Heineken, EightSleep, Mitsubishi Motors (medusajs.com). Agentic readiness: This is the platform where "agentic" isn't a marketing layer. It's the design center. Best for: Developer-led
DTC brands who read "agentic commerce" as an architecture decision, not
a marketing slide. They have a TypeScript team. They want an
open-source platform that ships fast and has Heineken on the homepage.
They want commerce APIs an agent can call directly, not a proprietary
checkout SDK. They want $29-a-month entry pricing with no GMV tax. They
are building the next-generation stack and they want a platform doing
the same.
6. WooCommerce
The merchant: the audience-first brand where content built the demand.
WooCommerce is the most-deployed commerce platform on the open
web. 4.7 million active stores. 18 to 21% global share by
share-of-websites (DigitalApplied 2026). And it's the platform Shopify
ignores hardest. Why? Three reasons that matter.
First, the migration goes both ways. 9,195 stores moved from
WooCommerce to Shopify in the last measurement period. 7,566 went the
other direction, Shopify to WooCommerce (DigitalApplied 2026). That's
not a funnel into Shopify. That's a swap. Shopify doesn't draw attention
to a flow that runs both ways.
Second, the WooCommerce merchant isn't the Shopify merchant.
Shopify sells "store first, content later." The Woo merchant built the
audience first and added the cart when the audience was ready to buy.
The sales motion doesn't translate. The pitch doesn't land. Shopify's
marketing budget can't reach a merchant whose store is a checkout button
on a blog they've been writing for ten years.
Third, the plugin moat is unbeatable. 60,000-plus WordPress
plugins, any niche use case has a Woo extension that someone built and
maintains (Salesforce 2026, generally accepted WordPress.org plugin
directory size). Shopify's app store can't match that breadth, and the
breadth IS the lock-in. Once a Woo store has fifteen plugins solving
fifteen specific problems, it isn't migrating anywhere.
WooCommerce is open source. Free. Bolts onto WordPress. You can run it on WordPress.com,
on any managed WordPress host (Pressable, Kinsta, WP Engine, Hostinger,
Bluehost, Cloudways), or on your own infrastructure. The optionality is
the point. Shopify charges by the seat. WooCommerce charges by the
choice you already made when you picked WordPress.
The merchant who picks WooCommerce is the audience-first brand.
The publisher, the creator, the ten-year blogger, the membership site,
the community. Their content built the demand. The cart just collects on
it.
Pro: Open-source, biggest plugin ecosystem on the web, owned by Automattic (not running out of runway). Con: You own the hosting, security, and maintenance choices. That's freedom and that's responsibility. Real merchant: 4.7 million stores running it, including the bidirectional migration crowd. Agentic readiness: WordPress's
plugin model means any AI agent layer can plug in. The ecosystem is
moving on this faster than the headlines suggest. Best for: Audience-first
brands. The publisher who built ten years of newsletter readers and
wants to sell them something. The blogger whose audience is bigger than
their store. The membership site adding paid courses. The community
building a product around their already-loyal followers. They are not
picking commerce-first. They are picking content-first, and the cart is
the natural extension.
So what?
The pitch is broken. The platforms aren't.
Shopify is good. Shopify is not universal. Anyone selling you
"Shopify is perfect for you" is selling Shopify. They are not solving
for you. The right question for any merchant is simple. Who is this
merchant? What does the platform cost them in flexibility, ownership,
and fit?
If you're a B2B distributor with company hierarchies, the answer
is Shopware or Adobe Commerce or Hyvä on Mage-OS, depending on whether
you want SaaS, enterprise rental, or ownership.
If you're a creator running services and products in one cart, the answer is Wix.
If you're a developer-led DTC brand building the agent-native commerce stack, the answer is Medusa.
If you're a publisher whose audience built the demand, the answer is WooCommerce.
If you're a mid-market merchant who wants SaaS without the walled
garden, the answer is BigCommerce. Sorry. Commerce. The product is
BigCommerce. The company is Commerce. We'll figure that one out.
If you're done renting your stack, the answer is Hyvä on Mage-OS.
The platform is downstream of the merchant. Pick the merchant first. Pick the platform second.
The next time you hear "Shopify is perfect for you" at a panel,
ask the speaker who they're selling to. If they can't answer that
without saying "everyone," they're not selling you. They're selling the
sponsor.
Question for you
Which of the six would you build on next, and what told you Shopify wasn't the right pick?
I read every comment.
One more question to sit with.
Is the world really better with only one commerce platform?
Sources
The universal pitch (cited examples)
Platform statistics and market share
Commerce (formerly BigCommerce)
Shopware
Wix
Hyvä Commerce on Mage-OS
MedusaJS
WooCommerce
