The best e-commerce platforms in 2026: How to choose between Shoptet, Woocommerce, Shopify, Upgates and customized solutions

Today you can set up an e-shop in just one weekend. But does that mean you should do it blindly?

Short answer: Absolutely not. Longer answer: choosing an e-commerce platform is one of the most important business decisions ever. If you don't hit the technology right at the start, you'll hit a hard ceiling in two years. A painful migration or endless adjustments will cost you hundreds of thousands and a lot of nerves.

Czech e-commerce is running at full speed and will generate a turnover of over CZK 206 billion in 2025. Competition is huge and mediocre solutions are simply not enough anymore. Choosing the right system today directly affects your SEO rankings, loading speed, development costs and ability to link to your accounting or warehouse.

We have a guide for you that doesn't just look at dry technical parameters. We'll show you what your business really needs and what to build it on for long-term growth. Let's do it!

Boxed solutions (SaaS): quick start without IT wrinkles

SaaS (Software as a Service) or leased „box“ solutions are systems where the provider takes care of the entire technical background. You don't deal with hosting, updates or security patches. Everything works as a service for which you pay a monthly flat fee.

Shoptet: The fearless ruler of the Czech market

Shoptet is simply a classic for us. The platform created in the Czech Republic is designed to make it as easy as possible to enter the world of e-commerce and minimize technical obstacles.

• How it works and who it is for: Ideal for small to medium e-shops. Do you want to start selling quickly and put your energy into marketing, not programming? This is the right place.
• Benefits: Lightning fast start-up and perfect knowledge of the home environment. Shoptet has a basic connection to Zásilkovna, PPL, Czech payment gateways, comparison sites (Heureka) and Marketplacy (Alza, Allegro). It has a huge add-ons market and a large community.
• Disadvantages: You are bound to a closed code. Any non-standard modifications to the purchasing process are either impossible or insanely expensive. The system will also begin to gasp at more complex foreign expansion. Managing multiple countries and currencies is administratively cumbersome, in practice each country=its own Shoptet. This means that you have to make any adjustments for each country separately. Another undeniable disadvantage is that e-shops built on Shoptet are often visually very similar. So if you want to original and cutting-edge design, look more like tailored development.

Upgates: the Czech alternative for predatory gamers

Upgates is also a domestic SaaS solution, but it profiles as a more advanced option for those who are getting tired of the conventional „box“.

• How it works and who it is for: It targets medium-sized e-shops that are planning to expand abroad and require more freedom to modify the appearance, but still want the comfort of a leased solution without the worry of servers.
• Benefits: It excels in supporting multilingualism and multi-currency from a single administration. In addition, the modular designer allows significantly deeper interventions in the appearance without having to hire a coder. It also performs well in loading speed.
• Disadvantages: The administration is much more complicated due to the amount of functions. It takes a while to get your bearings. In addition, the ecosystem of add-ons is still smaller than Shoptet.

Shopify: The Global Conversion Machine

Shopify is the world's most widely used e-commerce platform. It offers an incredibly robust infrastructure that can withstand the massive onslaught of Black Friday without blinking an eye.

• How it works and who it is for: The perfect choice for visually strong brands, modern start-ups and D2C companies, that are going straight for the global market and don't want to be constrained by local borders.
• Benefits: Extreme stability, lightning fast loading and probably the best tuned mobile cart on the market. The App Store covers every conceivable marketing tool and the API is ready for cutting-edge integrations.
• Disadvantages: Localisation for the Czech market (carriers, accounting systems) often has to be „glued“ through third-party applications. In addition, Shopify charges transaction fees on each sale in addition to the monthly flat fee (unless you use their gateway, which has its own specifics in the Czech Republic).

Open-source solutions: freedom, but at a cost

Open-source means that the source code of the system is public and free. You are 100% the owner of the e-shop and the data, but you take full responsibility for performance and security.

WooCommerce: endless possibilities under the wings of WordPress

WooCommerce is an e-commerce extension for the world's most popular content management system, WordPress.

• How it works and who it is for: Suitable for content-oriented projects, e-shops with specific feature requirements and for owners who simply refuse to pay lifetime monthly rental fees.
• Benefits: There are no technological limitations. What you invent can be programmed. Thanks to its connection with WordPress, WooCommerce offers unparalleled opportunities for content marketing and SEO.
• Disadvantages: Openness is a double-edged weapon. The system requires regular maintenance. If you load it with dozens of low-quality plugins, it will slow down radically and become vulnerable. Rescuing such a „Frankenstein site“ is feasible, but costs a bundle.

E-shop (Custom): when the box ties you down

This category does not use any pre-made base. Code is written from a blank canvas tailored to your exact processes.

