Good NumbersIf you've decided your Shopify store needs server-side tracking, three names come up almost every time: Elevar, Littledata and Stape. They solve overlapping problems in very different ways, and they cost very different amounts depending on your order volume and who maintains the setup.
This is an independent comparison. We are not affiliated with any of the three and earn nothing if you pick one. We set up and fix all of them for clients, and the honest answer is that each one fits a different kind of store. Prices below are from each vendor's Shopify App Store listing or pricing page in October 2026, so check them before you buy.
Do you need any of them?
Not always. Shopify's free Facebook and Instagram app can send purchases through the Meta Conversions API, and the Google and YouTube app covers GA4 and Google Ads. If your GA4 captures 90% or more of Shopify orders and you spend under about $10k a month on ads, start there. Our guide to whether server-side tracking is worth it has the full decision table.
A paid tool starts making sense when:
- GA4 or Meta misses a meaningful share of orders after the free options are set up properly.
- You advertise on several platforms and want one consistent source of purchase events for all of them.
- You need control the free apps don't give: revenue definitions, extra parameters, subscriptions or multiple stores.
How each one works
Elevar
Elevar adds a Shopify-specific data layer to your store and sends events server-side to GA4, Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, Klaviyo and others. It is built around Google Tag Manager, so browser tags read Elevar's data layer while Elevar's servers deliver the server-side events. It also offers session enrichment for returning visitors and delivery monitoring. It suits teams that are comfortable in GTM and want the most complete toolkit.
Littledata
Littledata is a managed server-side connection. You install it, connect destinations and it handles the events without you building GTM tags. It covers GA4, Google Ads, Meta, Klaviyo, TikTok, Pinterest and more, with a no-code event editor and subscription support for apps like Recharge. It suits brands that want reliable server-side data without a tagging specialist.
Stape
Stape is hosting for your own server-side Google Tag Manager container, plus a free Shopify app that injects GTM, builds a data layer and sends purchase and refund webhooks to your server container. You build and own every tag. It is the most flexible and usually the cheapest to run, but it needs someone who knows server-side GTM to set up and maintain.
Side by side
| Elevar | Littledata | Stape | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approach | Data layer plus managed server-side, GTM based | Managed server-side, no GTM needed | Hosting for your own server GTM |
| Pricing model | Monthly plan by orders and destinations | Per order, or monthly plan with included orders | Monthly plan by server requests |
| Free option | Base plan, up to 100 orders a month | 30-day free trial | Free plan, 10,000 requests a month |
| Setup skill needed | Medium, GTM helps | Low | High, server GTM |
| Control | High | Medium | Full |
| Shopify App Store rating | 4.8 from 170 reviews | 4.8 from 147 reviews | 4.3 from 42 reviews (Shopify app) |
What each costs at your volume
Elevar's paid plans are Core at $225 a month for up to 2,000 orders and 2 destinations, Advanced at $650 for 10,000 orders and 4 destinations, and Premium at $1,250 for 30,000 orders and 10 destinations, with overage per extra order. Littledata's Scale plan is $199 a month with 1,500 orders included, then $0.15 per order up to 3,000 and $0.06 above that. Its Flex plan is $0.35 per order with no minimum. Stape hosting is $20 a month for 500,000 requests, $100 for 5 million and $200 for 20 million.
Worked out for typical order volumes, choosing the cheapest suitable plan of each:
| Orders a month | Elevar | Littledata | Stape hosting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $225 (Core) | $199 (Scale) | $20 to $100 |
| 3,000 | $650 (Advanced) | $424 (Scale) | $100 |
| 10,000 | $650 (Advanced) | $844 (Scale) | $100 to $200 |
Stape's cost depends on requests, not orders. Every page view, script load and bot hit counts, so a store with heavy traffic and few orders needs a bigger plan. And the hosting fee is only part of the cost: a server GTM setup takes real hours to build and some time every quarter to maintain. Elevar also charges per extra destination beyond your plan, so count the platforms you need before comparing.
Our free tracking check measures what GA4, Meta and Google Ads miss today and tells you whether the free apps are enough or which tool would close the gap. Read-only, within 3 business days.
Get a free tracking checkQuestions to answer before you choose
- How many orders do you take a month, and how fast is that growing? Per-order pricing that looks cheap today can overtake a flat plan within a year.
- Which platforms need purchase data? Count every destination: GA4, Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Klaviyo, Snapchat. Plan limits on destinations change the comparison.
- Who will maintain it? A tool your team can't troubleshoot breaks quietly. Be honest about whether anyone can work in GTM, or server-side GTM.
- Do you sell subscriptions, run several stores or use a headless storefront? Support for these varies between tools and plans.
- How will you know it worked? Measure your capture rate per platform before you install anything, so you can compare after.
Which one fits which store
| Your situation | Our usual pick |
|---|---|
| Under $10k a month in ads, one or two platforms | Shopify's free apps, set up properly |
| Growing brand, no tagging specialist, subscriptions | Littledata |
| Team or agency that works in GTM, several platforms | Elevar |
| High volume, technical team or agency, full control wanted | Stape with server-side GTM |
Whichever you choose, the setup matters more than the tool. The most common problem we see is a new tracking app sending purchases while the old pixels keep sending them too. Our guide to Meta duplicate purchases shows how to spot that, and finding your true ROAS shows how to judge whether the extra data changed anything.
Common questions
Is Elevar better than Littledata?
Neither is better for every store. Elevar gives more control through a Shopify data layer and Google Tag Manager and suits teams that already work in GTM. Littledata is more managed, needs no GTM work and can be cheaper at mid volumes. The right choice depends on your order volume, destinations and who will maintain it.
Is Stape cheaper than Elevar and Littledata?
Hosting usually is. Stape plans start at $20 a month for 500,000 requests. But Stape is infrastructure for your own server-side GTM container, so you also pay for setup and maintenance by someone who knows GTM. For stores without that skill in-house, the total cost can be higher.
Can I use Shopify's free apps instead?
Often, yes. The Facebook and Instagram app can send purchases through the Meta Conversions API, and the Google and YouTube app handles GA4 and Google Ads. Many stores under about $10k a month in ad spend get most of the benefit for free.
Can I run Elevar or Littledata alongside the Facebook app?
Yes, but only one tool should send each event to each platform. If a tracking app sends Meta purchases, turn down the Facebook app's data sharing as the tracking app's setup guide describes, or Meta will count purchases twice.
Freelance data and analytics engineer and founder of Good Numbers. Top Rated on Upwork. Specializes in GA4, Google Tag Manager, BigQuery, server-side tracking and Shopify attribution.