Shopify Inbox helps them find a product. Arbyn resolves the conversation, for $99 flat.
Inbox is a free, native shopping assistant built into your storefront chat. Arbyn runs the whole support and sales conversation, on email and chat, and can act on the order, for one flat price.
The real difference
What each one actually does.
Shopify Inbox is free, so this is not about price. It is about what each tool can actually do when a real conversation comes in. Here are three moments where the gap shows.
Shopify Inbox can recommend a product and answer a shipping question, but it has no order actions of any kind. A refund, a cancellation, or an address change all get punted to email or to you.
Inbox lives inside the storefront chat widget. If a customer emails your support address instead of opening chat, Inbox never sees that conversation at all.
Inbox answers product questions with a generic assistant that does not learn your store's tone. Arbyn replies in your brand's own voice, on email and chat, with its Voice Fingerprint, so an AI answer reads like a message your team actually wrote.
Capabilities verified against the Shopify Inbox App Store listing and Shopify's documentation for the Shop-sign-in shopping assistant, verified July 2026. apps.shopify.com/inbox.
Pricing model decoded
One finds the product. One runs the conversation.
Shopify Inbox is a genuinely good, genuinely free shopping assistant. It just stops at the parts of support that involve changing something. Here is where each tool's job actually ends.
Side by side
Feature for feature. Honestly.
Where Shopify Inbox and Arbyn actually differ. Not marketing checkboxes, just real features that work today, as of 2026.
| Capability | Arbyn$99 flat | Shopify Inbox |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat $99/mo | Free |
| Cost predictability | Fully flat | Always free |
| Unlimited conversations | Yes | Yes, unlimited chat |
| Unlimited AI resolutions | Yes | Yes, for product Q&A |
| Email + chat + IG + FB | Email + chat, IG/FB soon | Chat, plus email follow-up on chats it started |
| Acts inside Shopify | Yes, in-thread | No order actions |
| Replies in your voice | Voice Fingerprint | Basic tone and style controls |
| Free plan | Yes, 150/mo | Yes, entirely free |
| Setup time | In minutes | Minutes, native to Shopify |
The honest part
Where Shopify Inbox actually wins.
A page that only says “we win” is a sales pitch, not a comparison. So here are three things Shopify Inbox genuinely does better than Arbyn today, no hedging. Take them seriously if they matter to your store. Most Shopify store owners weigh them against a flat $99 a month (or $0 to start) and an agent that can act on the order, and switch anyway.
Where Shopify Inbox is genuinely ahead, stated plainly.
Shopify Inbox has one real advantage Arbyn does not match: when a shopper is signed into Shop, Inbox can recognize them across every store they have used Shop with and personalize around that history. That is a genuine, structural edge for a free, first-party Shopify app.
It is also narrower by design: a storefront chat widget with no inbound support inbox and no way to touch an order. Arbyn runs the full conversation, on email and chat, and can act on the order (a refund, a cancellation, an address change) right inside it, drafted for your approval and in your brand voice, for $99 a month flat or $0 to start. For a store that needs the conversation actually resolved, not just answered, that is the tool that does it.
None of that changes the math for most Shopify store owners: Arbyn acts on the order, in your voice, for $99 a month flat, or $0 to start.
- 01Shop sign-in personalization is real, and Arbyn cannot match it today: Inbox can recognize a shopper across every store they've used Shop with, and pull their purchase history and preferences.
- 02It is free, forever, with no conversation cap of any kind.
- 03It is a native Shopify sales channel, not a third-party integration, so setup is about as fast as it gets.
Where Arbyn wins
Three reasons store owners actually switch.
Touches the order, Inbox can't
Arbyn can act on an order inside the conversation, a refund, a cancellation, an address update, drafted for your approval. Inbox cannot act on an order at all.
Inbox can look up an order status. It cannot change one.
A real inbound email channel
Arbyn runs support over email as well as chat, so a customer who emails your support address gets the same AI-handled resolution as one who opens the widget. Inbox can follow up over email on a chat it already started, but it has no inbound support inbox, so a cold email to your support address never reaches it.
Flat $99, or free
Arbyn Agent is $99/mo unlimited. Arbyn Starter is $0/mo for up to 150 AI conversations. Either way, there is no per-resolution fee and no ticket meter to watch.
Done comparing?
Skip the pricing math. Try Arbyn today.
$99 flat. Install from Shopify in a few minutes. Cancel anytime from your Shopify admin.
Free plan included. Cancel anytime from Shopify.