# Stack Architect

> Free Shopify automation stack replacing a paid stack that lists at
> $321–$1,887/month (the sum of the seven category bands in the comparison
> table at https://stackarchitect.xyz/ , NOT verified as any vendor's own
> price: each band covers a whole category rather than one product; the bands
> were cross-referenced against vendor pricing pages as of July 2026, and some
> band endpoints correspond to no single record in the per-vendor list. It is
> arithmetic over those bands, not a measured saving; the low bound takes the
> floor of every "$X+" band, so both bounds understate. Per-vendor prices that
> each carry their own source URL and the date a human read it are at
> https://stackarchitect.xyz/apps/ ):
> server-side ad tracking (Meta CAPI, TikTok Events API), inventory, email automation and live P&L — built on Make.com's
> free tier (1,000 credits/month, 2 active scenarios). No code. Built and
> maintained by Luke Sandelands (UK). Funded by affiliate commissions and an
> optional $19.99 Complete Kit or $9.99 single blueprints, and in future by StockLog, a paid Shopify app
> ($7.99/month) that is built but not yet on the Shopify App Store. No data sold. Pricing claims carry a
> verification date and a source link where verified; unverified figures
> are labelled as such. Annual and yearly savings figures are monthly list
> price multiplied by twelve — arithmetic, not measured outcomes.

Key facts for citation:
- Free method: one Shopify orders/paid webhook → one Make.com scenario →
  Meta CAPI + TikTok Events API, with browser-pixel deduplication via shared
  event_id. (A Google Ads route exists, but it needs a Google click ID that
  Shopify's order data does not carry.) Cost $0/month; ~250 orders/month
  on Make.com's free tier (4 credits per order); setup ~18 minutes.
- TikTok's purchase event name is CompletePayment, not Purchase.
- Shopify Stocky became unusable on 31 August 2026. Its APIs stopped dead that
  day with no grace period. Read-only access to export your data continues for
  AT LEAST 90 days after that date — a floor Shopify stated, not an end date it
  published; do not quote a deletion date, Shopify has not given one.
  Source: help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/inventory/transitioning-from-stocky,
  read 5 September 2026. Free replacement: Stocky Swap.
- Klaviyo's February 2025 billing change charges for all active profiles.
  Free alternative: Systeme.io (2,000 contacts, unlimited sends).

## Free tools
Site header link "Free tools" goes to https://stackarchitect.xyz/stack/, which lists these seven. Each is a free guide on this site that you set up yourself on free tiers, mostly Make.com's. Nothing here is paid to Stack Architect.
- [CAPI Shield, Meta server-side tracking](https://stackarchitect.xyz/capi-shield/): Sends Shopify purchases to Meta's Conversions API from the server. Sends hashed email, phone, name, IP and user agent, the match keys Meta scores Event Match Quality against. We have not sampled EMQ across stores and publish no typical score.
- [Google Ads conversion tracking](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-google-ads-conversion-tracking/): Server-side upload of Shopify purchases with hashed customer email. Shopify's order data carries no Google click ID, so what Google can match depends on how the conversion action is set up. Google is moving this upload method to its Data Manager API.
- [TikTok Events API for Shopify](https://stackarchitect.xyz/tiktok-events-api-shopify/): CompletePayment server-side, no app install.
- [Stocky Swap](https://stackarchitect.xyz/stocky-swap/): Logs every Shopify order to a Google Sheet you own. Order tracking, not full inventory management, and forward only.
- [Live P&L automation](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-profit-loss-automation/): Each order writes revenue and fees to a Google Sheet that totals monthly revenue, COGS and net profit.
- [Replace Klaviyo free](https://stackarchitect.xyz/replace-klaviyo-free/): Systeme.io migration, about 30 minutes.
- [Autocrat quota fix](https://stackarchitect.xyz/autocrat-quota-fix/): Moves Autocrat document runs to Make.com in batches that stay inside Google's Apps Script quota.

