Oh man, this is a hard one. I have preached. For years. Been a die-hard on this issue. Ready to die on this hill, sword and shield ready, my cape fluttering in the storm. "USE WORDPRESS FOR YOUR WEBSITE NO MATTER WHAT!" And as you read this words, you are visiting a website powered by Shopify. I've taken the leap - despite all of the cons that are still there. But there are also pros. A lot of them. And after all - convenience.
Can I create a website from scratch using WordPress? Of course I can. I did it for myself countless times, I did it for others. And I always thought I had to. Because of the control over every single aspect... every single pixel. But to be honest, do I have to? Because there is a downside to this - I have to manage updates, have to make sure all plug-ins work etc. etc. Themes are constantly evolving and it seems hard to keep track of what's the best. WordPress is constantly evolving and with every update you hope and pray to the tech gods that the plugins you love, know and use for functionality will be updated too.
Don't get me wrong. I still love WordPress with all my heart. But I feel I don't have the time anymore as my business progresses and grows to keep doing everything by myself. I think it's still the best platform you can get for your money. A solid hosting, a domain, time and you are ready to go - it ain't going to be cheaper than that.
BUT... if you want something fancier, with a little more bells and whistles, you start to pay, unless you are the ultimate coding wizard and can code it by yourself. A plugin for translations here, a plugin for privacy laws conformity there, a premium backup plugin, a new framework every few years... the list goes on and the costs mount up.
Sure, it's still very economical if you run multiple different websites. But I won't. I have one thing. Well. maybe two, but the second one doesn't need fancy e-commerce and probably not that many bells and whistles. So I can probably scrap most of my paid plugins and bring it all under one umbrella.
Is Shopify perfect? It definitely has it's cons, one is the price. Also, your customization possibilities are limited. But they are there. And to be honest, in our current time, your website has to function a specific way anyways so it's easy to use for the user.
After all, there are only so many layouts one can make, and only so many that make sense. And you don't want to irritate your potential clients, after all. Make it simple, make it robust and after all, make it pretty.