Bird Pickup and Delivery Alternatives for Shopify: Compared on Price and Order Limits

You picked Bird Pickup & Delivery Date, BirdChime’s Shopify app, because it put a delivery calendar in your cart. Now Valentine’s Day is coming, and limiting orders in your busiest slots means moving up to Bird’s Growth plan at $49.99 a month.

So what are your options? You’ve got three solid Bird alternatives: Kite, Pickeasy and Stellar.

Kite gives you 30 free orders a month and order limits at $9.99. Pickeasy gives you order limits on a free plan of 10 orders a month. Stellar plans routes for your own drivers.

And if you use couriers, price delivery by distance or take orders in Shopify POS? Bird may still be your best fit.

Quick note before you read on: KiteLane makes Kite, the app we rank first.

Which Bird alternative fits your store?

Why are you leaving? Pick the card that matches.

Kite

Our pick

Best for: you run a flower or food shop and want order limits on a budget

• Free plan: 30 orders a month
• Order limits: $9.99 a month

See Kite ↓

Pickeasy

Best for: you take up to 10 orders a month and want order limits free

• Free plan: 10 orders a month
• Order limits: on the free plan

See Pickeasy ↓

Stellar

Best for: you run your own drivers and want routes planned

• Free plan: 50 orders in total
• Paid from: $14.99 a month

See Stellar ↓

Stay on Bird

Best for: you use couriers, price delivery by distance, or take orders in Shopify POS

• Free plan: 10 orders a month
• Paid from: $19.99 a month

See why ↓

Why look for a Bird alternative?

Here’s the thing: Bird has very few low-star reviews, and Bird answered some of them with a fix or a refund.

So what pushes you to look elsewhere? Usually the price: what each plan gives you, and what you pay for more orders or locations.

• You get fewer orders for your money. On Bird, you get 250 orders a month on Essential ($19.99) and 1,000 on Growth ($49.99). On Kite, you get 300 on Grow ($5.99) and 1,500 on Advanced ($9.99). Bird’s largest listed plan, Scale ($99.99), stops at 2,500, while Kite’s Plus ($14.99) has no monthly order cap.
• Order limits start on Growth. Bird’s order limits guide says they come with Growth and Scale. So before you can limit how many orders you take in your Valentine’s Day slots, you pay for Growth.
• A second location costs extra. Got a second shop? Growth covers 1 to 4 locations. On Essential, you pay $5 a month for each extra location, so two locations cost you $19.99 + $5 = $24.99 a month.

What about bugs? The one low-star review from a merchant who switched apps was about fixes that didn’t stick, not price:

To be fair, Bird’s reviewers often praise its support and how easy it is to set up.

Worried you’ll miss that? The KiteLane team gets on a free 30-minute setup call with you. Here’s one florist who took the call:

★★★★★

"Sidharth was super helpful in setting up. He personally got on a call with me to walk through set up from start to finish. He made the whole process so easy and stress free."

Bird vs Kite, Pickeasy and Stellar at a glance

Want the quick view? All prices are USD per month, from each app’s Shopify App Store listing.

How much does Bird Pickup & Delivery cost compared with Kite?

Line up each Bird plan with the nearest Kite plan, and you see what you’d pay for the same job. Prices come from both apps’ Shopify App Store listings, and Kite’s order caps on paid plans come from its terms.

You get a 14-day free trial on paid plans with both apps. On Bird, you pay $5 a month for each extra location.

The catch with those $0 bars? Pickeasy’s stops at 10 orders a month, and Stellar’s at 50 orders in total. Kite’s $9.99 covers you up to 1,500 orders a month.

So what do you get with each Kite plan?

You get a 14-day free trial on every paid plan, and 10% off if you pay yearly. You never pay per order: Kite has no usage-based or overage charges.

When you reach your plan’s monthly cap, the date picker stops showing on your cart and checkout pages, and the app prompts you to upgrade.

The best Bird alternatives for Shopify

1. Kite by KiteLane: best Bird alternative for florists on a budget

Best for: you’re a florist, grocer, butcher, meal prep kitchen or bakery, and your customers pick a day and a time slot for pickup or local delivery, from one location or several.

Kite adds a date and time picker to your cart for orders with a deadline: flowers for a birthday, a butcher’s box for Saturday, meal prep for Monday. It’s rated 5.0 on the Shopify App Store.

What do you get that Bird charges more for?

• More free orders. You get 30 free orders a month on Kite. Bird’s free plan stops at 10.
• Order limits for $9.99. Advanced lets you limit how many orders you take per day and per time slot, and adds product prep time and Google Calendar. On Bird, all three start on Growth.
• A zip code (postcode) check for $5.99. Grow checks your customer’s zip code before they order. On Bird, the zip code check starts on Essential at $19.99.
• A second location for $5.99. You can add more pickup locations from Grow, with no location cap set by KiteLane.
• No per-order charges. Kite has no usage-based or overage fees. At your plan’s monthly cap, the date picker stops showing and the app prompts you to upgrade.
• You don’t edit code. You switch Kite on in your theme editor as an app embed called Date Time Picker. It works on the cart page and in a slide-out cart.

What does that look like in your shop?

