Fonda vs. Shopify Plus for B2B ecommerce comparison

For whom is this comparison relevant?

You're considering Shopify Plus for your B2B store — or you already have Shopify and notice that the B2B features don't go far enough. Your customers each have their own price. You want to set up approval flows. You want a direct connection to Exact or SAP without extra middleware. Then this comparison is for you.

This comparison is relevant for: wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers in Belgium and the Netherlands, with 20 to 300 employees, who sell business to regular customers with their own price agreements.

Fonda vs. Shopify Plus — an honest overview

Shopify Plus is powerful for B2C. For B2B, the platform requires additional apps, custom development, or workarounds for many essential functions. Fonda has built all this in natively — at no extra cost.

The fundamental difference: B2C platform versus B2B platform

Shopify was founded as a B2C e-commerce platform. B2B functionality was later added as an extension to an architecture that was not designed before. In practice, that means: native price lists work for simple cases, but as soon as you need complex customer-specific pricing — tiered pricing, contract pricing per customer, real-time ERP synchronization — you have to write custom code or buy expensive third-party apps.

Approval flows and multiple order roles per customer account — a standard requirement for B2B purchasing — aren't available natively in Shopify Plus. The same applies to quote functionality, customer portals with invoice insight and in-depth ERP links with Exact or AFAS. Each missing feature is an additional app, an additional cost, and an additional integration point that requires maintenance.

Fonda was built for B2B complexity from day one. Customer-specific pricing, approval flows, quotes, customer portal, and ERP integration are not add-ons — it's the core of the platform. You pay one subscription and you have everything.

The “Shopify Trap”: How Simple Begins and Complex Ends

Shopify is tempting to get started: low entry threshold, familiar interface, large app ecosystem. But for B2B companies with growing complexity, Shopify experts themselves describe a pattern they call the “Shopify trap”: you start simple, add app after app for B2B features that are missing, and end with a patchwork of integrations that are expensive to maintain and fragile when updated. Each new campaign, customer type, or ERP requirement becomes a costly development process.

When is Shopify Plus the better choice?

Shopify Plus is great if you sell both B2C and B2B from one platform, if your pricing logic is relatively simple (no complex customer-specific contract pricing), if you don't need a direct ERP connection or are willing to invest in middleware, and if you want access to Shopify's large app ecosystem and international infrastructure.

When is Fonda the better choice?

Choose Fonda if you sell exclusively or primarily B2B to regular customers with your own price agreements, if you need a direct ERP connection without middleware or extra apps, if you want approval flows, quotes and a customer portal without custom development, if you want to go live quickly — 4 to 8 weeks versus 2 to 4 months — and if you want one platform for a webshop, portal and PIM without managing a stack of apps.