The platform decision is one of the most consequential choices a distributor makes when entering digital commerce. Get it right and you have a scalable, cost-effective sales channel. Get it wrong and you are locked into a system that drains cash every month while failing to deliver results.
The choice typically comes down to two paths: open-source platforms like Bagisto, Saleor, or Medusa.js, or licensed platforms like Shopify (Plus), Adobe Commerce (Magento), or BigCommerce. Each has legitimate strengths. But the total cost of ownership over three to five years tells a very different story than the initial price tag suggests.
The Licensing Trap: Costs That Compound
Licensed platforms quote attractively at the start. Shopify's basic plans start at a few thousand rupees per month. Adobe Commerce has an annual licensing fee that looks manageable against a large distributor's revenue. BigCommerce positions itself as the mid-market sweet spot.
What the sales pitch does not emphasise is how these costs compound. Shopify Plus charges a percentage of revenue above certain thresholds. Adobe Commerce licensing scales with your gross merchandise value. Transaction fees on every order add up. App subscriptions for features that should be basic — advanced search, B2B pricing tiers, multi-warehouse inventory — can add ₹50,000 to ₹2,00,000 per month in recurring costs.
Over three years, a licensed platform that looked like a ₹15 Lakh investment at signing can easily cross ₹60–80 Lakhs when you add licensing escalations, transaction fees, app costs, and the agency fees required for any customisation because you do not own the code.
For a distributor operating on 8–12% gross margins — which is typical in Indian B2B distribution — these compounding costs can consume the entire margin improvement that digital commerce was supposed to deliver.
Open Source: Freedom With Responsibility
Open-source platforms — Bagisto (Laravel-based, built in India), Saleor (Python/GraphQL), Medusa.js (Node.js, headless) — charge zero in licensing fees. You download the code, deploy it on your own server, and own it completely. No per-transaction fees. No revenue-based scaling. No app marketplace tax.
The trade-off is responsibility. You need a development team or agency to set up, customise, and maintain the platform. You need to manage hosting, security updates, and performance optimisation. You need technical capability either in-house or on retainer.
The total cost of ownership for an open-source B2B platform typically looks like this over three years: initial development and customisation (₹15–30 Lakhs depending on complexity), hosting (₹1–3 Lakhs per year on cloud infrastructure), ongoing development and maintenance (₹3–8 Lakhs per year for a part-time developer or agency retainer), and security and updates (included in maintenance).
The three-year total: ₹25–55 Lakhs for a fully customised B2B commerce platform that you own outright, with zero licensing fees and zero transaction fees regardless of how much revenue flows through it.
The Code Ownership Argument
For low-margin businesses — and most Indian distributors operate on thin margins — code ownership is not an ideological preference. It is a financial imperative.
When you own the code, you control your costs. If your current development agency is too expensive, you can switch to another one. If you want to add a feature, you can get quotes from multiple developers. If you want to integrate with a new ERP or payment gateway, you are not limited to what the platform's app marketplace offers.
When you are on a licensed platform, you are a tenant. The landlord sets the rent, decides which renovations you can make, and can change the terms at renewal. Shopify has changed its pricing structure multiple times. Adobe Commerce has shifted between on-premise and cloud models. These changes are beyond your control, and they directly impact your P&L.
For a business doing ₹100 Crore in annual revenue, a 0.5% increase in platform fees is ₹5 Lakhs per year. Over five years, that is ₹25 Lakhs that went to the platform vendor instead of your bottom line. On an open-source platform, that cost simply does not exist.
When Licensed Platforms Make Sense
I am not anti-licensed platforms. There are legitimate scenarios where they are the better choice.
Speed to market matters when you have a narrow competitive window. If a competitor is launching a digital channel and you need to be live in 60 days, Shopify Plus can get you there faster than a custom Bagisto build. The premium you pay in licensing is offset by the time you save.
Limited customisation requirements make licensed platforms viable. If your B2B model is relatively standard — simple catalogue, standard pricing, basic order management — a licensed platform handles it well out of the box. The cost disadvantage only becomes significant when you start customising heavily.
Internal technical capability is low and you cannot hire. If you have no developer on staff and no budget to retain one, a licensed platform with managed hosting and a support team is less risky than an open-source platform you cannot maintain.
Small scale operations where the total revenue through the platform is under ₹5 Crore annually may not justify the upfront investment in open-source. At that scale, Shopify's basic plans are genuinely cost-effective.
The Evaluation Framework
At Farscape, we evaluate platforms using a framework that weighs five factors specific to each client's situation.
Total cost of ownership over three years — not just licensing, but all costs including development, hosting, maintenance, transaction fees, and internal team allocation.
Customisation depth — how much does this business need to deviate from standard ecommerce? B2B pricing tiers, credit management, regional catalogues, dealer-specific discounts — each of these requires customisation that is easier and cheaper on open-source.
Integration complexity — how many systems need to talk to the commerce platform? ERP, warehouse management, logistics, payment gateways, CRM? API-first open-source platforms like Medusa.js and Saleor handle complex integrations more gracefully than monolithic licensed platforms.
Scale trajectory — where will this business be in three years? If you are at ₹50 Crore today and growing 25% annually, your platform costs on a licensed system will grow with your revenue. On open-source, they grow with your infrastructure needs, which scale much more slowly.
Team capability — does the business have or can it hire the technical talent to manage an open-source platform? If not, the total cost must include an agency retainer, which changes the calculation.
No single platform wins on all five factors for every business. The right answer depends on your specific situation. But the analysis must be done honestly, with real numbers, before the decision is made.
The Bottom Line
The platform decision is a three-to-five-year financial commitment. It deserves the same rigour you would apply to any capital investment of that size. Do not let an agency or a vendor make this decision for you based on their demo and their preferred technology stack.
Build the cost model. Map your customisation requirements. Assess your team capability. Then choose.
And if the numbers say open-source is right for your business, do not let anyone convince you that you need to pay licensing fees for the privilege of selling your own products through your own website. That money belongs on your bottom line.
Farscape evaluates platforms as part of every Digital Commerce Blueprint engagement. Our analysis is vendor-neutral — we do not resell, implement, or take commissions from any platform vendor. Book a free 30-minute diagnostic call to discuss your options.
