So, here’s what I found:
Shopify excels as a comprehensive ecommerce platform. It offers a robust toolset that lets anyone build and scale an online store without writing code. It also features an extensive marketplace with thousands of thirdparty apps to let you extend your store’s functionality. And with built-in support for global payments, you’re ready to sell anywhere.
However when it comes to building a digital business, say: a learning program with things like,1-on-1 sessions, challenges and a community forum—Shopify falls short. You’ll need to pin a few different third party apps to add the functionalities.
On the other hand, Nas.io is more of an all-in-one digital business. It lets you natively build and sell various digital products including courses, coaching, memberships, communities, events, and digital downloads. For example you don’t need tools like Kajabi to sell courses or Skool for a community forum since you can do it all with Nas.io. I also liked its AI integration which lets you quickly brainstorm product ideas based on your existing audience.
As an upfront bottom line, here’s when to choose each platform.
Choose Shopify if you:
- Sell physical products.
- Plan to start a dropshipping business.
Go with Nas.io if you:
- Want a fast, simple setup to launch your digital business.
- Sell multiple digital product formats like courses, downloads, coaching, or memberships.
- Want to use AI to generate and structure digital product ideas.
- Need help acquiring your first customers.
In this guide, I’ll be showing you how both platforms compare side-by-side to help you make an informed decision. So consider this my deep dive to Shopify vs Nas.io.
Shopify vs Nas.io: Quick Comparison
| Feature | Shopify | Nas.io |
| Product Creation & Management | ||
| Course Building | Requires third-party apps like Courses Plus and Thinkific | Native course builder with video hosting and curriculum builder. |
| Membership Sites | Available through third-party apps | Built-in membership tiers and content gating |
| Community Features | Requires external platforms like Discord or Facebook Groups | Native community platform with discussions and networking. Also lets you monetize your social community from platforms like WhatsApp and Slack. |
| Digital Downloads | You can natively host your downloads and gate them but need an app like Digital Downloads for delivery | Built-in with automated delivery. Support multiple formats like PDFs, CSV, TXT and multimedia content like videos, images and audio. |
| Coaching Tools | Needs third-party booking apps and video conferencing tools for virtual sessions. | Integrated scheduling and session management. Directly integrates with Zoom for video conferencing. |
| Sales & Marketing | ||
| Payment Processing | Shopify Payments and third-party gateways; supports PayPal, Stripe, others | Stripe integration and Zero-Links checkout |
| Email Marketing | Basic email marketing through Shopify Email. | Magic Reach: Broadcasts, email automation, WhatsApp messaging |
| Customer Acquisition | SEO tools, social media integration, ads | Magic Ads feature with expert support |
| User Experience | ||
| Setup Complexity | Moderate learning curve, requires app configuration | Quick setup, minimal configuration needed |
| Interface Design | Polished, professional interface | Clean, intuitive design focused on simplicity |
| Mobile Experience | Responsive themes and mobile apps. | Good – Mobile-responsive with decent performance. Has a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. |
| Pricing & Value | ||
| Starting Price | $29/month – Basic plan with core features | $0/month to start; $19/month for full features (Starter), $49/month for Pro, $99/month for Platinum |
| Transaction Fees | With Shopify Payments: 2.9% + $0.30 (Basic), 2.7% + $0.30 (Shopify), 2.5% + $0.30 (Advanced).With third-party gateways: Additional 2.0% (Basic), 1.0% (Shopify), 0.6% (Advanced) over gateway fees.Currency conversion adds ~1.5–2% per order. | Platform fee: 7.9% (Basic), 4.9% (Pro), 2.9% (Platinum) + Stripe/local gateway fees. You can shift all fees to customers using Zero-Links (effectively 0% to the seller) |
| Value for Digital Business | Great for ecommerce, expensive less efficient for digital-only sellers | Built for creators and digital entrepreneurs |
Nasio vs Shopify: Indepth Features Comparison
In this section I’m going to show how both platforms compare in their shared features. That includes digital product creation, AI tools, page building, payment processing, e.t.c.
Let’s get started.
- Digital Products
Both Shopify and Nas.io allow you to sell digital products such as ebooks, PDFs, audio files, images, and templates. But when it comes to creating, delivering, and managing a broader range of digital offerings, Nas.io is significantly more capable.
