Lanternbee vs Shopify

Lanternbee as a Shopify alternative

A general online store builder with thousands of add-on apps. Its prices and features sit next to Lanternbee’s below, including where Shopify does better.

What Shopify is

Shopify runs stores of every kind, from clothing to coffee. Authors use it to sell direct, then add apps for the jobs a bookstore needs: sending ebooks, bundles, print on demand and reviews.

Who it suits

Authors who also sell a lot of merchandise, want a specific app that only Shopify has, or have someone to set up and look after the store.

What Shopify costs

US prices, checked against the sources at the bottom of this page.

Plan	Price	Fee on sales
Basic	$39 a month, or $29 a month paid yearly	2% on each sale if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments; card fees apply either way

Shopify and Lanternbee side by side

Shopify and Lanternbee, feature by feature
What you need	Shopify	Lanternbee
One book with several editions	PartlyFormats become variants of one product.	Yes. Ebook, audiobook, paperback and hardcover live on one book page.
Series with a reading order	PartlyCollections group books, with no reading order.	Yes, with the reading order you set.
Bundles and box sets	With an appA bundles app, free to about $30 a month.	Yes. Readers who own book one pay less for the rest.
Ebook and audiobook delivery	With an appA delivery app such as BookFunnel.	Yes. Download links by email, and a reader library.
Send to Kindle	With an appThrough the delivery app.	Yes, from the reader library.
Print on demand for books	With an appThe BookVault app, free to install.	Partly. Print editions are set up for BookVault or Lulu; sending orders to the printer is being built.
Your reader list	YesYour customer list; newsletters need an email tool.	Yes. Every buyer lands on your list, with tags.
Your own domain	Yes	Yes. yourname.lanternbee.shop or shop.yourname.com.
Monthly cost	Basic: $39 a month, or $29 a month paid yearly	Free: nothing a month. Author: $45 a month, or $35 paid yearly.
Fee on sales	Basic: 2% on each sale if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments; card fees apply either way	Free: 5%, only when you sell. Author: none.

US prices. “Not listed” means we could not find it on Shopify’s own pages or in the sources below, so check with them. Card fees apply everywhere; on Lanternbee they are Stripe’s, with nothing added.

What Shopify does better

Fair reasons to stay where you are.

A far bigger range of apps and themes. If you need something unusual, someone has probably built it for Shopify.
Selling merchandise next to your books, with stock, variants and shipping tools that have been around for years.
Point-of-sale hardware for selling at conventions and signings.
A large pool of designers and developers who know it, if you want to pay for help.

Moving from Shopify

Lanternbee has an importer for Shopify. You check everything before it goes live.

Connect your Shopify store from Lanternbee. We only ask to read it, so nothing in Shopify changes.
Check the preview. Products are grouped into books, editions and series, and you fix anything we guessed wrong.
Import. Your books, readers and what they bought, your orders and your discount codes come over in one go.
Point your shop address at Lanternbee. Old product links land on the right book pages, and Shopify sells until that moment.

How the move from Shopify works

Questions about Shopify and Lanternbee

Can I move my Shopify store to Lanternbee without losing anything?

Our importer brings over your books, series, readers and their purchases, your orders and your discount codes. Old product links redirect to the new book pages. You check everything in a preview first, and Shopify keeps selling until you switch your address.

Is Lanternbee cheaper than Shopify for authors?

It depends on your apps. Shopify Basic is $39 a month before any app. A typical author setup with delivery, bundles, email and reviews apps comes to about $111 a month. Lanternbee Author is $45 a month, or the Free plan costs nothing until you sell and then takes 5%.

Do readers who bought on Shopify keep their books?

Yes. Their digital purchases come across with the import. They sign in to their Lanternbee library with the same email address and find the books there, without paying again.