Open source software is software that anyone can download, modify, and build upon. For a seller, this means your store can operate like your business, you can control your total cost of ownership, and you can adopt new trends or opportunities as needed without waiting for a platform’s roadmap.
Business is moving fast. AI is increasingly used for product discovery and your products need to appear in new places. In the near future, it could be common for agents to shop for clients. No one can say what things will look like in 2030. But what is already clear is which brands will be positioned for this: those who can build on whatever comes, without waiting for a supplier.
That’s why over the next five years, commerce will be based on open source. Here’s how to decide if it’s right for you.
Making the source code public means that thousands of people can improve it, find problems in it, and build on top of it, rather than just the company that wrote the code. For your store, this means access to a global community and the tools you need to change the way your store works and runs, whenever you want.
Think of open source platforms à la WooCommerce as owning your own storefront on Main Street. You can customize your space, set your own hours, hire your own vendors, and choose your own card processor.
Closed platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce are like renting a concession counter in a department store. You get space in a building with pedestrian traffic, and they take care of security, lighting and cleaning. They provide convenience, but also limit what you can change, scale or expand.
Every platform has apps and extensions, but if there isn’t an extension for something you need, open source means you can build the functionality.
grüum sells shampoo bars, shaving kits and skin care, formulated and made in their own factory in Stockport. They also sell bundles, where customers choose what’s in the set and can subscribe to one item without subscribing to the rest.
That is an unusual way of selling. It’s also how their business works.
In 2023, they spent four months evaluating whether to switch to Shopify Plus or Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento). The bundles were part of the reason they stayed: they couldn’t do them with Shopify Plus, which meant they had to adapt their product offerings to the platform.
Today, AI agents are part of the shopping process. They compare products, check inventory, read prices, and occasionally complete purchases. They don’t respond to photography or brand voices: they read structured data and they won’t recommend a store whose data they can’t verify. In a report we commissioned from IDC this year, 65% of digital leaders say platform rigidity is their biggest barrier to AI adoption in commerce.
The standards themselves are open: Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol is published under an open license. But an open standard only helps you if you can act on it. When the next one arrives, change what your store exposes with open source, or wait for your closed source platform like Shopify to do it for you.
No one can change the version you are using
When Shopify announced that the files that merchants used to customize their checkout process were being retired, stores had a limited time to update their web pages before their checkout experience was broken. This happened again when Shopify Scripts, which handled custom discounts and shipping rules, was shut down.
Shopify had reasonable technical grounds and gave notice, but it still meant thousands of merchants spent time (and technical resources) rebuilding checkouts that worked properly, and whatever other plans they had disrupted.
That doesn’t happen with a WooCommerce store, because the version you’re using is on your server. Upstream updates happen and are available to you, but are not a hard deadline for your engineers. You still maintain control over your roadmap.
Vancouver skateboard company Land yacht paid approximately $45,000 USD per year for Shopify Plus. With the launch of their US store, app costs and setup work doubled, and cross-border costs for international sales started to mount.
“Shopify took us to the cleaners.” – Jacob Lambert, e-commerce and marketing specialist at Landyachtz
So they switched to WooCommerce and got the flexibility to run their store in both countries for less than $10,000 per year, including hosting, extensions and maintenance.
The numbers changed dramatically because they could now negotiate with suppliers to control their total cost of ownership. They worked with their hosting, payments, shipping, and analytics providers to get the best price.
Processing payments can also be expensive. Some platforms charge you a fee for choosing a processor outside their ‘preferred list’.
For example, Grüum discovered that Shopify takes a percentage of subscription revenue, instead of a flat fee like Woo charges.
“If you make £1 million or £10 million through subscriptions… you’re immediately spending £100,000 a year.” – Simon Leonard, co-founder of grüum
Quick-start platforms are rarely the cheapest to grow on, and the cost of a closed choice increases every quarter.
If you’re considering a switch, ask this: What does your platform charge you per dollar of revenue? What would it cost you to leave within 18 months? Is there a part of your AI roadmap behind a price point that you haven’t purchased yet?
If you want real numbers on what it would cost to run your store on WooCommerce, try our TCO calculator.
Do you feel stuck with your ecommerce solution? Let’s talk.
Christina Bevitori is a seasoned marketer and content strategist with 16 years of experience at e-commerce, SaaS and technology companies. She trained as a journalist before moving into marketing, so she is especially well-versed in long-form writing and thought leadership. But she is also an expert in the field of SEO and AEO content strategy.