Framer vs Shopify: which should you use for an online store?
Framer is a website builder. Shopify is a commerce platform. Here’s what each does well, where each falls short, and why many brands use both.
by FrameStoreKit team
Short answer: Use Shopify to run the business (products, inventory, checkout, payments, orders) and Framer to design the storefront. A Shopify plugin for Framer such as FrameStoreKit connects the two, so you get Framer’s design freedom with Shopify’s checkout.
At a glance
| Framer | Shopify (theme) | Framer + Shopify | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design freedom | High | Theme-limited | High |
| Checkout & payments | None | Shopify | Shopify |
| Inventory & orders | None | Shopify admin | Shopify admin |
| Who builds pages | Designer in Framer | Developer or theme editor | Designer in Framer |
| Upsells, BOGO & product options | None | Paid theme apps | Built-in components |
When Framer alone is enough
Framer is excellent for brand sites, portfolios and landing pages: visual design, animation, CMS and fast hosting. It doesn’t have a cart, checkout, inventory or order management, so on its own it can’t run a store.
When a Shopify theme is the better fit
If the store depends on many Shopify theme apps, or the team already lives in Shopify’s theme editor, a theme keeps everything in one place. The trade-off is design: themes are harder to make look like a custom design, and designers have to work in Liquid or the theme editor instead of Framer.
Using Framer and Shopify together
Headless commerce means Shopify runs the back end while another tool renders the storefront. With FrameStoreKit, Framer is that storefront: products sync to Framer CMS, components show live prices and stock, and Shopify’s hosted checkout takes payment. The client keeps managing products and orders in the Shopify admin they know.
- Design every page in Framer, with full control over every component
- Keep Shopify checkout, payments, tax and shipping
- Add cart, accounts, Markets, subscriptions and upsells as components
Read the Framer Shopify integration guide to set it up.