The honest comparison

HDL Commerce
vs Shopify

We'll give it to you straight. Here are the differences, line by line — cost, features, operations and the time it takes to go live. You decide.

H
HDL CommerceComposable SaaS
VS
S
ShopifyHosted SaaS
Feature
HDL Commerce Composable SaaS
Shopify Hosted SaaS
License model
Fixed, predictable subscription
Subscription + transaction fees
Operations & hostingWho is responsible?
Included and managed for you
Included (hosted)
Upgrades
Continuous, automatic
Automatic
Transaction fees
None
Yes, unless Shopify Payments
B2B (pricing, contracts, quotes)
Built in
Shopify Plus only
PIM — product information
Built in
Via apps
Multichannel & markets
Built in
Markets + apps
Headless storefront
API-first from the start
Requires Hydrogen
Nordic checkout & paymentsSwish, Klarna, invoice
Built in
Via apps/fees
Ready-made connectorsERP, shipping
200+ ready-made connectors
Smaller Nordic selection
Open APIsREST & GraphQL
Versioned & stable
GraphQL & REST
Data ownership & lock-in
No lock-in
Platform-locked
Time to launch
Days–weeks
Fast
Support in Swedish
Nordic team
Global, mostly in English
Uptime & SLA
99.3% in Sweden
High, global

The comparison reflects a typical Nordic mid-sized merchant with B2B and B2C needs. Shopify is a trademark of Shopify Inc.

Total cost of ownership

Count the whole bill, not just the license.

Shopify is easy to get started with — but transaction fees, app costs and pricey Plus tiers add up fast. Here's the honest picture.

HDL Commerce

One predictable price

up to 40% lower TCO
  • Platform, operations, security and updates included
  • No license fees per order or GMV
  • Ready-made integrations — fewer consultant hours
  • Zero upgrade projects over time
Shopify

Convenient — but you pay for it

Fees + apps
  • Transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments
  • Real B2B requires the expensive Shopify Plus
  • Apps for PIM, ERP and Nordic checkout
  • Limited data ownership and customization
Migration

Switching from Shopify? We do the heavy lifting.

Our migration team moves products, customers, orders and URLs for you — with SEO preserved and a controlled, step-by-step transition. Free migration analysis included.

1

Analysis

We map your Shopify store, apps and integrations. You get a clear plan.

2

Migration

Catalog, customers, orders and content move over. 301 redirects preserve your SEO.

3

Integrations

We connect ERP, payments and shipping with ready-made connectors — not custom code.

4

Live

We go live together, monitor the launch and run operations from there.

Common questions

What you're wondering before a switch

Do we have to rebuild everything from scratch?+

No. We migrate your existing catalog, customer data and orders. The storefront is built on our headless foundation, but you keep your content, your URLs and your SEO.

How long does a migration take?+

Most merchants are live in a few weeks rather than months. The exact timeline depends on the number of integrations and how customized your current setup is — the free analysis gives you the answer.

What happens to our Shopify apps?+

Much of what apps solve in Shopify is built into HDL Commerce — B2B, PIM, Nordic checkout and multichannel. For the rest, there are ready-made integrations and open APIs — with no transaction fees.

Do we own our data?+

Always. Your data is yours. Open APIs and lock-in-free export mean you can take everything with you, whenever you want.

Where is the platform hosted?+

In Sweden, on green infrastructure, GDPR-safe and with 99.3% uptime — a higher SLA is available as an add-on. We handle operations, security and updates.

Next step

See the difference for yourself.

Book a demo with our commerce architects. We'll show you the platform and run your TCO numbers against Shopify.