Lightspeed vs Shopify is decided by the shape of your catalog more than by the monthly fee, at least for a Dutch or Belgian retailer with a few thousand SKUs. Lightspeed's standalone web shop, Lightspeed eCom (C-Series), allows 100 variants per product and prices its plans by how many variants you sell: 250, 5,000 or 15,000, for EUR 68, EUR 120 or EUR 259 a month billed yearly (EUR 78, EUR 138 or EUR 298 billed monthly) on Lightspeed's Dutch pricing page. Shopify allows 2,048 variants and three options per product on every plan, does not cap the number of products, and starts at EUR 28 a month, or EUR 21 a month billed yearly, on Shopify's Dutch pricing page.
Pick Lightspeed eCom when your stores already run Lightspeed Retail, you sell in at most seven languages and your variant count fits a plan tier. Pick Shopify when products carry long size and color ranges, you need more than seven languages or B2B on an entry plan, or you depend on apps. The figures below come from each vendor's own pricing pages and help centers as of October 2026. Neither pricing page says whether its prices include VAT, and both platforms change plans often, so check them again before you sign.
C-Series or E-Series: the two products called Lightspeed eCom
Lightspeed sells two different web shop platforms under the eCom name. The C-Series is the eCom back office behind Lightspeed's standalone web shops in Europe; EU stores talk to its API through api.webshopapp.com. The E-Series is, in Lightspeed's own words on its E-Series help page, "formerly Ecwid": a separate platform with a different admin, a 70,000-product limit and the Ecwid REST API.
What you get in the Netherlands depends on how you buy. The standalone eCommerce pricing page (Essential, Advanced, Professional, Enterprise) sells plans by variant count and language count, which match the C-Series limits, and the eCommerce product page shows the C-Series back office. One FAQ answer on that same pricing page, about payment security, calls the product "Lightspeed eCom (E-series)", so the page itself does not settle the question. The Lightspeed Retail POS plans on the Dutch retail pricing page list a built-in Lightspeed eCom (E-Series) shop instead. Lightspeed's upgrade FAQ says moving from C-Series to E-Series is optional, that the C-Series "is still supported and updated", and that the free upgrade program is "only available to certain North American merchants".
Ask Lightspeed sales which series your quote covers before you compare anything else. The rest of this article compares the C-Series, because the standalone Dutch plans carry C-Series limits, and notes the E-Series where it changes the answer.
Lightspeed eCom and Shopify compared on 13 catalog criteria
Lightspeed eCom (C-Series) vs Shopify for a large catalog
| Entry price per month | Essential: EUR 78 monthly, EUR 68 billed yearly | Basic: EUR 28 monthly, EUR 21 billed yearly | Shopify is cheaper to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans priced by | Variant count: 250, 5,000 or 15,000 | Features and staff accounts; unlimited products | Lightspeed cost grows with your SKU count |
| Variants per product | 100 | 2,048 | Deep size runs fit Shopify without splitting |
| Options per product | Not stated in the limits page | 3 | Shopify needs an app or theme code past three options |
| Store languages | 1, 3 or 7 by plan | Up to 20 (30 on Plus) | Lightspeed stops at seven |
| Currencies | 6 | Local currencies per market (needs Shopify Payments) | Both cover EUR plus neighbors |
| Custom product data | 50 specifications, 20 custom fields per product | Metafields per product and variant | Both can hold spec sheets |
| Categories | 2,000, up to 25 per product | Collections | Lightspeed has a real category tree |
| Storefront filters | 6 filters, 15 values each (Advanced and up) | Set up in the Search & Discovery app | Lightspeed filters need planning |
| B2B | Professional plan only | Basic and up, 3 catalogs; unlimited on Plus | Shopify B2B starts lower |
| Point of sale | Lightspeed Retail from EUR 99 a month (billed yearly, with Lightspeed Payments) | In-person sales included; POS Pro EUR 79 per location | Lightspeed's strength is the shop floor |
| API rate limit | 300 calls per 5 minutes, 12,000 a day | GraphQL Admin API: 100 cost points a second; 200 on Advanced, 1,000 on Plus (Shopify) | Bulk syncs of big catalogs take longer on Lightspeed |
| Domains per shop | 1 | Local domains per market | Lightspeed uses Multishop for extra domains |
Sources: Lightspeed's C-Series specifications and limits page and Dutch pricing pages, Shopify's Dutch pricing page and help center articles linked in the sections below. Lightspeed's Enterprise plan is quoted on request and raises some limits, such as categories.
