The question is less “which is better” than “which problem do you have”. A hosted platform sells you a finished shop and rents it to you. A custom build is a shop shaped to your rules that you own and maintain.
Reasons to use a platform
- Standard products, standard checkout, standard shipping.
- You want to be selling in weeks, not months.
- You do not want to be responsible for servers, payment-page security and updates.
- An ecosystem of ready-made add-ons covers what you need.
Reasons to build custom
- Products configured by the customer, made to order, or priced by rules that do not fit a normal price field.
- Deep integration with your own production, stock or accounting software.
- You sell something where the buying process is the product: bookings, subscriptions with unusual terms, B2B ordering with customer-specific prices.
- Platform fees and add-on subscriptions have grown into a large, permanent cost.
Costs to compare honestly
A platform has a visible subscription plus add-on fees and per-transaction charges. A custom shop has a larger one-off build and then hosting, updates and fixes. Neither is free, and neither is always cheaper. Compare them over three years with your own order volume, not on the first month’s price.
A hybrid is also common: a platform for the storefront and checkout, plus a custom service for the one thing it cannot do.