AddTheShop vs the Shopify Buy Button
The Buy Button is Shopify's answer to "I have a site, I just want to sell from it". It is a good idea with a catch: it is still Shopify, so it still needs a plan, and the checkout still happens on Shopify. AddTheShop is the same idea without the platform behind it.
| Shopify Buy Button | AddTheShop | |
|---|---|---|
| Needs a plan | Shopify Starter ($5/mo) or higher | No plan, no monthly fee |
| Fees per sale | 5% + card fees on Starter | 2% + Stripe's card fees |
| Checkout | Shopify checkout page | Stripe hosted checkout on your account |
| Embed | Script + div per product or collection | One script + div for the whole shop; buy buttons anywhere |
| Cart | Shopify cart drawer | Cart bar and drawer, quantities, stock limits |
| Managed by AI | Shopify admin / Shopify MCP | OAuth MCP server, REST API, dashboard |
Same shape, different weight
Both are a script tag you paste into your own site. Both render buy buttons and a cart. The difference is everything behind the button. The Buy Button is a window into a Shopify store, with Shopify's plans, admin and checkout. AddTheShop is a shop that exists to be embedded, so there is no store to run elsewhere.
Fees
On Shopify Starter the Buy Button costs $5 a month plus 5% per sale plus card fees. AddTheShop costs 2% per sale plus Stripe's card fees, and nothing monthly. For a shop doing a few hundred euro a month that is the difference between a bill and a rounding error.
Managing products
Shopify admin is thorough. AddTheShop's dashboard is deliberately small: name, price, image, stock, on or off. If you would rather not open a dashboard at all, connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor to our MCP server and say what you want.