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Vortex Apps ships seven applications that solve overlapping problems in different ways. This page is the decision guide. For any operational scenario you hit as a merchant, this page tells you which Vortex App to reach for, why, and which apps to pair it with for full coverage.

The seven apps in one sentence each

AppOne-sentence purposePlatforms
StagingProSpin up a staging copy of a BigCommerce storefront to test theme, app, and config changes before pushing to live.BigCommerce
RollbackProContinuous backup of a BigCommerce storefront with one-click rollback.BigCommerce
Vortex StagingShopify staging counterpart to StagingPro: theme, app, and config preview before publish.Shopify
Vortex BackupContinuous Shopify backup with full-store rollback.Shopify
DryRunProCombined staging plus backup for Adobe Commerce Cloud, with multi-project, multi-team, multi-environment support.Adobe Commerce / Magento Cloud
CloudHubMultichannel inventory, order, repricing, warehouse, and reporting console for marketplace operators.Amazon, eBay, Walmart, OnBuy, Cdiscount, FNAC, Rakuten, Shopify, BigCommerce, more
App BuilderAI-agent-powered custom app surface; describe a workflow in plain English, the agent builds and deploys it.Cross-platform

Decision tree by scenario

”I want to test a theme change before customers see it”

Your platformReach for
BigCommerceStagingPro
ShopifyVortex Staging
Adobe CommerceDryRunPro
Multiple storefrontsThe relevant app for each platform; Vortex IQ does not collapse staging across platforms because the platform mechanics differ too much

”I want to install a third-party app and check it does not break checkout”

Same answer as theme changes. Spin up staging, install the app on staging, run through checkout, watch the Nerve Centre Checkout Conversion Failure report on the staging environment, only promote to production if checkout still passes.

”I just edited 5,000 products in a bulk export and the catalogue is broken”

This is the rollback scenario. You need to revert the catalogue to its pre-edit state.
Your platformReach for
BigCommerceRollbackPro (one-click rollback to the last good snapshot)
ShopifyVortex Backup (full-store rollback)
Adobe CommerceDryRunPro (rollback via the staging snapshot history)

“An app I installed yesterday changed settings I cannot remember”

Same as bulk-edit rollback. The continuous backup tool for your platform has a snapshot from before the app install. Restore the affected scope.

”I sell on Amazon and eBay and a webstore. Inventory is constantly wrong.”

This is the multichannel scenario. Reach for CloudHub. It holds the master SKU, syncs inventory both ways across all channels, and routes orders through one fulfilment workflow. None of the staging or backup apps solve this; they are storefront safety nets, not multichannel orchestration.

”I have a workflow specific to my business that no app covers”

Reach for App Builder. Describe the workflow in plain English, the agent builds it. Examples: a Tuesday morning sales summary in Slack, a tertiary-customer thank-you email, an alert when checkout conversion drops 10%.

”I want a daily summary of my store performance”

Use App Builder with the KPI Agent recipe (Shopify or BigCommerce variant). Five-minute build. See Recipes and FAQs.

”I need to migrate data between two BigCommerce stores”

Use StagingPro for the staging surface, plus the StagingPro Migration recipe in App Builder for the orchestration. The recipe drives the migration and reports status to your team.

”I need to test code on Adobe Commerce Cloud across multiple feature branches”

Reach for DryRunPro. It is the only Vortex App that gives you on-demand multi-environment staging on Adobe Commerce Cloud, with team assignment across multiple projects.

”I need to send marketing emails when a customer crosses a behaviour threshold”

Reach for App Builder. The agent can subscribe to a Vortex Mind Customer Recovery Opportunity finding, draft an email via Klaviyo or Dotdigital, and send it (with optional approval gate). This is the AI-driven marketing automation surface.

”I want to know what changed in the past month, and roll back to a specific date”

For BigCommerce: RollbackPro with point-in-time rollback. For Shopify: Vortex Backup with the same. Both maintain a full version history; you pick the date and restore.

”I need an alert when ad spend exceeds budget”

Reach for App Builder. The agent monitors the Google Ads connector via Nerve Centre, checks the spend-to-budget ratio on a schedule, and posts an alert (Slack, email, ticket) when the ratio crosses your threshold. The Google Ads Performance recipe is a starting point.

The “always pair these” guide

Some Vortex Apps are stronger together. Three pairings to know.

StagingPro plus RollbackPro (BigCommerce)

If you make changes to a BigCommerce storefront, you should run both. StagingPro is the before safety net (preview the change). RollbackPro is the after safety net (revert if something goes wrong despite staging). They are complementary; neither replaces the other. See Multi-app workflows: safe deploy plus recover for the pattern.

Vortex Staging plus Vortex Backup (Shopify)

The Shopify equivalent. Same complementary safety nets. Stage the change, back up before deploy, and have rollback ready if anything goes wrong post-deploy.

CloudHub plus Vortex Backup (multichannel with safety)

If you operate multichannel via CloudHub and your master SKU also feeds into a Shopify or BigCommerce storefront, pair CloudHub with Vortex Backup or RollbackPro for the storefront. CloudHub manages the multichannel write side; Backup or RollbackPro is the storefront safety net for the master inventory edits CloudHub triggers.

When NOT to use a Vortex App

A few cases where the Vortex App is not the right tool.
  • You need real-time CDN and edge caching configuration on Adobe Commerce. That is Cloud Manager and Fastly territory. DryRunPro’s CDN settings page is for staging-environment overrides, not production CDN tuning.
  • You need a developer IDE to write Magento extensions. That is your local Magento dev stack with Composer. DryRunPro stages the result for QA but is not where you write the code.
  • You need a marketing email platform itself. That is Klaviyo, Dotdigital, Mailchimp, or your CRM. App Builder integrates with all of them but does not replace them.
  • You need a CRM. That is HubSpot, Salesforce, or Klaviyo (CDP-side). App Builder reads from these but does not store CRM data itself.
  • You need accounting software. That is Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite. App Builder can pull data from accounting connectors but is not a ledger.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a staging app from a different platform on my store? No. Staging apps are platform-specific. StagingPro is BigCommerce-only, Vortex Staging is Shopify-only, DryRunPro is Adobe Commerce-only. The platform internals are too different to abstract. Do I need both a staging app and a backup app? For most merchants, yes. Staging is the before safety net. Backup or rollback is the after safety net. They cover different failure modes. A change can pass staging review and still cause a problem in production (interaction with traffic, real customer behaviour, edge data) that only the backup tool can fix. Is App Builder a replacement for the legacy V1 Agent Hub? Yes. App Builder subsumes the V1 Agent Hub. The V1 pre-built recipes still exist as starter templates inside App Builder. See the App Builder index for the architectural shift. Is CloudHub the same as Shopify Multi-Channel? No. Shopify Multi-Channel is Shopify’s first-party multichannel surface, scoped to selling Shopify-stored inventory through Amazon, eBay, etc. CloudHub is a marketplace-led platform built around marketplace operators (Amazon-led, eBay-led, multi-marketplace) where the master SKU lives in CloudHub itself, with Shopify or BigCommerce treated as one of several channels. Which Vortex App should I start with as a new merchant? For BigCommerce: start with StagingPro and RollbackPro. For Shopify: Vortex Staging and Vortex Backup. For Adobe Commerce: DryRunPro. For multichannel: CloudHub. App Builder is valuable for everyone but pays off most after you have the safety apps in place.