Courier vs Shopify
Notification API with multi-channel orchestration, templates, and preferences
vs. Dominant SaaS commerce platform — Online Store + Hydrogen headless
Pricing tiers
Courier
Free
Up to 10,000 notifications/month. All channels. Community support.
Free
Business
From $99/mo. Higher volumes, advanced routing, preference center, branding removal.
$99/mo
Enterprise
Custom. SOC 2, SSO, dedicated support, volume discounts, SLA.
Custom
Shopify
Starter
$5/mo. Sell via social/chat links. No checkout site. Basic.
$5/mo
Basic
$29/mo ($19 annual). Full store. 2.9% + 30¢ online. 2 staff.
$29/mo
Shopify
$79/mo ($49 annual). 2.7% online. 5 staff.
$79/mo
Advanced
$299/mo ($229 annual). 2.5% online. Custom reports. 15 staff.
$299/mo
Plus
$2,300/mo (starting). Enterprise features, checkout customization, unlimited staff.
$2300/mo
Enterprise
Custom. For $1M+ GMV merchants. Dedicated support, Checkout Extensibility.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on Courier vs starter on Shopify.
| Metric | Courier | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| notifications monthly | 10000 notifications/mo | — |
Features
Courier · 13 features
- Chat — Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Mattermost.
- Email — SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, AWS SES, Resend, SMTP.
- Inbox (In-App) — React/JS drop-in in-app inbox component.
- Lists — Segment recipients for bulk notification sends.
- Logs + Analytics — Per-message delivery timeline + engagement.
- Multi-channel Routing — Provider failover + preferred channel per user.
- Notification Designer — Visual editor for templates across channels.
- Preferences — Per-user notification preferences hub.
- Push — APNs, FCM, Expo, OneSignal.
- Send API — POST /send with template + recipients + data.
- SMS — Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage, Plivo, Telnyx.
- Templates + Versioning — Template brands, variants, localization, version history.
- Webhooks — Delivery + engagement event webhooks.
Shopify · 22 features
- Admin APIs — REST + GraphQL for management.
- App Store — 8,000+ apps.
- B2B (Plus) — Company accounts + catalogs.
- Checkout — Shopify-managed checkout (PCI-compliant).
- Checkout Extensibility — UI extensions in checkout (Plus).
- Collections — Manual + smart grouping.
- Customers — CRM-lite + B2B (Plus).
- Discounts — Automatic + code-based.
- Hydrogen — React/Remix headless framework.
- Inventory — Multi-location stock.
- Markets — Multi-region selling (currency, language).
- Online Store — Default Liquid-based storefront.
- Orders + Fulfillment — Multi-location fulfillment.
- Oxygen — Edge hosting for Hydrogen (Plus).
- Products + Variants — Full PIM.
- Shipping + Rates — Carrier integrations.
- Shopify Functions — Rust/WASM backend extensions.
- Shopify Payments — First-party payment processor.
- Shop Pay — Accelerated checkout with saved payment.
- Storefront API — GraphQL for custom storefronts.
- Theme Store — First-party + paid themes.
- Webhooks — Event subscriptions.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Courier | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | Courier CLI | shopify CLI |
| SDK | courier-go, courier-java, @trycourier/courier, trycourier (Python), @trycourier/react-inbox, trycourier (Ruby) | @shopify/admin-api-client, @shopify/hydrogen |
| REST | Courier REST API | Admin REST API |
| GRAPHQL | — | Admin GraphQL API, Storefront API |
| MCP | — | Shopify MCP (unofficial) |
| OTHER | Courier Studio, Outbound Webhooks | Liquid Templates, Shopify Admin, Shopify Webhooks |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Courier and Shopify may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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