Answer
An established shop system is often the better choice when common product models, standard checkout, widely used payment methods and ready-made extensions are the priority. The customer then benefits from a large ecosystem and has to run fewer core functions of their own. Custom development should not be used to solve well-known standard problems all over again.
A commerce foundation of your own becomes more interesting when special pricing, product or ordering rules are a permanent part of the business model, several interfaces use the same workflows or existing platform limits regularly cause manual work. Even then, not everything has to be custom: payment services, shipping providers or search components can remain standard. The decision should take into account total operation, upgradability and dependencies – not just the cost of the first release.
As of 3 September 2026
Further reading
Related topic: Shop and customer portal