COMPARISON
When Quarkino is the right choice — and when it isn't.
An honest comparison against the three alternatives people actually weigh us against. Including the cases where we'd tell you to pick something else.
Before you read the table
- 2
- of the 10 criteria below where something else does it better. They are marked, not buried.
- 3
- situations where we would tell you to pick another option entirely.
A comparison page that never concedes anything persuades nobody.
What you're really choosing between.
Four approaches, not four products — which is why no brand names appear on this page.
Build from scratch
Full control, full cost. Every piece of infrastructure is yours to build and maintain.
Headless CMS + custom back end
A content system plus everything else built separately. Two systems to integrate and keep in step.
Hosted commerce SaaS
Fast to launch, constrained by design. You operate inside someone else's model.
Quarkino
A complete core you configure and extend, with a front end you build.
The comparison
Ten criteria. We lose two of them, which is the point of showing you all ten.
| Criterion | From scratch | Headless CMS + custom | Hosted SaaS | Quarkino |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to a working product | Slowest | Slow | Fastest | Fast |
| Front-end freedom | Total | Total | Limited | Total |
| Commerce depth | Whatever you build | Whatever you build | Deep but fixed | Deep and configurable |
| Case / workflow management | Whatever you build | Whatever you build | Rarely available | Included |
| Customise without forking | Not applicable | Varies | Within their limits | Registries |
| Audit trail & permissions | Whatever you build | Varies | Often a higher tier | Included |
| Multilingual | Whatever you build | Usually good | Varies | Included |
| Ongoing infrastructure cost | Yours | Shared | Theirs | Yours or ours |
| Data ownership | Total | Total | Depends on terms | Total |
| Vendor lock-in | None | Low | High | Low |
No brand names, deliberately. Naming products invites a factual dispute somebody has to keep current, and it dates badly — the categories will still be accurate next year.
We'd genuinely tell you to pick another option if…
Three of them. A comparison page that never concedes anything persuades nobody, and everybody reading one knows that.
…you need a brochure site with a contact form.
A static site generator will be faster and cheaper. Quarkino earns its place when there are users, data, transactions, or workflow — not before.
…you want to launch a conventional store this week with no developer.
Hosted commerce SaaS is genuinely good at this. If your product fits their model and you don't need to escape it, that's the right tool.
…your product is a single, unusual thing with no conventional parts.
If almost nothing in the feature catalogue applies, you're paying for a core you won't use. Build from scratch.
It's a good fit when…
The mirror image of the three above — where Quarkino is the answer rather than the overhead.
- You need real depth — commerce, workflow, permissions, audit — not just content.
- You want complete control of the front end and the brand experience.
- You'll run more than one project, or more than one brand.
- You have requirements a hosted platform would make you work around.
- You need it to still be maintainable in year three.
- Compliance matters — audit trails, retention, data separation.
Still weighing it up?
Tell us what else is on your shortlist. We'll give you a straight comparison, including where they'd serve you better.
- We reply within one working day
- No sales sequence, no drip campaign
- NDA before the call if you'd prefer