Showcase website, online shop or SaaS platform: which project fits your business?

Here is how to tell them apart, with examples from our own work, followed by a five-step method to make the call.

A showcase website presents your business: who you are, what you offer, where to find you, how to reach you. It doesn't sell online directly; it turns a search into an enquiry: a call, a quote request, a visit to your shop.

It's the right choice for tradespeople, local shops, practices, freelancers and service businesses. What makes it work comes down to three things: a clear message from the very first screen, careful local SEO and calls to action that are obvious on mobile.

A concrete example: for Point Phone, a repair workshop in Nancy, the website first answers the question customers actually ask: how much, and how long. Hence an indicative price list by model, a one-minute quote form and Google reviews in view before customers even walk in.

The same approach applies to Monsieur Téléphones, a showcase website designed to support the launch of a smartphone repair and sales business.

As soon as visitors need to pay online, you're in a different category. A shop adds a catalogue, a basket, payments, order management and, often, stock and delivery. Every product becomes a page to get right, with its photos, description and price.

The same logic applies to online booking: visitors book a slot without having to call you. In our pricing, both needs fall under the Business plan, which includes e-commerce or booking.

A SaaS platform, or web application, doesn't just present or sell: it delivers a service on an ongoing basis. Your users create an account, log in, use features and often pay a subscription. Behind the scenes, that takes a database, authentication, recurring payments and an admin area.

That's the territory of our Elite plan. Two projects show what is possible.

With Donald Scott Academy, it's no longer a website you visit but a service you use: each athlete has an account, their jump videos are stored privately, visible only to the coach, and access works through a monthly subscription, with two plans.

SaaS Builder takes the idea further: the platform writes its users' application directly in their own GitHub repository, then deploys it on their own Supabase, Vercel and Stripe accounts. The product is theirs from day one.

In the same family, J-Nation is a social network dedicated to athletics, and OutilsIA is a directory platform for artificial intelligence tools.

Between the two extremes, the question often comes down to this: should you start simple, or build the platform straight away?