> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.droplinked.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Droplinked vs Shopify

> How droplinked's commerce platform differs from Shopify — same product-types and PSPs, but with on-chain trust fabric, multi-PSP routing, agentic-commerce surfaces, and built-in lender ecosystem.

Shopify is the gold standard for SMB commerce. The visual store editor, the massive
theme library, the app store, the brand recognition, the funded support team — for a
merchant who needs a turnkey storefront and a mature SaaS workflow, it's hard to beat.
Droplinked does not try to.

Droplinked starts from a different assumption: that the merchant's **identity**,
**inventory**, and **underwriting** can be cryptographically verifiable; that
**distribution** should reach AI shopping agents in addition to human browsers; and
that **lending capital** should be sourced from licensed DeFi protocols and vaults
rather than a single processor's balance sheet. Same product types. Same PSPs.
Different trust posture.

This page is for two audiences. If you're a merchant evaluating commerce platforms,
it lays out the honest tradeoff. If you're a partnership lead evaluating droplinked
as an integration target — a lender, a 3PL, an agent surface — it surfaces the
differentiators that make droplinked a distinct integration surface from Shopify.

## What's the same

Both platforms cover the baseline a modern commerce merchant expects:

| Capability                                             | Shopify              | Droplinked                                             |
| ------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Physical / digital / POD product types                 | Yes                  | Yes                                                    |
| Multi-PSP support (Stripe, PayPal, regional acquirers) | Yes                  | Yes (5+ wired in: Stripe, PayPal, Telr, Bonum, PayMob) |
| Theme templates + storefront customization             | Yes (massive)        | Yes (focused set)                                      |
| Order management + shipping (EasyPost / carriers)      | Yes                  | Yes ([EasyPost](/guides/integrations/easypost))        |
| Multi-currency / multi-language                        | Yes                  | Yes                                                    |
| Analytics dashboard                                    | Yes                  | Yes                                                    |
| Merchant KYB onboarding                                | Yes                  | Yes (chain-anchored — see Schema A)                    |
| Print-on-demand integrations                           | Yes (Printful, etc.) | Yes ([Printful](/guides/integrations/printful))        |
| AI-assisted content (titles, descriptions, banners)    | Yes (Shopify Magic)  | Yes ([AI endpoints](/api-reference/ai/overview))       |
| Public catalog APIs                                    | Yes                  | Yes (`/product-v2/public/shop/{name}`)                 |

If your evaluation stops at this row, both platforms can carry the same catalog.
The differentiators sit one layer up.

## What's uniquely droplinked

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="On-chain inventory + brand attestation" icon="shield-check">
    Schema A `BrandAttestation` pins your brand slug cryptographically to a signing
    wallet on the [Ethereum Attestation Service](https://attest.org). Impostors
    can't claim your slug; verifiers can independently audit your brand identity
    on-chain. See [Trust Fabric](/concepts/trust-fabric).
  </Card>

  <Card title="Trust-fabric trinity" icon="diagram-project">
    `LenderRegistry` + `ServiceProviderRegistry` + `MethodologyRegistry` anchor a
    4-axis trust fabric (brand / credit-risk / repayment-history / peer-trust).
    Compare to Stripe Capital: droplinked routes you to a **licensed lender**
    publishing an auditable methodology, not just a processor's internal credit decision.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Agent-shoppable distribution" icon="robot">
    A per-merchant MCP server (`mcp.droplinked.com/{shopSlug}/...`) and a
    [Stripe ACP feed](/agentic/acp-feed) mean ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and the
    OpenAI Agents SDK can discover and transact against your catalog without you
    building integrations. See [Agentic Commerce](/agentic/overview).
  </Card>

  <Card title="Multi-PSP backbone" icon="network-wired">
    Five PSPs from one wire — Stripe + PayPal as Tier-1 always-eligible, plus
    Telr / Bonum / PayMob for corridor-aware routing across GCC, MENA, Mongolia,
    Egypt. The resolver picks the optimal authorized PSP per transaction; you
    don't pick per-checkout.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Built-in affiliate network" icon="users">
    Full affiliate dashboard, commission tracking, payouts, and a discovery
    marketplace — without an app-store install. Conversions can settle through
    x402 micropayments and a 70/20/10 split that rewards the surface that closed
    the sale.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Web3 / NFT / POD as first-class" icon="cube">
    NFT-gated drops, stablecoin settlement, and POD inventory are first-class
    catalog citizens — not bolt-on apps you wire together yourself.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What Shopify still does better (honest)

If we don't surface this list, the page isn't useful. Shopify has real advantages
that haven't gone away:

* **Drag-and-drop visual store editor** with a theme marketplace measured in
  thousands of options and a long tail of agencies that can customize them.
* **App store** — thousands of plugins for loyalty, reviews, SMS marketing,
  subscriptions, returns, upsell, etc. Most niches are a one-click install away.
* **Brand recognition + a funded support team.** Merchants know what Shopify is;
  procurement and finance teams have heard of it.
* **Mature SaaS workflow** — abandoned-cart recovery, email campaign builder,
  returns flow, reviews UX, customer-profile CRM. Years of iteration baked in.
* **POS hardware** for in-person retail (card reader, in-store register, unified
  inventory across online + offline).

