Sellly vs Shopify: a website store, or orders in your WhatsApp chat?
Shopify is a complete online store builder: a website with themes, a checkout, a large app store and shipping tools, built for customers who browse and buy on the web. Sellly runs orders, bookings, quotes and plans inside your own WhatsApp chat, for businesses whose customers already message them to buy. If your customers find you on Google and check out on a website, Shopify fits. If they find you on Instagram or by word of mouth and order on WhatsApp, Sellly fits. Some businesses use both.
At a glance
| Shopify and Sellly at a glance | Shopify | Sellly |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An online store builder: a website with a checkout | An order system inside your WhatsApp chat, with a store page that opens the chat |
| Where customers buy | On your website | In your WhatsApp chat |
| Services, bookings, custom orders | Through apps | Built in: bookings, quotes, enquiries and plans |
| Payments in India | Through a third-party gateway such as Razorpay or PayU (Shopify Payments isn’t available in India), and cash on delivery | UPI, bank transfer or cash straight to you; card and net banking through your own Razorpay account |
| Fee on each sale | 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced for sales paid through a third-party gateway, plus the gateway’s fee; none on cash on delivery | None from Sellly; your gateway’s fee if you use one |
| Price | From ₹1,499 a month on Basic, billed yearly, plus GST | ₹349 a month, including GST, with everything |
| A chat button, and apps that send order updates | The order, the payment and every update happen in the chat, on your own number | |
| Setting up | Choose a theme, build pages, add products, connect a gateway and shipping | Choose your kind of business, add products and your UPI ID, connect WhatsApp |
| Your own domain and website | Yes | No: a store page at a Sellly address |
Shopify is strong at
- A full website store, with themes and your own domain, that search engines can send customers to.
- A large app store for reviews, subscriptions, loyalty, marketing and almost anything else.
- Shipping: courier and label apps, inventory across locations.
- Selling in many places from one stock: your website, social media and marketplaces, through apps.
- Customers who check out on their own, by card, UPI or net banking through an Indian payment gateway.
- Growing from a first store to a large brand on the same platform.
Sellly is strong at
- The order happens in WhatsApp: customers choose, fill a cart and pay in your chat, on your own number.
- More than products: bookings, custom quotes, enquiries and plans run the same way.
- Payments go straight to you by UPI, bank transfer or cash, and Sellly takes no share of sales.
- Each UPI payment waits to be checked against the money before the order counts as paid.
- Customers hear at every step on WhatsApp, and ordering again is one tap.
- Nothing to build: choose your kind of business, and the journey is set up for you.
Shopify may suit you better when
- Most customers find you through search or ads, and are happy to buy on a website.
- You ship across India by courier and want labels and tracking in one place.
- You have hundreds of products customers browse with filters.
- You want a brand website on your own domain.
- You also sell on marketplaces and want one stock count across them.
Sellly may suit you better when
- Your customers already message you on WhatsApp to order.
- You make to order, or take custom orders, bookings or plans.
- You deliver locally, or customers pick up.
- You want payments straight to your UPI ID, each one checked.
- You don’t want to build or run a website.
The same order, both ways
With Shopify
- The customer finds your website, from search, an ad or a link
- Opens a product page and adds it to the cart
- Checks out on the website with an address and a payment
- You get the order in Shopify’s admin and by email
- Updates go by email, SMS or a WhatsApp app
With Sellly
- The customer messages your WhatsApp number, from a link, a QR code or a chat
- Your menu comes back in the chat; they fill a cart
- They choose delivery or pickup and pay by UPI
- You get the order on your list and your phone, with its payment to confirm
- Updates go in the same chat, at each step
What it costs
Prices for India, checked on 2 Oct 2026. Shopify’s plans are billed yearly at these rates (monthly billing costs more), before 18% GST.
| Shopify plan | A month, billed yearly | Fee on sales through a third-party gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | ₹1,499 + GST | 2% |
| Grow | ₹5,599 + GST | 1% |
| Advanced | ₹22,680 + GST | 0.6% |
Shopify charges no transaction fee on cash on delivery or bank deposits. Sellly is ₹349 a month including GST, for everything, with no fee on sales. On both, a payment gateway charges its own fee if you use one; with Sellly, UPI paid straight to your account has none.
A month with 100 orders and ₹1,00,000 of sales paid online
| One month compared | Shopify Basic | Sellly |
|---|---|---|
| Plan, with GST | ₹1,769 | ₹349 |
| Fee on sales | ₹2,000 (2% through a third-party gateway) | None |
| WhatsApp messages (Meta) | Only if you use a WhatsApp app | About ₹14, billed to you by Meta |
| Total, before the gateway’s fee | ₹3,769 | ₹363 |
An illustration from the published prices above, not a quote. Shopify’s price also buys a website, an app store and shipping tools that Sellly doesn’t have.
What Sellly doesn’t do
- No website builder, themes or your own domain: customers order in WhatsApp, and your store page is at a Sellly address.
- No courier booking or shipping labels.
- No app store: what Sellly does is what’s built in.
- Browsing hundreds of products is easier on a website. Sellly shows large catalogues by category, and on your store page.
- Your customers need WhatsApp, which most in India have.
Questions
Is Sellly a Shopify alternative?
For businesses whose customers order on WhatsApp, yes: Sellly takes the order, the payment and the updates in the chat, with no website to build. For a business that needs a full website store, with search traffic, shipping and an app store, it isn’t a replacement.
Can I use Shopify and Sellly together?
Yes, side by side: a website store for customers who buy on the web, and Sellly for the ones who message you. They don’t share stock or orders. Products can be brought into Sellly from a spreadsheet.
Does Shopify work with WhatsApp?
Through a chat button and apps: customers can message you from your store, and apps can send order updates on WhatsApp. The order itself is placed on the website.
Which costs less?
It depends on what you need. Sellly has no fee on sales and no website to pay for, so for orders taken on WhatsApp it costs less: see the month worked out above. If you need a website store, compare Shopify with what that website would cost elsewhere, not with Sellly.
How we wrote this
We compared what each product does and costs from its own pages, checked on 2 Oct 2026, and wrote what the others do well in their own terms. We make Sellly, so we know it best; if anything here about another product is wrong or out of date, tell us and we’ll correct it.
Sources
- Shopify pricing (India) (Shopify)
- Third-party transaction fees (Shopify Help Center)
- Supported countries for Shopify Payments (Shopify Help Center)
- Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta for Developers)