Stan Builds Shopify-like Creator Storefronts
Vitalii Dodonov, CTO of Stan, on building a creator-aligned store-in-bio
Stan is building a creator storefront, not a link directory. The practical difference is that a creator can take a TikTok or Instagram visitor, sell a download, a course, a booking, or a physical product on the same page, collect the buyer’s info, and keep the revenue, instead of just sending that person onward through a list of links. That is much closer to Shopify’s job in commerce than Linktree’s job in traffic routing.
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Stan monetizes like a merchant tool. It starts at $29 per month with no free tier, the same entry price discussed against Shopify, and lets creators keep 100% of sales. That pricing only works if the product is replacing several paid tools, like checkout, scheduling, courses, and email capture, not just bio links.
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The numbers show the difference in value capture. At the end of 2023, Stan had $14.7M ARR and about 300,000 customers, or about $491 per customer, versus Linktree at about $49M ARR and about 340,000 customers, or about $144 per customer. Stan makes more from each paying user because it sits inside the transaction.
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This also explains where the category is heading. Linktree and early Beacons helped creators aggregate links and route traffic off platform. Stan, and later platforms like Whop, push further into storefront behavior, where the page itself becomes the place to buy. That shift moves the product from audience organization toward commerce infrastructure.
Going forward, the winners in creator tools are likely to look more like lightweight Shopify systems for individuals. That means more native checkout, more CRM and email capture, and more tools that help creators own the customer relationship after the click. Stan’s upside comes from deepening that merchant layer while staying simple enough for a solo creator to launch in minutes.