Key takeaways
- Verdict: choose Torva OS if you want compliance tooling built in (a 21+ research-use gate, accurate product identification, claim review, a policy reviewer and continuous Torva Watch scanning) plus Zelle, Cash App and Venmo with a confirmation workflow, EasyPost batch shipping, Claude via MCP and a developer API.
- Choose Lapis if you need bank ACH payments, subscriptions, session recordings and heatmaps, 20 themes on every plan, or a higher order ceiling for less: its Scale plan is $499 a month for up to 10,000 orders.
- Torva OS costs $99, $199 or $399 a month with a $0 setup fee and a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment; Lapis lists $299 and $499 plans with a 7-day free trial, and its terms say fees are non-refundable except where the law requires.
- Both are hosted, research-focused platforms where you connect your own payment processor and stay responsible for what you sell and say.
- Both are open for sign-ups: Torva OS with a free store preview before you pay, Lapis with a 7-day free trial that collects a card up front.
- Last verified 2026-09-25 against Lapis’s public website. Corrections are welcome at hello@torvaos.com.
The short answer
Torva OS (torvaos.com) and Lapis (uselapis.io) are two hosted ecommerce platforms built specifically for research peptide and research-supply stores. Both give you a storefront on your own domain, COAs on product pages, card payments through a processor you connect, shipping labels, email, affiliates and analytics in one admin, so the choice comes down to the specific workflows you need.
Torva OS is stronger on compliance tooling and operations: every storefront has a 21+ research-use gate, factual product names and original photos are preserved, health and dosing claims are removed at build and flagged again on every save, a policy reviewer flags shipping, returns, privacy and terms pages for the merchant to review, and pay-by-app orders have a proper awaiting-payment workflow. It also offers batch shipping with pick lists, purchasing, gift cards, a developer API and webhooks, and a Claude connection through MCP.
Lapis is stronger on theme choice, recurring revenue and behaviour analytics: it lists 20 free themes, bank ACH, subscriptions, session recordings, heatmaps, AI weekly reports, trackable QR codes and a journal, and its order limits are higher per dollar.
Who each platform is best for
Match the platform to how your store actually operates. Both are reasonable choices for a research peptide brand; they suit different priorities.
- Torva OS is best for a brand that wants tools to support its own compliance review (gate, code names, claim removal, policy review, continuous scanning), takes Zelle, Cash App or Venmo alongside cards, ships its own orders in daily batches, wants a 30-day refund on the first payment, or wants to run the store from Claude or its own code through MCP, an API and webhooks.
- Lapis is best for a brand that needs ACH or subscriptions today, wants session recordings and heatmaps without another tool, wants the 20 themes Lapis lists on every plan, or expects more than 750 orders a month on a mid-tier budget.
- Either may be wrong for a store whose products are not lawful where it operates or ships, or one that relies on a specific app from a large general-platform ecosystem. See Lapis alternatives for the wider field.
Feature matrix: Focus and storefront
The matrix covers 53 capabilities in seven groups. A ✓ in the Lapis column means the feature is described on Lapis’s public pages; “not listed on their public site as of sept 2026” means we could not find it there, which is not the same as saying it does not exist. A ✗ or “Partial” in the Torva OS column is our own honest status.
| Capability | Torva OS | Lapis |
|---|---|---|
| Built for research peptide / research-supply stores | ✓ Yes, research-supply and research peptide brands only | ✓ Research peptide brands first, plus supplement, wellness and other high-risk founders |
| Storefront themes | ✓ 8 themes: 2 on Core, 6 on Growth, all 8 on Command | ✓ 20 themes, all free on every plan |
| Visual storefront editor | ✓ Storefront Studio on every plan | ✓ Visual editor (drag, drop, type) |
| Editor version history and restore | ✓ Yes, restore and republish earlier versions | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| AI editing of the storefront | ✓ Claude via MCP edits storefront drafts on Command; nothing publishes without the merchant | ✓ AI editor that changes copy, layout, colors and design from a description |
| Rebuild from your current website | ✓ Yes on Growth and Command: scans the public site and rebuilds a preview | ✓ Bring existing pages, copy and products and the AI rebuilds the store, “usually in an afternoon” |
| Custom domain | ✓ Yes, with guided DNS records and live checks | ✓ One-click domain connection through Entri, with DNS and certificate rechecked every ten minutes |
| Buy a domain inside the platform | ✗ No; links out to a registrar | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
Feature matrix: Compliance tooling
| Capability | Torva OS | Lapis |
|---|---|---|
| Research-use-only language | ✓ Yes, starter policies and pages with research-use wording | ✓ Research-use-only language applied across the storefront by default |
| 21+ and research-use gate | ✓ On every storefront, re-confirmed before checkout; crawlers still see the store | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Automatic product identity recoding | ✗ Not offered; factual product identification is preserved | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Health and dosing claim removal | ✓ Yes, at build and import; flagged again on every save | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Policy reviewer and starter policies | ✓ Reviews shipping, returns, privacy and terms; one-click starter text | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Ongoing compliance scanning | ✓ Torva Watch rescans catalog, storefront, email and affiliate content on every save | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| COAs on product pages | ✓ Per product, on the product page and a documentation page | ✓ One COA per product, shown on the product page and a dedicated lab-results page |
