A plain-language guide to what an online store is made of, how Horoshop, WordPress, OpenCart, Shopify and Prom.ua differ, where each platform is strong, what it costs over 5 years and who each one suits.
LightSEO · Horoshop Expert250+ stores launched on different platformsThe platform is the engine of the website. It runs the catalog, the cart, payment, delivery, the admin panel where you see orders, and everything the buyer sees. The platform you choose determines how much you pay every month, who is responsible for security and how fast the store grows together with your business.
Like renting space in a shopping mall: security, electricity, repairs and cleaning are already included in the rent. You pay a subscription and focus on sales.
Like your own house: you can rebuild it any way you like, but you maintain the roof, the wiring and the alarm system yourself or hire a handyman.
Like a stall at a big market: there are plenty of buyers, competitors stand right next to you, and the market sets the rules, prices and commissions.
We look through the eyes of a store owner in Ukraine: what the price includes, how flexible the platform is, who is responsible for the website running and what you will have to buy on top.
| Criterion | Horoshop | WordPress + WooCommerce | OpenCart | Shopify | Prom (website on the marketplace) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Ready-made platform | Self-hosted CMS | Self-hosted CMS | Ready-made platform | Marketplace |
| Subscription | from UAH 288/month, the popular Standard plan – UAH 816/month | The CMS itself is free, hosting is extra | The CMS itself is free, hosting is extra | $29–299/month | Package: UAH 3,000–10,500/year |
| Sales commission | 0% | 0% | 0% | up to 2% of turnover with Ukrainian payment providers | UAH 10 per order, ProSale from 6% |
| Code access and custom development | Closed code, custom development via scripts, the API and integrations | Full access, any logic | Full access, any logic | Liquid themes, API, apps | Prom settings only |
| Extensions | Built-in integrations + API | Tens of thousands of plugins | Thousands of modules | 8,000+ apps | Prom services |
| Ready-made buyers | You bring the traffic yourself, marketplace feeds are built in | You bring the traffic yourself | You bring the traffic yourself | You bring the traffic yourself | Marketplace audience from day one |
| Hosting, SSL, security | Included, 24/7 monitoring | Extra, you are responsible | Extra, you are responsible | Included | Included |
| Updates | Automatic, free of charge | Manual, with a risk of breaking plugins | Manual, often with rework | Automatic | Automatic |
| Nova Poshta, Ukrposhta | Built in | Plugins | Modules | Third-party apps | Built in |
| Installment payments, PRRO | Built in: PrivatBank, monobank, Checkbox | Plugins | Modules | Limited for Ukraine | Via Prom Payment |
| Feeds for Rozetka, Prom, Hotline, Google, Facebook | Built in | Plugins | Modules | Google and Facebook, no Ukrainian marketplaces | Only inside Prom |
| SEO tools | Built in: tag templates, filter landing pages, automatic redirects | Strong SEO plugins: Yoast, Rank Math | Via modules | Basic + apps | The prom.ua domain gets promoted |
| Support | In Ukrainian, chat and e-mail, contract and completion certificates | Your developer and a huge community | Your developer, many specialists in Ukraine | In English, 24/7 | In Ukrainian |
Each platform covers its own tasks. We have briefly summed up where each one wins and which limitations you will have to accept.
Many stores work on two platforms at once: their own website holds the brand and the customer base, and marketplaces bring additional sales. From Horoshop, products are exported to Prom, Rozetka and Kasta automatically via a feed; from WordPress and OpenCart – via modules.
The launch costs roughly the same on any platform. The difference builds up later: in the subscription, commissions, hosting and payments to the developer who maintains the website.
We calculate for a typical store: 3,000 products, a turnover of UAH 3 million a year, about 300 orders a month. Exchange rate – UAH 42 per dollar.
If your in-house developer runs the WordPress or OpenCart website, the difference shrinks noticeably. For a store with a small turnover, the total of Shopify commissions is also considerably lower.
We launch most stores on Horoshop, so we describe it in more detail. More than 13,000 stores use the platform, and every month 5 million visitors place about 1 million orders on their websites. Everything below is included in the subscription.
Up to 50,000 products. Product variants by color and size, bundles, 360° view, YouTube videos on the product page, templates for similar product pages. Product import and export in xls, xml and yml, bulk editing, stock tracking, barcodes and units of measure.
Nova Poshta, Ukrposhta, Rozetka Delivery and Uklon Delivery. The delivery cost is calculated automatically, the waybill (TTN) is created from the admin panel.
