Most agencies push Shopify because it pays them an affiliate every month. We sell both Shopify implementations and custom ecommerce builds, and on most days we recommend Shopify. Here is the decision tree we walk every prospective client through.
Default answer: Shopify, with caveats
If you sell physical goods, your product catalogue fits a normal size/colour/SKU pattern, and your team is under five people, Shopify Basic plus a payment app is almost always the right answer for the first 12 to 24 months. It costs roughly KES 9,000 to 14,000 per month all-in. You launch in days. You stop worrying about hosting, SSL, backups, plugin security.
Where Shopify breaks down for Kenyan businesses
1. M-Pesa is a third-class citizen
Shopify supports M-Pesa only through third-party apps. The most reliable in 2026 are Flutterwave, IntaSend, DPO, and Pesapal. Each charges a transaction fee on top of Safaricom's. At low volume this is fine. At KES 5 million monthly turnover, you are paying KES 75,000+ per month in fees that would be KES 0 with a direct Daraja integration.
2. WhatsApp ordering is not native
Roughly 70 percent of Kenyan ecommerce conversations happen on WhatsApp before they ever touch a checkout page. Shopify's WhatsApp apps are mostly chat widgets that funnel back to the website. There is no clean "order inside WhatsApp, pay via M-Pesa, fulfilment ticket opens automatically" flow. Custom builds can do that in one weekend.
3. Inventory rules that do not fit the template
Examples we have seen: a restaurant that needs ingredient-level inventory deduction; a wholesaler with three pricing tiers depending on customer status; a fashion brand with bundle discounts that depend on the colour of the second item. Shopify can fake these with apps, but the workflow becomes "this app talks to that app talks to a third app", which is fragile.
4. Multi-location with rider hand-offs
Shopify multi-location is excellent for warehouse inventory. It is weaker for "kitchen A handles orders within Kilimani, kitchen B handles Westlands, rider gets a WhatsApp message" workflows. Custom builds win here.
The decision tree
Answer in order. Stop at the first yes.
- Are you doing more than KES 5M per month in revenue? → seriously evaluate custom. The fees alone justify it.
- Do you need workflows Shopify cannot do natively (ingredient inventory, multi-tier pricing, rider routing)? → custom, almost always.
- Do your customers prefer ordering on WhatsApp? → consider a WhatsApp-first stack (custom or hybrid).
- Are you under KES 1M per month and have a standard catalogue? → Shopify. Do not over-engineer.
- None of the above and you just need a storefront fast? → Shopify Basic, IntaSend or Flutterwave for M-Pesa, ship in 7 days.
What custom buys you
- Direct M-Pesa integration with zero per-transaction app fee
- WhatsApp Cloud API ordering inside the chat thread
- Inventory and admin built around your team's workflow, not the other way around
- Code you own forever; no monthly SaaS hostage situation
- Operational data that lives in your own database, not a third party
What custom costs you
- Higher upfront cost (Studio at KES 80,000, custom builds quoted separately)
- Need an ongoing platform (Stack at KES 1,500/month + 1% per transaction)
- Slower to launch (2 to 6 weeks vs 1 week on Shopify)
How Angazé approaches it
Our three productized tiers exist precisely because the right answer changes based on stage. Stack at KES 1,500 a month gives you the platform self-serve. Studio at KES 80,000 flat is done-for-you setup including the first three months on Stack. We will tell you on the first call which fits, even if the answer is "stay on Shopify and we will set up your IntaSend config for free".
Send us a message with where your operation is leaking and we will scope it within 48 hours.