Shopify is convenient, but it taxes every sale and slows your store. A custom store keeps 100% of revenue and loads in under a second.
⚡ Under 1s vs 1.9s
Looking for Custom Website vs Shopify in Dunwoody? Here is what local businesses get:
Dunwoody buyers research before they spend, so a site that loads instantly and ranks locally is what turns a search into a customer. In a city of 51,758, standing out in Dunwoody search results takes a site that is fast, clear, and built for how locals actually search. Between well-known spots like Dunwoody Nature Center and Treetop Quest Dunwoody Adventure Park and Ziplines, Dunwoody has real local demand — and the businesses that capture it online are the ones with the fastest, clearest sites.
Across Dunwoody's 51,758 residents, the businesses that win online are the ones whose sites load instantly and read clearly on a phone. As a growing community, Dunwoody draws locals and visitors alike near places like Dunwoody Nature Center, and your site has to load fast for every one of them.
Builders like Wix and Squarespace trade speed for convenience. For Dunwoody businesses that need to rank, hand-coded PHP wins on the exact metrics Google measures. Because the code is fully custom, your site scales with Dunwoody demand instead of buckling under plugin bloat. Dunwoody visitors get a site that loads in under a second and keeps converting around the clock.
Plenty of Dunwoody businesses quietly lose customers to slow, template-built websites that blend in with everyone else. Every site I build for Dunwoody is written from scratch in PHP, tuned for Core Web Vitals, and structured to rank in local results. Flat-fee pricing, full ownership, and performance built to outlast the competition.
Yes — I build for Dunwoody businesses of every kind, from single-location shops to multi-service operations. Each site is tailored to how your local customers actually search and what makes them get in touch.
You supply what only you know — services, pricing, the questions customers actually ask. The structure, headings and local framing for Dunwoody are handled as part of the build.
Every build targets Core Web Vitals, sub-second load times, and local on-page SEO. Combined with schema markup, that is what helps Dunwoody businesses climb local results.
Often, yes. Plenty of Dunwoody projects are rebuilds — the content and brand carry over, the code underneath is replaced, and the URLs are mapped so existing rankings follow.
Shopify makes the first 80% easy and the last 20% expensive. Custom code inverts that, which is where Dunwoody businesses with specific requirements end up. Every Shopify migration for Dunwoody, Georgia ships with a full redirect map, so the rankings you already have follow you across. Most Shopify sites in Dunwoody start fast and slow down as plugins and apps accumulate. Custom code has nothing to accumulate.
Shopify makes launching a store easy, but you pay a monthly fee plus a cut of every transaction forever, and the templated checkout loads slowly. We build custom e-commerce stores with secure Stripe checkout that do everything Shopify does, hand-coded to load in under a second and score 100 on Lighthouse, for one flat fee you own. If you are comparing Shopify to a custom store, here is the honest breakdown. Serving Dunwoody, Georgia.
Side by side on the things that actually affect your rankings and your wallet.
| BuiltToWinWeb | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Page load time | Under 1 second | 1.9s |
| Lighthouse score | 100 | 60 |
| Cost | ✓ One flat fee | ✗ $39+/mo plus transaction fees |
| You own the code | ✓ Fully yours | ✗ Locked to platform |
| Built for SEO | ✓ Hand-coded schema | ✗ Limited control |
| Code & plugin bloat | ✓ Zero | ✗ Heavy |
The trade-offs that come with the convenience.
Monthly subscription plus a cut of every single sale, forever
Templated storefronts that look like thousands of others
App add-ons stack up extra monthly costs quickly
Checkout and theme speed you cannot fully control
You never own the platform or your store code
Shopify charges a monthly fee plus transaction fees on every sale indefinitely, and apps add more. A custom store with Stripe is one flat fee you own, so you keep 100% of each sale beyond standard card processing.
Yes. Product management, variants, inventory, discount codes, and secure checkout are all built directly into your custom store, without app subscriptions or platform limits.
Typically yes. Hand-coded stores load in under a second versus around two seconds for many Shopify themes, which directly increases checkout conversions.
Yes, and generally faster. Anything handled by a Shopify plugin or app — forms, payments, bookings, galleries — is built directly into the code.
About a month for a typical Dunwoody business site, including content migration and redirect mapping.
They stop. The build is a one-time cost and the code is yours; the only ongoing cost is standard hosting.
Get a free, no-obligation quote. We can rebuild and migrate your existing site without losing your rankings.
Guarantees, process and pricing are the same everywhere we work — see the full Custom Website vs Shopify page. Serving Dunwoody, Georgia.
See how Custom Website vs Shopify worksReal, verified reviews from business owners who switched.
“Jake and his team created and built my onboarding system. Couldn’t be happier, take the risk, well worth it!”
“His work is always professional and well done. He’s great at designing websites that look clean, modern, easy to use.”
“Great Work, Professional Service! Jacob is very knowledgeable, trustworthy and reliable. Highly recommend.”
“Built2WinWeb did a great job on my website. They were professional, easy to work with and delivered exactly what I needed.”