Comparison / Guides
Native vs synced: what your BC webshop's architecture really decides
ERP-native, real-time sync or connector — the integration architecture behind a Business Central webshop decides cost, fidelity and failure modes for years. Here is the honest comparison.
The three architectures
Every webshop for Business Central answers one question differently: where does the shop's data live? ERP-native platforms (Abakion Ecommerce, Sana Commerce) answer 'in Business Central' — the shop reads prices, stock and customer agreements directly from the ERP. Real-time sync platforms (commercebuild, Dynamicweb, k-eCommerce) keep their own database but mirror BC continuously and are built specifically for that job. Connector platforms (Shopify, Adobe Commerce, WooCommerce, nopCommerce) are general ecommerce systems linked to BC by a scheduled synchronization.
What fidelity means in practice
The difference surfaces in the details B2B customers notice. A negotiated customer price changed in BC this morning: live immediately on a native platform, live within minutes on a good sync platform, live at the next batch run — and only if the price logic was replicated correctly — on a connector platform.
Stock promises follow the same gradient. Native reads the ERP's availability calculation itself; sync mirrors it closely; connectors copy a number that was true recently. Whether that matters depends entirely on your business: a consumer brand selling t-shirts survives stale stock counts. A wholesaler promising same-day dispatch on 40,000 SKUs does not.
What total cost of ownership really includes
Licence comparisons miss the biggest line item: who maintains the integration for the next five years. Native platforms bundle that into the subscription — the vendor's product IS the integration. Sync specialists likewise own their engine. Connector setups split the responsibility: the platform vendor owns the shop, the connector vendor (or Microsoft, in Shopify's unique case) owns the bridge, and you own the gap between them.
Business Central updates twice a year. Each update is a small tax on every integration in the stack. Architectures with fewer moving parts pay less of that tax — which is why the cheapest option at purchase is frequently not the cheapest option by year three.
Choosing
B2B with customer-specific agreements: native, and it is not close. B2C where storefront experience drives revenue: Shopify's connector model is proven and Microsoft-backed. Product data needing enrichment beyond the ERP: a sync platform with PIM. Development team wanting ownership: open source, with eyes open about the maintenance role you are hiring yourself for.
The wrong reason to pick an architecture is a feature screenshot. The right reason is the failure mode you can live with — because every architecture has one.