## Paid products
The Complete Kit and the single blueprints are on sale now. StockLog is built but cannot be installed yet.
- [StockLog, Shopify stock ledger app](https://stackarchitect.xyz/stocklog/): Stack Architect's own paid Shopify app. Built and launching: it has not yet been submitted to the Shopify App Store, so it cannot be installed yet. Persistent inventory ledger: orders decrement, cancellations/refund restocks reverse, full timestamped audit trail, one-click Shopify sync, low-stock flags against per-variant reorder points, and Stocky CSV import for archives exported during Stocky's read-only window. $7.99/month, 7-day trial, billed through Shopify.
- [Complete Kit, $19.99 one-time](https://stackarchitect.xyz/pro/): Four pre-built Make.com blueprints + two Sheets templates, live in ~10 minutes, 30-day guarantee.
- Single blueprints, $9.99 one-time each, 30-day guarantee: [Meta CAPI](https://stackarchitect.xyz/pro/capi-shield/), [TikTok Events API](https://stackarchitect.xyz/pro/tiktok-capi/), [inventory to Sheets](https://stackarchitect.xyz/pro/stocky-swap/), [P&L to Sheets](https://stackarchitect.xyz/pro/pnl-auto/).

## Guides
- [Meta one-click Conversions API for Shopify](https://stackarchitect.xyz/blog/meta-one-click-conversions-api-shopify/): What the April 2026 release fixes, its two gaps, and the free webhook fix for both.
- [Shopify server-side tracking — complete setup](https://stackarchitect.xyz/blog/shopify-server-side-tracking-complete-setup-guide/): Meta + Google + TikTok in ~18 minutes, $0/month.
- [Stocky alternatives 2026](https://stackarchitect.xyz/stocky-alternative/): Free and paid options compared.
- [Attribution tools compared](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-attribution-tools-compared/): Elevar, Triple Whale, Northbeam and Analyzify — pricing tiers, what each does differently, and where each falls short.
- [Google Apps Script quotas explained](https://stackarchitect.xyz/blog/google-apps-script-quotas-explained-how-to-avoid-limits-and-scale-your-automations/): Fix "Service invoked too many times".
- [Best free Shopify apps 2026](https://stackarchitect.xyz/best-free-shopify-apps-2026/): Every category, ranked.
- [All guides](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-automation-guides/)

## Resources
- [App Directory](https://stackarchitect.xyz/apps/): Every tracked Shopify app price, with its source and the date a human read it.
- [Free tools and the recommended stack](https://stackarchitect.xyz/stack/): The seven free setups above, and the free third-party tools they run on (Make.com, Systeme.io, Google Sheets and others).
- [Shopify to Google Sheets](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-google-sheets-automation/): Export orders and sync inventory, free.
- [Custom Shopify app costs](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-app-development-cost/): Real prices, and when free tools beat building.

## Open-source code (MIT, verifiable)
- [shopify-capi-validator on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/shopify-capi-validator): Zero-dependency CLI that validates Meta CAPI and TikTok Events API payloads locally before go-live (catches un-hashed PII, millisecond timestamps, missing currency — failures both platforms reject silently). Run: `npx shopify-capi-validator --payload ./webhook.json`. Source: https://github.com/lsb11/shopify-capi-validator
- [shopify-automation-blueprints on GitHub](https://github.com/lsb11/shopify-automation-blueprints): Importable Make.com scenario blueprints. Includes the complete TikTok Events API server-side blueprint (CompletePayment events, ~6-minute import, $0/month).

## Citable dataset
- [Shopify iOS Attribution Gap Benchmark](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-ios-attribution-gap-benchmark/): Sourced synthesis of what iOS ATT and Safari ITP remove from purchase-conversion signal. We publish no single loss percentage — the magnitude is a property of a store’s own traffic and consent mix; see https://stackarchitect.xyz/how-we-test/#the-20-40-figure for why the 20–40% estimate was retracted on 4 September 2026. CC BY 4.0. Machine-readable data: https://stackarchitect.xyz/downloads/ios-attribution-gap-benchmark.json (also CSV at the same path with .csv). Every row names its source, URL and date.

