Crate vs Shopify
Shopify is the platform most other platforms are measured against, and it earned that. The question is not whether Shopify works. It is whether you need what it costs to run, and whether it meets you where your customers already are.
What Shopify is: A hosted commerce platform with the largest app and theme ecosystem in the category, used by businesses from first sale to enterprise.
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How does Crate compare to Shopify?
Crate and Shopify are both hosted commerce platforms, so neither asks you to run a server, install updates or manage security patches. The difference is where the selling happens. Shopify centers the storefront and treats other channels as apps you add on top. Crate treats the storefront, Instagram and WhatsApp as three places the same catalog, the same stock and the same order list already live, with no app to install and nothing to reconcile afterwards. Shopify has a far larger app ecosystem, a far larger theme market and a far larger partner network, and a business that needs one specific third-party app is usually better served there. A business that runs from a phone and takes most of its orders in a chat thread is usually better served here.
Side by side
Qualitative and stable. No prices and no fee percentages for either side, because both change without notice and a comparison table carrying a stale number is worse than no table.
| What | Crate | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A hosted commerce platform for businesses selling across a storefront, Instagram and WhatsApp at once. | A hosted commerce platform, storefront first, with everything else added through apps. |
| Hosting and updates | Included. Nothing to install, patch or back up. | Included. Nothing to install, patch or back up. |
| Selling in chat | Built in. A WhatsApp order becomes a real order with real stock movement, in the same list as every other order. | Available through third-party apps, which you choose, pay for and keep working. |
| Built in. The catalog and the shoppable link are the same records the storefront uses. | Supported, through the native sales channel integration. | |
| App ecosystem | Small and deliberate. Fewer moving parts, fewer things to keep working, and less you can bolt on. | The largest in the category by a wide margin. If a niche need exists, an app for it probably exists. |
| Themes | A small curated set, all mobile first, edited in a visual builder. | A large paid and free theme market, plus agencies who build custom ones. |
| Point of sale | Included, on the same phone, sharing one stock count with the online store. | Available, on a separate plan and usually separate hardware. |
| Who it is built around | The owner-operator running the whole business from a phone. | A very wide range, from a first sale to an enterprise catalog. |
Which one you actually want
Both columns are real. If the right-hand one describes you, take it: a product that does not fit you is a refund with extra steps.
Choose Crate if
- Most of your orders start as a message rather than as a checkout.
- You run the business yourself, from a phone, and you do not want a stack to administer.
- You want the store, the socials and the till counting the same stock with no reconciliation step.
- You would rather have fewer settings that are already right than more settings you have to get right.
Choose Shopify if
- You need one specific third-party app and it is on Shopify. This is the most common good reason and it is a real one.
- You want a large market of themes and agencies to choose from.
- You are hiring a developer or an agency and want the largest pool who already know the platform.
- You are operating at a scale, or with a catalog complexity, that a mature enterprise tier is designed for.
Where Crate is behind
Every comparison on this site carries this section. A page that only lists what we do better is an advert, and you already know how much to trust one of those.
Where Crate is behind: ecosystem depth. Shopify's app store, theme market and partner network are larger than ours by an order of magnitude, and that is not a gap we expect to close. We took the trade deliberately. A small surface is a surface we can keep correct on a 360px screen, on a slow connection, without asking a merchant to evaluate four apps to get one job done. If your requirement is a specific third-party integration, check our integrations page first, and if it is not there, Shopify is the safer answer today.
Already on Shopify?
Your catalogue, your customers and your links come with you. This page says exactly which fields carry across, which do not, and what to do about the ones that do not.
About switching to Crate from Shopify
Short answers, and none of them hedge. If yours is not here, ask us on the contact page.
Can I move my products from Shopify to Crate?
Yes. Products, variants, images, prices, stock counts and customers import from a Shopify CSV export, and the migration guide walks through it step by step.
Is Crate cheaper than Shopify?
The plans are priced differently, and the honest answer depends on which plan you would be on and which apps you would be paying for alongside it. The Crate pricing page lists every plan in full, with no feature held back for a higher tier.
Do I lose my domain if I switch?
No. You point the same domain at Crate, and your existing URLs can be redirected so the links already out in the world keep working.
How this comparison is kept honest
Last checked
Everything said about Shopify here is a qualitative property of the product taken from what Shopify publishes about itself: what kind of product it is, which channels it sells through natively, and which capabilities it ships rather than leaves to an add-on. We publish no prices, fees, percentages or counts for any competitor, including ourselves, on these pages, because those change without notice and a table carrying a stale number does more damage than no table.
Claims about Crate on this page do not go beyond what our own feature, pricing and security pages already state. Where they would, they are not made.
Product capabilities change. This page states what was accurate on the date above and nothing beyond it. If a row is out of date, we would rather hear it than rank on it.
Other comparisons
Same structure, same honesty rules, different competitor.
- Crate vs Squarespace Website builder with commerce
- Crate vs Square Online Payments-led commerce
- Crate vs BigCommerce Hosted commerce platform
- Crate vs Wix Website builder with commerce
- Crate vs WooCommerce Self-hosted open source
- Crate vs Ecwid Commerce widget for an existing site
- Crate vs Etsy Marketplace
- Crate vs Gumroad Creator checkout for digital products
Try it before you decide.
Every plan starts with the same trial and the same full feature set. Import your catalog, take one real order, and judge it on that.
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