PrestaShop vs. Shopify in 2025: The Honest Comparison for Businesses in Spain

Deciding which platform to use to launch or migrate an online store is one of the most critical decisions for a business in Spain. In 2025, two titans continue to dominate the landscape: PrestaShop , the bastion of open source software and total customization, and Shopify , the SaaS (Software as a Service) giant. But which is really the best option for the Spanish market, especially if SEO and long-term control are your priorities?

This honest comparison breaks down the three key areas that matter most to merchants: actual costs, SEO potential, and flexibility to grow, with a special emphasis on why PrestaShop often becomes the strategic choice for serious businesses.

The Quick Verdict: Who Is Each Platform For?

• Shopify is for you if: You prioritize launch speed and ease of use above all else. It's ideal for entrepreneurs and startups who want an all-in-one solution without technical complications, assuming a recurring monthly cost and certain limitations in customization and advanced SEO.
• PrestaShop is for you if: You're looking for maximum customization and complete control over your project . It's the preferred option for businesses that understand the value of SEO, plan a long-term strategy, and want to own their technology without paying sales commissions.

1. The Battle of Real Costs: Owning vs. Renting?

This is where the difference in model is most evident. With PrestaShop, you own your home; with Shopify, you rent a luxury apartment.

Shopify: The Convenience of Subscription (and Its Hidden Costs)

With Shopify, you pay a monthly fee that includes hosting, security, and support. It's predictable, but can scale quickly.

• Monthly Plans (2025): Basic (~€36/month), Shopify (~€105/month), Advanced (~€384/month).
• The Deciding Factor: Fees. If you don't use Shopify Payments and opt for a Spanish gateway like Redsys, Shopify penalizes you with an additional fee on each sale: 2% on the Basic plan, 1% on the Shopify plan, and 0.6% on the Advanced plan . This fee is in addition to what your bank already charges you.
• Additional Costs: Advanced features (especially for SEO and marketing) require monthly paid apps , which can easily add €50-€150/month to your bill.

PrestaShop: Initial Investment for Total Freedom

PrestaShop is free to download, but requires an investment to get up and running. The big advantage: once set up, the fixed costs are minimal and there are no sales fees.

• Infrastructure Costs: You'll need PrestaShop-optimized hosting (€10-€30/month in Spain) and a domain (€15/year).
• Essential Modules (Single Payment): Here you invest at the beginning to save for the long term.
  • Payment Gateway (Redsys): ~€40 - €70.
  • Advanced SEO: ~€100 - €200.
  • Legal Compliance (GDPR): ~€70.
• Maintenance: You're responsible for security and updates. You can do this yourself or hire maintenance (~€50-€200/month), a cost that's often still lower than the combined cost of apps and Shopify fees for a mid-sized store.

Cost Conclusion

Shopify is a recurring operating cost that grows with your sales. PrestaShop is a capital investment (asset) that gives you freedom and a much lower and controlled maintenance cost over the long term, without penalizing your growth with higher fees.

2. SEO: The Big Difference. PrestaShop's Flexibility vs. Shopify's Rigidity

This is where PrestaShop proves its superiority for any business serious about organic growth. Shopify offers a solid foundation for beginners, but its structural limitations are a glass ceiling for advanced SEO strategies.

Shopify SEO Limitations: The Walled Garden

Shopify is designed to be simple, but with that simplicity comes rigidity.

• Fixed and Immutable URL Structure: This is perhaps its biggest weakness. You can't remove the /products/ , /collections/ or /pages/ prefixes from your URLs. This prevents you from creating a clean, advanced web architecture (siloing), which is essential for organizing content and ranking competitive categories. In PrestaShop, you have complete control over every part of the URL , allowing for perfect optimization.
• Hreflang Management and International SEO: While PrestaShop natively manages multi-language and multi-store functionality from a single dashboard (making it much easier to implement hreflang tags for international markets), Shopify relies on paid apps or complex subdomain-level solutions that aren't always ideal for SEO.
• Limited Control Over Structured Data (Schema): Shopify and its themes generate basic structured data, but if you want to fully customize it (for example, to add niche-specific schemas), you'll again rely on paid apps that are often limited. With PrestaShop, you have full access to the code to implement perfect, custom Schema markup.
• Zero Server Access: Forget about optimizing your .htaccess file for advanced redirects or implementing server-level caching rules. You're locked into the tools Shopify provides.

The Power of Total Control with PrestaShop

PrestaShop gives you the keys to the SEO kingdom. Anything an SEO specialist can imagine can be implemented.

• Custom Web Architecture: Define clean and logical URL structures that reinforce the authority of your main categories.
• Native International SEO: Efficiently manage different languages and countries, a key point for businesses in Spain that sell in Europe.
• Deep Web Optimization (WPO): By choosing your own hosting, you can implement the latest caching technologies (Varnish, Redis), optimize your database, and have full control over Core Web Vitals, something that is a black box with Shopify.

3. Task Automation: The Open Ecosystem vs. Pay-Per-App

Automation is key to scaling, and here the approach of both platforms is radically different.

The Difficulty of Automating SEO on Shopify

At Shopify, automation relies almost exclusively on the App Store. Want to generate meta descriptions in bulk? You need one app. Optimize the ALT text of thousands of images? Another app. Create advanced redirect rules? Yet another. This not only drives up monthly costs , but also creates a dependency on multiple third-party developers. The system is designed to make you pay for every new feature, limiting your ability to create truly customized workflows.

Unlimited Automation in PrestaShop

PrestaShop's open source ecosystem offers unmatched flexibility.

• All-in-One Modules: You can purchase an advanced SEO module (one-time payment) that centralizes dozens of tasks: template-based meta tag automation, advanced sitemap generation, 404 redirect management, and much more. The long-term cost-benefit ratio is immense.
• Custom Scripts: With access to the database and code, a developer can create custom scripts to automate unique tasks for your business. For example, a script that automatically optimizes images when uploaded with a specific format and weight, or that updates prices and stock from a third-party supplier in a very specific way. This is unthinkable with Shopify.
• Direct Integrations: The ability to connect PrestaShop directly to ERPs and other management tools without relying on a paid monthly app "connector" gives you much greater control and operational efficiency.

Final Conclusion: Which Platform Will Win in Spain in 2025?

There is no absolute winner, but rather a right choice for every type of business and level of ambition.

Choose Shopify if:

• You need to launch in days and ease of use is your only priority.
• Your SEO strategy isn't too ambitious, and you're happy with the basic features.
• You prefer predictable monthly spending and don't mind giving up technical control and paying sales commissions.

Choose PrestaShop if:

• You understand that SEO is a fundamental pillar of your business and you want maximum control to outperform your competition.
• You're looking to build a long-term digital asset , being the sole owner of your platform, your data, and your future.
• You want a scalable, more cost-effective solution, free of sales fees and with the ability to automate and customize without limits.

For the Spanish market, where online competition is fierce, the ability to differentiate yourself through impeccable technical SEO and a unique user experience is key. And in this field, the freedom and power of PrestaShop remain, in 2025, the strategic choice for businesses aspiring to lead their niche.