Commerce · checked 2026-10-13Can I vibecode Shopify?
KINDA· weekend project
A store for one merchant is a fair weekend build: product pages, a cart, Stripe Checkout taking the card, a webhook that records the order and a small admin to mark it shipped. Stripe still sits in the middle, and hosting, backups and sales tax become your problem. What you give up is Shopify's checkout with Shop Pay, the app store, discounted shipping labels, point of sale and a platform that stays up on the busiest day of the year. For a small catalog with a few orders a day the build is enough; a growing shop is better off on WooCommerce or another open-source platform.
$39/moprice
$468you'd save a year
weekendbuild time
—people replaced it
What you need on hand.
DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.
TimeA weekend, plus Stripe's account checks before live payments
- Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
- Node.js 22better-sqlite3 and sharp install native modules.
- A Stripe accountTest mode works at once; live payments need business and bank details.
- A domain and a small serverA $5 VPS with Caddy for HTTPS is enough for a small shop.
- Your Shopify product exportProducts > Export as CSV; grab the images while the store is still open.
Before you buildSelling only a few items? A Stripe Payment Link on any page may be all you need, with no store to run.
- 1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
- 2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
- 3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.
The prompt
Build me a small online store to replace Shopify. Requirements: - Node.js 22 + TypeScript: Fastify with server-rendered Eta templates and a little vanilla JS for the cart. `npm start` serves http://localhost:4300. - Storage: better-sqlite3 at ./data/shop.db; product images in ./data/images/, resized to 400 and 1200 px WebP with `sharp`. - Catalog: products with variants (size, color), price in cents, stock per variant, images and collections; one page per product at /p/:slug with meta tags, plus sitemap.xml. - Cart in a signed cookie. Checkout through Stripe Checkout Sessions (`stripe` package, keys in .env), so card details never touch my server; flat-rate shipping options from config.json; Stripe Tax on or off with one flag. - Orders: /webhooks/stripe verifies the signature, creates the order once per session id and lowers stock; sold-out variants can't go in the cart. - Admin at /admin behind ADMIN_PASSWORD from .env: product editing, orders that move from paid to packed to shipped with a tracking number, a low-stock list and CSV export of orders. - Emails over SMTP with `nodemailer`: order confirmation and shipping notice. - Import a Shopify products CSV export (Handle, Title, Option1 Value, Variant Price, Variant Inventory Qty, Image Src): show the mapping first and download the images. One currency, no customer accounts, no telemetry. - Out of scope: point of sale, buying shipping labels, multi-currency, marketplace and social channel sync. - README: Stripe test mode with `stripe listen` for webhooks, going live, and an honest note that collecting sales tax or VAT is my job, not the code's.
Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.
Then keep going
Next prompts, same folder.
The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Shopify.
Add discount codes to the store in this folder. Requirements: - Create, pause and expire codes in /admin: percent or fixed amount, an end date, a usage limit and an optional minimum order. - Mirror each code as a Stripe coupon plus promotion code, and turn on allow_promotion_codes in Checkout Sessions. - Record which code each order used and show usage counts in the admin. - Out of scope: automatic discounts and buy-X-get-Y rules. - Update the README.
Add shipping labels to the store in this folder. Requirements: - Use the EasyPost API (EASYPOST_API_KEY in .env) with my return address and default parcel sizes from config.json. - On a paid order, "Get rates" lists carriers and prices; picking one buys the label, saves the PDF to ./data/labels/ and stores the tracking number. - Mark the order shipped and send the existing shipping email with the link. - Test with EasyPost's test key first; never buy a label without a click. - Update the README with test and live key setup.
Add abandoned-checkout reminders to the store in this folder. Requirements: - Turn on Stripe Checkout's session recovery and promotional consent fields. - Listen for checkout.session.expired; if the buyer gave an email and agreed to messages, send one reminder after an hour with the recovery link. - Never send more than one reminder per email address per week. - Show recovered orders in the admin. - Update the README.
Add a Google Merchant Center feed to the store in this folder. Requirements: - Serve /feeds/google.xml in the RSS 2.0 product feed format: id, title, description, link, image_link, availability, price, brand and condition. - One item per variant, with item_group_id linking variants of a product. - Rebuild the feed when a product or its stock changes. - Update the README with how to add the feed URL in Merchant Center.
What you lose
- Shop Pay and a checkout many buyers have already used
- The app store and theme marketplace
- Discounted shipping labels and carrier-calculated rates
- Point of sale and marketplace or social channel sync
- Managed hosting, fraud checks and tax calculation in one place
Why people still pay
Merchants pay so they can run a shop without running software: hosting, security, checkout, payments, tax and shipping labels arrive wired together, and an app exists for almost anything else. The fees grow with sales, but most owners would rather pay them than be the one fixing an outage during a sale.
