Horoshop, Prom, OpenCart or Custom: What to Choose for Your Store in 2026.

For a small store with a catalog of up to a few thousand products and a standard checkout, a SaaS builder such as Horoshop usually works best: a low monthly fee, a quick start and zero sales commission. You need Prom if the ready-made traffic of a marketplace matters to you. OpenCart remains an option when you have your own developer. Order custom development when the platform's limits are already costing you money.

Below we go through the four paths from an owner's point of view: what you pay every month, what commissions and limits apply, how much control you have over SEO, how Nova Poshta, LiqPay and 1C work, and what happens when you want to leave. The author, Evgeniy, has written PHP/Laravel for 11 years and tests stores, so we sell custom work and have an obvious bias. That is why we say plainly where it is not needed.

Four paths, not one choice

These options are often compared as if they were the same thing, but they are different models.

• SaaS builder (Horoshop and similar). You rent a ready-made store: hosting, admin panel and updates are included in the fee. You do not own the platform code; you change themes and settings.
• Marketplace (Prom). You sell in someone else's catalog with ready-made traffic and pay for a package plus a commission on orders. Prom also has a standalone-site mode, but the trading logic stays platform-bound.
• Self-hosted CMS (OpenCart). Free software: you choose the hosting, modules and developer yourself and are responsible for updates and security.
• Custom (Laravel, Nuxt and others). The store is built around your processes. The code and data are yours, but the start is longer and more expensive.

So the question is not "which is better" but "who carries which risk, and for how much money". The answer depends on the catalog, the budget and whether someone on the team is responsible for the technical side. We covered self-hosted CMS separately in our comparison of Laravel, OpenCart and WordPress, so we do not repeat it here and focus on SaaS and the marketplace.

Money: fees, commissions and hidden costs

Horoshop has a fixed monthly fee that depends on the number of products and features (API, wholesale prices, B2B): roughly from a few hundred to about two thousand hryvnias per month on annual billing. The platform takes no sales commission, and hosting and SSL are included. Tariffs change, so check current prices on the official site horoshop.ua before deciding.

But the fee is not the whole cost. Add:

• setup and design (a template or a studio's work);
• paid integrations and services that are not in the basic plan;
• payment fees: LiqPay and other acquirers take their percentage regardless of the platform;
• content: photos, descriptions, import.

Prom works differently. According to support.prom.ua, a seller pays for a yearly package or a basic subscription, plus a commission on completed orders, and its size depends on the category and the package terms. Separate commission rules exist for a site with your own domain. Prom's exact percentages have changed several times in recent years and public sources disagree, so we do not quote specific figures: before you start, work out the commission for your own category in the seller account.

OpenCart is free as software but not as a project: you need hosting, paid modules and themes, a developer's work and regular updates. A typical scenario is a cheap first year, then growing costs for customizations and fixes. Custom is the most expensive at the start: a store at Tochno costs from UAH 150,000 and takes 10–14 weeks, but afterwards you do not pay rent to a platform.

How to calculate the cost over three years

Compare not a month but three years, which is about how long a first version of a store lives. Suppose the fee is UAH 800 per month: over 36 months that is about UAH 29,000. Add setup and design, say another few tens of thousands of hryvnias, and you get roughly UAH 50,000–70,000 over three years with no platform commission. This is a hypothetical example of our own arithmetic, not a tariff or a studio's offer, so plug in your own numbers.

With custom the math is different: from UAH 150,000 at the start, then hosting and support (ours starts from UAH 8,000 per month if you need it). So over a three-year horizon custom is almost always more expensive than a builder. It wins not on price but on having no limits: when the catalog has grown, you need your own pricing rules, or the builder makes you pay for workarounds. If you cannot name a specific limit that is stopping you, custom is premature.

Comparison by owner's criteria

The table is simplified. The real difference depends on the specific plan, template and contractor, but it shows the direction correctly.

Limits, SEO and integrations: where it hurts most

Catalog and plan limits. In builders, the number of products, API access, wholesale prices and multi-warehouse features are tied to the plan. While you stay within them it is a good deal. As you grow, you move to a more expensive package and the calculation changes.

