Hi @haphan94,
Apologies for the delay in replying to you. There's a lot to unpack here, and a lot of how you decide what is a "pro" and what is a "con" will depend on your own personal circumstances too. I'll try to be as robust but concise in my replies:
1. "A Buy Button is like a shortcut for buying one of your products. You can place Buy Buttons on your non-Shopify website or blog. Buy Buttons can show product pictures, descriptions, and prices, all while letting customers purchase products without leaving the website. Any updates to a product’s details in your Shopify admin will appear on the product’s Buy Button." There's more information in our guide on Shopify's Buy Button.
Pros: Using a Shopify Buy Button to add your products to your current website means that you can still use the Shopify Checkout without having to pay the price for a website hosted by Shop. So you could use the Shopify Lite Plan at $9 but still enjoy most of the store admin features!
Cons:
- Buy Buttons aren't compatible with apps from the Shopify App Store. For example, if you have a product review app, it won't work with a Buy Button.
- You need to use a supported payment gateway to use Buy Button. To see a list of supported payment gateways in your country or region, refer to Payment information by country or region.
- You don't have the use of a fantastic Shopify website and associated support.
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2 & 3. Creating a separate website for your online store with Shopify would still require the use of a Buy button as outlined above to connect your store admin to your external website. The benefits of creating a website using Shopify are that you can build and customize your storefront from your own Shopify account. If you're on a regular plan with Shopify, then building a website on your store means:
- a simpler, safer, and more streamlined experience
- You have access to free and paid themes, 24/7 support, and the Shopify Academy can walk you through how to build a stunning store.
Our help guides on using and building themes for your storefront will walk you through everything, and it makes the process far more intuitive, easy to use, and less stressful than if you were to attempt to do it externally.
I hope this helps clarify matters, let me know if you have any other questions!