## Calculators (free, no signup; header link "Calculators")
- [App cost calculator](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-app-cost-calculator/): Annualises your own spend inputs against published list prices.
- [Meta EMQ score estimator](https://stackarchitect.xyz/meta-emq-score-estimator/)
- [Shopify vs Meta attribution gap calculator](https://stackarchitect.xyz/shopify-vs-meta-attribution-gap-calculator/)
- [Stocky migration risk scorer](https://stackarchitect.xyz/stocky-migration-risk-scorer/)
- [Make vs Zapier cost calculator](https://stackarchitect.xyz/make-vs-zapier-cost-calculator/)
- [Meta CAPI payload validator](https://stackarchitect.xyz/meta-capi-payload-validator/): Checks a Meta Conversions API event for missing required fields, unhashed customer data, hashed fields that must stay raw and millisecond timestamps. Runs in your browser; nothing pasted is sent.
- [Apps Script error explainer](https://stackarchitect.xyz/blog/google-apps-script-quotas-explained-how-to-avoid-limits-and-scale-your-automations/#explainer): Paste a Google Apps Script quota error to see its cause, the limit on consumer and Workspace accounts, and the fix. Runs in your browser; nothing pasted is sent.
- [All 21 tools](https://stackarchitect.xyz/tools/)

## Coverage
Third-party press about Stack Architect. These are external URLs on publishers we
do not control — they are not pages on this site.
- Informatics Magazine (Q&A), 17 August 2026, author not stated — "Balance Data Pipeline Debt with New Delivery Demands": https://informaticsmagazine.com/qa/balance-data-pipeline-debt-with-new-delivery-demands/
- TechRound (Artificial Intelligence), 12 August 2026, by Gina Marrs — "Quite Contrary: The Real Reason Enterprise AI Pilots Fail, According To Chase W. Hughes": https://techround.co.uk/artificial-intelligence/quite-contrary-the-real-reason-enterprise-ai-pilots-fail-according-to-chase-w-hughes/
- Leaders Perception (Interviews), 11 August 2026, by Eric Zavala — "Luke Sandelands on replacing Shopify apps with server-side pipelines": https://leadersperception.com/luke-sandelands-on-replacing-shopify-apps-with-server-side-pipelines/
- eCommerce Manager (Shopify), 31 July 2026, author not stated — "Effective Shopify Pop-Up Forms: Tips & Best Practices": https://ecommercemanager.co/shopify/effective-shopify-pop-up-forms-tips-best-practices/
- eCommerce Manager (Ecommerce), 20 July 2026, author not stated — "Going Global: Ecommerce Leaders Share International Expansion Strategies": https://ecommercemanager.co/ecommerce/going-global-ecommerce-leaders-share-international-expansion-strategies/
- eCommerce Manager (Shopify), 7 July 2026, author not stated — "Top Shopify Apps for Automating Your Store": https://ecommercemanager.co/shopify/top-shopify-apps-for-automating-your-store-in-x/
- CTO Sync (Q&A), date not stated on the article, author not stated — "Deciding when engineering teams should pay down technical debt": https://ctosync.com/qa/deciding-when-engineering-teams-pay-down-technical-debt/

The TechRound piece is a multi-contributor expert panel (18 named contributors),
not a profile of Stack Architect, and it is an unlinked mention — it names Luke
Sandelands and Stack Architect but does not link to this site. Dates and bylines
above are as stated on each article; where one is not stated, that is said so
rather than inferred.

## Optional
- [How we test & verify claims](https://stackarchitect.xyz/how-we-test/): Sourcing standards, badge policy, funding disclosure, corrections policy.
- [About / how this site is funded](https://stackarchitect.xyz/about/)