Shopify is a good product. If it were not, this page would be easy to write and pointless to read.
Here is what it does better than us, where we differ, and the numbers behind both — sourced and dated, so you can check them.
First, honestly
What Shopify does better than us.
Ecosystem
- Thousands of apps
- Almost anything niche already exists
- A large partner and agency network
- Developers who already know it
Reach
- Payment coverage in more countries
- Shipping integrations everywhere
- Brand trust at enterprise scale
- A larger support organisation
Maturity
- Longer track record
- More edge cases already found
- More documentation and community answers
- Easier to hire for
Where we differ
The comparison, row by row.
| Shopify | Agora | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee on third-party gateways | 2% / 1% / 0.6% / 0.2% by plan | 0% on every plan |
| Native mobile app | Third-party app, priced separately | Included, from your catalogue |
| AI on the storefront | Limited, for signed-in Shop users | Chat and voice, on every paid plan |
| AI in the admin | Sidekick — assists | Asks and acts |
| Cash on delivery | A checkout option | Confirmed on WhatsApp before dispatch |
| Arabic right-to-left | Translation-level | Layout-level |
| Point of sale | Paid tier | Included from Scale |
| Wholesale / B2B | Plus tier | Included from Scale |
| Marketplace vendors | Third-party app | Included from Scale |
Shopify plan prices and third-party payment provider fees from shopify.com/pricing, 2026. Your gateway’s own processing fee applies to both sides — this compares only what the platform adds on top of it.
The row that compounds
$10,000
a year, on $500,000 of sales, on Shopify Basic.
That is the platform fee for using your own payment provider, on top of what that provider charges. It is 2% on Basic, falling to 0.2% on Plus. On Agora it is nothing, on every plan. See /agora/payments for the full table.
Choosing
When you should stay on Shopify.
-
Your business depends on a specific app
If something niche and load-bearing only exists in their ecosystem, that is a real reason and we will not talk you out of it.
-
You sell mostly by card, mostly in one Western market
The things we are better at — cash on delivery, Arabic as layout, local payment methods — are worth nothing to you.
-
You are mid-peak or mid-migration
Nobody should replatform in November. We will tell you to come back in February.
-
It is working and you are not adding channels
A platform change should be paid for by something. If nothing is broken, the honest answer is that this is not urgent.
Next step
Get the comparison against your actual numbers.
Tell us your volume and how you take payment, and we will work out what the difference is for your business specifically — including if it is not enough to be worth moving for.
- Every number here
- Sourced and dated
- If you should stay
- We will say so
- Moving
- See /migrate