All three earn their place. Here's how to pick the right one for your store, including the cases where you shouldn't pick us.
Under 1,000 products with simple logic? Use Flow: it's free and it works fine. You don't need us yet.
It's good software, honestly. If Liquid is home for your team, Mechanic is a fine choice.
That's the job we built Collaudo for.
How the three tools compare on the dimensions that actually decide the pick.
| Dimension | Shopify Flow | Mechanic | Collaudo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Included with every Shopify plan | Paid app, tiered by Shopify plan | Flat monthly, from $19 · no per-run fees |
| How you build | Visual trigger → condition → action | Liquid tasks · hundreds of ready-made tasks or custom code | AI writes real Python or TypeScript · tell it what you want |
| Testing before it runs | Manual test in a dev store | Task previews in the editor | Dry run by default: full mutation report, then you approve |
| Languages & libraries | No code | Liquid (Mechanic's dialect) | Real Python & TypeScript with real libraries |
| Where it runs | Shopify's infrastructure | Mechanic's managed platform | AWS infrastructure · EU region |
| Full-catalog computation | Event-driven rules · not designed for 100k-SKU loops | Possible with custom Liquid tasks | Built for it: margin rules, feeds and pricing across the whole catalog |
| External services | Built-in connectors | HTTP requests from tasks | Any HTTP API, GraphQL & REST, webhooks |
| Best for | Every store · start here | Liquid-fluent devs and agencies | Large catalogs, heavy logic, approval workflows, EU governance |
This comparison reflects publicly documented behavior as of July 2026. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Your catalog is small and the logic fits trigger → condition → action. It's included with your plan, and it's native.
Your team lives in Liquid and the task library already covers your jobs. An experienced community has your back.
Collaudo earns its keep when the job outgrows both: computation across a large catalog, external APIs with real logic, changes worth rehearsing before they run, and EU data residency you can put in a DPA.
Shopify Flow is where every store should start: included with every plan, native, and its trigger → condition → action model covers a huge share of everyday automation. Stores usually go looking for Shopify Flow alternatives when the job changes shape, not volume:
Computation across the whole catalog. Repricing tens of thousands of SKUs against margin rules is a loop, not an event.
Scheduled rebuilds. A product feed regenerated nightly: optimized, deduped, pushed.
External APIs with real logic. A supplier API that needs pagination, retries and reconciliation.
Those are code-shaped jobs. Collaudo writes the code from a plain-English description, rehearses it against your store with writes held, and hands you the full mutation report to approve before anything changes.
Mechanic is good software, and this page won't pretend otherwise: a genuinely useful task library, an experienced community, and a productive home if your team is fluent in Liquid. What changes with Collaudo is the material you work in:
Real Python & TypeScript. General-purpose languages, real libraries, code your developers already read.
Dry run by default. A full mutation report, held for human approval before anything touches the store.
EU residency you can point to. AWS infrastructure in the EU region, ready for your DPO and your DPA.
If your catalog is under about 1,000 products and your logic fits trigger, condition, action, use Flow. It ships free with every Shopify plan and works fine, and you do not need Collaudo yet. Collaudo starts where Flow stops: computation across the whole catalog, schedules, external APIs, and changes you want to rehearse with a dry run before they go live.
Mechanic is good software. If your team is fluent in Liquid and you want hundreds of ready-made tasks to start from, it is a fine choice with a deep community. What changes with Collaudo is the material you work in: real Python and TypeScript with real libraries, and a dry run held for human approval before anything touches the store.
Choose Collaudo once your catalog is past about 1,000 products, when jobs need computation across the whole catalog, when you call external APIs with real logic like pagination, retries and reconciliation, or when you need a dry-run approval workflow or EU data residency. That is the job we built Collaudo for.
Collaudo's code runs against your real catalog with every write captured and held, then produces a mutation report you approve, and the report and approval are kept. Shopify Flow test runs are ephemeral and have no approval step. Mechanic previews render a task from a sample event and do not touch your live catalog. The difference is a rehearsal on real data that you sign off before it runs.
AI writes real Python or TypeScript, a dry run rehearses it, you approve, it deploys.
Free plan · no card · 🇪🇺 EU data residency