Shoply AI alternative for Shopify, without a catalog cap stacked on your chat limit.
Their $49.99 tier caps you at 500 chats and 1,000 products, both at once. Arbyn charges $99, flat.
Shoply AI meters chats or searches per month, on top of a separate product-catalog cap, and gates live chat escalation and WhatsApp behind its $49.99 tier. Arbyn is $99 a month, flat, with a $0 plan underneath it, and no catalog size ever changes the price.
The real bill
What you’d actually pay.
Three real scenarios at three real volumes, using Shoply AI's published 2026 pricing and the automation rate their own team recommends. Arbyn is $99 flat at every one.
We are not going to pretend otherwise. Their Smart Start tier is $49.99 a month for up to 500 chats or 1,500 searches, with live chat escalation and WhatsApp unlocked. Arbyn Agent is $99 flat regardless of volume, so under about 500 chats a month, their paid tier costs less. Under 150, Arbyn Starter is $0.
Two meters, and this store trips both at once. 1,200 chats a month is past Smart Start's 500-chat cap, and a 3,000-product catalog is past its separate 1,000-product cap. Either cap alone forces the upgrade to Pro Perform at $149.99/mo. Arbyn's $99 does not care how many chats you run or how many products you sell.
Pro Perform's 1,500-chat and 10,000-product caps are both behind this store. Elite Engage is the next published tier: $449.99/mo for up to 4,500 chats and 50,000 products. Arbyn is still $99.
Verified July 2026. All five Shoply AI tiers, prices, chat/search volumes and product caps are published on both the Shopify App Store listing and shoplyai.ai/pricing, independently confirmed with no discrepancy. The "not autonomously by default... actual order modifications in Shopify Admin remain with your team" concession is from Shoply's own blog. Shoply publishes no overage rate for a tier's monthly cap. Verified against shoplyai.ai/pricing.
Pricing model decoded
Two meters. Either one moves your bill.
Shoply AI does not meter one thing. Every paid tier runs a chat-or-search volume cap and a separate product-catalog cap at the same time, and either one alone forces the next tier up. Live chat escalation and WhatsApp are also locked to Smart Start and above, so the free tier is self-serve only.
Volume and catalog size both meter you, at once. Smart Start caps at 500 chats or 1,500 searches AND 1,000 products. Cross either ceiling and Pro Perform is the next published tier, at $149.99/mo, three times the entry price. Arbyn's $99 has no catalog line to watch.
The free tier is self-serve, on their own plan table. Live chat escalation to a human and the WhatsApp/Judge.me integrations are gated to Smart Start ($49.99/mo) and up. Arbyn's $0 Starter has every feature the $99 Agent plan has; the only difference is the monthly conversation cap.
Shoply's own blog concedes the execution gap. "Not autonomously by default. The chatbot handles the information and routing side of cancellation and return requests... Actual order modifications in Shopify Admin remain with your team unless you configure additional automation." Arbyn performs the cancellation, refund, discount, gift card and reship once you approve, and confirms it back to the customer in the same thread.
No overage rate for a tier's monthly cap. Neither the Shopify App Store listing nor shoplyai.ai/pricing states what happens, or what it costs, when a store exceeds a tier's chat/search allotment mid-cycle. Arbyn has no overage line, because there is no cap on the Agent plan to exceed.
Side by side
Feature for feature. Honestly.
Where Shoply AI and Arbyn actually differ. Not marketing checkboxes, just real features that work today, as of 2026.
| Capability | Arbyn$99 flat | Shoply AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat $99/mo | Volume-tiered chats/searches, plus a separate product-catalog cap |
| Cost predictability | Fully flat | Two caps, either one forces the next tier |
| Unlimited conversations | Yes | No, every tier caps chats or searches |
| Unlimited AI resolutions | Yes | No, the same volume cap covers all AI interactions |
| Email + chat + IG + FB | Email + chat, IG/FB soon | Chat on every tier, WhatsApp from $49.99/mo. "Email support" is listed as a plan feature; not confirmed as a shopper-facing channel |
| Acts inside Shopify | Yes, in-thread | No, by their own account. Their blog: order modifications in Shopify Admin remain with your team unless you configure more automation |
| Replies in your voice | Voice Fingerprint | Not claimed on their pricing pages |
| Free plan | Yes, 150/mo | Yes, $0 for 50 chats or 150 searches a month, up to 50 products, self-serve only |
| Setup time | In minutes | Shopify App Store install |
The honest part
Where Shoply AI actually wins.
