Telegram shop bot builders compared (2026)
GramBase, Botract, ManyChat and AdminHub sell through Telegram differently. The split that matters is the payment rail — and what it says about your buyer.
TL;DR. Every Telegram shop builder gives you a catalogue, a cart and a bot. They differ on the rail: GramBase settles in Telegram Stars and USDT/USDC and charges 2.5% capped at $20; AdminHub settles in Stars and cards across eighteen currencies, takes 0% of sales, and carries carrier integrations for physical shipping — which GramBase’s own guide says is not what it does. ManyChat is a general chatbot builder with Telegram among its channels, not a storefront. Pick by what you sell and who is paying, not by feature count.
Search “Telegram shop bot” and you get listicles that compare catalogues, carts and buttons. Every builder has those. Nobody is going to lose a customer over whether the product grid is two columns or three.
The thing that decides the outcome is duller and rarely compared: which rail the money runs on. It determines who can pay you, what Telegram’s rules let you sell, and how many steps sit between a sale and your bank account.
The three shapes on offer
Telegram-native storefronts — GramBase, Botract, AdminHub. A Mini App opens inside the chat, the buyer browses and pays without leaving. This is the shape that fits if Telegram is where your audience already is.
General chatbot builders with Telegram support — ManyChat and its neighbours. Their centre of gravity is Instagram and Messenger; Telegram is one channel among several. Reasonable if you are running the same campaign across four platforms. A worse fit if Telegram is the whole business, because you are paying for breadth you do not use.
Self-hosted bots from a repository. Free, and free is doing a lot of work in that sentence: you supply the server, the uptime, the payment integration and the person who wakes up when it stops. Fine as a hobby, expensive as a shop.
Where the builders actually part ways
GramBase takes Telegram Stars and USDT/USDC stablecoins on several blockchains, and lets you price the same product independently on each. It auto-delivers digital goods — DMs the file or grants access to a folder — and handles subscription invite and removal. Its pricing is 2.5% per transaction capped at $20, with no monthly fee. On physical goods its own guide is straightforward: the bot handles the order and the payment, and shipping is on you.
AdminHub takes Stars for anything delivered digitally, because Telegram’s policy requires it, and cards in eighteen currencies for physical goods and services. Shipping is built in rather than left to you: Nova Poshta branch and postomat pickers in Ukraine, province and city pickers in Indonesia, a plain address form everywhere else. There is no commission on your sales; the free plan runs one channel and ten products, and Pro is 400 Telegram Stars per 30 days.
Neither of us takes the other’s rail, and that is the honest headline. We have no stablecoins. They have no carriers.
The money, without the sleight of hand
Two fee models that look comparable and are not.
GramBase charges a percentage with a ceiling: 2.5% of each sale, never more than $20. AdminHub charges nothing on sales and asks 400 Stars a month for Pro — a flat cost that does not move with your volume.
The crossover is arithmetic. 2.5% equals our Pro at roughly $300 of monthly sales. Below that their model costs less; above it ours does, and once you pass about $800 their cap holds them at $20 while our figure stays flat.
0% is our cut, not the whole cost. Telegram’s own Star economics sit underneath it: buyers pay roughly $0.019 per Star, and Telegram’s developer terms put the payout at $0.013 — so plan revenue on the second number, not the first. See what withdrawing Stars actually pays.
That spread applies to any builder settling in Stars, ours and theirs alike. It is not a differentiator; it is the floor both of us stand on, and it is bigger than the percentage anyone is arguing about.
The rail question nobody puts in the comparison table
Telegram requires Stars for digital goods delivered inside the app. That is a policy, not a preference, and it is why a downloadable file, a channel subscription and a paywalled post settle in Stars whichever builder you use.
Stablecoin payments do not run alongside that rail — they run outside it. For some sellers that is exactly the point: a buyer with a wallet and no card can pay in seconds. For others it quietly narrows the audience to people who already hold USDT, which in most retail categories is a small fraction of a small fraction.
Neither answer is wrong. But “supports crypto” belongs in the same sentence as “and here is who that excludes”, and comparison posts almost never write the second half.
Picking by what you sell
| What you sell | The builder you want |
|---|---|
| Digital files to a crypto-comfortable audience | Stablecoin-capable — GramBase’s case |
| Channel subscriptions and paywalled posts | Any Stars-native builder; the rail is fixed by Telegram anyway |
| Physical goods that need shipping | One with carriers — GramBase says shipping is on you |
| Services booked into a calendar | A builder with slots, not a catalogue |
| The same campaign across Instagram, Messenger and Telegram | ManyChat — breadth is the product |
| You do not know yet | The free plan that costs nothing while you find out |
What to do this week
Write down the last ten things you sold, or expect to sell. Mark each as digital or physical, and mark how the buyer paid or would want to. That list settles the choice faster than any feature comparison, because it is the only input either of us can’t change for you.
Then start on whichever free tier matches, and give it ten real orders before you judge. A shop with no orders is a UI opinion; a shop with ten is data.
The full path from bot to first sale — how to sell on Telegram. Why a Mini App storefront is not a website — Telegram Mini App store. Which rail applies to which product — Stars vs card payments. See what the storefront includes on the shop page.
What people usually ask
- What actually differs between Telegram shop builders?
- Not the catalogue — everyone has one. The rail. Some settle in Telegram Stars, some in stablecoins, some in cards. That choice decides which buyers can pay you, what Telegram's own rules allow you to sell, and how the money reaches your bank.
- Can I sell physical goods through a Telegram shop bot?
- It depends on the builder, and most are honest that it is not their strength. GramBase's own guide says the bot handles the order and payment but you handle shipping manually or integrate a fulfilment service. AdminHub carries carrier integrations — Nova Poshta in Ukraine, RajaOngkir in Indonesia, a plain address form elsewhere — plus card payments in eighteen currencies.
- Which is cheaper?
- It crosses over. GramBase charges 2.5% per transaction capped at $20 with no monthly fee. AdminHub takes 0% of sales; its free plan runs 10 products, and Pro is 400 Telegram Stars per 30 days. Below roughly $300 a month in sales their percentage costs less than our Pro; above it, ours does. Neither number is the whole cost — see the Stars economics below.
- What about stablecoins?
- GramBase takes USDT and USDC on several blockchains; AdminHub does not take crypto at all. Worth knowing why the split exists: Telegram's own policy requires Stars for digital goods delivered inside the app, so stablecoin flows sit outside that rail rather than alongside it.
- Is ManyChat a Telegram shop builder?
- It is a chatbot builder that supports Telegram among other channels, not a storefront product. If your centre of gravity is Instagram or Messenger and Telegram is one more channel, that is its case. If Telegram is where you actually sell, a Telegram-native storefront is a different tool.
- So which do I pick?
- Ask what you sell and who pays. Digital goods to a crypto-comfortable audience — a stablecoin-capable builder. Physical goods with real shipping — a builder that has carriers. Both, or unsure — start on a free plan and let the first ten orders tell you.