Droplinked is younger on every one of these dimensions. We say so on purpose.

## Pricing posture (qualitative)

Shopify charges roughly **$39–$2,000 / month + 2.4–2.9% per transaction** depending
on tier (Basic / Shopify / Advanced / Plus), plus per-app subscriptions on top.

Droplinked's pricing model is operator-controlled and tier-based. Specifics live on
[droplinked.com](https://droplinked.com) — please contact sales for current tier
pricing rather than trusting a number quoted in a docs page that may drift. The
mental model: droplinked tries to capture less per-transaction friction and more
of its margin from the trust-fabric + agentic-distribution side of the stack.

## When to choose droplinked

* You want your **brand cryptographically verifiable on-chain** — anti-impersonation,
  regulator-auditable, slug-pinned to a signing wallet (Schema A
  `BrandAttestation`).
* You're **underserved by Stripe Capital** and want access to licensed DeFi lenders,
  vaults, and treasuries underwriting against your real cash flow. The
  `LenderRegistry` carries jurisdiction-aware routing — `?jurisdiction=AE` returns
  ACTIVE lenders in your corridor with `GLOBAL` fallback.
* You want **agent-shoppable distribution** — your catalog discoverable inside
  ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor without each integration being a separate BD cycle.
  Every shop gets a per-merchant MCP surface at `mcp.droplinked.com/{shopSlug}/...`
  with no extra wiring.
* You **operate across multi-PSP corridors** — GCC, MENA, Mongolia, Egypt — where a
  single global processor leaves money on the table or fails outright. The
  multi-PSP resolver routes to the optimal authorized acquirer per transaction.
* You want a **built-in affiliate network** rather than stitching together a
  third-party app and a payout reconciler. Conversions can settle through x402
  micropayments + a 70/20/10 split that rewards the surface (publisher, agent,
  storefront) that closed the sale.
* You sell **digital products, NFTs, or POD items** as first-class catalog entries
  rather than via plugins that papered over a physical-only data model.
* You want **a forensic audit trail you can hand to a regulator or a new payment
  partner** — every status change, attestation mint, and repayment event is
  preserved on-chain. See [Forensic Chain Workflow](/concepts/forensic-chain).

## When to choose Shopify (or stay on Shopify)

Also honest:

* You need a **massive visual theme marketplace** and an agency ecosystem fluent in
  customizing it.
* You need a **mature app ecosystem** — loyalty programs, reviews infrastructure,
  SMS marketing, subscriptions, returns workflows.
* You're a **brick-and-mortar retailer** needing POS hardware and a unified
  inventory layer across online + in-person.
* You've **already built your tech stack on Shopify Plus** and the migration cost
  outweighs the trust-fabric + agentic-distribution upside today.

## Hybrid posture

<Note>
  **Droplinked is additive distribution.** You don't have to replatform off Shopify
  to use it. Keep your Shopify storefront and connect your catalog to droplinked for
  the agent-shoppable + on-chain attestation layer. See
  [Connect your store](/agentic/connect-your-store) — the goal is additive reach,
  not migration.
</Note>

The cleanest hybrid pattern in practice:

1. Keep Shopify as your operational backend — themes, app store apps, POS,
   abandoned-cart flow, marketing email, accounting integrations.
2. Connect the same catalog to droplinked — your products appear in the ACP feed
   and in a per-merchant MCP surface ChatGPT / Claude / Cursor can call.
3. Optionally pull a Schema A brand attestation on the droplinked side so verifier
   agents can confirm the brand identity behind both your Shopify storefront and
   your droplinked surface.
4. Optionally apply for a verifiable credit-line via the `LenderRegistry` — even
   if all settlement still happens through your Shopify-Stripe stack today.

That posture lets you keep the Shopify SaaS workflow you're already paying for and
layer droplinked on top as a distribution + capital surface, not a replacement.

## Migration intent

If you do want to bring the catalog over wholesale, see
[Connect your store](/agentic/connect-your-store) for the connect-an-existing-store
surface. Direct Shopify → droplinked product import (bulk SKU + image pull from a
Shopify admin token) is on the roadmap; for now the connect path treats your
Shopify store as the source of truth and projects it into the droplinked agentic
layer.

