Hosted platform or open source: the questions that decide it
Every hosted-versus-open-source comparison eventually becomes a feature table, and feature tables are the least useful way to make this decision. Both categories can run a shop with variants, discounts and a checkout.
What actually differs is who carries the work you cannot see: hosting, security updates, PCI scope, and what happens when your business needs a rule the platform does not have.
What you are really choosing between#
| Hosted platform | Open source | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting and uptime | Theirs | Yours |
| Security updates | Applied for you | Your schedule, your risk |
| PCI scope | Largely reduced | Yours to manage |
| Unusual pricing or B2B rules | What the model allows | Anything you can code |
| Cost shape | Monthly plus per-order fees | Servers plus engineering time |
| Speed to launch | Weeks | Weeks to months |
| Exit | Export and rebuild | Move the code |
Four questions that decide it in an hour#
- Does your pricing or variant logic fit the platform's data model? Test it with your ten hardest products, not your simplest.
- At your realistic order volume, what do per-order fees total in a year? Compare that to hosting plus maintenance.
- Who applies a security patch on a Friday evening? If the answer is nobody, choose hosted.
- Do you need to sit inside systems you already own? That pushes towards open source or custom.
The honest case for hosted#
For most first stores and many second ones, a hosted platform is the right answer and developers dislike admitting it. It removes an entire category of work you do not want, and it lets you find out what the business actually needs before you build it.
Choosing hosted is not a lack of ambition. Rebuilding a store you understand is far cheaper than building one you are guessing about.
The honest case for open source#
When your rules genuinely do not fit, when per-order fees become a real line at your volume, or when the store must live inside your own systems, open source stops being ideology and starts being arithmetic.
Frequently asked questions
Is open source cheaper?
Rarely in year one. It can become cheaper at volume, once per-order fees exceed hosting and maintenance.
Can I move from hosted to open source later?
Yes, if you kept product data, content and URL structure portable. If you did not, it is a rebuild.
Which is more secure?
Hosted reduces your PCI scope and patches for you. Open source can be as secure, if someone owns the updates.
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