MBA vs Vitals
An all-in-one Shopify conversion suite that bundles 40+ tools, including reviews, upsells, bundles, and related-product recommendations, behind a single subscription.
When MBA wins
If you sell on more than one platform, need inspectable co-purchase rules with real support/confidence/lift instead of a black-box "related products" widget, or want recommendations exposed over a public API and MCP for agents, MarketBasketAnalysis wins.
When Vitals wins
If you run a single Shopify store and want one app to cover reviews, upsells, bundles, trust badges, visitor replays, email, and push at $29.99/mo with a 4.9-star track record across 2,500+ reviews, Vitals delivers far more total surface area than a focused recommendation engine.
Feature comparison
Color-striped rows favor MBA, Vitals, or are even. We mark each so you can scan for the trade-offs that matter to you.
| Feature | MBA | Vitals |
|---|---|---|
| Recommendation engine transparency | Six explainable engines (sql_pairs, FP-Growth default, seasonal_cohort, return_aware, profit-aware HUI, ai_catalog cold-start), plus a co_occurrence fallback emit support/confidence/lift, and every rule is inspectable in-admin. | Related products driven by "previous purchases or other algorithms"; no exposed metrics, no inspectable rules, no documented mining method. |
| Platform coverage | Same intelligence across Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, and OroCommerce on one API contract. | Shopify only. |
| Bundles, upsells, and substitutions | Real-SKU bundles, substitutions, and post-purchase upsell. | Fixed, mix-and-match, upsell, cross-sell, and frequently-bought-together bundles, BOGO, volume discounts, and gift/goal offers (up to 5 products per bundle). |
| A/B testing of recommendations | Built-in A/B testing of recommendation placements and rules. | No dedicated A/B testing of recommendations in the documented toolset. |
| Agent / developer access | Public REST API, a 19-tool MCP server (18 off Shopify), and ACP/agentic-commerce endpoints. | No standalone public API or MCP surface; tools are configured inside the Shopify admin embed. |
| B2B depth | B2B-aware mining on OroCommerce (per-organization context, cross-store insights), reorder-prediction data through the REST API, and a recommendation API for building custom B2B flows. | No RFQ, quote, or wholesale-specific recommendation features documented. |
| Breadth of store tooling beyond recommendations | Focused on recommendations, bundles, substitutions, upsell, and B2B; no reviews, visitor replays, email, or push. | 40+ tools including product reviews, visitor session replays, email and push campaigns, trust badges, wishlists, currency converter, and sticky add-to-cart. |
| Data privacy / where intelligence runs | Mining runs first-party inside the merchant install on Magento/Woo, and AI is bring-your-own Anthropic/OpenAI key (Oro is a thin hosted client). | Hosted Shopify SaaS; recommendation and analytics data is processed on Vitals' servers. |
| Pricing predictability | Flat transparent pricing: free $0 tier, Plus $99/mo (or ~$79/mo on annual), no GMV or revenue share. | Transparent base tiers $29.99 to $299.99/mo with no revenue share, but several reviewers report unexpected usage-based charges on top of the base fee. |
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 plansVitals
Tiered Shopify subscription from $29.99/mo (Hobby, up to 1,000 products) through Business $49.99, Pro $89.99, and Plus $299.99/mo, with limits scaled by product count, email contacts, review emails, visitor recordings, and push impressions; free for dev/partner/trial stores, 7-day trial, plus usage-based charges on some tiers. No revenue share, but reviewers report variable usage fees on top of the base price.
Visit VitalsThe honest verdict
Vitals is genuinely good at being a Swiss Army knife: 40+ Shopify tools, a 4.9 rating across 2,500+ reviews, and a $29.99 entry point. If you just need decent related-product widgets alongside reviews, replays, and email, it is hard to beat on value-per-dollar.
But its recommendations are a feature inside a suite, not the product. There is no exposed mining method, no support/confidence/lift, and no inspectable rules, so you are trusting a black box. MarketBasketAnalysis is built the opposite way: explainable co-purchase rules you can audit in-admin.
If you are Shopify-only forever, Vitals' breadth may be more useful than MBA's depth. If you sell across BigCommerce, Woo, Magento, or Oro, Vitals simply cannot follow you, while MBA runs the same engine everywhere on one API contract.
MBA is the developer/agent choice: a public REST API, a 19-tool MCP server (18 off Shopify), and ACP endpoints, plus first-party on-store mining with bring-your-own AI keys. Vitals has none of that; it lives in the Shopify admin embed.
Watch the bill on Vitals; the $29.99 headline is real, but reviewers report usage-based charges stacking on top. MBA's flat pricing (free $0 tier, Plus $99/mo, no revenue share) is the more predictable line item.
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.