Shopify or headless? Mostly Shopify.
A Shopify build from React Web Development Services costs ₱195,000 over 4–6 weeks; headless commerce on Shopify or Medusa costs ₱620,000 over 10–14 weeks. That is a ₱425,000 difference and roughly triple the ongoing maintenance surface, so headless has to be earning it. It does when catalogue scale or page speed is demonstrably costing sales, and when you have someone to maintain a front end. It does not because the stack sounds better. Most Philippine brands should build Shopify and spend the difference on demand.
The trade-offs, without the sales pitch.
| Factor | Shopify | Headless commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Build cost | ₱195,000 | ₱620,000 |
| Timeline | 4–6 weeks | 10–14 weeks |
| Platform fee | From US$39/mo, paid direct | Same, plus hosting for the front end |
| Who can change the storefront | Your team, in the theme editor | A developer, in code |
| Page speed ceiling | Good with discipline | Higher — the reason to do it |
| PH payments & couriers | Wired end to end either way | Wired end to end either way |
| Maintenance surface | Shopify's problem | Yours, including the front end |
| Best fit | Almost every brand | Large catalogues, speed-bound revenue |
Cases where we’d tell you not to hire us.
You want to change things yourself
The theme editor is the feature. Headless moves every storefront change back through a developer, which is a real ongoing cost people forget to price.
Hosting and PCI are someone else's job
Shopify's uptime, security and compliance are worth more than the subscription. Owning them is the hidden cost of headless.
The constraint is demand, not the store
If traffic is the problem, ₱425,000 of front-end engineering will not fix it. Marketplace operations at ₱35,000/mo or conversion work at ₱48,000/mo will do more.
And where it’s worth the difference.
Catalogue scale breaks the theme
Thousands of SKUs with complex filtering is where themes start to strain and a custom front end earns its cost.
Measured speed is costing sales
Measured, not assumed. If you can show the conversion drop against load time on your own analytics, headless is justified; if you cannot, it is a preference.
The storefront is the brand
Editorial commerce, heavy motion, 3D product views — experiences a theme cannot express and which genuinely differentiate the product.
We sell both and we recommend Shopify far more often. If you are being pitched headless without being shown which number it improves, ask for that number — and if nobody can produce it, the honest build is the cheaper one.
Asked either way round.
Should a Philippine brand use Shopify or headless commerce?
Shopify for almost every brand: hosting, security, PCI compliance and uptime become the platform's responsibility, and the team can change the storefront without a developer. Headless is justified only when catalogue scale or measured page speed is demonstrably costing sales — React Web Development Services charges ₱195,000 for Shopify and ₱620,000 for headless, and the difference has to be earning its keep.
What does headless commerce actually cost to run?
More than the build suggests. You still pay the commerce platform, plus hosting for the front end, plus a developer for storefront changes a theme editor would have handled in-house. Budget for that ongoing cost before comparing build prices, because it is where the real difference sits.
Is Shopify fast enough?
For the great majority of Philippine stores, yes — with image discipline and restraint about apps. Apps are the usual cause of a slow Shopify store, not Shopify. Audit those before concluding the platform is the limit.