Feature matrix: Payments
| Capability | Torva OS | Lapis |
|---|---|---|
| Card payments | ✓ Your own Stripe account (embedded onboarding); Authorize.net and NMI coming this week | ✓ Card processing “chosen to accept the category”; processor not named on the public site |
| Apple Pay and Google Pay | ✓ Yes, through Stripe | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Zelle, Cash App and Venmo with QR code and confirmation | ✓ Yes; orders wait as awaiting payment until you confirm | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Bank ACH payments | ✗ Not offered | ✓ Bank ACH payments |
| Subscriptions / recurring orders | ✗ Not offered; reorder reminder emails only | ✓ Subscription management |
| Sales tax | Partial: Merchant enters registrations and rates; Torva applies and records them | ✓ Sales tax applied at checkout (method not described) |
| Multi-vial quantity pricing | ✓ Up to 10 price breaks per variant, every plan | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Discounts and promotions | ✓ Yes | ✓ Discounts and offers |
| Gift cards and store credit | ✓ Issued in the Desk and redeemed at checkout | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
Feature matrix: Shipping and operations
| Capability | Torva OS | Lapis |
|---|---|---|
| Shipping labels | ✓ Your own EasyPost account; tracking returned to the order | ✓ Shipping labels bought with live carrier rates; Shippo listed as an integration |
| Batch shipping, pick list and shipping list | ✓ Yes, paid orders only; CSV or print | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Return labels and refunds | ✓ Return labels; Stripe refunds from the order | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Inventory | ✓ Stock adjustments and low-stock alerts | ✓ Per-variant inventory |
| Purchasing (purchase orders to suppliers) | ✓ Reorder suggestions, purchase orders, receiving | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Manual orders (phone, invoice) | ✓ Yes | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Customer accounts | ✓ Growth and Command | ✓ Customer accounts |
| Apple and Google sign-in for customers | ✓ Growth and Command | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
Feature matrix: Marketing and analytics
| Capability | Torva OS | Lapis |
|---|---|---|
| Email campaigns | ✓ Growth and Command, from your own sending domain | ✓ Email campaigns included, sent in throttled batches from your own domain, with CSV list import |
| Abandoned-checkout, welcome and follow-up emails | ✓ Growth and Command; receipts on every plan | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Affiliate program | ✓ Command: links, codes and commission states, with tiers, bonus rules and payout records | ✓ Affiliate codes with automatic attribution and payouts (Scale) |
| Source attribution | ✓ First and last touch per order, revenue and AOV by source | ✓ UTM and referral tracking (Launch); full-funnel visitor attribution (Scale) |
| Session recordings and heatmaps | ✗ Not offered | ✓ Native session recordings and click and scroll heatmaps; recordings deleted after seven days |
| Store alerts | ✓ Email and Telegram alerts for orders, payments, stock, support and affiliates | ✓ Optional daily digest email when conversion, traffic or checkout completion changes |
| Trackable QR codes for packaging | ✗ Not offered | ✓ Trackable QR codes for print and packaging |
| Blog or journal | Partial: Custom content pages in Studio; no dedicated blog | ✓ Content journal |
| Per-page SEO fields | Partial: Store-wide search title and description; storefront sitemap and robots.txt | ✓ Per-page SEO |
Feature matrix: AI, developers and team
| Capability | Torva OS | Lapis |
|---|---|---|
| AI assistant inside the admin | ✓ Ask Torva, in the Desk | ✓ “Ask Lapis” voice and text assistant on its website |
| Connect Claude through MCP (OAuth) | ✓ Read on Growth; read plus draft editing on Command | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Developer API | ✓ Growth and Command | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Webhooks | ✓ Command | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Team members and roles | ✓ Seven roles, from owner to read-only | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Two-factor sign-in for the team | ✓ Authenticator-app codes | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Support inbox | ✓ Forward support email in; drafted replies built from the order record | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
Feature matrix: Pricing and terms
| Capability | Torva OS | Lapis |
|---|---|---|
| Public demo | ✓ Read-only Desk demo and eight theme demos | ✓ Read-only live demo of the admin console and a demo storefront, no sign-up |
| Try before paying | ✓ Free storefront preview, no card | ✓ 7-day free trial on Launch and Scale; a card is collected at sign-up and not charged until the trial ends |
| Setup fee | ✓ $0 | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Money-back guarantee | ✓ First subscription payment refunded within 30 days, no questions asked | ✗ None listed; the terms say fees are non-refundable except where required by law |
| Monthly order limits | ✓ 300 on Core, 750 on Growth, unlimited on Command | ✓ Up to 1,000 orders a month on Launch; up to 10,000 on Scale |
Pricing compared
Torva OS has three plans; Lapis lists two public plans plus a discounted rate for members of AUS Consulting, a consultancy named alongside Lapis in its terms. Neither price includes payment-processing fees, which you pay to your own processor on both platforms.
