Zarii vs Shopify for sellers in the Philippines

All Shopify and gateway facts below were checked on 9 October 2026. Prices and fees change, so look at the sources before you decide.

What Shopify costs

Shopify’s Philippines page shows prices in US dollars:

• Basic: $25 a month, or $19 a month billed yearly.
• Grow: $65 a month, or $49 billed yearly.
• Advanced: $399 a month, or $299 billed yearly.
• Plus: starts from $2,300.

Shopify’s trial runs 3 days, then, on most plans, it is $1 a month for the next 3 months. Its page says you do not need a credit card to start the trial.

You pay in dollars, so what you pay in pesos moves with the exchange rate.

Shopify Payments is not available here

Shopify Payments is Shopify’s own payment service. Shopify’s help page lists the countries where it works, and the Philippines is not one of them. A Philippine shop that wants a gateway has to use a third-party payment provider. The other route is a manual payment method, covered below.

If you use a third-party provider, Shopify charges its own fee on top of whatever the provider charges. It depends on your plan:

• Basic: 2%.
• Grow: 1%.
• Advanced: 0.6%.
• Plus: 0.2%.

How GCash gets onto a Shopify store

There are two ways.

Way one: a manual payment method

A Shopify seller can take GCash without a gateway. You add a custom manual payment method with your own payment instructions. Shopify shows them on the order confirmation page after the customer completes the order. Shopify says you are not charged third-party transaction fees for manual payments, and that you need to mark each order as paid yourself after you receive the payment. You still pay Shopify’s monthly plan.

Way two: a payment provider

GCash comes in through a payment provider. PayMongo is one example. It has a Shopify app, and you turn GCash on in your Shopify settings under Payments, then third-party providers.

PayMongo lists GCash at 2.23%, not counting VAT. Other providers set their own rates.

Here is the arithmetic for PayMongo’s GCash rate plus Shopify’s third-party fee, before VAT:

• Basic: 2.23% + 2% = 4.23%.
• Grow: 2.23% + 1% = 3.23%.
• Advanced: 2.23% + 0.6% = 2.83%.

That is on top of the monthly plan price, and it applies only to the provider route. It is a worked example, not a quote, so check the current rates yourself.

What Zarii does differently

Zarii is in open beta. This is what zarii.ai says it does today.

You tell your AI what you sell, and it puts your products up at yourname.zarii.store. You do this from ChatGPT or Claude, and there is a guide to connecting your AI. Your ChatGPT or Claude plan needs to allow custom connectors.

Your buyer opens your link and orders without making an account. They see your own QR, exactly as you uploaded it, with the amount and an order code. They pay it and send you a screenshot. You check your own account, tap Confirm, and only then does your stock go down, once.

Zarii has no platform fees, and the money goes from your buyer to your account. Zarii keeps the order record, not the money. There is no gateway between your buyer and you, and you check each payment yourself, so the stacked rates above do not apply.

Both routes can end with you checking your own account. The differences are these. Shopify still charges its monthly plan, and Zarii charges no platform fees. On Zarii, your own QR, the exact amount and an order code are part of the order the buyer sees. They send the screenshot, you confirm, and stock goes down once. And you run the store from ChatGPT or Claude.

You can use the QRs you already have, such as InstaPay, GCash or Maya. If you want the longer version, read how to accept GCash payments.

Your store, orders and buyer list are yours. Zarii says it never sells that data and never uses it for ads. For sellers who live in Messenger chats, see how to sell on Messenger.

Where Shopify is the better choice

Zarii is a smaller tool. In these cases Shopify is the stronger pick.

Themes and apps

Shopify has a large theme and app ecosystem. Zarii does not list themes or an app store.

Card checkout

Through a payment provider, Shopify can take card and e-wallet payments at checkout. Zarii does not take card payments at checkout.

Automatic payment confirmation

With a gateway, the payment provider reports the payment to the store for you. With Zarii, you check your own account and confirm each payment by hand. That is fine for a few orders a day. It takes more of your time as the orders pile up.

Scale

Shopify has plans from Basic up to Plus, and a POS Pro add-on at $89 per location a month for selling in a physical shop. Zarii lets you run up to three stores on one account.

Selling abroad

If many of your buyers are overseas and pay by card, Shopify’s card checkout is the more natural fit. Zarii works in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia, with prices in your own currency and buyers paying a local QR.

Open beta

Zarii is in open beta. Expect it to keep changing.

Shopify also has its own AI assistant, Sidekick, inside its admin. Zarii works through the ChatGPT or Claude you connect to it.

Which one fits

Zarii fits if you sell through Messenger or other chats, your buyers already pay by QR, and you are happy to check your own account before you confirm.

Shopify fits if you want card checkout, themes, apps or a bigger operation, and the fees above work for your margins.

If you are not sure, write down your last ten orders. Count how many came from chat and how many paid by QR. That tells you more than any comparison page.