Variant limits: 100 per product on Lightspeed, 2,048 on Shopify
Variants are where the two platforms differ most. Lightspeed's limits page sets 100 variants per product and 25,000 variants per standalone shop (15,000 when the shop is linked to Lightspeed Retail). Lightspeed's help center also states that "each product variant counts as a separate product" toward your plan, in its article on product limits. So a plan of 5,000 variants is not a plan of 5,000 products once you sell sizes.
Shopify's variant documentation allows up to 2,048 variants per product and up to three options, such as size, color and material. A fourth buyer choice needs an app, theme code or, on Plus, combined listings. The Shopify variant limit guide covers those workarounds in detail.
Worked example: a workwear catalog of 1,800 products
Take an illustrative Dutch workwear shop with 1,800 products and an average of eight variants each: 14,400 sellable variants. Its best-selling work trouser comes in 10 waist sizes, 3 leg lengths and 4 colors, which makes 120 variants.
- On Lightspeed eCom: 14,400 variants needs the Professional plan (15,000 variants, EUR 259 a month billed yearly). The trouser is 20 variants over the 100-per-product limit, so you split it into four products, one per color, with 30 variants each, or ask Lightspeed to raise the limit.
- On Shopify: the trouser fits as one product with three options (waist, length, color) and 120 variants. The plan choice depends on staff accounts and reporting, not on the 14,400 variants; Basic costs EUR 28 a month.
- The catch on both: a fourth option, such as a reflective stripe or not, breaks Shopify's three-option rule and adds variants that count against Lightspeed's plan.
Splitting a product per color is not always bad: each color then gets its own URL, images and search snippet. It does mean the color picker on the product page becomes a set of links between products, which you maintain by hand or through product relations.
Dutch, French and German: languages, currencies and Multishop
Belgium alone needs Dutch and French, and many Dutch retailers add German and English. Lightspeed eCom includes 1 language on Essential, 3 on Advanced and 7 on Professional, with 6 currencies at most. Shopify lets you sell in up to 20 languages on Basic, Grow and Advanced and 30 on Plus, according to its language requirements page. Translations are managed in the Translate & Adapt app, by hand or with Shopify's AI translations, or written through the translations API by other tools.
Separate shops per country work differently. A Lightspeed shop has one domain; for a second brand or a separate B2B site, Lightspeed points to Multishop, which manages several shops in one back office but is not available to omnichannel merchants who run Retail POS (R-Series) with eCom (C-Series), per Lightspeed's B2B article. Shopify handles countries as markets inside one store, each with its own currency, domain or subfolder and languages, as explained in the Shopify Markets guide.
Shop floor and web shop: Lightspeed Retail versus Shopify POS
Lightspeed started as a point-of-sale company, and for retailers with physical stores the POS often decides the platform. The Dutch Lightspeed Retail plans cost EUR 99 (Basis), EUR 149 (Essentieel) and EUR 229 (Plus) a month billed yearly with Lightspeed Payments, or EUR 129, EUR 189 and EUR 269 billed monthly, each with one register, integrated payments and inventory, and each lists a built-in Lightspeed eCom (E-Series) shop: Venture on Basis, Business on the other two. If you buy Lightspeed for the stores, the web shop that comes with the bundle is the E-Series, not the C-Series.
Shopify includes selling in person with a phone or card reader on every plan. POS Pro, the paid tier of Shopify's point of sale, costs EUR 79 a month per location on top of the online plan. Inventory locations are capped at 10 on Basic, Grow and Advanced and 200 on Plus.
The practical question is where stock and product data live. With Lightspeed Retail, the POS catalog feeds the web shop; with Shopify, the online store and POS share one product list. Either way, product content (descriptions, specifications, translations) still has to be written somewhere, and neither POS is a good place to write it.
B2B ordering on Lightspeed Professional and on Shopify
Lightspeed eCom's B2B features are "available on Professional plans": checkout for registered customers only, account approval before a customer can log in, and prices shown excluding VAT. Customer-specific discounts come from customer groups and discount rules; for a separate trade price list, Lightspeed suggests running a second B2B shop next to the consumer shop (Lightspeed Help Center).
Shopify B2B works on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Every plan gets companies with locations, quantity rules, quantity price breaks, net payment terms and draft orders; Basic, Grow and Advanced can assign up to 3 active B2B catalogs, and Plus allows unlimited catalogs plus company-specific catalogs (Shopify Help Center).
For a wholesaler with a handful of price lists, Shopify's entry plans now cover more B2B than Lightspeed's Professional plan. For one with hundreds of customer-specific prices, both need Shopify Plus or a quoted Lightspeed Enterprise setup, and both deserve a demo with your own price list.