| Torva OS | Lapis | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Core $99: 300 orders a month, 2 themes, compliance tooling, quantity pricing, labels, receipts | Launch: $299 per month — one storefront on your own domain, high-risk payment processing, built-in CRM, UTM and referral tracking, up to 1,000 orders a month |
| Middle plan | Growth $199: 750 orders, 6 themes, automations, campaigns, customer accounts, developer API, Claude read access | Scale: $499 per month — everything in Launch plus full-funnel visitor attribution, native automations, affiliate system and payouts, up to 10,000 orders a month |
| Third plan | Command $399: unlimited orders, all 8 themes, webhooks, Claude draft editing, guided launch and a dedicated contact | AUS Consulting members: $150 per month with a 30-day free trial, up to 10,000 orders a month |
| Annual billing | Monthly billing at launch; no annual offer | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Setup fee | $0 | Not listed on their public site as of Sept 2026 |
| Trial | Free storefront preview with no card | 7-day free trial on Launch and Scale; a card is collected at sign-up and not charged until the trial ends |
| Refunds | 30-day money-back guarantee on the first subscription payment | Fees are non-refundable except where a refund is required by law |
| AI usage | Ask Torva assistant included on every plan | AI usage is metered and may consume plan allowances or purchased AI credits (a monthly add-on) |
What the numbers mean for a real store
Torva Core starts at $99; Lapis Launch lists $299. In the middle, Torva Growth is $300 a month cheaper than Lapis Scale and allows far more orders (10,000 against 750); a store beyond 750 orders a month on Torva needs Command at $399. Torva’s price includes tooling that would otherwise be manual work (policy review, claim scanning, batch shipping, purchasing), so compare against the hours you would spend, using the method in evaluate commerce platform cost.
Onboarding and migration
Lapis describes an AI build from an onboarding intake and uploaded product photos, with most operators going from intake to a live store “in a day”, and a migration in which its AI rebuilds your existing pages, copy and products “usually in an afternoon”.
Torva OS starts with a free preview at /start: choose a theme or, on Growth and Command, let Torva scan your current public website and rebuild a preview from it. After subscribing, a setup guide walks from business details to go-live in order: products, editor, compliance fixes, pay-by-app methods, shipping, domain, email and card processing. Card processing unlocks only once the research-ready store is live on your own domain, because processors review the live site. Products can also be imported by CSV, in the same format as the export.
For either platform, keep the current store running until the new one has passed a full test order, and map every old URL to a new one. See move to Torva without losing SEO and the migration cutover plan.
Compliance tooling in practice
Lapis says research-use-only language is applied across the storefront by default and that COAs render on product pages and a lab-results page. Its terms state that operators bear full responsibility for research-use compliance. We could not find an age gate, drug-name replacement, claim review or policy review described on its public pages.
Torva OS treats compliance as tooling, not only wording. The research-use gate asks visitors to confirm they are 21+ and buying for laboratory research, remembers it for 30 days and asks again before checkout; it runs in the browser so search engines still read the store. Product identity review preserves factual names and original photos; codes or edited labels do not establish processor eligibility. Claim removal runs when a store is built or imported, and Torva Watch rescans catalog, storefront, email and affiliate content on every save. These are review aids, not legal advice; read the research-use-only disclaimer template and product descriptions without claims.
Payments: what differs
Both platforms have you connect your own payment rails, so neither can promise a processor will approve or keep your account. Lapis lists bank ACH and card processing “chosen to accept the category”, plus manual methods; it does not name the processor on its public pages.
Torva OS connects your own Stripe account with embedded onboarding (with Apple Pay and Google Pay through Stripe); Authorize.net and NMI, which is how many high-risk merchant accounts connect, are coming this week. Eligible Zelle, Cash App and Venmo accounts can show your recipient details and a configured QR code at checkout, and the order waits as awaiting payment until you confirm it in the Desk. Each provider and bank must permit your actual catalog and business; a checkout integration does not establish eligibility. Torva OS does not offer ACH or subscriptions. Read Stripe for research peptide stores and Zelle, Cash App and Venmo payments.
