Is Cardel an alternative to Acuity Scheduling or Shopify?

Cardel is a home for your craft: a site of your own with a blog, newsletter, shop, community, and one inbox. It can replace Acuity Scheduling or Shopify when you want your work, audience, and sales in one place. The feature list on this page shows where Acuity Scheduling and Shopify are marked.

Can I use Cardel with Acuity Scheduling or Shopify?

Yes. Cardel pages can link out to other products, so you can keep Acuity Scheduling or Shopify for what it does best and bring the rest of your work to Cardel.

How much does Cardel cost compared with Acuity Scheduling and Shopify?

You don't pay for Cardel until you publish. Choose Starter, Pro, or Studio when your site goes live. Acuity Scheduling and Shopify set their own prices, so check their pricing pages on this page for current plans.

How do I switch from Acuity Scheduling or Shopify to Cardel?

Start with Build Your Site, set up your home, and bring your work over at your own pace. You do not have to move everything on day one.

Compare

Acuity SchedulingvsShopify

Acuity Scheduling runs appointment businesses with intake forms, reminders, and payments. Shopify is the commerce platform: storefront, checkout, inventory, POS, email, and inbox.

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How Acuity Scheduling and Shopify compare

Acuity Scheduling is built for businesses that live by the appointment. Client self-booking, calendar sync, intake forms, automated reminders, packages and memberships, gift certificates, payments at booking, and multiple staff calendars keep a salon, clinic, or coach running. It is part of Squarespace and works with or without a Squarespace site.

Shopify is what you use when the store is the business. World-class checkout, inventory and shipping, taxes, POS, thousands of apps, Shopify Email, Shopify Inbox, and a theme store make it the standard for merchants of every size. It scales from one product to a warehouse without changing platforms.

Where they are different

Acuity Scheduling

Acuity is the appointment system.
Acuity keeps a client list with notes.
Acuity sends confirmations.

Shopify

Shopify's blog and pages serve the store.
Shopify Inbox handles chat.
Shopify doesn't manage scheduling natively.

Choose Acuity Scheduling when appointments are the business and you need reminders, intake, packages, and staff calendars.

Choose Shopify when you sell products at volume and need inventory, shipping, tax, and apps.

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What's on Acuity Scheduling and Shopify

A check means that capability is available. Acuity Scheduling and Shopify are marked only when the offer is comparable, not the same product.

Site and brand

Workspace site
Acuity Scheduling: Not included
Shopify: Included
Custom domain
Acuity Scheduling: Included
Shopify: Included
Theme and fonts
Acuity Scheduling: Included
Shopify: Included

Public content

Blog
Acuity Scheduling: Not included
Shopify: Included

Audience and email

Audience
Acuity Scheduling: Included
Shopify: Included
Marketing emails
Acuity Scheduling: Not included
Shopify: Included

Messaging

Messaging Center
Acuity Scheduling: Not included
Shopify: Included

Commerce

Shop payments
Acuity Scheduling: Included
Shopify: Included
Scheduling and bookingsLink to external scheduling available on Starter.
Acuity Scheduling: Included
Shopify: Not included

Team

Admin users
Acuity Scheduling: Included
Shopify: Included
Per-admin permissions
Acuity Scheduling: Included
Shopify: Included
AI Assistant
Acuity Scheduling: Included
Shopify: Included

Feature comparison for Acuity Scheduling and Shopify
Feature	Acuity Scheduling	Shopify
Site and brand
Workspace site	Not included	Included
Custom domain	Included	Included
Theme and fonts	Included	Included
Public content
Blog	Not included	Included
Audience and email
Audience	Included	Included
Marketing emails	Not included	Included
Messaging
Messaging Center	Not included	Included
Commerce
Shop payments	Included	Included
Scheduling and bookingsLink to external scheduling available on Starter.	Included	Not included
Team
Admin users	Included	Included
Per-admin permissions	Included	Included
AI Assistant	Included	Included

* Note: This table does not capture every feature of Acuity Scheduling or Shopify, and is not intended as a comprehensive list. We keep this page current, but Acuity Scheduling or Shopify may add or remove features that are not shown here.