Is Cardel an alternative to Shopify or Thinkific?

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

Can I use Cardel with Shopify or Thinkific?

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

How much does Cardel cost compared with Shopify and Thinkific?

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

How do I switch from Shopify or Thinkific 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

ShopifyvsThinkific

Shopify is the commerce platform: storefront, checkout, inventory, POS, email, and inbox. Thinkific builds courses, communities, and memberships with a site around them.

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How Shopify and Thinkific compare

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.

Thinkific is a reliable place to build and sell learning. Courses, assessments, certificates, communities, memberships, and a branded mobile app option let a training business grow without moving platforms, and the site builder is good enough that many creators never need another. It is steady, well documented, and built around the student.

Where they are different

Shopify

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

Thinkific

Thinkific pages exist to sell courses.
Thinkific broadcasts to students and sends abandoned-cart email.
Thinkific books coaching calendars on Start and up.

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

Choose Thinkific when courses, assessments, and student communities are the business.

Compare features

What's on Shopify and Thinkific

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

Site and brand

Workspace site
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included
Custom domain
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included
Theme and fonts
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included

Public content

Blog
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Not included
Showcase pages
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included
Shop pages
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included

Reach and quality

SEO
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included

Audience and email

Audience
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included
Marketing emails
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included
Campaign workflows
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Not included

Messaging

Messaging Center
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Not included

Commerce

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

Team

Admin users
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included
Per-admin permissions
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included
AI Assistant
Shopify: Included
Thinkific: Included

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

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