Shopify Collabs is free, it's built by Shopify, and it's already sitting inside every merchant's admin. Pick Collabs if $0/month is the constraint and you're fine with its affiliate-and-discount-code model. Pick Seed if you want a form on your own domain, a real gate before any order is created, and a program that doesn't depend on a creator marketplace Shopify itself says is closed to new signups.
Price, verified 2026-08-19
| Plan | Seed | Shopify Collabs |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo, 5 orders, 1 campaign | Free to install |
| Entry paid | Starter $19/mo, 50 orders, 5 campaigns | Not applicable, no paid tier |
| Unlimited | Scale Gifts $49/mo or $499/yr | 2.9% fee on automatic Shopify Billing payouts |
| Managed | Concierge $299/mo | Not offered |
Collabs has no subscription tiers at all. It's free to install, and Shopify takes a 2.9% cut only on the commission payments it processes automatically through Shopify Billing. If your program is pure product gifting with no affiliate commission attached, that 2.9% fee may never apply to you at all, which makes Collabs genuinely free in that scenario.
How each one actually works
Seed creates a real $0 Shopify draft order. No discount code, no storefront checkout. A creator opens a gift link, picks a product and variant, types their address, and the order sits in an approval queue until a human on the brand side approves it. No order object exists in Shopify until that happens.
Shopify Collabs works differently by design: it's a two-sided marketplace built into Shopify itself. Merchants recruit creators through custom application pages, invite people directly, or accept applications from Collabs' own creator directory. Once a creator is connected, a merchant can send them free product and also set up affiliate offers with personalized links and discount codes, with payouts processed automatically through Shopify Billing. It's a broader tool than a pure gifting link: gifting is one feature inside a bigger affiliate-and-community product.
The mechanical catch, confirmed directly on Shopify's own Help Center: Collabs isn't accepting new creator signups at this time. Existing creator relationships still work fine, and merchants can still send direct invites and accept applications from creators who already have accounts. But the marketplace side, the part that's supposed to be Collabs' biggest advantage over a link-based tool, is frozen for new creators. Seed needs no creator account and no signup on either side: any creator can open a gift link and place an order regardless of whether they've ever touched Collabs.
What happens after the order ships
Order creation is the easy 10% of running a gifting program. The other 90% is tracking who got their package, when it arrived, and whether they posted, and that's where the two tools diverge most. Collabs' interface is built around managing the affiliate relationship: invites, applications, and payouts. Seed reads Shopify's own delivery webhooks directly, fires a follow-up reminder automatically the moment a package is marked Delivered, and tracks every creator's status on a Kanban board through to posted content. On our own Dr Water program that automation is what let us run 138 gifts in 46 days without a spreadsheet; hiccpet runs about 19 a week the same way, and Bri Beauty processed 43 gift orders in its first week. We found no equivalent delivery-triggered, content-tracking automation described in Shopify's own Collabs documentation, only invite, application, and payout management. See the full Shopify Collabs pricing breakdown for more.
Where Shopify Collabs genuinely wins
It's free, and it's first-party. There's no app install, no separate billing relationship, and no learning curve beyond a tool that's already sitting in the same admin a merchant already knows. Collabs also has 390 App Store reviews at 4.1 stars, by far the largest review base of any tool in this comparison, driven by the sheer number of merchants who have it installed by default or discovered it inside Shopify itself. If a brand's whole program is affiliate-commission-driven, not pure gifting, Collabs' built-in discount-code and payout infrastructure does something Seed doesn't try to do at all.
Who should not pick Seed
If your program lives and dies on affiliate commission tracking and automated payouts rather than product gifting, Collabs' native Shopify Billing integration handles that in a way Seed isn't built for. And if $0/month with no subscription of any kind is a hard requirement, Collabs clears that bar in a way no paid Seed tier can.
Note on review counts: Collabs' 4.1 stars sit on top of a real spread, not a clean sweep. 390 reviews is a large sample, and roughly a fifth of them are one-star, according to the same App Store data. A big number isn't automatically a satisfied number. Compare that to Seed's own 5.0 stars on 2 reviews: that's a tiny sample size and we say so plainly, because a small perfect score and a large mixed one are telling you different things.
Migration notes
You don't have to choose one exclusively. Because Collabs' affiliate and payout machinery is separate from its gifting flow, a brand can keep using Collabs for affiliate relationships with existing creators while routing new gifting sends through Seed's link, especially useful if new creator signups on Collabs stay frozen. Nothing about running both at once creates a conflict in Shopify's order history, since each app creates its own order objects independently.
Ready to see the gate-first model in action? Start at /pricing or install directly from apps.shopify.com/influencer-form.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify Collabs really free?
Yes, structurally. It's free to install with only a 2.9% fee on payouts processed through Shopify Billing. If a program is pure product gifting with no affiliate commission attached, that fee may never apply.
Can I still add new creators to Shopify Collabs?
Not through the marketplace. Collabs isn't accepting new creator signups, confirmed on Shopify's own Help Center. Existing relationships still work, and direct invites to creators who already have accounts still function.
Does Shopify Collabs track content after delivery like Seed?
No equivalent was found in Shopify's own Collabs documentation. Its interface is built around managing invites, applications, and payouts. Seed reads Shopify's delivery webhooks directly and moves creators onto a Kanban board automatically.
Which has more App Store reviews, Seed or Shopify Collabs?
Collabs, by far: 390 reviews at 4.1 stars versus Seed's 2 at 5.0 stars. Roughly a fifth of Collabs' reviews are one-star, so the larger sample isn't a clean sweep.
Can I run Seed and Shopify Collabs together?
Yes. A brand can keep using Collabs for affiliate relationships with existing creators while routing new gifting sends through Seed's link, especially useful while Collabs' new creator signups stay frozen.