• How it works and who it is for: Designed for the enterprise segment, huge B2B wholesalers and companies with complex internal logistics, who are not satisfied with any ready-made solution.
• Benefits: Seamless and bi-directional integration into existing business systems (ERP, PIM, WMS). Handles massive data loads, complex multi-level pricing and product configurators. No unnecessary ballast in the code.
• Disadvantages: Gigantic initial investment and long delivery time (6 to 12 months). In addition, there is the risk of vendor lock-in, where you are heavily dependent on one development agency.

What is the reality of the Czech market? (Data 2026)

There are currently just over 67,000 active e-shops in the Czech Republic. Here is the hard data on what our market is really running on (source: ceska-ecommerce.cz):

(Note: Custom solutions include platforms such as Shopsys, Netdirect and other custom developments.)

3 model situations: where do you see yourself?

We should have a general overview, but what does it look like in practice? We have prepared 3 situations to make it clearer how to approach the choice.

1. Craft and local sales (Traditional bakery)

A successful local business has a renowned brick-and-mortar store. They want to open online sales so people can order items ahead for pick up or have them delivered around the area.

• What they really need: Minimal acquisition costs to test the market. Simple administration that can be handled by the staff at the till without complex training. They don't need to sell abroad or deal with wholesale price lists.
• Ideal choice: Shoptet. Startups and locally oriented companies benefit from fast start-up and ready-made modules. For a predictable monthly fee, they get exactly what they need to sell, without having to invest hundreds of thousands in development.

2. Ambitious D2C start-up (Fashion brand targeting Europe)

A dynamic fashion brand with its own design. They don't need brick-and-mortar branches, they stand on strong branding, visual content on networks and massive performance campaigns (TikTok, Instagram).

• What they really need: The e-shop must excel visually. The mobile UX has to be absolutely flawless because they get 90 % of traffic from phones. They need to sell in euros and have the website translated into multiple languages. Of course they need to be connected to advanced retention tools.
• Ideal choice: Shopify. For visually strong and expansive D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) brands, Shopify is the global standard. It won't shut down even with a viral campaign. For the purely European market, it can also be a great fit thanks to its excellent language work. Upgates.

3. B2B Heavyweight (Building Material Wholesale)

An established company with a huge warehouse. They serve regular customers, but 80 % of their turnover consists of dozens of B2B partners.

• What they really need: A regular box will absolutely not hold up here. They need deep integration with the enterprise system (e.g. Pohoda, Helios). Each partner needs to see their unique contract prices, pay on invoice with due date and see the actual stock in multiple warehouses at once.
• Ideal choice: Well coded WooCommerce with B2B modules, or straight Customized E-shop. SaaS solutions would hit hard on this complex data logic and specific pricing. The investment here will pay off in saving thousands of hours of manual administration.

How much does it really cost? (Estimate for 2026)

This is probably what you're most interested in. E-commerce is not a one-time purchase. It's always paid for creation of (design, coding, filling) and Report (license, hosting, maintenance). How are the platforms priced?

Shoptet/Upgates

• Creation: 20,000, 120,000 CZK (if the agency customizes the template for you, sets up analytics, and handles data imports).
• Report: Shoptet starts at 340 CZK per month, Upgates at 450 CZK per month. In practice, medium e-shops with purchased add-ons are around 2,000, 4,500 CZK per month.

Shopify

• Creation: 50,000, 250,000 CZK (setup, design, localization for the Czech Republic, integration with carriers).
• Report: The base costs about 900 CZK ($39) per month. But don't forget about transaction fees on each order and premium apps that can easily eat thousands more a month out of your budget.

Woocommerce

• Creation: 80,000, 300,000 CZK (if it's built by professionals using their own design and clean, fast code).
• Report: WordPress itself is free, but for top-notch hosting, plugin updates, and technical oversight from an agency, you'll pay about 2,000, 10,000 CZK per month.

Custom solutions (E-shop)

• Creation: From 500 000 CZK upwards
• Report: 15,000, 80,000+ CZK per month (you pay SLA contracts and dedicated development team time for continuous development).

Are you unable to take care of your e-shop or are you facing a decision on which platform to go online?

Don't leave it to chance. At Apadore, we're happy to discuss your strategy with you. We'll look at your real-world data, assess the demands on your internal processes, and design technology that won't stop you at the first turn. Write to us and we'll discuss everything in a no-obligation meeting.

When choosing a platform, also consider website accessibility. Starting June 28, 2025, e-commerce sites that are not micro-enterprises must comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, and the amount of work this will require varies significantly across different platforms.

Migrating an e-shop to a different platform is one of the riskiest types of changes, because the URLs of thousands of products are changed all at once. A step-by-step guide is provided in the article about website migration.

Your choice of platform also affects how much your subsequent SEO efforts will cost. Some platforms require more technical work, which is reflected in the price. You can find an approximate overview of SEO prices for 2026 in in a separate article.

However, the actual speed you achieve on your website also depends on the platform your e-shop is built on. Before you start optimizing, it’s worth checking whether your current solution even allows you to reach the speed you’re aiming for—we discuss this in an article on speeding up a website on WordPress and Shoptet.