Shopify Sidekick and AeroChat are not direct competitors. Sidekick is Shopify's AI assistant for merchants — it helps you manage your store from inside the Shopify admin. AeroChat is an Shopify AI chatbot for your customers — it answers shopper questions across web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and email. If you're choosing between them, you're likely solving two different problems at once: internal store management and external customer support. This article explains what each tool actually does, where they briefly overlap, and why most Shopify stores end up needing both rather than picking one.
Key Takeaways
Shopify Sidekick is a merchant-facing AI assistant inside the Shopify admin; it does not chat with your customers.
AeroChat is a customer-facing AI chatbot across web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and email; it does not help you manage your store internally.
The narrow overlap is Shopify Inbox reply suggestions (generated by Shopify Magic, not Sidekick directly), which help you manually reply to customers faster but don't automate replies the way a chatbot does.
Sidekick is included free with every Shopify plan; AeroChat starts at $39 per month on the Basic plan, with a genuinely free forever plan for one agent.
Most Shopify stores use both: Sidekick to run the back office, and a customer-facing chatbot like AeroChat to handle shopper questions 24/7 across channels.
Confusingly, there is a separate third-party app called "Sidekick AI ‑ Automated Chat" on the Shopify App Store — this is a different company's product and not Shopify's Sidekick.
What is Shopify Sidekick?
Shopify Sidekick is Shopify's built-in AI assistant for store owners, accessed by clicking the purple glasses icon inside the Shopify admin. It helps merchants run their stores through natural-language commands: analysing sales data, generating product descriptions, creating discount codes, writing ShopifyQL queries, drafting email campaigns, and building workflow automations through Shopify Flow.
Sidekick sits alongside Shopify Magic, which is the broader brand for AI features embedded across the Shopify platform. Magic powers features like product description generation and the reply suggestions inside Shopify Inbox. Sidekick is the conversational interface you talk to; Magic is the engine behind many of the embedded AI features.
Critically, Sidekick operates inside the admin. It does not appear on your storefront. It does not chat with your customers. It does not handle WhatsApp messages or Instagram DMs. Your customers will never see it or interact with it.
Per Shopify's official Sidekick page, Sidekick is included free with every Shopify plan, with feature availability varying by tier.
What is AeroChat?
AeroChat is an omnichannel customer communication platform built specifically for Shopify and WooCommerce stores. It unifies AI chat, live chat, and ticketing across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, email, and website chat into one inbox. It connects to Shopify via REST API to read live product data, order status, shipping information, and discounts.
AeroChat's job is to talk to your customers on your behalf. When a customer asks "where is my order" or "does this come in size medium" or "can I return this," AeroChat answers them automatically without requiring you or your team to type a reply. Per AeroChat's homepage data, the AI resolves 87% of customer questions without human intervention and saves support teams 14 hours per week per agent.
AeroChat does not help you manage your store internally. It won't generate a product description for you. It won't create a discount code. It won't analyse your sales data. Those are Sidekick's job.
The overlap: where the tools briefly touch
The only place Sidekick and AeroChat occupy similar territory is customer-reply assistance inside Shopify Inbox.
Shopify Magic (same AI family as Sidekick) generates reply suggestions for messages received in Shopify Inbox. When a customer messages you through Shopify Inbox, Magic may suggest a reply based on your product catalogue and the customer's message. You still have to read, approve, and send each reply manually. It's a typing assistant, not an automation tool.
AeroChat automates the reply entirely. When a customer asks a question, AeroChat answers without human involvement. For stores doing 200+ chats per month, this is a materially different experience than typing replies with AI assistance.
Feature comparison: Sidekick vs AeroChat
Capability | Shopify Sidekick | AeroChat |
|---|---|---|
Talks to your customers | No | Yes |
Talks to you (the merchant) | Yes | No |
Works in Shopify admin | Yes | No |
Works on your storefront | No | Yes |
Handles WhatsApp messages | No | Yes |
Handles Instagram DMs | No | Yes |
Handles Facebook Messenger | No | Yes |
Handles email ticketing | No | Yes |
Reads live Shopify order data | Yes (for the merchant) | Yes (to answer customers) |
Generates product descriptions | Yes | No |
Creates discount codes | Yes | No |
Builds Shopify Flow automations | Yes | No |
Analyses sales data and reports | Yes | No |
Automates customer replies 24/7 | No | Yes |
Resolves "where is my order" without a human | No | Yes (87% resolution rate) |
Included with Shopify | Free (included in plan) | No (separate subscription) |
Where Shopify Sidekick wins
Honest section. There are several areas where Sidekick does things AeroChat can't and shouldn't try to.
1. Store management and analytics. Sidekick can answer "what were my top-selling products last month" or "which discount codes performed best" or "show me orders from customers in Canada in the last 90 days." AeroChat doesn't do any of this because it's not its job. For merchant-facing business intelligence, Sidekick is the correct tool.
2. Content generation inside Shopify. Sidekick generates product descriptions, blog post drafts, email campaign copy, and image edits through Shopify Magic. AeroChat has no content generation capability for the store admin. If you need to write 50 product descriptions tomorrow, Sidekick is the tool.
3. Workflow automation via Shopify Flow. Sidekick can create internal automations like "when an order is marked fulfilled, email the customer a tracking link" or "when inventory drops below 10, alert the warehouse team." AeroChat handles customer-facing conversations but doesn't build Flow automations.
4. No separate subscription. Sidekick is included in your Shopify plan. There is no additional cost. For stores at every size, this is genuine value.
