Two decisions shape almost everything about an online store: how it’s built, and where it runs. These guides cover both, starting with the choice most merchants face first.
Start here: choosing an architecture
Monolithic, headless or composable? How to choose your ecommerce architecture compares the three setups on build cost, running cost and team size, with a verdict for stores selling under £1m, £1m to £10m and over £10m a year.
Headless and total cost
- Headless commerce vs traditional platforms: build costs, running costs and the developer hours a headless store needs
- Beyond Shopify: the total cost of ownership of open-source platforms: what it really costs to scale on self-hosted software
Hosting models
- Cloud hosting and service models for ecommerce: SaaS, PaaS and IaaS compared for online stores
- Shopify and BigCommerce: what SaaS means for merchants: what the platform runs for you and what stays your job
- PaaS for ecommerce: what it means for WooCommerce: what your host manages and what you manage
- IaaS for ecommerce: what it means for your store: running your own servers on a cloud provider
Cloud infrastructure
- Cloud platforms for ecommerce: the providers that run behind your store and how they differ
- Cloud architectures for ecommerce stores: the main ways a store’s servers can be set up
- Cloud computing for ecommerce: how hosting affects your store’s speed, scale and profit
Moving platform or host
- Ecommerce replatforming without losing rankings: an SEO checklist for changing platform
- Moving an online store to the cloud without losing sales: planning a hosting move step by step
Compliance and vendors
- Cloud governance, privacy and compliance for online stores: the rules your hosting setup needs to meet
- Cloud vendors and market share: research on the main providers for decision makers