shoppa vs Chatbase for Australian Stores 2026
Chatbase AI trains a chatbot on your website’s pages. See when that is enough, how its pricing compares and when your store needs an agent to take orders.
For shoppa vs Chatbase, choose shoppa for an Australian store that wants catalogue advice and payment in the chat. Choose Chatbase when answering from help pages is your main job, or when its wider support channels suit your team.
shoppa is an AI shopping agent that helps customers find, compare and buy products using your catalogue and store documents. It carries their earlier preferences through the conversation and supports order tracking and returns afterwards. Chatbase also has Shopify shopping actions, so the choice depends on how you connect it and where customers finish paying.
What Chatbase Does
Chatbase builds AI chatbots and agents from website pages, uploaded files and text snippets for businesses across industries. Your delivery policy and sizing guide can become answers inside its website widget. People sometimes spell the name as two words, “chat base”, but Chatbase is the product name.
Its listed connections include Shopify and WordPress, plus WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. That makes Chatbase useful when the same support information must reach customers in several channels. A website-trained bot and a Shopify-connected agent have different capabilities, even when both carry the Chatbase name.
Chatbase AI can use models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, among other providers. Its model guide lists Auto and GPT-6 Luna at one credit per message. GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude 5.5 Sonnet and Gemini 3.6 Flash use two. The Free plan has limited model access, while paid plans list advanced models.
| Decision | shoppa | Chatbase |
|---|---|---|
| Product information | Your synced catalogue and store documents | Website training, or Shopify catalogue sync through an action |
| Product discovery | Customers refine requirements over several messages and compare product attributes | A configured Shopify product action searches and displays products |
| Purchase | Customers add items and pay in the chat | Shopify actions manage the cart and create orders, with online payment through a checkout link |
| After the sale | Order support, returns and human handover in the conversation | Shopify order lookups and return actions, with helpdesk connections |
| Charging unit | Sessions or tokens | Subscription message credits, with model-dependent consumption |
Website Pages vs a Live Catalogue Feed
A crawled product page gives a bot the information captured during its last sync. A connected catalogue supplies product records that change with the store. This distinction applies to how Chatbase is configured, not just which product you choose.
Chatbase’s data-source documentation describes weekly automatic resync on Standard and Pro, with manual resync available for website sources. Its Shopify integration can import the catalogue directly. Chatbase recommends excluding product and collection pages from website training when that product action is enabled, so old page content doesn’t compete with synced records.
In an illustrative store, the last navy dress sells overnight and its price changes before the next customer visits. A Chatbase bot using yesterday’s page content can still carry yesterday’s details until resync. With its Shopify product action, Chatbase automatically receives product updates. shoppa answers from the price and availability in your synced catalogue feed.
Both connected approaches depend on the store supplying accurate data. A catalogue record cannot explain an unpublished sizing rule. shoppa uses your sizing documents alongside product information, so your customer gets the store’s guidance without an invented fit promise.
Product Advice, Cart and Checkout
shoppa takes customers from a product request to payment in the same chat, with comparisons available before they choose. Someone asking for a navy dress can narrow the results, compare fabrics and add their choice to the basket. Later requests such as “cheaper” retain the earlier context.
A page-trained Chatbase bot can answer product questions and direct customers to a product page. To act on Shopify, connect the store and enable the relevant actions. Product retrieval and cart updates cover discovery and basket changes. Create order supports checkout from the conversation, but its online-payment setting sends a secure Shopify-hosted checkout link.
For a store on another platform, Chatbase’s custom actions can call an application programming interface (API) or run browser-side code. Your basket and order system need that custom connection. shoppa has native apps for Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Wix. Other sites use a two-line embed.
The difference between an AI agent and a chatbot explains why an answer and a completed shopping action are separate jobs. Chatbase’s Shopify actions cross that boundary too. The payment destination and the work needed for your platform still affect the choice.
Order-Status Questions After the Sale
An order-status answer needs access to the customer’s order record, while a delivery policy explains the store’s general rules. A page saying delivery takes several business days cannot tell a customer whether their parcel has shipped.
shoppa lets customers check an order by order number, and signed-in customers see their orders across devices. Customers can start and track a return in the chat. Human handover sends the conversation to your staff or helpdesk when they need a person.
Chatbase’s Shopify order action retrieves status and tracking from connected store records. Signed-in customers use their account, while guests verify an order with its number and their checkout email or phone. That connection supplies the answer a website-trained bot cannot obtain from a general help page.
Message Credits and Cost in AUD
Chatbase pricing depends on message credits and the selected model, while shoppa has per-session and per-token pricing in Australian dollars. A conversation can consume several Chatbase credits because it contains several replies. A higher-credit model increases that consumption again.
| Chatbase plan | Included monthly message credits | What changes for this comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 50 | Limited model access and no AI actions |
| Hobby | 700 | Advanced models and integrations |
| Standard | 4,000 | Weekly website resync, API access and helpdesk |
| Pro | 15,000 | Higher allowance and advanced analytics |
| Enterprise | Custom | Higher limits and flexible billing |
Chatbase sells additional credit packs through automatic recharge. Subscription credits and recharge credits have different expiry rules, with recharge credits kept until used. Without extra credits, an exhausted allowance stops the agent answering until credits reset. The model and recharge setting therefore affect the bill alongside the subscription.
Consider an illustrative month with 1,500 conversations and four replies in each. That is 6,000 replies. At one credit per reply, the store uses 6,000 credits, which exceeds Standard’s allowance but fits within Pro’s. At two credits per reply, the same month uses 12,000 credits. Standard needs extra credits in either case.
For shoppa, the same traffic is quoted through its session model, or charged by the tokens the agent uses. Token usage depends on the conversation and the information processed, so conversation count alone doesn’t determine that bill. A session quote gives the retailer a predictable basis for this volume.
Compare the allowance and expected extra credits against an AUD quote, including any tax and currency-conversion costs. The Australian AI chatbot cost guide explains the charging models. Get a quote for shoppa’s session or token option using your expected conversation volume.
Choose shoppa or Chatbase
Choose shoppa when your store wants product discovery and buying in one chat, with order support afterwards. Catalogue-only answers keep recommendations within your range. Customers can refine preferences across turns and compare the attributes that decide a purchase. The same conversation then carries them through payment and into after-sale help.
Chatbase fits a store whose main need is making existing policy and help content easier to find. Its messaging channels also suit a team supporting customers beyond the website. On Shopify, it can go further through connected product and order actions, so an existing Chatbase user may gain shopping support by configuring those actions.
Capterra reviewer Fernando L. describes easier access to answers from business content. Rik H. praises ease of use but reports confidently wrong answers. Peter L. questions the price relative to allocated credits. Those 2023 accounts describe individual experiences with an older product and don’t establish today’s Shopify capabilities. Capterra’s Chatbase reviews give that feedback its context.
For a small Australian retailer, the deciding question is where your customers need help to end. Keep Chatbase for a help-content job or its wider support channels. Choose shoppa when catalogue-led advice, payment inside the chat and continued order support are the service you want on your site. If your reason for switching goes beyond these two products, compare the Chatbase alternatives for online stores.
The shoppa comparisons cover other tools by the shopping and support jobs your store needs.