Copycat store checker
Enter both addresses. The check reads a page on each one and records what the two have in common: pictures the other store is serving straight off your store, picture files that are identical, photographs of yours saved again at another size, whether both stores run the same theme, and what state the other store is in. The record keeps its own link and its own date. That is the moment this is for, when somebody sends you a link to a store that looks like yours.
Verified August 23, 2026
What comes back
- One row per signal, with your store on the left and theirs on the right.
- The name of every picture file the two stores have in common.
- Three counts kept apart: what matched, what did not, and what we could not check.
- A dated link you can paste into a report or a forum thread.
The other store is shown as plain text and is never a link.
Record
Enter both stores
Five signals, strongest first, each with what it proves and what it does not.
- Photos served from your store. The suspect page points at a picture file on your own store. Your store delivers it to their customers. It does not tell you who set it up, and it stops the moment they save a copy of their own.
- Identical picture files. The same file, byte for byte, is on both stores. It does not tell you which store put it up first. Keep your camera originals.
- Same photo, saved again. A picture on the suspect store reads as the same photograph as one of yours at a different size or quality. It is advisory. Two photos of the same plain product on a white background can read alike.
- Theme. Both storefronts are built from the same set of theme files. Nothing about copying. Shopify sells and gives away themes to everybody, so unrelated stores share them constantly.
- Store status. What the suspect store was doing at the moment of the check. Nothing about the pages behind it. A store can change status in an afternoon.
The check runs on its own page and takes about a minute. The link stays good, so you can come back to it and send it on.
What the checker compares
Five signals, and they are worth very different amounts. Read them top down. The first one is the closest thing to a confession that exists in this problem, and the last one is context and nothing more.
Your files
Everything the check read on your own store.
On both stores
The part the record counts. Named file by file.
Their files
Everything else on their pages. Not our business.
A file the check could not read lands in neither side. It is counted on its own, as a check we could not run.
Photos served from your store
The suspect page points at a picture file on your own store. Your store delivers it to their customers.
What it does not prove. It does not tell you who set it up, and it stops the moment they save a copy of their own.
Identical picture files
The same file, byte for byte, is on both stores.
What it does not prove. It does not tell you which store put it up first. Keep your camera originals.
Same photo, saved again
A picture on the suspect store reads as the same photograph as one of yours at a different size or quality.
What it does not prove. It is advisory. Two photos of the same plain product on a white background can read alike.
Theme
Both storefronts are built from the same set of theme files.
What it does not prove. Nothing about copying. Shopify sells and gives away themes to everybody, so unrelated stores share them constantly.
Store status
What the suspect store was doing at the moment of the check.
What it does not prove. Nothing about the pages behind it. A store can change status in an afternoon.
A sixth answer sits underneath all five. If a page did not load, or a picture file did not come back, that signal reads as a check we could not run. It never reads as a signal that came back empty. A record with a hole in it is worth more than a record that hides the hole, because the person reading your report will find the hole anyway.
One disambiguation, because the two tools get confused. Plagiarism checkers compare text: you paste a paragraph and they find other pages carrying it. This compares stores: the files, the theme and the state of the storefront. Both are useful and they answer different questions.
Why a photo served from your own store is the best proof you will get
Shopify serves a store's theme and product files from a /cdn path on that store's own domain, and it tells theme developers they do not need to hard-code the cdn.shopify.com domain into a theme. A live picture on a Shopify page comes back at an address shaped like //yourbrand.com/cdn/shop/files/hero.jpg, with the store's own name in it.
So when a copier grabs your product page and pastes it into their store without saving the pictures first, their page keeps pointing at yours. Every shopper who loads their product page makes your store deliver the photograph. You do not have to argue that two files look alike, because there is one file, on your machine, with your store's name in the address.
Your store
The picture file lives here, on your host.
The suspect store
Its page holds a frame with no file of its own.
//yourbrand.com/cdn/shop/files/
The first part of the address is your store's name. That is the part worth keeping.
This is the piece that disappears first. The moment the copier notices, they save copies to their own store and the addresses change to theirs. That is the whole argument for making the record on the day you find out rather than the week after. The day-one order of operations is in the day-one steps when your site gets copied, and the wider version, where somebody builds a whole storefront to pass for yours, is in when a copycat clones your whole store.
