The specs
BluevineShopify Capital
Product typeLOCMCA
Amount range$10K – $250K$200 – $2M (varies by store volume)
Cost (factor / APR)APR 6.2% – 27% (LOC)Single fixed fee (factor 1.10 – 1.18 typical); no APR / no compounding
Speed to fund1 – 3 business days2 – 5 business days after acceptance
Min time in business12 months3 months
Min monthly revenue$10,000~$5,000+ in Shopify processed sales typical floor
Min credit score625+No FICO pull — underwrites entirely against Shopify sales history
Products
- Line of credit
- Invoice factoring
- Embedded merchant cash advance (Shopify stores only)
Verdicts by use case
- Total capital availability across products — Winner: Bluevine. Bluevine LOC up to $250K plus invoice factoring stacks higher than a single Shopify Capital advance for most stores. Shopify Capital caps offers at ~1× annualized Shopify volume, which constrains most merchants to under $100K.
- Capital deployable off-Shopify (wholesale, retail, B2B) — Winner: Bluevine. Bluevine funds into your business bank account and can be deployed anywhere. Shopify Capital is tied to Shopify processing — if you sell wholesale, ship via Amazon, or run a retail location off Shopify, those revenue streams don't help repay Shopify Capital but do help repay Bluevine. Multi-channel merchants favor Bluevine.
- Lowest absolute cost on short holds — Winner: Shopify Capital. Shopify Capital's 1.10 – 1.18 factor totals 10 – 18% of advance — paid back over 6 – 9 months via daily % of sales. Bluevine LOC at 14% APR carried 9 months totals ~10.5% interest, close to Shopify on absolute cost. Shopify wins narrowly on absolute fees but only for the Shopify-eligible portion.
- Reapply / renewal flow — Winner: Bluevine. Bluevine is revolving — draw, repay, redraw without re-applying. Shopify Capital requires repaying the advance (or hitting ~85% paydown) before a new offer appears, and the new offer is algorithmically gated. Merchants needing consistent draw flexibility favor Bluevine.
- Underwriting against non-personal-credit data — Winner: Shopify Capital. Shopify Capital uses no FICO pull and underwrites entirely against Shopify sales — strong-revenue Shopify merchants with impaired personal credit can still get funded. Bluevine requires 625+ FICO. For impaired-credit Shopify-native operators, Shopify Capital is the only path in this pair.
The honest takeaway
Bluevine and Shopify Capital solve overlapping but distinct problems. The right choice depends on three things you already know about your business: how fast you need the money, how long you've been operating, and whether the capital need is one-time or recurring.
Frequently asked questions
- Detailed cost math: $30K Shopify at 1.13 vs $30K draw on a Bluevine LOC at 16% APR over the same 8 months
- Shopify Capital: $30K × 1.13 = $33,900 total payback ($3,900 fee). Bluevine LOC: $30K × (16%/12) × 8 months = ~$3,200 interest. Bluevine wins by ~$700 on absolute interest — but Bluevine's interest is on outstanding balance, so paying ahead lowers it further. Shopify's fixed-fee structure doesn't reward early payoff. For merchants who can pay down aggressively, Bluevine is materially cheaper; for merchants who'll carry the full balance, the costs are within $1K of each other.
- I run a $40K/mo Shopify store with a strong wholesale channel. Which?
- Bluevine for the wholesale + Shopify combination. Bluevine LOC funds against all your business revenue and can be deployed for wholesale inventory, trade shows, or off-Shopify retail. Shopify Capital only counts Shopify processing for both underwriting and repayment — your wholesale revenue is invisible to Shopify and unavailable to repay a Shopify advance. Multi-channel operators leave money on the table with Shopify-only capital.
- What about running both simultaneously for maximum capital?
- Workable but read covenants carefully. Bluevine's LOC agreement requires disclosure of outside debt at draw — disclose Shopify Capital. Most Bluevine files accept the stack at slightly tightened terms. Carrying both means Bluevine monthly interest on the drawn balance plus Shopify's daily % of sales — operators with $40K+/mo Shopify revenue and healthy margins make it work; sub-$30K/mo stores typically over-leverage.