Comparison
Shopify or Opustack: which way for your shop?
One shop, two ways to bring it to life. With Shopify, you build and you maintain. With Opustack, we build and we run it. Neither is better in the abstract; each is better for someone. Here is how to tell who.
At a glance
| At a glance | Shopify | Opustack |
|---|---|---|
| Who builds it | You, or a contractor | We do, migration included |
| Who maintains it | You | We do, every day |
| Hosting | Included, outside Europe | Included, in Europe |
| Selling features | Apps to add | In the platform |
| Languages | Through an app | Three, included |
| Who answers | Shopify support | Someone who knows your shop |
| The price | A subscription, plus the apps | One fixed price |
Two different things
Shopify
is a tool. You pick a theme, add apps, set up payments and shipping, keep it updated. The ecosystem is huge, and so is the freedom. The technical load and the pile of small subscriptions stay with you.
Opustack
is operated infrastructure. The shop is built, migrated, hosted in Europe, monitored and updated by us, on a platform shared by all our shops. You sell; someone who knows your shop answers when you need them.
What it costs over a year
A price is not compared to a price, but to a total. Take a Belgian shop with 300 products, 100 orders a month, selling in French and Dutch.
Shopify, on your own
- Basic plan: €32 a month, or Grow at €92 as soon as you need several staff accounts
- Theme: €300 to €400, once
- Apps for reviews, SEO, translation, abandoned carts: €50 to €150 a month
- Newsletter: €30 to €120 a month
- Build by a freelancer or agency: €1,500 to €4,000, once
- Your time, or a contractor’s, for updates and settings
First year€3,000 to €7,000
Then €150 to €400 a month, not counting your time.
Opustack, Ensemble plan
- Setup: €1,990, or €0 with a 12-month commitment
- Subscription: €299 a month, with three languages, newsletter, cart reminders, members’ area, hosting, maintenance and three hours of requests
- Migration and the first 100 products entered, included
First year€3,588 to €5,578
Then €299 a month, and nothing else.
Payment fees are the same on both sides: Bancontact at €0.39, cards around 2%. Shopify adds a 2% fee if you stay with your own payment provider; Opustack does not.
What this shows: day to day, the two cost about the same. The difference is who does the work.
When Shopify is enough
- You enjoy the technical side, or someone on your team handles it.
- You want the widest possible choice of apps.
- You sell in one language, to customers who mostly pay by card.
- You already have a Shopify that runs and costs you no time. In that case, keep it.
When Opustack makes more sense
- You want to sell, not referee apps and support tickets.
- You sell in two languages and want it done properly: addresses, search rankings, emails in each language.
- You prefer one fixed price to a pile of small ones that keep growing.
- You want someone who knows your shop to pick up the phone when something is stuck.
- European hosting and owning your data matter to you.
What is included with Opustack
An isolated instance per shop, your domain in your name, your payment account in your name, daily backups kept for thirty days, updates applied by us, continuous monitoring, server-side ad tracking, newsletters and cart reminders from the shop itself. Plans: Solo at €169, Ensemble at €299 and Orchestra from €999 a month, excluding VAT, setup extra.
Coming from Shopify?
Migration is included: products, variants, photos, customers, order history, redirects from the old addresses. Your Shopify shop stays online until you sign off on the new one.
Frequently asked questions
No. 0% commission. Payments are billed at your provider’s public rates, on your own account.
Not if the redirects are done. Every old address redirects to the new one, and that is included in the migration.
Yes, with one month’s notice outside any commitment. Your data exports at any time, from your dashboard, in open formats.
Yes, all of them, at your payment provider’s public rates, on an account in your name.
It stays yours. It connects to your new shop in two minutes, with no new application to file.
Book your launch
Tell us what you sell and where you are coming from. We come back within one business day with a launch date and a firm quote.
Reply within one business day. No payment at this stage.