LiqPay, WayForPay, monopay, Portmone, Stripe, PayPal, PrivatBank and monobank installment payments. Fiscal receipts via the Checkbox software cash register (PRRO) – manually or automatically.
Title and description templates for thousands of pages, structured data and OpenGraph, a sitemap updated every hour. Changed a page URL? Horoshop sets up the redirect from the old one by itself. The mobile version works on the same URLs, without duplicates.
Any combination of filters can become a separate page with its own heading and text: "Women's Nike sneakers size 38" collects its own search traffic. Brands and collections are separate pages too.
Feeds for Google Merchant Center and Facebook are generated automatically. GA4, Google Tag Manager, enhanced e-commerce, Facebook Pixel with the Conversions API and TikTok Pixel are connected in the settings.
Product export to Rozetka, Kasta, Prom, Hotline and Price.ua right from the admin panel. Prices and stock update automatically.
Discounts on products, categories and brands, bundles and gifts, cumulative and personal discounts, coupons, gift certificates, a countdown timer to the end of a sale, abandoned cart reminders.
Wholesale prices that drop with quantity, minimum order and order multiples, customer groups with their own prices, a dealer account with a personal price list, dropshipping.
350+ ready-made designs and a block editor for the home page, catalog and product page. A separate mobile version, several languages and currencies, selling files for download right after payment. The platform logo can be removed.
The platform monitors the website, updates it and protects it by itself. You focus on sales.
A store is launched for years, so before choosing a platform it is worth thinking about what comes next. Here are typical situations and how they are handled on Horoshop.
The plans cover up to 50,000 products, and there is a B2B plan for wholesale and dealers. If the store outgrows its plan, it keeps working and simply moves to another plan from the next billing period. You do not need to move to a new platform.
Horoshop updates itself: new integrations, Google requirements and new payment methods appear in the admin panel at no extra cost and without a developer. On WordPress and OpenCart your developer installs and tests updates, and upgrading to a new version should be planned in the budget.
The stores are hosted in data centers in Europe, and the websites are monitored around the clock. Power outages and attacks on data centers in Ukraine do not affect the store.
The domain belongs to you, and products are exported to Excel in a single file. The product database can be moved to any other platform.
Multiple languages, multiple currencies, Stripe, PayPal and Przelewy24 are included in the plan. For sales in Europe, the same team has a separate platform, Cartum.
The admin panel is the same for thousands of stores. Any Horoshop partner will figure out your website within an hour, and you change the basic things yourself without a programmer.
Quick start, Ukrainian integrations built in, predictable costs.
Ready-made buyers from day one. Once sales pick up, it makes sense to launch your own website and keep Prom as a channel.
The strongest content editor and SEO plugins, the store as part of a large website.
Free core, full access to the code and thousands of ready-made modules.
International payment providers, convenient checkout and the largest app ecosystem.
Price groups, a dealer account, personal price lists and wholesale discounts without custom development.
We fill the catalog, set up the design for your brand, payment, delivery and the PRRO, and connect analytics and feeds. After the launch – a 30% discount on setting up Google Shopping or Meta ads.
When the website is primarily content, when you need logic that ready-made platforms lack, or when you have your own developer. Then flexibility and full access to the code justify the support costs.
The two channels complement each other well. A marketplace brings buyers from day one. Your own website builds a customer base and a brand and sells without commissions. Products can be exported from the website to marketplaces automatically.
Only the CMS itself is free. Hosting, paid modules for Nova Poshta, payments and the PRRO, updates and website protection are paid for separately every year. If your in-house developer runs the website, part of these costs is already built into their salary.
Yes. The domain is yours, and products are exported to Excel. Moving to another platform is done the same way as moving to Horoshop, with redirects to keep your rankings.
On ready-made platforms you do not need one for daily work: you change products, prices, promotions, banners and pages yourself. On WordPress and OpenCart the basic things are also done in the admin panel, while updates and custom development are done with a developer.
The store will keep working. From the next billing period, Horoshop will recalculate the plan based on the actual number of products or orders.
Yes. SEO templates, indexable filters, structured data, automatic redirects and a mobile version without duplicates cover the technical side of SEO right after launch.
With LightSEO – 10–12 working days from the brief and receipt of the catalog, logo and access credentials.
Tell us about your business – we will suggest which platform suits you best and calculate the cost of launching and running the store for 5 years. The consultation is free.