Shopify or your own copy?
Over
Your usage
12h ×$/h
Shopify, 1 yr$468
Your own copy, 1 yr$130running + build session
You keep$338pays for itself in the first month
Estimate · A small VPS and a domain cost about $5 to $15 a month. Stripe's US card fee is 2.9% + 30¢, the same as Shopify Basic's rate, but there's no plan fee and no app bills; Stripe Tax is charged extra if you turn it on. The build is token usage on your agent plan.
Take your data, then cancel.
1 · Take your data out of Shopify
- 1Products: Products > Export, choose All products and a CSV type; large exports arrive by email. The file holds image links, not the images, so download them while the store is open.
- 2Customers: Customers > Export, choose all customers and CSV; tick the boxes to add tags and metafields.
- 3Orders: Orders > Export with a date range; more than 50 orders are emailed to you and the store owner. Export transaction histories gives the payment side.
- 4Pages, blog posts, theme code and app data are not in these files: copy pages by hand and use each app's own export.
2 · Cancel Shopify
- 1As the store owner, go to Settings > Plan and click Cancel plan (Cancel trial during a trial).
- 2Pass on the downgrade and Pause and build offers, review your Shopify domains and pending charges, then choose Cancel my plan and uninstall all apps.
- 3Pick a reason, enter your password and confirm; a confirmation email follows.
- Closing charges what is still owed: app usage, transaction fees and shipping labels. Check Settings > Billing > View current charges first.
- Apps that bill you outside Shopify keep billing; cancel them yourself. A domain bought through Shopify can renew in the meantime, so transfer it out first.
- To stop selling but keep editing, Pause and build costs less than closing. Plus stores must ask Plus Support to close.
- Shopify keeps a closed store's information for 2 years, so you can reopen without rebuilding.
The escape hatch
Don't feel like building it? These are already free.
WooCommerceOpen sourceStore plugin for WordPress; the core is free and many extensions are sold separately.★ 11k · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
WebVisit ↗PrestaShopOpen sourcePHP storefront and back office with themes and modules.★ 9.2k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗BagistoOpen sourceLaravel store with an admin panel, multi-warehouse inventory and themes, MIT licensed.★ 28k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗
WebVisit ↗PrestaShopOpen sourcePHP storefront and back office with themes and modules.★ 9.2k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗BagistoOpen sourceLaravel store with an admin panel, multi-warehouse inventory and themes, MIT licensed.★ 28k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗
The numbers
Shopify pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentic | $0 | $0 | Products go into Shopify's catalog for AI shopping channels only; no online store. Card rates from 2.9% + 30¢. |
| Basic | $39 | $29 | Full online store, unlimited products, 10 inventory locations, no extra staff accounts. Online cards 2.9% + 30¢ through Shopify Payments. |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | Up to 5 staff accounts. Online cards 2.7% + 30¢. |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | Up to 15 staff accounts, third-party calculated shipping rates, regional storefronts. Online cards 2.5% + 30¢. |
| Plus | $2,300 | — | Unlimited staff, customizable checkout, B2B catalogs, higher API limits, priority phone support. Online cards from 2.25% + 30¢. |
- Free tier
- A 3-day trial without a card; the $0 Agentic plan has no storefront.
- Billing
- Monthly, or yearly at roughly 25% less; no setup fees, cancel any time (Plus terms run to the end of the contract).
- Hidden costs
- Card processing is charged on every order (2.9% + 30¢ online on Basic). Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds 2% per order on Basic (1% Grow, 0.6% Advanced, 0.2% Plus). Paid apps and themes are billed on top, POS Pro is $89 a month per location, and synced marketplace orders beyond 50 a month cost 1% up to $99.
- Source
- www.shopify.com
Also on the list
Related apps
No free store: a 3-day trial, then $1 a month for the first 3 months. The $0 Agentic plan only lists products in AI chat apps and charges per sale.
Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: Shop Pay and a checkout many buyers have already used, The app store and theme marketplace.
About $39 a month on the Basic plan, $468 a year (checked 2026-10-13).
Shop Pay and a checkout many buyers have already used; The app store and theme marketplace; Discounted shipping labels and carrier-calculated rates; Point of sale and marketplace or social channel sync; Managed hosting, fraud checks and tax calculation in one place. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.
Yes: WooCommerce (open source), PrestaShop (open source), Bagisto (open source).