A page that only says “we win” is a sales pitch, not a comparison. So here are three things Shoply AI 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 Shoply AI is genuinely ahead, stated plainly.
Their free Forever Free tier is real: $0 for 50 chats or 150 searches a month, self-serve, no card required beyond the Shopify install. That is a smaller cap than Arbyn Starter's 150 AI conversations, but it costs nothing, and it sits underneath a paid tier that genuinely undercuts ours for a store staying under 500 chats a month. Their listing also claims replies in 20-plus languages. We did not re-verify Arbyn's own multilingual depth this session, so we are not claiming a language win here either way.
Product search is where Shoply is a different product, not a weaker one. Their listing markets a "Product Expert" that indexes the catalog and finds and recommends products for a shopper, at a claimed scale up to 50,000 products on Elite Engage and beyond on request. Arbyn does not build for product discovery; it is built to resolve a support conversation and act on the order behind it. If product search and merchandising across a large catalog is the job, Shoply is built for it and Arbyn is not the tool for that job.
Switch to Shoply AI anyway when: your monthly volume is genuinely under 500 chats, you want WhatsApp today, or product search and merchandising is the primary job, not support conversations.
- 01Their Smart Start tier is $49.99 a month, half of Arbyn's flat $99, and it covers up to 500 chats. Under that volume, they are cheaper, plainly.
- 02Product search and merchandising is a real, named capability: a "Product Expert" that recommends and searches a catalog claimed up to 50,000 products on their top published tier. Arbyn is built around support conversations, not product discovery, and does not compete on this axis at all.
- 03WhatsApp ships today, on their $49.99 tier and up. Arbyn does not have WhatsApp yet; it is roadmap. And their review record is real, if small: 5.0 stars across 22 Shopify App Store reviews.
Where Arbyn wins
Three reasons store owners actually switch.
Arbyn performs the action. Shoply routes to your team.
Shoply's own blog says it plainly: "the chatbot cannot process a cancellation in Shopify Admin autonomously without explicit configuration to do so... actual order modifications in Shopify Admin remain with your team." Arbyn cancels the order, issues the refund, applies the discount, sends the gift card and reships the order once you tap approve, and performs the real Shopify mutation itself.
Their own words, not ours: "not autonomously by default."
One volume cap, not two stacked ones
Shoply meters chats or searches AND a separate product-catalog size on every paid tier, so either one can force the next tier even when the other still has room. Arbyn's $99 does not care how many chats you run or how many products you list.
Cross either cap on Smart Start (500 chats or 1,000 products) and you are paying $149.99 for Pro Perform, whichever cap you hit first.
No feature gating on the free plan
Shoply's Forever Free tier is self-serve only; live chat escalation, WhatsApp and Judge.me integration are locked behind Smart Start at $49.99/mo and up, per their own plan table. Arbyn's $0 Starter plan has every feature on. The only difference between Starter and Agent is the monthly conversation cap.
Free means fewer features on their side. On ours it means the same product, a lower cap.
Arbyn vs Shoply AI: common questions
Arbyn is $99/month flat for unlimited AI conversations, and we will be straight with you: below a certain volume Shoply AI genuinely costs less than Arbyn, and this page shows you exactly where that line falls instead of hiding it. Shoply AI is priced chats or searches, tiered, plus a separate catalog cap, so their bill climbs with your store while ours stays put. If you are small and staying small, they may well be the cheaper choice. If you are growing, the flat line wins.
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.