Fraya vs. CreateMyStore: what the free AI Shopify store costs by month four
CreateMyStore builds a free Shopify store with AI. What it builds, what you pay once the trials end, who it is made for, and how Fraya differs for people who make what they sell.
By Lance Culbreth, founder of Fraya · · 4 min read
Short answer
CreateMyStore is a free AI tool from Vitals that builds a new Shopify store: theme, logo, AliExpress products, product copy, preloaded reviews and 40+ Vitals marketing apps. The build is free, but it runs on two subscriptions. Shopify Basic is $39 a month after a $1-a-month intro, and Vitals starts at $29.99 a month plus usage charges after a 7-day trial, so about $69 a month or more before you sell anything. Fraya is free to publish and sell, with 1% on sales and no monthly fee, and is built for people who make or do what they sell rather than resell products from a supplier.
What CreateMyStore builds
You pick a niche and a look. The AI creates a Shopify store, sets up a theme with a logo and banners, imports best-selling products or ones you paste from AliExpress, writes the product pages, preloads reviews, and installs the Vitals app suite: reviews, bundles, upsells, pop-ups, urgency timers, visitor recordings and a currency converter.
- Shopify only, and new stores only. An existing Shopify store can use Vitals’ product page tool instead.
- A credit card is required to start, for the Shopify account and the Vitals trial.
- The store is a normal Shopify store you own and can edit like any other.
What it costs once the trials end
- Shopify: 3 days free, then $1 a month for 3 months, then $39 a month on Basic ($29 a month billed yearly).
- Vitals: 7 days free, then $29.99 a month, plus usage charges that grow with your sales and features.
- Card processing through Shopify Payments: 2.9% + 30 cents online in the US.
- Domain, extra apps and ads on top, as with any Shopify store.
That is about $69 a month before your first sale, and more as Vitals’ usage meters climb. Figures from Shopify’s and Vitals’ published pricing, October 2026. Their pages are the source of truth; these change.
Who it is built for
CreateMyStore is a dropshipping starter. It suits someone who wants to sell online but has not picked a product yet, and who plans to find buyers through ads. The supplier ships, the store looks busy on day one, and the work is marketing.
Where it wins: if you want to resell supplier products, or you already know you want Shopify and its app store, it gets a fully stocked store up faster than starting from a blank theme.
Where Fraya is different
- Your own work, not a supplier’s. Fraya is for makers, artists, studios and service businesses. Describe what you make in a sentence and she builds the site around your products, your story and your photos, or imports your listings from Etsy or Shopify.
- No monthly bill to start. Free to publish and sell, with 1% on sales. Payments go to your own Stripe account at Stripe’s rate. The $29 plan is optional and adds the AI operator.
- Social proof you earn. Reviews come from your real buyers, and you approve each one before it shows. Nothing is preloaded.
- More than a store. Bookings, tickets, memberships, email campaigns, an inbox and legal pages live in the same place, instead of 40 apps on top of a theme.
- Readable by AI. Every Fraya site ships with structured data so ChatGPT, Google and other assistants can find and cite your business.
Where Fraya is not the right choice
Fraya does not source products from AliExpress or run dropshipping. If reselling supplier products is the plan, a Shopify store with dropshipping apps is built for that. For print-on-demand, Fraya connects your own Printify account.
Straight answers.
Is CreateMyStore really free?
Building the store is free. Keeping it is not: Shopify Basic is $39 a month after a $1-a-month intro for 3 months, and Vitals is $29.99 a month plus usage charges after a 7-day trial. A card is required to start.
Who makes CreateMyStore?
Vitals, the company behind the Vitals all-in-one Shopify app. The store it builds comes with the Vitals app suite installed.
Does CreateMyStore work with an existing Shopify store?
No. The AI builder creates new Shopify stores only. Existing stores can use Vitals’ product page generator.
What is a free alternative to CreateMyStore?
Fraya builds a site and store from one sentence and is free to publish and sell, with 1% on sales and no monthly fee. It is made for people selling their own products and services, not for dropshipping.
Can I move my Shopify store to Fraya?
Yes. Fraya imports your catalog from a Shopify or Etsy export, with photos re-hosted, so products, prices and descriptions come across in one step.