There is an older address shape still in circulation, with a numeric store id buried in the path. The check reads that one too and treats it as the second-best version of the same finding.
Same theme is not proof that a Shopify store was cloned
This is the mistake in the first post of nearly every forum thread about a copied store. The two sites look identical, so the theme must have been stolen. Usually it was not. The Shopify Theme Store carries about two dozen free themes, Dawn among them, and any of them is free for any store to install. Unrelated stores run each one by the pile, and two of them will look like cousins.
There is a licensing side to it, and it belongs to somebody else. Shopify's terms say a Theme Store theme is licensed for use on a single store only, and transferring or selling it to another person's store is not allowed. If a paid theme was handed over, that is a matter between the copier, Shopify and the theme's designer. It is not a claim you own.
So the check reports a shared theme with the caveat attached, in the row, not in a footnote. It becomes worth something only next to picture evidence, where it stops being a coincidence and starts being a description of how the copy was made. If you want the theme name itself rather than the comparison, our theme lookup will see what theme any Shopify store runs.
What the other store's status tells you
Merchants usually go back for a second look a few days later, and the store is doing something different. Here is what each of those states means and what none of them mean.
Theme Store theme
Recognized base theme
Custom or unrecognized
Shopify, theme not readable
Not a Shopify store
We could not check
A store that blocked the check is not a custom theme and is not a store on another platform. It gets its own answer.
A live store
Pages loaded and the check read them. Every picture and theme row above is scoped to the pages we read, and nothing more.
A password page
The owner turned on the password page, which hides every page from visitors. It is a setting they control. It is not proof of anything, and it means the check could read none of their pages.
Frozen
Shopify's help pages describe a frozen store as one that stays frozen until the bill with Shopify is settled, and say customers cannot view the store. Separately, Shopify's API documentation describes a 402 response as a frozen shop whose owner needs to log in and pay an outstanding balance. It is a billing state. It is not a takedown, and it is not a sign that anybody acted on your problem.
Not a Shopify store
Whatever answered is running on something else. The picture checks still run, because a picture file has no idea what platform is serving the page around it. The theme comparison reports nothing at all rather than reporting a difference.
No answer
The store did not respond, or it blocked the check. That tells you nothing about the store, and it is recorded as a check we could not run.
If the store you are looking at sits on a domain that reads like yours as well, that is a second problem with its own route. Run the name through the scanner to see which lookalike domains are live stores.
What to do with the record
The record is a starting point, not a filing. Here is where it goes, and the full order of operations is in the guide rather than repeated here.
1
The host
2
The registrar
3
The payment processor
4
The letter
Date your own claim first
Ask the Internet Archive to capture both stores while they are still up. A Wayback address carries a fourteen-digit date code, year to second, and that code records when the crawler fetched the page. It is not the day the page was published, and a capture is a record of a fetch, not a legal finding. Even so, a capture made by somebody other than you is worth more than a screenshot you took. For the copier's domain, ICANN's lookup tool gives you the current registration data for a domain name and returns a registration date. Registrant names are redacted for most endings, and the registration date tells you when the name was bought, not when the copying started.
If the copy is on Shopify
There are two routes and they are for different things. The copyright form covers your photographs and your written copy. It requires a direct link to each individual page you are reporting, so a link to the store's homepage will not do, and this is exactly what the record's list of matched files is for. Shopify accepts the report only from the owner or somebody authorized to act for the owner, the notice carries a declaration under penalty of perjury, and Shopify says infringing content can be removed at its discretion.
The copied look is a different claim and it does not travel on a copyright notice. The nearest route Shopify accepts is trade dress inside the trademark form, which asks you to describe the visual features that make the appearance distinctive, such as shape, pattern, color placement and decoration, and to confirm that those features are not functional. And it is worth knowing what is not there: Shopify's report-a-merchant grid has ten categories and none of them is a cloned store.
Whichever form you use, claim only what is yours. Shopify warns that false or bad-faith notices are punishable by law and that it may sue for the damages they cause.
If the copy is somewhere else
The notice goes to whoever hosts the site. US law lists six things a notice has to contain before a provider has to treat it as one, and the statute asks for those elements substantially, not to the letter. You can write it yourself or use our generator, which produces a 512(c)(3)-complete notice in your browser. Section 512 is copyright, so a copied look does not travel on it.
