website-automation vs Shopify
Shopify if commerce is the product. Us if the site is the product.
Shopify is a full storefront platform with inventory, shipping, taxes and POS. We are a site builder with no store of any kind. If you need to take money for physical goods, you need Shopify — or something like it — and we are not it.
Shopify is for storefronts. We're for sites that happen to sell things.
Side by side.
The honest comparison — no marketing fluff.
| Dimension | website-automation | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $79/mo (Max, all features) | $39/mo (Basic) — $399/mo (Advanced) |
| Transaction fees (non-native processor) | No store built in | 0.5-2.0% above processor |
| Payment processing | Whatever checkout you link to | Shopify Payments preferred |
| Inventory management | Basic (product on/off) | Full (multi-warehouse, variants) |
| Shipping rules | Flat-rate per product | Carrier-calculated, zones, weight |
| Tax automation | Manual | Automatic (US, EU, etc.) |
| Marketing site quality | AI-generated hero + content | Theme-based, generic |
| Blog / content marketing | MDX blog included | Basic blog |
| App ecosystem | None — no store | 8,000+ apps |
| Best fit | <$100K/year, marketing-led | $100K+/year, commerce-first |
Where we win
What you get with us that they don't give you.
Site quality + content marketing
Shopify themes look like Shopify themes — fine for utility, but the marketing site around the store is usually weak. Our generator gives you a real marketing site that happens to have products.
0% transaction fees
Shopify charges 2.0% (Basic), 1.0% (Shopify) or 0.5% (Advanced) on top of card processing if you don't use Shopify Payments. We charge nothing on sales because we don't process any — which is only an advantage if you didn't need a store to begin with.
Cheaper baseline
Shopify Basic is $39/month and includes the store. Our Max is $79/month for unlimited sites, unlimited generations, custom domains and analytics — and no store. Compare them on what you actually need, not on the monthly number.
No platform lock-in on payments
Shopify Payments is the path of least resistance and ties your processing to Shopify. Our site links out to whatever checkout you run, so the processor stays your choice — but you are the one running it.
Real marketing site
Shopify treats blog + content as second-class. We have a real blog (MDX), real /for/ industry pages, real SEO tooling. If your customer-acquisition is search + content, we're set up for it; Shopify isn't.
Where Shopify wins
Honest take — they're better at this.
Pick Shopify if any of these matter more to you than what we offer.
Full commerce platform
Inventory management, shipping calculation, tax automation, multi-channel selling (Amazon, eBay, social), POS for physical retail. We don't try to be any of this.
Massive app ecosystem
Shopify App Store has 8,000+ apps for everything from subscription billing to upsell pop-ups to ERP integration. Niche needs are usually covered by someone.
Brand recognition + investor comfort
If you're raising money or partnering with retailers, 'we're on Shopify' is a known quantity that answers a lot of questions before they're asked.
Volume discounts at scale
Shopify Plus is for $1M+/year stores with custom pricing. We don't have a comparable enterprise tier.
Switching from Shopify
The migration path.
A few steps, mostly DNS + content copy. Most stores cut over in an afternoon.
- 1
1. Be honest about whether this is the right move
If you're doing $200K+/year in sales with 100+ SKUs and complex shipping, stay on Shopify. The migration cost won't pay back. We win for stores under $100K/year where marketing site quality matters more than warehouse management.
- 2
2. Generate the marketing site first
Use /create with a prompt describing your brand. This gives you the marketing site; keep the Shopify store running and link to it.
- 3
3. Recreate products
They don't move — there is no catalogue on our side to move them into. Products, customers and past orders stay with the platform selling them today.
- 4
4. Point the buttons at your store
Set every buy button to your existing product URLs. Checkout, refunds, disputes and tax stay with the platform already handling them.
- 5
5. Cut over the domain
DNS-level switch. Shopify stays accessible at .myshopify.com until you cancel. Set up 301 redirects for high-traffic product URLs to preserve SEO.
FAQ
Common questions about switching.
What about my Shopify reviews + customer accounts?
Customer-facing reviews: export from your Shopify reviews app (Loox, Judge.me) and re-import to a similar tool that works on any storefront. Customer accounts don't migrate cleanly — most stores accept this and let customers re-create accounts (or run guest checkout via Stripe).
Can I keep Shopify Payments rates?
Shopify Payments rates are a Shopify-exclusive deal and don't travel. Since we don't process payments, whatever you pay today is whatever you keep paying.
What if I need subscriptions / recurring billing?
We don't handle subscriptions for your customers at all. Keep them on Shopify, or on a subscription tool like Recharge, and link to it from the site.
Multi-warehouse / 3PL integration?
Not natively. If you have an FBA / 3PL operation, Shopify or BigCommerce is the right tool. We're for simpler operations.
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