SEO. Builders can already generate meta tags, a sitemap and basic markup. For most small stores that is enough. Problems appear when you need complex filters with indexable pages, your own canonical URL rules, non-standard markup or decent mobile speed. With custom you control everything: URL structure, internal linking, speed, markup. More on this in the article Core Web Vitals for store owners.

On Prom you compete inside someone else's catalog, and your own site is not the main source of buyers there. That is fine, but do not expect Prom to grow your brand in Google.

Integrations. Nova Poshta and LiqPay are available almost everywhere, but "available" and "works without losing orders" are different things. Typical problems are mismatched waybill (TTN) statuses, double charges and an order stuck after a failed payment. With ready-made modules you depend on the module's author; with custom, on the quality of the tests. More on where this breaks in the article about Nova Poshta and payment integration.

1C and accounting. If stock and prices live in 1C, most platforms support file exchange. For complex logic (several warehouses, special customer prices, partial shipments) a builder often becomes too tight, and you have to look for workarounds.

Not sure a builder will be enough? Tell us about your catalog, integrations and plans for the year, and we will honestly say whether you need custom development. If you do not, we will say so. Fill in the brief.

Ownership and migration: what happens when you want to leave

This is the question people remember too late. Store data (products, categories, customers) can usually be exported from any platform, but everything around it moves less easily.

• Page URLs. A new platform almost always has a different URL structure. Without 301 redirects you will lose search positions, and recovering them takes months. This is the main migration risk.
• Order history and customers. Moved as a separate piece of work, and not always completely. Customer passwords cannot be transferred and have to be reset.
• Reviews and content. Depend on the export format. Sometimes it is easier to take them from the site than from the system.
• Design. A builder's theme does not move with you. It means a new design or a new layout.
• Prom customers. Buyers who came through the marketplace remain Prom's buyers. You will only have a mailing base from those who ordered on your own site.

So when choosing a platform, ask right away: what can I take with me and how much will it cost. Before migrating to a new platform, it is useful to run a QA audit of the online store on the old and new sites: check redirects, meta tags, the order form, payment and delivery before the switch, not after the first customer complaint. An audit with us starts from UAH 6,000.

When to choose what: decision rules

Here are simple rules. They are not perfect, but they work in most situations.

Choose Horoshop or a similar builder if

• the catalog is up to a few thousand products with standard processes: cart, payment, delivery by Nova Poshta;
• the budget is limited and you need to launch in weeks, not months;
• there is no technical person to maintain the site;
• you are testing a niche and do not know yet whether it will sell.

In this case custom for UAH 150,000 and up simply will not pay off, and we do not advise ordering it.

Choose Prom if

• you need first sales without your own traffic;
• the product is easily found through marketplace categories;
• you are ready to build the commission into the price.

Prom pairs well with your own site: the marketplace brings new buyers, and the site grows repeat sales without a commission.

Choose OpenCart if

• you have your own developer or a long-term support contract;
• you need more freedom than a builder gives, but custom is still too high for the budget;
• you are ready to keep up with updates and security.

Choose custom if

• the platform already limits you: catalog, prices for customer groups, complex discount logic, a B2B account;
• you need non-standard integrations with 1C, an ERP or a warehouse;
• speed and SEO are critical and template solutions do not deliver;
• you count not the first year but three to five years and see that platform rent plus workarounds cost more than your own code;
• you need automated checkout tests and quality control before every release.

Three questions help you check yourself. Can I describe my sales process in standard steps? Do the plan's features cover me both now and in two years? Do I have someone who is technically responsible for the site? If the answer to all three is "yes", take a builder.

Conclusion

The most expensive solution is rarely the best, and the cheapest often just postpones the costs. For a small store, Horoshop or a similar builder is usually a sensible choice in 2026, Prom complements it with traffic, OpenCart needs a technical owner, and custom wins when the platform's limits are already felt in money. Before you pay, calculate the cost over three years and check what exactly you can take with you if you decide to leave.

We covered cost benchmarks for custom development in the article how much does online store development cost, and Tochno's public prices are collected on the pricing page.

Choosing a platform for your store? Describe your catalog, integrations and budget, and we will tell you what fits: a builder or custom. If you need development, see an online store from UAH 150,000, 10–14 weeks.