Commerce, CRM, marketing and service on one record.
Shopify is a superb storefront — but it's built to sell, not to manage the whole relationship. To add CRM, email automation, a help desk or memberships you stack on paid apps. SmartDesk CX includes commerce as one part of a complete customer-experience platform.
Shopify is best-in-class for running a store. SmartDesk CX is for businesses that want to sell and manage customers, marketing, service and memberships in one place.
Every order lands on a full customer record alongside emails, tickets and memberships — not a separate store database.
CRM, email/SMS, helpdesk, memberships and events are built in — not a stack of paid Shopify apps.
Replace a stack of separate Shopify apps with a single platform — CRM, email, helpdesk, memberships and commerce together.
| Capability | SmartDesk CX | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | All-in-one: commerce, CRM, marketing, service & more | Ecommerce storefront & checkout focused |
| Online storefront & checkout | Native (Stripe) | Best-in-class |
| Customer CRM & pipelines | Native, unified record | Basic customer list; full CRM via apps |
| Email & SMS marketing | Built in | Shopify Email / paid apps |
| Helpdesk / service | Native module | Via apps |
| Memberships & recurring billing | Native module | Via apps |
| Event ticketing & check-in | Native module | Via apps |
| Built-in calling & SMS | Included | Not included |
| Payments & fees | Stripe + ~$0.25/transaction | 2.5–2.9% + 30¢; extra if not Shopify Payments |
| App add-ons needed | Minimal — built in | Often several paid apps |
| Pricing model | Flat plan + usage | Plan tier + transaction fees + apps |
| Best fit | Businesses wanting commerce + relationships | High-volume online & retail sellers |
Shopify details reflect publicly published pricing as of mid-2026 and vary by plan and payment method. See sources at the bottom of this page.
A store is just the start. SmartDesk CX surrounds every order with the CRM, marketing, service and membership tools you'd otherwise add to Shopify as separate apps.
Because commerce and CRM share one record, every purchase makes your marketing and service smarter — automatically. No syncing a store to a separate CRM.
It depends on your goal. If you run a high-volume, pure online store and want the deepest ecommerce features, themes and app ecosystem, Shopify is hard to beat. If you want to sell and manage customers, marketing, service and memberships on one platform, SmartDesk CX is built for that.
Full CRM with pipelines, email and SMS marketing automation, a help desk, built-in calling, memberships and events — all native and on the same customer record, rather than separate paid Shopify apps.
Shopify charges a percentage per transaction (2.5–2.9% + 30¢), plus an extra surcharge if you don't use Shopify Payments. SmartDesk CX uses Stripe with a small flat fee (about $0.25) over Stripe's own rate. At higher order values, a flat fee is often cheaper.
Yes. Our onboarding includes guided migration of your products, customers and order history, plus training to get your team productive quickly.
Book a personalized walkthrough and we'll show you how SmartDesk CX sells and manages the entire customer relationship.