Besides the typical downloads, Nas.io lets you sell other digital products including:
- Courses
- Membeships
- Coaching
- Communities
- Events
These products are built directly into the platform requiring you no external tools.
Meanwhile, Shopify limits you to simple digital downloads. You can sell things like eBooks, PDFs, templates, audios or images. But still it requires you to integrate a third party app called Digital Downloads to be able to deliver it to your customers.
- AI Tools
Both platforms include generative AI, but their capabilities differ sharply in purpose and depth.
Nas.io includes a built-in AI workflow that helps you create and launch products based on your existing audience. Simply connect your social media accounts, and Nas.io will analyze your audience to suggest the most relevant product ideas. It’ll then generate structured offers complete with product types, pricing recommendations, and ready-to-use sales page copy.
Shopify’s AI tools are limited to surface-level tasks like writing product descriptions. They don’t help with ideation, validation, or go-to-market planning. But you can use them to generate simple website themes and page designs.
- Marketing Tools
Nas.io offers a handful of marketing features which are easy to navigate and set up.
You get a simple landing page and checkout system, but with few design options. While this is great for fast launches, creating polished, branded pages is challenging without relying on external tools. The platform is focused on getting you up and running, but it lacks flexibility for more complex marketing needs.
For sales optimization, Nas.io supports features like discounts, coupons, and free trials.
Additionally, it offers unique tools like:
- Magic Reach: a way to send messages and communicate with your audience. You can send a broadcast via email, community post or directly via Whatsapp DMs which lets you form deep connections with your audeicene wherever they are. Magic Reach also lets you send automated emails based on your audience behaviours. For example, you can send an automated message to new members to welcome them upon joining your community or when they abandon the cart to remind them to complete their purchase.
- Magic Ads: this is a managed Meta ad service available for Platinum users. You submit your product or event, and Nas.io’s team helps you build and launch the campaign. There’s no need to navigate Meta’s ad manager, which can be a big plus for users without ad management experience.
On the other hand, Shopify offers far more control and customization options.
With over 50 theme templates, you can build a professional-looking store for your products.
These templates are customizable, letting you adjust sections and blocks to fit your needs.
Additionally, Shopify uses Liquid, its templating language, to allow more advanced customization. Liquid is a flexible language that lets you display dynamic content (like product listings, customer data, or promotions) across your site. It’s powerful for developers, enabling deep customization of store pages.
In addition to page customization, Shopify provides useful tools for email marketing. You can create and send custom email campaigns, which are essential for building an audience and boosting sales.
Shopify’s email automation tools allow you to send emails based on customer behaviors, such as abandoned cart reminders.
But this requires you to have some prior knowledge building some automations and workflow which can be a bit overwhelming for new creators looking to launch their fast business faster.
The bottom line is:
Shopify has more robust tools to build marketing campaigns and websites. However, Nas.io lets you launch fast with simple setups and the fact that they let you quickly get your first customer via Magic Ads made much more sense to me. Because at the end of the day, how much sales did my business make?
- Payments Processing
Both Shopify and Nas.io offer payment processing solutions for creators and digital business owners. However, there are differences in the breadth of payment gateways, fees, and flexibility of each platform.
Shopify offers a built-in payment system called Shopify Payments that’s powered by Stripe on the backend. It allows you to accept a wide range of major payment methods, including:
- Credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc.)
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Shop Pay (Shopify’s accelerated checkout)
If Shopify Payments is unavailable in your country, or if you prefer not to use it, Shopify also supports 10+ third-party payment gateways, including:
- PayPal
- Stripe (direct integration)
- Authorize.Net
- Airwallex
However, it’s important to note that it charges additional transaction fees when using a third-party payment gateway, unless you’re on the Shopify Plus plan. For creators on lower-tier plans, these fees can add up quickly, eating away your margins.
Similar to Shopify, Nas.io also uses Stripe for payment processing, supporting major credit and debit cards, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. However, Nas.io currently doesn’t support third-party payment gateways like Authorize.Net, which limits its flexibility compared to Shopify.
However, Nas.io has a unique feature called Zero Links. Essentially, it lets you quickly generate payment links that you can share with your clients or customers where they can make payments for a specific product without persky processses.
Simply log in to your Nas.io dashboard and navigate to the “Zero Link” tab.
Then set the amount, currency, product title, image, thank you message and redirect link. What’s even better is that you can pass the transaction fees to your buyers. That way, you can keep 100% of your earnings.