How to use this page
Run the check, then paste the record's link into the form or the thread. It carries the date and time of the check, the exact addresses read on both stores, the file names that matched, and every check we could not run. A reviewer can read it without you attaching anything, and it does not change after you send it.
This check compares one front page against another. If a store took this much, the rest of your catalog is worth a look, so run the same check across your whole catalog.
This page describes how these processes work. It is not legal advice, and a real filing decision is worth an hour with a lawyer who can see your evidence.
How the check works
One pass, no login, and only pages a shopper could load. The check reads the front page of each store, takes the picture addresses it finds there, and downloads a small number of them from each side. It compares the picture files, then compares a fingerprint of the theme's stylesheet and section names on each store, then asks each store what it is.
That bound matters for reading the result. Everything the record says is scoped to the pages it read. Nothing matching on a front page does not mean nothing matched anywhere, and the record says so in those words rather than saying the store is clean. Below the floor where a theme has too few distinct files to be worth comparing, the check reports that it could not read the theme instead of reporting a difference.
Nothing is stored about the other store beyond the record you generated, and the record is kept out of search results because it names a store we looked at once.
Common questions about copied stores
Is cloning a website illegal? +
Yes for photos and text, usually no for layout. In the United States copyright exists the moment a work is fixed, with no registration needed, so your product photographs and your written descriptions are protected. A page layout, an idea, and a theme somebody bought are a different question, and the answer there is often no. This is not legal advice.
What can I do if someone has copied my website? +
Record what you found before you contact anybody, because copies get edited and hidden the moment the owner senses attention. Then send a copyright notice to the company hosting the site, not to the person who copied you. If the copy is a Shopify store, Shopify takes a copyright report through its own form and requires a direct link to each individual page you are reporting.
Can you get sued for copying a website? +
Yes. A copyright owner can sue over copied photographs and copied text, and a brand owner can bring a trademark claim over a name or a look that confuses shoppers. It runs the other way too. Shopify warns that a false or bad-faith intellectual property notice is punishable by law and that it may seek damages, so claim only what is yours.
What to do if someone copies your design? +
Lead with the parts you can prove: your photographs, your copy and your brand name in their titles. A page design on its own is the weakest claim in the pile. Trade dress, the overall look of a product or a store, is a real route, and Shopify's trademark form asks you to describe the visual features that make the appearance distinctive and to confirm they are not functional.
Can someone clone a website? +
Technically, yes, and it is quick. A storefront's pages, pictures and prices are public, and copying them takes an afternoon. What they often skip is saving your pictures to their own store, and that is the trail the check above looks for.
Is it illegal for another store to use the same theme as me? +
Running the same theme is not something done to you. Shopify's terms say a Theme Store theme is licensed for a single store only, so passing a paid theme to somebody else's store breaks that licence, but that is a matter between the copier, Shopify and the theme's designer. There are about two dozen free themes in the Theme Store, Dawn among them, and any store can install any of them.
The copycat store is asking for a password now, what does that mean? +
It means the owner turned on the password page, which hides every page from visitors. It is a setting, not a penalty, and it is not proof of anything on its own. It is a very good reason to have made a record of what you saw while you could still see it.
Sources
- The per-page link requirement, the ownership and perjury declaration, the discretionary removal language and the warning about bad-faith notices: Shopify's copyright report form
- The trade dress questions, including the distinctive-features description and the nonfunctionality confirmation: Shopify's trademark report form
- The ten report categories, none of which is a cloned store: Shopify's report a merchant form
- The single-store theme licence at section 9.6: Shopify Terms of Service
- The free themes in the Theme Store, Dawn among them: Shopify Theme Store, free themes
- The frozen store definition and the note that customers cannot view the store: Shopify Help Center, frozen stores
- The 402 response described as a frozen shop with an outstanding balance: Shopify API response codes
- Theme and product files served from a /cdn path on the store's own domain: Shopify theme performance best practices and the image_url filter reference
- The six elements a copyright notice has to contain, substantially: 17 U.S.C. 512
- The fourteen-digit capture date code in a Wayback address: Internet Archive, using the Wayback Machine
- Current registration data and the registration date for a domain name: ICANN Lookup
Every source on this page was checked August 23, 2026.
