Nova vs Shopify: Website Builder vs. Ecommerce Platform
People searching for Nova against Shopify are usually trying to answer a category question more than a feature question, and it's worth answering that directly instead of pretending the two solve the same problem. This is Nova's own comparison, not an independent review.
Shopify is an ecommerce platform first. It's built around a shopping cart, checkout, and payment processing, with inventory tracking, shipping calculations, tax handling, and a large app store covering nearly anything a growing online store might need, from subscriptions to loyalty programs. If you're selling a real product catalog online, especially with more than a handful of items or any ongoing inventory to manage, Shopify's depth in that specific area is hard to match with a general website builder, Nova included.
Nova builds a site, not a store. You describe what you want, for example a business, a portfolio, or a service site, and Nova shows you AI-generated previews of proposed features, lets you pick a style, and generates a working site with a live preview, no account needed until you're ready to save or publish long-term on a free getnova.pro subdomain. Nova doesn't process payments or track inventory, so if what you actually need is a shopping cart with real checkout, Shopify is built for that job specifically in a way Nova doesn't attempt. Nova's guide on building a simple online store with AI covers the narrower case Nova does fit well, a small seller with a handful of products who mainly needs a clean showcase page linking out to wherever the transaction actually happens.
The honest split: if inventory, checkout, and scaling a real product catalog are the job, Shopify is the more direct tool. If you need a site around a business that isn't primarily transactional, or a simple product showcase pointing to an external payment link, Nova gets you there with less setup.
FAQ
You can link to your Shopify store from a Nova-built site the same way you'd link to any external page, though there's no built-in integration between the two platforms.
It can be, especially if you don't need inventory tracking or multiple sales channels yet; a simpler showcase site linking to a payment link or an existing marketplace listing is often enough at that stage.
Nova is free to build and publish to a getnova.pro subdomain with no account required; Shopify's plans start at a monthly cost and typically add transaction fees unless you use its own payment processing, so check Shopify's current pricing directly since it changes.
Describe your site to Nova if you need the business around your store, and use Shopify directly if what you need is the store itself.