Once set up, you can share the link across various channels, including direct messages, WhatsApp, email, and social media—ensuring a seamless experience wherever your customers are.
Shopify vs Nas.io: Pricing
Both Shopify and Nas.io offer competitive packages but price their platforms differently. Shopify runs on a subscription model, while Nas.io uses a pay-as-you-earn approach.
Let’s start with Shopify…
Shopify offers four plans:
| Plan | Monthly Price | Transaction Fees |
| Basic | $32/month | 2.0% |
| Grow | $92/month | 1.0% |
| Advanced | $399/month | 0.6% |
| Plus | $2,300/month | 0.2% |
New users get the first three months for $1/month on any plan, and annual billing saves up to 25%. Transaction fees drop as you upgrade plans, but only if you use Shopify Payments. Third-party gateways like PayPal or Stripe trigger extra transaction fees.
On the other hand, Nas.io offers flexible usage-based pricing with no mandatory subscription.
| Plan | Monthly Price | Platform Transaction Fee |
| Basic | $0 | 7.9% |
| Pro | $20.75 | 4.9% |
| Platinum | $66.58 | 2.9% |
Payment processor fees such as Stripe and local wallets apply separately and vary by region. Upgrading plans unlocks AI templates, affiliate tools, Magic Ads, and storage of up to 100GB.
But which one between the two is more cost effective?
Looking closer, Nas.io offers a more affordable and practical solution for anyone starting a digital business. Its Basic plan has no fixed costs and a 7.9% platform fee, which works well for creators testing digital offers or operating at a low volume.
Its Pro plan costs less than Shopify Basic ($20.75 vs. $32/month) while cutting platform fees by 38%. Shopify Basic charges $32/month plus 2% transaction fees if you don’t use Shopify Payments, which creates higher minimum costs even with lower sales.
Moreover, Shopify’s pricing structure doesn’t favor digital businesses. Most of its built-in tools cater to e-commerce.
To sell courses, coaching, memberships, or communities, you’ll need third-party apps that add extra charges. For example, a course app like Courses Plus costs $29.99 per month.
Combine that with Shopify Basic at $32/month and you’re already paying over $60 before any transaction fees.
Another key difference is how each platform handles transaction fees.
Nas.io lets you pass transaction fees to buyers, so you keep more revenue per sale. Shopify doesn’t allow this. You absorb the fees which can reduce your margins per sale.
The bottom line?
Nas.io wins on cost and flexibility for digital-first businesses. It lets you pass transaction fees to buyers, keeps your overhead low, and provides built-in tools for courses, memberships, and communities—without stacking add-on costs.
Nas.io vs Shopify: Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of using either Nas.io and Shopify for your online business.
Nas.io Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅Free plan available | ❌Limited design customization with basic landing pages |
| ✅Native digital product tools | ❌Less suited for physical products |
| ✅AI-powered workflows for product ideas, offers, and sales pages | |
| ✅Zero Links checkout | |
| ✅Magic Reach with multi-channel messaging | |
| ✅Magic Ads | |
| ✅Option to pass transcation fees to buyers for better margins. | |
| ✅Challenges that encourage participation | |
| ✅ AI co-founder |
Shopify Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅High design control over store pages and checkout | ❌ Digital selling needs add-ons, which increase costs |
| ✅Massive app ecosystem with thousands of plugins | ❌More complex setup for non-technical users |
| ✅Ideal for physical or hybrid stores with inventory, shipping, and POS support. | ❌Transaction fees add up if not using Shopify Payments, |
| ✅Custom checkout and automation |
Shopify vs Nas.io : Final Verdict
To sum everything up:
Nas.io is the more logical, cost-effective choice if you’re selling digital products. Its tools are purpose-built for creators and knowledge businesses offering courses, memberships, downloads, coaching, and communities. You don’t need plugins or add-ons—everything from product creation to checkout to audience messaging is built-in. The platform even supports AI-generated offers for faster product creation.
Shopify, by contrast, is an ecommerce platform at its core. It shines when you sell physical goods, manage inventory, need advanced storefront design, or require deep customization. But for digital-first businesses, it forces you to patch together third-party tools and pay monthly regardless of sales volume. It works—but it’s heavier, slower to set up, and costlier to maintain. Looking to start your first online business in under a minute?
