There is no universally correct platform, only a correct fit between what the site must do, who will maintain it, and how much change you expect.
WordPress
Strong when a non-technical team publishes frequently and the requirements are conventional. The risk is plugin sprawl: every plugin is code you did not write, running on your site, updated on someone else's schedule.
Shopify
Strong for commerce, because payments, tax, inventory and fraud become someone else's problem. The constraint is the platform's model — fighting it with apps is expensive and fragile.
Custom (Next.js and similar)
Right when the site is closer to an application than a brochure: accounts, dashboards, bespoke logic, integrations, or performance requirements a template cannot meet. It costs more up front and less to change once the shape is unusual.
A short decision test
- Does it sell physical products at volume? Start with Shopify.
- Is publishing frequent and the functionality standard? WordPress earns its place.
- Do users log in and do something? Custom, almost always.
- Is the answer somewhere between? A headless CMS with a custom front end covers most of them.
Whatever you choose, insist on owning the accounts, the code and the content. Portability is what makes the next decision cheap.
