Sellfy vs Shopify: A Sales Cap or a Payment Route

The short answer: under $10,000 a year in sales, Sellfy Starter at $29 a month, or $22 a month billed yearly, runs downloads, subscriptions and print-on-demand merch with no Sellfy fee on each sale. Between $10,000 and $50,000 a year, Sellfy Business at $79 a month on monthly billing costs $40 more than Shopify Basic at $39, which adds nothing per order through Shopify Payments (USD, checked on 26 October 2026 on the Sellfy and Shopify pricing pages; card processing comes on top on both). Choose Sellfy if your job is a creator store that sells to your own audience, merch included, without holding stock. Choose Shopify if your job is a catalogue that is growing toward stock, staff or a shop counter.

Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.

Sellfy calls itself the online store builder made for creators: files up to 20GB, weekly to yearly subscriptions, physical goods and print-on-demand items made and shipped from 11 fulfilment centres, per its homepage. Shopify is built for a retailer's back office as much as its shopfront: inventory in up to 10 locations on Basic, shipping labels, in-person payments and sales on marketplaces, social and AI chats, per its pricing page. Sellfy prices by how much you sell in a year. Shopify prices by how much of the retail system you use.

Questions to answer with your own numbers:

1. Where your year lands against the caps. For example, $3,000 a month is 12 x $3,000 = $36,000 a year: past Starter's $10,000, inside Business's $50,000. Sellfy Business at $79 a month against Shopify Basic at $39 is 12 x $40 = $480 a year more on Sellfy, before card processing, using the monthly prices on the Sellfy and Shopify pricing pages.
2. What you already run. Sellfy sends each payment straight to your own PayPal or Stripe account the moment a purchase is made, and moves your email contacts into its marketing tool on every plan, per its pricing FAQ. A list, a merch range and a payment account you like all count toward staying.
3. The order you lose today. Count last month's abandoned checkouts. Shopify sends abandoned checkout recovery on every plan; Sellfy starts cart abandonment emails on Business. If that number is large, it changes which plan you are really comparing.

The questions a seller asks, answered side by side

Read on 26 October 2026 on the Sellfy pricing page, the Sellfy MCP page and the Shopify pricing page.

Where they part

A ceiling, not a commission

Sellfy charges no transaction fee and instead caps each plan by yearly sales; past the cap it expects an upgrade, and may charge a 2% overage on sales above the limit until you make one, per its pricing FAQ. That makes the bill easy to read and the upgrade date easy to predict. Shopify has no sales ceiling on any plan; it charges by the system you use and by how you take payment.

Creator shop, or retail system

Sellfy's features cover what a creator sells online: files, subscriptions, physical goods, merch, coupons, reviews and email. Shopify adds what a retailer runs: inventory across locations, a point of sale, B2B catalogues and marketplace order imports. A podcaster with a hoodie and a preset pack does not need the second list. A brand opening a pop-up shop next spring does.

How far an assistant may go

Sellfy built its MCP server with limits written in: it creates products unpublished, drafts email campaigns that only you can send, and has no tool to delete a product, issue a refund or move money. Shopify's Sidekick works on store data and presents each change for review before applying it. Both stop short of acting alone; Sellfy's stop is in the tool list, Shopify's is in the review.

A launch drafted by an agent, released by a person

1. Connect your AI app to Sellfy's server at https://api.sellfy.com/mcp and sign in with your Sellfy account; no API key is needed, per the MCP page.
2. Ask it to add the new product at its price with its files attached, a description matched to your other listings, and to leave it unpublished. Then ask for a four-sentence email to past buyers about it, with a test sent to you.
3. The human check: a person reads the product page in preview and the test email in their own inbox, checks the price and every claim, then publishes the product and sends the campaign from the Sellfy dashboard. The assistant cannot do either step for you.

Sellfy also lists the limits worth knowing: 120 requests a minute across connected apps, and a connection that ends after 30 days without use.

Start with the sheet and the trial

The cap arithmetic in point 1 costs nothing. Sellfy's 14-day trial needs no card, per its homepage, and its MCP server works during the trial. Shopify gives three free days and then $1 a month for three months, per its pricing page.

Before moving a Sellfy store across, look at how Shopify expects to be paid. Its checkout is built around Shopify Payments, and Basic adds 2% to every order taken through any other provider, per the pricing page. For a seller used to paying only the processor, that 2% is the price of keeping the old payment account, and it disappears only once the money runs through the processor Shopify operates, where Shopify takes the card fee instead.

Sellfy, if the job is

• Selling downloads, subscriptions and merch to an audience you already have.
• Merch with no stock, printed after each order.
• A bill that only changes when your yearly sales cross a line you can see coming.

Shopify, if the job is

• A catalogue with stock in a warehouse or more than one location.
• Selling in person, on marketplaces or in AI chats as well as online.
• Cart recovery and upsells from the entry plan.

The Sellfy entry and the Shopify entry describe each product; how to use Sellfy launches a merch line, and how to use Shopify sets up abandoned checkout emails.

FAQ

Does Sellfy take a percentage of each sale?

No, per its pricing page. It may charge a 2% overage on sales above your plan's yearly limit if you pass it without upgrading.

Which recovers abandoned carts on the entry plan?

Shopify, where abandoned checkout recovery is on every plan. On Sellfy, cart abandonment starts on Business, at $79 a month or $59 billed yearly (Sellfy pricing, Shopify pricing).

Can an AI assistant run either store?

Within limits. Sellfy's MCP server, free on every plan, creates, edits and reports but cannot publish on its own, email your buyers, refund or delete. Shopify's Sidekick plans multi-step tasks and presents changes for your review before applying them (Sidekick help).