Is Cardel an alternative to Beacons 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 Beacons or Shopify when you want your work, audience, and sales in one place. The feature list on this page shows where Beacons and Shopify are marked.

Can I use Cardel with Beacons or Shopify?

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

How much does Cardel cost compared with Beacons and Shopify?

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

How do I switch from Beacons 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

BeaconsvsShopify

Beacons is a creator toolkit: link in bio, store, email marketing, and invoicing in one. Shopify is the commerce platform: storefront, checkout, inventory, POS, email, and inbox.

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How Beacons and Shopify compare

Beacons is more than a link page. A link-in-bio, digital product store, email marketing, media kit, brand-deal invoicing, and AI tools give a creator a mini back office without leaving the app. For someone monetizing social attention with sponsors and downloads, it is a clever, generous bundle.

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

Beacons

Beacons is a profile with tools.
Beacons emails from its platform.
Beacons sells downloads and links.

Shopify

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

Choose Beacons when you are monetizing a social audience with sponsors, downloads, and a bio link.

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

Compare features

What's on Beacons and Shopify

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

Site and brand

Workspace site
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included
Custom domain
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included
Editor Mode
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included
Theme and fonts
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included
Brand kit
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Not included

Public content

Blog
Beacons: Not included
Shopify: Included
Reader engagement
Beacons: Not included
Shopify: Included
Shop pages
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included

Audience and email

Audience
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included
Marketing emails
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included
Campaign workflows
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included

Messaging

Messaging Center
Beacons: Not included
Shopify: Included
AI Suggest
Beacons: Not included
Shopify: Included

Commerce

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

Team

Admin users
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included
Per-admin permissions
Beacons: Not included
Shopify: Included
AI Assistant
Beacons: Included
Shopify: Included

Feature comparison for Beacons and Shopify
Feature	Beacons	Shopify
Site and brand
Workspace site	Included	Included
Custom domain	Included	Included
Editor Mode	Included	Included
Theme and fonts	Included	Included
Brand kit	Included	Not included
Public content
Blog	Not included	Included
Reader engagement	Not included	Included
Shop pages	Included	Included
Audience and email
Audience	Included	Included
Marketing emails	Included	Included
Campaign workflows	Included	Included
Messaging
Messaging Center	Not included	Included
AI Suggest	Not included	Included
Commerce
Shop payments	Included	Included
Orders and fulfillment	Included	Included
Scheduling and bookingsLink to external scheduling available on Starter.	Included	Not included
Team
Admin users	Included	Included
Per-admin permissions	Not included	Included
AI Assistant	Included	Included

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