• Florists: you set a same-day cut-off so a 4 PM order lands tomorrow, and block out holidays and closed days, all on the free plan. On Advanced you limit orders in your Valentine's Day and Mother's Day slots, give wedding and sympathy pieces more notice than a bouquet, and see orders in Google Calendar.
• Grocers and butchers: you set prep time so nobody books a Saturday box you can't pack in time, and on Advanced you limit each delivery slot to what your van can carry.
• Meal prep kitchens: you set a cut-off time, so Monday's orders close when your shopping list does.
• Bakeries: you ask for 2 days' notice on every order on the free plan, and on Advanced you set a longer notice just for wedding cakes.

Running two locations? Your customers pick the location, then the day and time.

Setting up from scratch? See how to set up local delivery and pickup in Shopify.

Closing for a holiday? See how to set blackout dates in Shopify.

What do merchants on Kite say?

★★★★★

"Was previously using a different app but found it was interfering with my other Apps. ... Easy to use and set up and the customer service is excellent."

★★★★★

"I'm using the free plan, yet the features are incredibly generous and work exactly as I needed for my Shopify store."

2. Pickeasy: best Bird alternative with free order limits

Best for: you take up to 10 orders a month and want order limits without paying.

Why you might choose it. Pickeasy (listed as Pickup Delivery Date Pickeasy) gives you date and time slots with order limits, prep time, cut-off times, blocked dates and a zip code check on its free plan. Move up to Starter, at $9.99, and you add Shopify POS and delivery rates by price and weight.

Compared with Bird. You get order limits free on Pickeasy; on Bird, you need Growth. Need up to 4 locations? That’s $19.99 on Pickeasy’s Smart plan, and Growth at $49.99 on Bird.

What merchants report:

3. Stellar: best Bird alternative with a route planner

Best for: you run your own delivery drivers and want routes planned in the same app as your date picker.

Why you might choose it. Stellar (listed as Delivery Date & Pickup Stellar) sells “a simple built-in delivery route planner”. You get 50 orders in total on its free plan, at up to 3 locations, and its listing says “All features included”. On Starter, at $14.99, it lists “Unlimited orders” with order limits and blackout dates.

Compared with Bird. Stellar helps your own drivers plan routes. Bird hands your deliveries to couriers.

We found no recent low-star Stellar review we could fairly quote. The ones we read were about features Kite also has, or Stellar disputed them.

Comparing Zapiet, D: Local Delivery or Flare too? Our roundup of Shopify local delivery and pickup apps covers them, and our guide to Zapiet alternatives matches each reason for leaving Zapiet.

When should you stay on Bird?

Is Bird still your best fit? It is if you need one of these four things.

• Courier dispatch. Bird connects to Uber Direct, Stuart and other couriers from its Essential plan, using your own courier account. Couriers that show a live price at checkout need Shopify’s carrier-calculated shipping. Kite has no courier connections.
• Delivery priced by distance or zip code (postcode). Bird’s help centre shows fees by postal code, radius or driving distance. No Bird page we found names the plan for it, so check that your Bird plan includes it. Kite doesn’t price delivery by distance or zip code.
• Shopify POS. Bird lists Shopify POS on its plans, so your staff can take pickup orders at the counter. Kite has no POS integration.
• Customer texts or an API. Bird’s help centre describes customer SMS on paid plans for stores in the US, UK, Canada and Sweden, and a REST and JavaScript API. Kite’s plan cards list neither.

How we compared these Bird alternatives

• Plan prices, order caps and locations come from each app’s Shopify App Store listing. Kite’s caps on paid plans and its locations come from Kite’s terms.
• Which plan includes a feature comes from each app’s listing, or from the vendor’s own help pages, linked where we use them.
• We read every low-star review we quote in full, with the developer’s reply.
• Kite screenshots come from Kite’s own Shopify admin and storefront picker.

KiteLane makes Kite, so weigh our pick with that in mind.

How to switch from Bird without losing orders

Ready to move? Pick a quiet week, not the week before Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. Whichever app you move to, you follow the same order.

First, export your scheduled orders from Bird and set up the new app with its picker off. Then block the slots those orders fill, switch pickers, and test before you uninstall Bird.

On Kite, the setup guide walks you through it in four steps:

1. Configure pickup & delivery. Copy your locations, time slots, prep time, cut-off times and blackout dates from Bird. Then lower or block the slots your exported orders already fill.
2. Configure shipping. If you ship too, set your shipping days, prep time and blackout dates.
3. Enable widget on your cart. Switch on the Date Time Picker app embed in your theme, then switch off Bird's app embed.
4. Place a test order. Book one pickup and one delivery on your own store.

Before you uninstall Bird, run through this checklist:

• Try to book a blackout date and a day past your cut-off time.
• Check out with each express button you offer, such as Shop Pay, and check the order carries a date.
• If you ticked Bird's box to turn off Shopify's built-in store pickup, check your pickup settings in Shopify, then place a pickup test order.
• Check your Bird plan type and any prepaid balance on Bird's Subscription page.

Mistakes to avoid when you switch

Want a hand with the switch? Book a free 30-minute setup call with the KiteLane team, and walk through your time slots, prep time and blackout dates before you turn Bird off.