Pricing in euros, with iDEAL and Bancontact costs
Lightspeed and Shopify plan prices in the Netherlands, as of October 2026
| Essential | Lightspeed eCom | 78 | 68 | 250 variants | 1 | No |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced | Lightspeed eCom | 138 | 120 | 5,000 variants | 3 | No |
| Professional | Lightspeed eCom | 298 | 259 | 15,000 variants | 7 | Yes |
| Enterprise | Lightspeed eCom | On quote | On quote | 65,000 products, max 100 variants each | Not listed | Not listed |
| Basis | Lightspeed Retail + E-Series | 129 | 99 | E-Series Venture | Not listed | Not listed |
| Essentieel | Lightspeed Retail + E-Series | 189 | 149 | E-Series Business | Not listed | Not listed |
| Plus | Lightspeed Retail + E-Series | 269 | 229 | E-Series Business | Not listed | Not listed |
| Basic | Shopify | 28 | 21 | Unlimited products | 20 | 3 catalogs |
| Grow | Shopify | 78 | 59 | Unlimited products | 20 | 3 catalogs |
| Advanced | Shopify | 384 | 289 | Unlimited products | 20 | 3 catalogs |
| Plus | Shopify | From 2,100 | From 2,100 | Unlimited products | 30 | Unlimited catalogs |
Payment costs come on top. Shopify Payments on Basic charges 1.9% + EUR 0.25 for standard online cards, EUR 0.29 per iDEAL payment and EUR 0.39 per Bancontact payment, with lower rates on higher plans. If you use another payment provider, Shopify adds a fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. Lightspeed eCom offers cards, iDEAL and Bancontact through Lightspeed Payments, with PayPal, Klarna, AfterPay and pay by invoice among the default providers for Dutch and Belgian shops (Lightspeed Help Center); its payment rates are in your contract, not on the pricing page.
Apps change the total as well. Shopify's pricing page promises integrations with thousands of apps, and features such as bundles or size charts often come from apps, some of them paid. Lightspeed includes filters, product bundles and discount rules in its higher plans and has its own app store as well. Add the apps you would need to each plan before comparing the monthly fee.
Moving a catalog from Lightspeed eCom to Shopify
Most migrations between these two go from Lightspeed to Shopify, usually because of variant or language limits. The product records move easily; the structure around them takes the time. Map each Lightspeed concept to its Shopify counterpart before you export anything:
- Products split per color to stay under 100 variants can be merged back into one Shopify product with up to three options.
- Specifications and custom fields become typed metafields; the Shopify metafields guide explains the types.
- Categories (up to 25 per product) become collections and menu links; a product in many categories ends up in many collections.
- Tags (up to 25 per product on Lightspeed) carry over as Shopify product tags, which also feed collection conditions and the storefront Tags filter; the Shopify product tags guide covers a naming convention.
- Brands and suppliers map to Shopify's vendor field and a metafield, since Shopify has one vendor field.
- Translations for up to seven languages move into Shopify's translation layer per language, not into separate products.
- URLs change: Lightspeed product URLs become /products/ handles, so every old URL needs a redirect to keep its search traffic.
Going the other way, from Shopify to Lightspeed, the Lightspeed product import accepts 1,000 new products per import and 25 imports a day, so a 20,000-product catalog takes several days of imports or an API-based tool. The catalog migration guide covers mapping, test imports and cutover for either direction.
Catalog checks before choosing between Lightspeed and Shopify
What WISEPIM syncs with Lightspeed eCom and with Shopify
WISEPIM connects to both. The Lightspeed connection, which is in beta, works with the eCom C-Series API in both directions: it imports products, variants, images, categories, brands, specifications, filters and the translations in every language your shop has enabled, plus orders. On export it writes titles, descriptions, the long title and short description that Lightspeed uses as SEO title and meta description, prices and stock per variant, brand and supplier, variants with their options, images, specifications, filter values, categories and their translations, related products, and content in each shop language. The E-Series runs on the Ecwid REST API, which Lightspeed's own E-Series API help points to, so an E-Series shop would use WISEPIM's separate Ecwid connection, also in beta, rather than the Lightspeed one.
The Shopify connection imports products, variants as options, images, metafields as attributes, collections as categories and orders. It pushes titles, descriptions, vendor, product type, tags, variants and options, prices, stock, images, metafields and translations per language, and adds products to collections that take manual product selections. Pricing rules per channel apply on both exports, so the stored price stays the same while each shop gets its own markup or rounding.
That makes WISEPIM useful in two situations from this comparison: keeping one catalog in sync while you run a Lightspeed shop and a Shopify store side by side, and moving between them, where you import from one connection, fix variants, specifications and translations in one place, and export to the other.