Support, ownership and leaving
Lapis’s terms say operators own their content and can request an export of store data, products, orders and customer records for 30 days after an account ends. Torva OS offers product export in the same CSV format as import at any time, a developer API on Growth and Command, and webhooks on Command, so data can leave continuously rather than only at the end.
Torva OS Growth includes priority support and Command includes a guided launch and a dedicated contact. Lapis offers a read-only live demo and an on-site AI assistant; its public pages do not describe support tiers. Both offer public demos you can try without signing up: Torva’s Desk demo and eight theme demos.
Compare the same catalog before choosing
Use the same small evaluation brief for both platforms. For example, take an illustrative store with 40 products, 80 variants and one current lot document per product. These are sample inputs, not a customer result. Bring the original catalog export, document files and a list of the pages customers already visit.
Pick one product with several variants and a quantity price. On a phone, choose the variant, open its COA, add enough units to reach the price break and check the cart total. Then try an unavailable variant. Record what works in the public demo and what needs an account or a staff walkthrough; a demo alone cannot establish how your own connected processor will behave.
Ask each provider to show one order awaiting manual payment, the action that confirms receipt, and the resulting fulfillment record. Separately ask for a product export and the supported customer-import fields. Check a few old URLs against their proposed new pages. A theme screenshot cannot answer these operational questions.
Make the decision from required workflows, order volume and recurring cost. If ACH or subscriptions are essential, Torva currently lacks them. If manual-payment confirmation, batch operations and catalog review tools are priorities, evaluate Torva with your own data. Build a free Torva preview, no card needed, then compare it with the Lapis demo before choosing a plan.
How this comparison was made
The feature matrix retains its stated source-check date. Lapis facts were read from its public home page, themes page, terms of service, trial checkout, live demo page and “Lapis vs Shopify” page on 2026-09-25. We did not audit a paid Lapis account. Torva OS facts come from the product itself, including its plan catalog; where Torva lacks a feature, the matrix says so.
Two name clashes are worth knowing. Lapis at uselapis.io is not the AI advertising product at trylapis.com. Torva OS at torvaos.com is not affiliated with torva.com or any other business named Torva. If a fact here is out of date, email hello@torvaos.com and we will re-check and correct it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Torva OS and Lapis?
Both are hosted ecommerce platforms for research peptide brands. Torva OS puts more into compliance tooling (21+ research-use gate, accurate product identification, claim review, policy review, Torva Watch), pay-by-app confirmation, batch shipping, purchasing and developer access. Lapis lists more themes, bank ACH, subscriptions, session recordings and heatmaps, and higher order limits per plan.
Is Torva OS cheaper than Lapis?
Torva Core starts at $99 a month; Lapis Launch lists $299. Torva OS Growth is $199 and Command $399; Lapis Scale is $499. Torva OS has a $0 setup fee and a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment; Lapis offers a 7-day free trial and its terms say fees are non-refundable except where required by law.
Which platform has better compliance tooling for a research peptide store?
Based on public information, Torva OS: it includes a 21+ research-use gate on every storefront, accurate product identification, claim review, a policy reviewer and continuous Torva Watch scanning. Lapis states that research-use-only language is applied by default and shows COAs on product pages. None of these tools is legal advice.
Can I accept Zelle, Cash App or Venmo?
Torva OS supports manual instructions for these services if your provider and bank permit your business and catalog. Checkout shows your recipient details and any configured QR code; the order waits as awaiting payment until you confirm receipt in the Desk. Lapis mentions “manual methods” but does not name specific pay-by-app services on its public site.
Can I move from Lapis to Torva OS?
Yes. On Growth and Command, Torva OS can scan your current public store and rebuild a preview from it — products, photos, published COAs and policies included — and discovered URLs can seed a redirect map. Review and test that map before switching the domain. Customers import separately by CSV; a public scan cannot retrieve private order history or customer consent. Torva does not import past orders. Keep the current store live until the new one passes a full test order. Start with a free preview at torvaos.com/start.
Is Lapis the same as trylapis.com, and is Torva OS the same as torva.com?
No to both. The research-commerce Lapis is at uselapis.io; trylapis.com is an unrelated advertising product. Torva OS is at torvaos.com and is not affiliated with torva.com or any other business named Torva.
Sources
Preview your store on Torva OS — no card needed — or explore the Desk demo, the eight themes and the plans. Questions: hello@torvaos.com.
General information for merchants, not legal, tax or financial advice. Check the rules in your jurisdiction and with your providers.