Shopify vs Lovable
Shopify scores 9.0/10, Lovable 8.0/10. Where each one wins, what they cost and who should pick which, side by side.
The short answer
Shopify scores 9.0/10 and Lovable scores 8.0/10 on our rubric. Shopify is the stronger all-round pick.
Shopify leads on design, flexibility, value, and support. Lovable leads on ease of use.
Shopify starts at $29/mo with no free plan; Lovable starts at $25/mo and has a free plan. Lovable is the cheaper way in.
| Shopify | Lovable | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 9.0 | 8.0 |
| From | $29 | $25 |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Sells online | Yes | No |
| Code export | Yes | Yes |
| Ease of use | 8.4 | 9.0 |
| Design | 8.2 | 8.0 |
| Flexibility | 9.2 | 7.6 |
| Value | 8.0 | 7.8 |
| Support | 9.4 | 6.8 |
What Shopify does well
- Deepest commerce feature set anywhere
- App ecosystem handles every edge case
- Scales from first sale to enterprise
What Lovable does well
- Prompt to working full-stack app fast
- Exports real React code
- Supabase wiring handled for you
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.
Lovable. Founders and product people validating an idea, internal tools, and prototypes that need to be real enough to test with users. The Supabase wiring being handled for you removes the step that usually stalls non-developers.
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 |
Lovable
| Free | $0 | 5 daily build credits (up to 30 a month), 5 lovable.app domains |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | $25/mo | 100 monthly credits plus daily credits, custom domains, credit top-ups |
| Business | $50/mo | 100 monthly credits, SSO, internal-only publishing, team workspace |
| Enterprise | Volume-based | platform fee, audit logs, SCIM, custom SLA |
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
Lovable
Lovable uses a single credit balance for five kinds of usage: building (every message that changes your app), chatting, hosting the finished app and its database on Lovable Cloud, AI features inside your deployed app, and some third-party connectors. Paid plans include 100 monthly credits on top of five free build credits a day, a small monthly Cloud grant of 20 credits and a monthly AI grant of 4.
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.
Lovable
A marketing site or a brochure. Using an app builder for five static pages is slower and more expensive than any builder here. It is also not yet a substitute for a developer on anything with genuinely complex logic.
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.
Lovable
Lovable is the best way we know to turn an idea into a working app without writing code, and Pro at $25 a month is enough to find out whether the idea deserves more. Keep an eye on the credit balance once the app is live, because hosting and in-app AI draw from it too.
Questions people ask
Is Shopify better than Lovable?
Shopify scores 9.0/10 and Lovable scores 8.0/10 on our rubric. Shopify is the stronger all-round pick. Shopify leads on design, flexibility, value, and support. Lovable leads on ease of use.
Which is cheaper, Shopify or Lovable?
Shopify starts at $29/mo with no free plan; Lovable starts at $25/mo and has a free plan. Lovable is the cheaper way in.
Which is easier to use, Shopify or Lovable?
Lovable scores 9.0/10 for ease of use against Shopify at 8.4/10.
Do Shopify and Lovable have a free plan?
Shopify has no free plan; Lovable has a free plan.
Can you sell online with Shopify and Lovable?
Shopify can take payments and run a store; Lovable is not built for selling products.
Can you move your site off Shopify or Lovable?
Both Shopify and Lovable let you export your code.
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