Most businesses should use Shopify or WooCommerce, and we will say so. Custom e-commerce is for the minority whose selling model breaks the assumptions those platforms are built on.
The tell is usually that your quote for a customer depends on who they are, what they have bought before, or a configuration with rules - none of which a standard product catalogue expresses well.
This is custom software rather than a store build: from A$1,500 for something focused, A$15,000 and up for a multi-module system, milestone-based over A$10,000.
Even in a custom build, checkout goes through an established provider such as Stripe. Custom means your rules and your workflow, not your own card handling.
Only when a platform genuinely cannot express how you sell. If you can describe your model as products with variants and a cart, use a platform.
Sometimes the best answer is a hybrid - a standard storefront plus a custom system for trade customers.
Through an established gateway. Building card handling yourself is a compliance burden with no upside.
Tell us what you are trying to do. If something off the shelf already does it, or the job is smaller than you think, we will say so.
Get in touch