## Architecture comparison

| Dimension                     | Shopify                                                                          | Droplinked                                                                                                                      |
| ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **PSP routing**               | Shopify Payments (Stripe-backed default) with manual configuration of alternates | Multi-PSP backbone with **corridor-aware routing** across 5+ acquirers                                                          |
| **Lending capital**           | Shopify Capital — Stripe balance-sheet-funded, processor-internal decision       | `LenderRegistry` trinity — licensed DeFi protocols, vaults, and treasuries, with a published methodology hash anchored on-chain |
| **Brand identity**            | Shopify domain + brand assets in a SaaS account                                  | Schema A `BrandAttestation` — brand slug pinned to a signing wallet on-chain                                                    |
| **Underwriting transparency** | Internal model; merchants see the outcome, not the criteria                      | `MethodologyRegistry` publishes the per-lender methodology hash linked from every Schema B attestation                          |
| **Agent reach**               | Shopify Magic Search + emerging agentic surfaces                                 | Per-merchant MCP server + [ACP feed](/agentic/acp-feed) consumed by ChatGPT / Claude / Cursor today                             |
| **Attestation audit**         | Shopify dashboard logs (operator-internal)                                       | Trinity-wide append-only audit log + public timeline endpoints (lender-history, methodology-timeline)                           |
| **Affiliate layer**           | Third-party apps (Refersion, GoAffPro, etc.)                                     | First-class — dashboard, commission tracking, x402 settlement, 70/20/10 split                                                   |
| **Service-provider routing**  | Manual partner directory                                                         | `ServiceProviderRegistry` + `/v2/service-provider-routing/recommend` — track-record-ranked                                      |

## The bridge-the-gap angle

Droplinked sits between **DeFi capital** (yield-seeking vaults, protocol treasuries,
on-chain lending desks) and **real commerce** (merchants generating cash flow on
physical, digital, and POD catalogs). Shopify Capital is funded from Stripe's
balance sheet and quoted from an internal credit model. Droplinked surfaces capital
from licensed lenders publishing their methodology on-chain, with repayment streams
back to the lender wallet anchored in append-only Schema C attestations.

It's a different posture, not a better processor. If you want capital from a
balance-sheet you can independently audit, droplinked is the surface that exposes
it. If you want the Stripe balance sheet wrapped in a SaaS UX, Shopify Capital is
exactly that.

The same posture extends to the **service-provider side**: 3PLs, WMS partners, and
fulfillment operators can plug in as Schema D peer-trust issuers, and merchants
discover them through `/v2/service-provider-routing/recommend` ranked by track
record rather than paid placement. The Shopify analogue is the partner directory
plus per-app reviews; droplinked's analogue is a track-record-ranked routing
endpoint anchored in an append-only audit log.

## Common questions from evaluating merchants

**"Do I have to use crypto?"** No. Card / PayPal / regional acquirer settlement
is first-class. Stablecoin settlement is one path, not the only one. Merchants who
never touch a wallet still get every droplinked benefit — multi-PSP routing,
agent distribution, the affiliate network — with fiat payouts.

**"Do my customers have to know about any of this?"** No. The customer sees a
checkout page with their familiar payment methods (card, PayPal, BNPL, Apple Pay,
crypto). The PSP under the card category is invisible — that's a routing decision
droplinked makes server-side based on the merchant's authorized PSPs.

**"Do I lose the Shopify themes I already built?"** Only if you replatform.
The [Connect your store](/agentic/connect-your-store) path keeps your Shopify
storefront live and projects your catalog into droplinked's agentic + attestation
layers in parallel. Your themes don't move.

**"Is the trust fabric live today?"** Yes — currently on Base Sepolia testnet for
the full 4-axis Schema v2 (`A` / `B` / `C` / `D`) and the registry trinity
(`LenderRegistry` / `ServiceProviderRegistry` / `MethodologyRegistry`). Mainnet is
gated on the KMS-backed signer migration. Every `/v2/attestations/*` endpoint
returns the active chain in its response so verifiers can confirm receipts on the
right [easscan](https://easscan.org) domain.

**"What does the integration look like in code?"** Read APIs are the same shape
as any commerce REST surface — `GET /shops/v2/public/name/{name}`,
`GET /product-v2/public/shop/{name}`. Trust-fabric reads are
`GET /v2/attestations/...` and the composite
[`GET /v2/underwriting-signals/:merchantId`](/api-reference/public/underwriting-signals).
Agents reach you via [MCP](/agentic/mcp-server) and [ACP](/agentic/acp-feed).

## What's coming

We try not to over-promise. The honest roadmap for the next two quarters, as it
affects parity with Shopify's mature SaaS workflow:

* **Discount + promotion engine** — in flight.
* **Abandoned-cart recovery** — scoped, not built.
* **Returns UI** — scoped, not built.
* **Email campaign builder** — outreach + transactional are wired; merchant
  campaign UX is roadmap.
* **Direct Shopify product import** — roadmap.

If parity on a specific workflow is load-bearing for your evaluation, it's worth a
conversation with the team rather than trusting a docs roadmap snapshot.

## Related

* [Platform model](/concepts/platform-model) — the core Droplinked objects (Shop,
  Product, Cart, Order).
* [Trust Fabric](/concepts/trust-fabric) — the 4-axis on-chain attestation layer.
* [Merchants on Droplinked](/concepts/for-merchants) — the merchant-side narrative.
* [DeFi Lender Onboarding](/concepts/for-defi-lenders) — how lenders plug in.
* [Service Providers on Droplinked](/concepts/for-service-providers) — how 3PLs
  and WMS partners plug in.
* [Agentic Commerce](/agentic/overview) — MCP + ACP feed + x402 settlement.
* [Connect your store](/agentic/connect-your-store) — keep Shopify, add droplinked
  for agentic distribution.