Which is best to build an eCommerce website, a theme or coding?

sure wordpress

 

Stick to open source like Wordpress/Woocommerce , you will not be dependand from anyone, the only costs you will have will be cost of hosting, you will have thousands free plugins to instal directly from admin panel, there are a lot of SEO plugins you can use to optimize your webshop like Yoast Seo for example But truely, to most important thing is not a platform you will choose to build up your webshop but

1. products and the best prices
2. advertising /SEO to reach your target audience

whithout those 2 points even best looking webshop will not sell anything I am in SEO/SEM industry since over 20 years and saw many examples of quite poor looking webshops which sells over 100K eurs/month and absolutely amazing ones which sells nothing. Often people looking on so many completely not important things loose their time to make their webshops looks amazing but forget to take care about proper purchasing volume of the products they will sell to get best discounts from the suppliers which is absolutely cruicial. Most of the clients look on the price will not be delighted amazing design of your webshop if your products will be overpriced in comparison to other shops so if I could advice you dont focus too much on the design cos for end customer it does not matters, but pay a lot attention to the products you want to sell and look for good suppliers who will gives you best discounts. And of course then you have to invest into SEO for example cos even best prices and best looking webshop will sell nothing without gaining highly targgetted traffic

 

Both options have their pros and cons. If you're just starting out and want to launch quickly, a ready-made theme (especially with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce) can be a good choice. It's faster, more cost-effective, and often includes built-in eCommerce features like payment gateways and SEO tools. Plus, you can still customize these themes to some extent without needing much coding.

If you're aiming for full control over the site's design, functionality, and scalability, a custom-coded website is more flexible. For security and features, a popular combination is using PHP with frameworks like Laravel for the back-end, and JavaScript (with React or Vue.js) for the front-end. Pair this with a strong database system like MySQL or PostgreSQL for good security and performance.

Ultimately, if you’re not too familiar with coding and need something fast, go with a ready-made theme. If you have the resources and plan for long-term scaling, custom coding offers better control and uniqueness.

 

Choosing between a theme and custom coding depends on your business needs. Themes are great for quick setup and lower costs, ideal for small businesses. However, custom coding offers full flexibility, better performance, and scalability, which is perfect for growing or unique ecommerce sites. Consider your goals and budget.