MBA vs Mageplaza Automatic Related Products / Who Viewed This
A mature, rule-driven Magento 2 recommendation suite that places "related," "also bought," and "also viewed" blocks across the storefront, with native Hyva and GraphQL support.
When MBA wins
If you want recommendations driven by explainable co-purchase mining (support/confidence/lift you can inspect and audit), the same engine across Shopify/BigCommerce/WooCommerce/Magento/Oro, or agent-native REST/MCP access plus real-SKU bundles and A/B testing, MBA is the better fit.
When Mageplaza Automatic Related Products / Who Viewed This wins
If you are a single-store Magento 2 / Hyva merchant who mainly wants polished, heavily configurable merchandising blocks (30+ positions, sliders, AJAX, manual rules by attribute/category/price) from a long-established vendor with mature docs, Mageplaza is the safer, more turnkey buy.
Feature comparison
Color-striped rows favor MBA, Mageplaza Automatic Related Products / Who Viewed This, or are even. We mark each so you can scan for the trade-offs that matter to you.
| Feature | MBA | Mageplaza Automatic Related Products / Who Viewed This |
|---|---|---|
| How recommendations are generated | Six explainable engines (sql_pairs, FP-Growth default, seasonal_cohort, return_aware, profit-aware HUI, ai_catalog cold-start), plus a co_occurrence fallback that mine actual co-purchase patterns from order data | Manual rule conditions (attribute/category/price) plus simple co-occurrence counts from order history ("also bought") and browse history ("also viewed") |
| Explainability of why a product is recommended | Every rule emits support / confidence / lift and is inspectable in-admin | No association metrics surfaced; "also bought/viewed" is a frequency count and manual rules are opaque to shoppers |
| Platform coverage | One API contract across Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, and OroCommerce | Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce only (Shopify handled by a separate Shopplaza product line) |
| Agent / programmatic access | Public REST API, a 19-tool MCP server (18 off Shopify), and ACP / agentic-commerce endpoints | REST and GraphQL endpoints to fetch recommendation lists (PWA Studio compatible); no MCP or agentic-commerce layer |
| Merchandising block placement and storefront polish | Cart drawer, post-purchase upsell, substitutions, and configurable recommendation surfaces | Unlimited blocks across 30+ positions, sliders vs multi-line layouts, AJAX loading, widget insertion, mature Hyva theme support |
| Bundles and bundle formats | Real-SKU bundles with BYOB, volume, BOGO, and virtual bundle formats, plus B2B-aware mining on OroCommerce | Recommendation blocks only; no native bundle builder in this extension |
| A/B testing of recommendations | Built-in A/B testing with lift and confidence intervals | Impression / click / CTR statistics dashboard, but no native split testing |
| Impression / click / CTR analytics | Performance and lift reporting, with A/B as the primary optimization loop | Built-in impressions, clicks, and CTR tracking per block to tune rules |
| Pricing model | Flat and transparent: free $0 tier, Plus $99/mo (or ~$79/mo on annual), no GMV or revenue share | Transparent per-extension annual license ($249-$449/yr for ARP; related modules sold separately), no GMV or revenue share |
Pricing snapshot
MarketBasketAnalysis
Flat, transparent plan pricing: Free ($0) and Plus $99/mo flat (or ~$79/mo on annual). One paid plan, everything in it. These are product plans, not per-platform prices, and the same plans apply across every platform. Metered on capability and compute, never on GMV. No revenue share, no add-ons.
See plansMageplaza Automatic Related Products / Who Viewed This
Per-extension annual license. Automatic Related Products is $249/yr (Community) or $449/yr (Enterprise/Cloud); the related "Who Viewed/Who Bought" modules are sold separately (around $149 each). First year includes support and updates; renewal required to keep updates. No free tier, no GMV or revenue share.
Visit Mageplaza Automatic Related Products / Who Viewed ThisThe honest verdict
Mageplaza is a genuinely good, battle-tested choice if you are Magento-only and want configurable merchandising blocks now; its placement options, Hyva support, and docs are more mature than ours on Magento specifically.
The core difference is intelligence model: Mageplaza is rules plus co-occurrence counting, while MBA does explainable association-rule mining and shows you the support/confidence/lift, which matters if you need to justify or audit recommendations.
Pricing is honestly comparable per platform; Mageplaza charges per-extension annual licenses (so "related" + "also bought" + "also viewed" can stack), while MBA bundles those behaviors into one product with a free Woo tier and no revenue share.
Choose MBA if you run multiple storefronts, want one API contract, need agent/MCP/agentic-commerce access, or need real-SKU bundles, substitutions, and A/B testing alongside recommendations; choose Mageplaza if you want a single-store Magento merchandising suite from an established vendor and do not need any of that.
Neither is a personalization/ML behemoth like Nosto or Adobe Sensei; both are pragmatic, merchant-installable tools, with MBA leaning toward transparency and portability and Mageplaza leaning toward Magento-native polish.
Want the full buyer's deep-dive?
This page is the per-vendor short version. For the long version, read “MBA vs Bloomreach” (8 pages on the enterprise-vs-mid-market trade-off) or “MBA vs the widget cluster” (4 pages of pricing math vs Glood, Rebuy, and PickyStory).
Try MBA on your own store
14-day money-back guarantee on all paid platforms. WP.org free tier on WooCommerce. No credit card required for the free path.