Page builders exist because marketing teams need to ship landing pages without waiting for a developer. That is a real problem and worth solving. The cost is that they are frequently the single heaviest thing on the store.
The options
Shogun — the established enterprise option. Capable, well supported, priced for larger teams.
PageFly — the popular value choice. Broad element library, generous free tier, widely used.
GemPages — strong templates, increasingly polished, competitive pricing.
Replo — newer, aimed at performance marketers, better output quality than the older tools.
Shopify sections — not an app. Custom sections built once by a developer, then configured by your team in the theme editor.
| Best for | Watch | |
|---|---|---|
| Shogun | Larger teams, governance | Cost |
| PageFly | Value, breadth | Output weight |
| GemPages | Templates | Similar weight concerns |
| Replo | Paid landing pages | Newer ecosystem |
| Custom sections | Speed and control | Needs a developer once |
The performance question
Builders generate markup generically, which means more DOM and more CSS than a hand-built section needs. On a landing page receiving paid traffic that is a direct cost, because the people arriving are the most expensive visitors you have.
If you use a builder, use it for campaign pages and not for your product or collection templates. Those carry the most traffic and deserve purpose-built markup.
The alternative worth considering
Have a developer build six or seven custom sections that match how you actually market — hero, proof band, comparison, FAQ, testimonial, CTA. Your team then assembles pages from those in the native theme editor, with no extra runtime and no monthly fee.
It costs once, it is faster, and it usually covers most of what the builder was being used for.
Talk it through
Send us a page built with your builder.
We will tell you what it is costing in load time and whether custom sections would cover the same jobs.
Get a readA real read within one business day — not a sales call.
About the author
Manpreet Singh
Manpreet Singh is the founder of Proscube, an ecommerce growth studio. He leads the studio's Shopify and Shopify Plus engineering, headless builds, CRO, and its work on AI engine optimization, and writes its guidance on how to grow a DTC brand without wasting money. He works directly with founders — no account-manager layers between you and the people doing the work — and would rather tell a client not to build something than sell them work they don't need.
More about Manpreet
