The 30-second version
If you can describe what you need in one of these sentences, you have your answer.
- Framer: you need a marketing site. Brochure, portfolio, landing pages, conference site, campaign microsite.
- Lovable: you need an app. Auth, database, logged-in users, dashboards, internal tools, member portals.
- Shopify: you need a store. Inventory, checkout, taxes, fulfillment, recurring orders.
If you need two of them (most commonly a marketing site and an app), pick the tool that owns the harder half and use a subdomain for the other.
When Framer is the right answer
Framer is the best marketing-site builder I have used in a decade. It exports clean, fast HTML. Designers can build directly without a developer. The CMS is enough for blog posts and team pages without being so much that staff get lost.
Pick Framer when you have a designer in-house or freelance, your content is mostly pages and not logged-in flows, and you want a site that ships in 2 to 4 weeks and stays fast. The full breakdown lives on the Framer service page →.
Skip Framer when you need real authentication, a database your site reads from, or a content model more complex than 'pages, posts, and a few collections.'
When Lovable is the right answer
Lovable is the best AI-first full-stack app builder right now. It outputs real React code on a real database (Supabase / Lovable Cloud). You own everything and can hand it to any React developer when the relationship ends.
Pick Lovable when you need auth, a database, custom logic, AI features, or payments tied to user accounts. The output is real code, not vendor lock-in. The full breakdown lives on the Lovable service page →.
Skip Lovable when a marketing-page builder would do the job. The added power is not free. Apps require more attention to maintain than brochure sites.
When Shopify is the right answer
Shopify owns e-commerce. Pick it the moment you sell physical products, subscription boxes, or anything that needs inventory and shipping logic. Trying to build a store on a generic CMS is a 'we'll save money' decision that always ends up costing more.
Pair Shopify with Frameship → when you want a Framer marketing site that hands off to a Shopify checkout.
Skip Shopify when you sell exactly one digital product (Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy is faster) or your 'store' is really donations (use a donor platform like Givebutter).
Common patterns I deploy for clients
- Framer marketing site + Lovable app at /app for most SaaS-style mission-driven projects
- Framer marketing site + Shopify store at /shop for most product brands
- Lovable app + Stripe for direct payments on most internal tools and member portals
- Frameship for a single deploy of Framer + Shopify
Bring what you are trying to do and your budget. I will tell you which tool, what it costs, and how long it takes. No upsell.