Does headless commerce support Bancontact?
Yes. Stripe supports Bancontact natively, alongside iDEAL, SEPA Direct Debit, and cards — so a custom or headless checkout serves Belgian customers their expected payment methods.
Headless commerce vs Shopify for Belgian stores
Shopify is the default answer for Belgian webshops — and often the right one. But once your store needs custom checkout logic, B2B pricing, multi-language NL/FR/EN catalogs, or deep ERP integration, the platform's guardrails start to cost real money. That is where headless commerce earns its keep.
Here is the comparison we give Belgian merchants deciding between staying on Shopify, going headless on top of it, or building a custom storefront with Stripe.
Where Shopify wins
Time to market and operational simplicity. Catalog, checkout, payments, and apps work out of the box; Bancontact is available through Shopify Payments; your team manages everything from one admin. For stores under roughly €500K in annual revenue with standard flows, Shopify's monthly fees are cheaper than custom engineering — full stop.
Where headless wins
Performance and search: a Next.js storefront loads faster than a themed Shopify front end and gives you full control over structured data, hreflang for NL/FR/EN, and Core Web Vitals — which matters when organic traffic is your margin.
Flexibility: custom checkout steps, B2B price lists, quote flows, subscriptions with Belgian VAT rules, ERP and PIM integrations — all the places where Shopify apps stack up to €500+ per month or simply cannot do it. With Stripe you also keep checkout on your own domain with Bancontact, iDEAL, and SEPA supported natively.
The decision framework
Stay on standard Shopify if your flows are standard and your team values operational simplicity above all. Go headless-on-Shopify when you want Shopify's back office but a faster, fully controlled storefront. Go custom with Stripe when checkout itself is your differentiator — B2B, configurators, mixed digital/physical, or platform business models. We have built all three and will tell you which fits before any code is written.
Pricing indication
From €15K
Full-stack web apps, e-commerce, and platforms — All prices ex. VAT · Indicative starting points · Fixed quote after discovery
See all pricing →Related work
Frequently asked questions
What does a headless storefront cost?
Headless builds start from €15K ex. VAT depending on catalog complexity and integrations. Compare that against your current app subscriptions, transaction fee deltas, and the conversion lift from a faster storefront.
Can we migrate from Shopify gradually?
Yes — a common path is keeping Shopify as the commerce engine and replacing the storefront first. Checkout, inventory, and fulfilment keep working while customers get the faster front end.