Comparison
Matrixify imports and exports almost anything in your Shopify store, using Excel or CSV files built to its own template. Simple CSV handles products, variants, product metafields, pricing and inventory, and maps the column names your file already has.
The short answer
Matrixify is the established tool here. It covers products, variants, collections, customers, companies, orders, draft orders, discounts, pages, blog posts, redirects, menus, metafields across the store, metaobjects and shop activity logs. It can also move data between stores or in from other platforms. To use it, your Excel or CSV file has to follow Matrixify's own template: specific sheet names, specific columns, in the structure its documentation defines. If your data already lives in that format or you're willing to build it that way, Matrixify is hard to beat for scope.
Simple CSV maps whatever columns your file already has, however they're named, to Shopify product fields or product metafields with a dropdown and shows five mapped example rows before anything changes in your store. We don't move orders, customers, collections or metafields outside products. If you need that wider store data, Matrixify is the right tool.
| Capability | Matrixify | Simple CSV |
|---|---|---|
| Data types | Products, variants, collections, customers, companies, orders, draft orders, discounts, pages, blog posts, redirects, menus, metafields across the store, metaobjects and shop activity logs | Products, variants, product metafields, pricing and inventory only |
| File format | Excel, CSV or Google Sheets, built to Matrixify's own template with specific sheet names and columns | CSV, XLS, XLSX or XML, including a supported file inside a ZIP, GZ or TAR.GZ archive |
| Column mapping | None. Your file has to match Matrixify's template structure | Any source column maps to a Shopify product field or product metafield, with five example rows shown before you commit |
| Update matching | Products matched by ID or Handle. Variants matched by Variant ID, Variant SKU, Variant Barcode or Option Values | SKU, first barcode, handle or Shopify ID. Secondary barcodes do not match. Text identifiers match exactly after letter case and surrounding spaces are ignored |
| Free plan | Demo: 10 items per data type, including products, collections, customers and orders, on any store | 100 rows per file, on any store, with manual imports only |
| Entry paid plan | Basic, $20 / 30 days: 5,000 products, 600 collections, 2,000 customers and 1,000 orders | Pro, $19/month: unlimited rows and 3 scheduled URL automations every 6 hours |
| Higher paid plans | Big, $50 / 30 days with 50,000 products, batch import and 5 parallel threads. Enterprise, $200 / 30 days with unlimited items and 10+ parallel threads | Scale, $49/month: 7 automations hourly, with optional out-of-feed cleanup |
| Trial | None found on Matrixify's pricing page or FAQ | 14-day free trial on Pro and Scale |
For the full Simple CSV limits, automation frequencies and Scale cleanup options, see our pricing page and feature overview.
Have an XML product feed? Our XML import guide shows how Simple CSV handles the file without a conversion step.
Choose Matrixify when
Your import or export touches anything beyond products, product metafields and inventory, such as orders, customers, collections, discounts, metaobjects, pages, redirects or metafields outside products. You're comfortable building files to Matrixify's template. You may already export from Matrixify, so the format is a given. You want multi-store copying or scheduled backups across your whole store.
Choose Simple CSV when
Your source file's column names don't match Shopify's or Matrixify's structure and you'd rather not rename them by hand. You're only moving products, variants, product metafields, pricing or inventory. You want to see mapped example rows before anything changes in your store.
On price
Matrixify Basic is $20 every 30 days. Simple CSV Pro is $19 a month. Close enough that price isn't the deciding factor between these two. The real difference is scope: Matrixify's $20 plan caps you at 5,000 products, 600 collections and 2,000 customers across every data type it handles. Simple CSV's $19 plan has no row cap, but only for products, variants, product metafields, pricing and inventory. Pick based on what you're moving, not the one-dollar gap.
Our Shopify product import guide explains the complete workflow before you choose a tool.
Questions
Matrixify files have to follow its own template structure, with specific sheet names and columns. If your source file uses different headers, you rebuild it to match before importing. Simple CSV lets you map your existing column names to Shopify fields with a dropdown.
Matrixify can import orders, customers, collections, discounts, pages, blog posts, redirects, menus, metaobjects and metafields outside products. Simple CSV imports and updates products, variants, product metafields, pricing and inventory only.
Matrixify matches products and other top-level entities by ID or Handle. For variants, it looks them up by Variant ID, Variant SKU, Variant Barcode or Option Values. Simple CSV matches by SKU, first barcode, handle or Shopify ID. Secondary barcodes do not match. Its text identifiers are compared exactly after letter case and surrounding spaces are ignored.
Matrixify's Demo plan is free but limited to 10 items per data type. We didn't find a paid-plan trial on Matrixify's pricing page or its FAQ. Simple CSV's Free plan allows 100 rows per file with manual imports, while Pro and Scale come with a 14-day free trial.
Yes. Scheduling is included on Matrixify's Demo plan as well as all three paid tiers. Simple CSV's Free plan runs manual imports only. Scheduling starts on Pro.
Install Simple CSV, map your existing columns and review example rows before anything changes in your store.