Good NumbersStape and Elevar come up in almost every conversation about Shopify server-side tracking, and they are often compared as if they were the same kind of product. They aren't. One is infrastructure you build on. The other is a managed service that does the building for you. Choosing between them is mostly a question of who will maintain your tracking.
We set up and fix both for clients and aren't affiliated with either. Prices below come from their Shopify App Store listings and published pricing in October 2026, so check them before you buy. For a three-way comparison that includes Littledata, see Elevar vs Littledata vs Stape.
The core difference
Stape hosts a server-side Google Tag Manager container for you. Its free Shopify app adds GTM to your store, builds a data layer and sends purchase and refund webhooks to your server container. From there, you or your agency build the tags that send events to GA4, Meta, Google Ads, TikTok and anywhere else. You own every rule.
Elevar is a Shopify tracking app. It adds a Shopify-specific data layer and sends server-side events to the platforms you connect, with session enrichment for returning visitors and delivery monitoring. Browser tags can still run in GTM using Elevar's data layer, but the server-side delivery is managed by Elevar.
Stape is a server you configure. Elevar is a service you subscribe to. Stape suits teams that know server-side GTM. Elevar suits teams that want the result without building it.
Stape vs Elevar side by side
| Stape | Elevar | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosting for your own server-side GTM, plus a free Shopify app | Managed Shopify tracking app with a data layer and server-side delivery |
| Pricing model | Monthly plan by server requests | Monthly plan by orders and destinations |
| Entry price | Free for 10,000 requests, then $20 a month for 500,000 | Free up to 100 orders, then $225 a month for 2,000 orders |
| Who builds the tags | You or your agency | Elevar, with your configuration |
| Skill needed | High: server-side GTM | Medium: GTM knowledge helps |
| Control | Full | High, within Elevar's features |
| Monitoring | You set it up | Included |
| Works beyond Shopify | Yes, any site or app | Built for Shopify |
| Shopify App Store rating | 4.3 from 42 reviews | 4.8 from 170 reviews |
Cost at your order volume
Elevar charges by orders and destinations: Core is $225 a month for up to 2,000 orders and 2 destinations, Advanced is $650 for 10,000 orders and 4 destinations, and Premium is $1,250 for 30,000 orders and 10 destinations, with overage per extra order. Stape charges by requests: $20 a month for 500,000, $100 for 5 million and $200 for 20 million.
| Orders a month | Elevar | Stape hosting |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $225 (Core) | $20 to $100 |
| 3,000 | $650 (Advanced) | $100 |
| 10,000 | $650 (Advanced) | $100 to $200 |
| 25,000 | $1,250 (Premium) | $200 |
Two things change this picture. First, Stape's requests include every page view, script load and bot hit, so a store with heavy traffic and few orders needs a bigger plan than its order count suggests. Second, Stape's price is hosting only. Building a solid server-side GTM setup takes real hours, and so does maintaining it when Shopify, Meta or Google change something. If you pay an agency for that work, add it to the comparison.
How much work each one takes
Stape
- Create the server container and connect a custom subdomain for first-party cookies.
- Install the Shopify app and confirm the data layer and webhooks arrive.
- Build tags for each platform, with deduplication, consent and customer data for matching.
- Set up monitoring yourself, and retest after Shopify or platform changes.
Elevar
- Install the app, connect destinations and follow its onboarding.
- Remove old pixels and app tracking that would duplicate Elevar's events.
- Configure consent, revenue definitions and any custom events.
- Watch Elevar's monitoring for delivery errors.
In both cases, the step people skip is removing the old setup. A new tool sending purchases while the Facebook app still sends them creates duplicates. Our guide to Meta duplicate purchases shows how to check.
Our free tracking check measures what GA4, Meta and Google Ads miss today and tells you whether you need Stape, Elevar or neither. Read-only, within 3 business days.
Get a free tracking checkWhich one to pick
| Your situation | Pick |
|---|---|
| No one on the team knows server-side GTM | Elevar |
| An agency or in-house analyst already works in GTM | Stape |
| High order volume and cost matters | Stape |
| Many destinations, little time to maintain tracking | Elevar |
| You track more than Shopify (apps, other sites, a CRM) | Stape |
| Under about $10k a month in ad spend | Neither yet: set up Shopify's free apps properly |
Other options to consider
Littledata sits between the two: managed like Elevar, with no GTM work, and priced per order. It can be cheaper than Elevar at mid volumes and suits subscription brands. The full comparison is in Elevar vs Littledata vs Stape.
Shopify's native apps are free and often enough. The Facebook and Instagram app sends purchases through the Conversions API, and the Google and YouTube app handles GA4 and Google Ads. Our guide to whether server-side tracking is worth it explains when to move beyond them.
Common questions
What is the difference between Stape and Elevar?
Stape hosts your own server-side Google Tag Manager container, and you build every tag yourself. Elevar is a managed Shopify tracking app that provides a data layer and sends server-side events to each platform for you. Stape gives more control and costs less to run. Elevar takes less technical work and includes monitoring.
Is Stape cheaper than Elevar?
For hosting, yes. Stape plans start at $20 a month for 500,000 requests, while Elevar paid plans start at $225 a month for up to 2,000 orders. But Stape needs someone who can build and maintain server-side GTM, so the total cost depends on who does that work.
Can I switch from Elevar to Stape, or the other way?
Yes, but plan it as a migration. Run the new setup alongside the old one with deduplication in place, compare purchase counts with Shopify for a week or two, then switch off the old one. Switching both off and on at once is how stores lose or double purchases.
Do I need either one?
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. Many stores under about $10k a month in ad spend get most of the benefit for free.
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.