Litestore vs Shopify

Shopify is a hosted platform that runs your store for you. Litestore is an open-source store that you deploy and run yourself. This page compares the two and explains when each one is the better choice.

Install Litestore All comparisons

Compare

Feature	Litestore	Shopify
Who hosts it	You	Shopify
Open source	MIT
Storefront included
Built with	TypeScript, Postgres	Hosted platform
Marketing tools	Built in	Some, plus apps
Stable plugin API	Edit the code	App store
Runs the servers for you	You run them
Works without a developer

When Shopify is the better choice

Shopify is the easier choice for a lot of shops. These are the cases where we'd recommend it over Litestore.

You'd rather not run servers

Shopify hosts your store and looks after the servers. With Litestore you deploy the app yourself and keep Postgres, Redis and S3-compatible storage running.

You don't have a developer

You can set up a Shopify store without writing code. Litestore is a codebase, and you need a developer to install it and to change how it works.

You need to add features from an app store

Shopify has an app store for adding features. Litestore has no app store, and you add features by changing the code.

You need more than Stripe

Stripe is the only payment provider Litestore supports, and it can't sell subscriptions or run B2B accounts with quotes yet.

Honest fit

When Litestore fits

Litestore suits a merchant who has a developer and prefers to own the code. The storefront, the admin and the marketing tools are one Next.js app that you can read and change.

You get the code under the MIT licence and can change any part of it.
You run it on Vercel or any Node.js server you like.
You can import your Shopify catalog when you move over.

See the features

In Litestore

Storefront and adminBoth are part of one Next.js app.
Marketing toolsYou can pay creators, reward referrals and run campaigns.
Stripe paymentsStripe is the only payment provider.
Markets and currenciesYou can sell in several countries with their own currency.
AI with your own keyYou connect your own provider.
Subscriptions and B2B accountsLitestore doesn't support these yet.

Moving over

Import your Shopify catalog

Litestore can import your products, customers and collections from Shopify. A developer sets the five SHOPIFY_ environment variables first, and then you connect your store from the admin.

How imports work

Shopify

CSV

Reviews

Collabs

Importing Shopify

Your store

Connect over OAuth

You connect your Shopify store from Settings → Integrations, and Litestore imports its products, customers and collections.

Each import is recorded

Litestore records every import as a run and counts the rows it imported, updated, skipped and failed.

Failed rows don't stop the import

Litestore imports the rows that work and produces a downloadable report of the ones that failed.

You can run it again

Each imported record keeps its Shopify id. When you run the import again, Litestore updates those records instead of creating copies.

Moving from Shopify?

The imports guide explains how to bring your catalog across and check the imported records.

See how to import