5. Voice and screen-share support. Per Shopify's help documentation, Sidekick supports voice chat and screen-share for step-by-step visual guidance on the admin. AeroChat operates through text only in the chat inbox.
Where AeroChat wins
1. Actually talking to customers. This is the central difference. Sidekick doesn't answer customer questions. AeroChat answers customer questions automatically 24/7 across every major channel. For any Shopify store doing meaningful volume of customer messages, this is the job Sidekick simply does not do.
2. Omnichannel coverage. AeroChat handles web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and email in one inbox. Sidekick doesn't touch any external messaging channel. For Shopify stores that earn meaningful sales through social DMs, Sidekick offers nothing; AeroChat is the only tool of the two that handles those conversations.
3. 24/7 after-hours coverage. AeroChat replies to customers at 2 AM, 3 AM, and on weekends when your team is offline. Sidekick only helps you when you're already in the Shopify admin actively working. For customer-facing response, AeroChat fills a gap Sidekick wasn't built for.
4. Shopify order data for customers. Both tools read live Shopify order data, but for different purposes. Sidekick lets you look up a customer's order details. AeroChat tells the customer where their order is, in real time, across WhatsApp or any other channel, without a human handling the query.
5. Flat-fee pricing protects ROI during peak season. AeroChat charges $39, $119, or $279 per month regardless of chat volume. Per-conversation and per-seat tools erode ROI during Black Friday spikes. For more on this trade-off, see the Shopify chatbot pricing comparison.
Pricing comparison
Shopify Sidekick pricing
Sidekick is included in every Shopify plan. There is no additional subscription cost. Feature depth varies by Shopify plan tier (Basic Shopify, Shopify, Advanced Shopify, Shopify Plus), with more advanced capabilities like Sidekick Pulse (proactive recommendations) and custom tool generation available on higher tiers.
AeroChat pricing
AeroChat offers three paid tiers plus a free forever plan:
Free forever plan: 1 agent, unlimited conversations across web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Shopify, and WooCommerce
Basic ($39/month): 500 AI responses per month, full channel coverage
Growth ($119/month): 2,000 AI responses, includes agent collaboration and ticketing
Advanced ($279/month): 5,000 AI responses, self-learning AI, agent auto-translation, conversion tracking, WhatsApp broadcast, API access
The 7-day free trial runs on Advanced plan features, no credit card required. This lets stores evaluate the top-tier AI during the trial rather than a stripped-down version.
The pricing comparison isn't Sidekick vs AeroChat directly because they solve different problems. The correct question is: do you need customer-facing AI on top of what Sidekick gives you for free? For most stores with real chat volume, the answer is yes.
Quick verdict: who should use what
Pick Shopify Sidekick (no extra cost) if you:
Need faster store management inside the Shopify admin
Want AI help writing product descriptions, emails, and marketing copy
Want natural-language analytics and Flow automation building
Haven't yet thought about customer-facing chat automation
Add AeroChat on top of Sidekick if you:
Receive meaningful customer messages via WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, or web chat
Want 24/7 automated replies to customer questions
Need to stop answering "where is my order" 30 times a day
Are losing after-hours sales because nobody is there to reply
Want flat-fee pricing that doesn't scale with conversation volume
Most growing Shopify stores end up using both. Sidekick runs the back office. AeroChat runs the customer-facing front line.
For more on customer-facing chatbot selection specifically, see the best Shopify AI chatbots guide.
A note on the other Sidekick (on the App Store)
There is a third-party app on the Shopify App Store called "Sidekick AI ‑ Automated Chat." This is a different company's product and not Shopify's Sidekick. The naming collision causes regular buyer confusion.
That third-party Sidekick AI is a customer-facing chatbot and does compete with AeroChat directly. If you were searching for that tool specifically, the comparison would be different: both handle customer-facing chat, both integrate with Shopify, and the comparison would be on channels, pricing, AI quality, and setup time. If that's the comparison you actually wanted, let the page know through feedback and we'll write it separately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Shopify Sidekick a chatbot for customers?
No. Sidekick is an AI assistant for store owners inside the Shopify admin. It does not appear on your storefront and does not chat with your customers. If you need a chatbot for customer-facing support, you need a separate tool like AeroChat.
Does Shopify Sidekick replace the need for a customer chatbot?
No. Sidekick and customer-facing chatbots solve different problems. Sidekick helps you manage your store. A customer chatbot handles shopper questions automatically across web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, and other channels. Most Shopify stores use both.
What does Shopify Sidekick cost?
Sidekick is included free with every Shopify plan, though specific features may vary by plan tier. There is no separate subscription.
Can Sidekick answer customer messages in Shopify Inbox?
Shopify Magic (the broader AI family that Sidekick is part of) generates reply suggestions inside Shopify Inbox. You still have to read, approve, and send each reply manually. This is different from AeroChat, which automates the reply entirely without human involvement.
Is there a customer-facing chatbot built by Shopify itself?
Shopify Inbox (not Sidekick) is Shopify's free customer chat tool. It provides a chat widget plus reply suggestions from Shopify Magic, but it's primarily a manual chat tool where a human still types each reply. For true AI automation across multiple channels, Shopify does not have a first-party equivalent to AeroChat.
I searched for "Shopify Sidekick chatbot" — which one do I actually want?
If you want AI that helps you run your store from inside the admin, you want Shopify Sidekick (free, included with every plan). If you want AI that automatically answers your customers' questions across WhatsApp, Instagram, and web chat, you want a tool like AeroChat. The two are complementary, not competing.