Shopify or a custom online store? What works in Lebanon

Every week someone sends me the same message. Should I open a Shopify store, or should you build one for me from scratch? The honest answer depends on three things: how your customers will pay, what you want to spend each month, and how far the store has to go. Here is what I tell them, with the facts I checked on the providers' own pages in October 2026.

Is Shopify available in Lebanon?

Yes. You can open a Shopify account from Lebanon, build a store, add products and sell. The store side works the same as it does anywhere.

The part that does not reach Lebanon is Shopify Payments. That is Shopify's own card processing. Shopify's help centre lists the countries where it works, 40 of them when I counted. The list runs from Australia to the United States, and the only Arab country on it is the United Arab Emirates. Lebanon is not there. Shopify's advice for anyone outside the list is to use a third-party payment provider.

So an ecommerce website in Lebanon on Shopify looks like this:

• You get the admin, the product pages, the checkout, the apps and the theme editor.
• You do not get Shopify's card processing. Cards go through an outside gateway or a wallet.
• Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee on sales that go through an outside gateway: 2% on the Basic plan, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced. That is on top of what the gateway charges. The figures are from Shopify's pricing page in October 2026.

Stripe is in the same position. Its country list has one entry from the region, the United Arab Emirates. PayPal cannot pay money out to a business in Lebanon either. I wrote a separate article on online payments in Lebanon that goes through each provider one by one.

How a Shopify store in Lebanon gets paid

Three ways work today. I usually set up two of them at once.

Cash on delivery

Shopify has manual payment methods built in: cash on delivery, bank deposit and money order. The customer picks one at checkout and reads your instructions on the order confirmation page. No gateway sits in the middle.

This matters more in Lebanon than almost anywhere. Cash is still how most online orders here get paid. Older trade data on the country puts cash at more than two thirds of all payments, and every local guide I read in 2026 says cash on delivery is still the default. If your store does not offer it, you lose orders.

A local wallet or card gateway

Whish Pay has a free app on the Shopify app store, launched in March 2025. The customer types the mobile number tied to their Whish account at checkout, confirms with a code in the Whish app, and the money lands in your Whish account. One merchant on Shopify's forum noted in 2026 that it sends the customer off the checkout page to pay, which can cost a few sales. Whish is licensed by Banque du Liban and has more than 1,000 locations, so your customers already know it.

For cards, Shopify keeps a list of supported third-party providers per country. Shopify staff told a merchant in 2024 that supported gateways exist for stores based in Lebanon, but that areeba was not on that list at the time. The list changes. Check Shopify's payment providers page for Lebanon the day you sign up, not a blog from last year. Amazon Payment Services lists Lebanon as 1 of the 9 countries it serves, and it is one name to ask about.

WhatsApp orders

The store shows the products and the prices. The customer taps the WhatsApp button, you confirm the order, and they pay at the door or by Whish transfer. Every package I build includes WhatsApp integration, so this costs nothing extra.

What Shopify costs over a year

Shopify's pricing page showed these numbers in USD when I checked in October 2026. Prices change, and the page says they can differ by country, so look again before you sign up.

• Basic plan: $27 a month billed monthly, or $19 a month billed yearly.
• New stores: 3 days free, then $1 a month for the first 3 months.
• Third-party transaction fee on Basic: 2% of each sale paid through an outside gateway.
• Your gateway's own fee: the provider publishes it or quotes it.
• Your domain: not included, and it is yours.

Year 1 on Basic, billed monthly: 3 months at $1 plus 9 months at $27 is $246. Year 2 is $324. Billed yearly, it is $228 a year. Add 2% of card sales for Shopify, plus the gateway's cut. Cash on delivery orders skip the gateway.

My part is the build: from $990, paid once. 50% upfront, 50% before launch.

When Shopify is the right choice

Pick Shopify when:

• You want to be selling in 7 days with cash on delivery and WhatsApp from day 1.
• You have 20 to a few hundred products with simple options, like size and colour.
• You want to add products and change prices yourself, from your phone.
• A monthly plan plus a percentage per card sale is fine for the size of the business.

My FAQ answer has not changed: Shopify from $990 to start fast. Custom-built from $1,900 when you need more.

When a custom-built store is

Pick a custom-built online store in Lebanon when:

• You need something Shopify wants an app for, or cannot do at all. Products and bookings on one site. Delivery prices by area, from Beirut to the Bekaa. Prices that change by customer. A gateway that has no Shopify app.
• You sell enough that the percentage hurts. At $5,000 a month in card sales, Shopify's 2% third-party fee alone is $100 a month, or $1,200 a year.
• You want a layout you decide, in Arabic and English, with nothing a theme rules out.
• You want to own all of it, including the code, with nothing to renew.

A custom store needs hosting. My Care plan covers hosting, backups, security and small edits from $40 a month, or you host it yourself. There is no platform fee per sale.

People also ask about WooCommerce. It is WordPress with a store plugin, hosted by you. Everything in this article about payments in Lebanon applies to it too.

What I build for each

Both start with 20 products and 5 pages. Both are mobile-ready, have WhatsApp integration and basic SEO. Both go live in 7 days: day 1 you brief me, day 3 you see the design, day 7 you are live. Extra products are from $40 per 10. One person designs and builds it, and the same person answers your WhatsApp after launch.

Shopify store with custom design, from $990

I design the store around your brand and build it on Shopify, so it does not look like the theme everyone else uses. Cash on delivery and WhatsApp orders are set up at launch. Your Shopify plan is paid by you to Shopify and is not included in my price.

Custom-built store, from $1,900

Built from scratch for you. The same 20 products and 5 pages to start, with the structure, the checkout and the delivery rules shaped to how you sell. You own the code.

Online payments add-on, $150

For either store. I connect a gateway or wallet you already have an account with, test it with a live order, and set the fallback methods, cash on delivery and bank transfer, next to it. The provider's fees are not included. Apply for the gateway on day 1, because approval runs on the provider's clock, not mine.

Side by side

Frequently asked questions

Is Shopify available in Lebanon?

Yes. You can open an account, build a store and sell from Lebanon. Shopify Payments is not available here, so cards go through a third-party gateway or a wallet like Whish, and cash on delivery is built in.

Can I use Shopify Payments or Stripe in Lebanon?

No. Lebanon is not on Shopify Payments' list of supported countries, and Stripe's country list does not include Lebanon. Shopify's own advice is to use a third-party provider.

Can I add PayPal to a Shopify store in Lebanon?

Not to get paid. PayPal's own documentation does not list Lebanon among the countries where an account can receive and withdraw money, and using an account from another country breaks PayPal's rules. Use a local gateway, Whish Pay or cash on delivery instead.

Which one do I own?

Both. The site, the domain and the content are yours in every package. The difference is the platform. With Shopify you rent the platform monthly. With a custom-built store there is nothing to rent, only hosting.

How long does either take?

7 days. Day 1 you brief me, day 3 you see the design, day 7 you are live. If you want card payments at launch, apply for the gateway the same day you brief me.