Shopify vs Bolt.new
Shopify scores 9.0/10, Bolt.new 7.4/10. Where each one wins, what they cost and who should pick which, side by side.
The short answer
Shopify scores 9.0/10 and Bolt.new scores 7.4/10 on our rubric. Shopify is the stronger all-round pick.
Shopify leads on design, flexibility, value, and support. Bolt.new leads on ease of use.
Shopify starts at $29/mo with no free plan; Bolt.new starts at $25/mo and has a free plan. Bolt.new is the cheaper way in.
| Shopify | Bolt.new | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 9.0 | 7.4 |
| From | $29 | $25 |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Sells online | Yes | No |
| Code export | Yes | Yes |
| Ease of use | 8.4 | 8.6 |
| Design | 8.2 | 7.2 |
| Flexibility | 9.2 | 7.4 |
| Value | 8.0 | 7.0 |
| Support | 9.4 | 6.2 |
What Shopify does well
- Deepest commerce feature set anywhere
- App ecosystem handles every edge case
- Scales from first sale to enterprise
What Bolt.new does well
- Genuinely fast first draft
- Full-stack in the browser
- Good framework coverage
Who each one is for
Shopify. Anyone whose primary activity is selling physical or digital goods and who wants the commerce infrastructure to be someone else's problem. It is the right answer from the first sale up to very large volumes, and the point at which you outgrow it is far enough away that most merchants never reach it.
Bolt.new. Rapid prototypes, throwaway demos and exploring an interface idea before committing. Excellent for showing a concept in a meeting tomorrow.
Pricing side by side
Shopify
| Basic | $29/mo yearly · $39 monthly | 2% fee on third-party gateways, 10 inventory locations |
|---|---|---|
| Grow | $79/mo yearly · $105 monthly | 1% third-party fee, 5 staff accounts |
| Advanced | $299/mo yearly · $399 monthly | 0.6% third-party fee, 15 staff accounts, third-party shipping rates |
| Plus | from $2,300/mo | 0.2% third-party fee, full checkout customization, unlimited staff |
Bolt.new
| Free | $0 | 1M tokens a month (300K a day), Bolt branding, hosting included |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | $25/mo | from 10M tokens a month, unused tokens roll over, custom domains |
| Teams | $30/mo per member | central billing, access management, private npm registries |
| Enterprise | Custom | SSO, audit logs, 24/7 support |
What a year costs
Shopify
The prices on the plan cards are yearly prices. Pay month to month and Basic is $39 rather than $29, Grow is $105 rather than $79 and Advanced is $399 rather than $299, so the monthly option costs about a third more. If you are confident enough to launch, the annual plan is the obvious saving.
Subscription, billed yearlyShopify's third-party transaction fee
Bolt.new
Every change you ask Bolt to make consumes tokens, and larger projects consume more per request because there is more code for the AI to read. The Free plan allows 300,000 tokens a day and a million a month, which is enough to try it properly. Pro, at $25 a month billed monthly, starts at 10 million tokens a month with no daily cap, and unused tokens roll over to the next month. Yearly billing saves up to 28%.
Subscription
Who should skip each one
Shopify
A content site with a small shop attached. If you have ten products and two hundred articles, you are paying commerce pricing for a blog. It is also the wrong pick if you need an unconventional checkout, since the checkout is the part Shopify guards most closely.
Bolt.new
Anything intended to be maintained. Output quality varies enough between runs that building a real product on it means accepting an unpredictable foundation.
The bottom line
Shopify
For most people starting a store, Shopify is the safe choice and the right one. Buy the annual plan, start on Basic, and move to Grow once you are selling more than about $5,000 a month and cannot use Shopify Payments, or once you need staff accounts.
Bolt.new
Choose Bolt for prototypes, demos and experiments where getting something working today matters more than how the code looks tomorrow. The free plan is enough to judge it; Pro is worth it once you are using it every week.
Questions people ask
Is Shopify better than Bolt.new?
Shopify scores 9.0/10 and Bolt.new scores 7.4/10 on our rubric. Shopify is the stronger all-round pick. Shopify leads on design, flexibility, value, and support. Bolt.new leads on ease of use.
Which is cheaper, Shopify or Bolt.new?
Shopify starts at $29/mo with no free plan; Bolt.new starts at $25/mo and has a free plan. Bolt.new is the cheaper way in.
Which is easier to use, Shopify or Bolt.new?
Bolt.new scores 8.6/10 for ease of use against Shopify at 8.4/10.
Do Shopify and Bolt.new have a free plan?
Shopify has no free plan; Bolt.new has a free plan.
Can you sell online with Shopify and Bolt.new?
Shopify can take payments and run a store; Bolt.new is not built for selling products.
Can you move your site off Shopify or Bolt.new?
Both Shopify and Bolt.new let you export your code.
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