Both Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice and Sufio help Shopify merchants generate invoices and related documents, but they approach this task in fundamentally different ways.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice is an order printer app. Its primary role is to generate documents directly from the latest order data in Shopify, typically only when a document is requested.
Sufio, by contrast, is a professional invoicing app that’s fully integrated with Shopify. It stores invoices as independent financial documents and automates the full invoicing workflow, including follow-up documents like credit notes.
What is the difference between order printers and invoicing apps?
Both categories of apps help Shopify merchants create invoices, but they handle document updates, data integrity, and compliance in very different ways.
Order printer apps
Order printer apps generate invoices from the latest order data in your Shopify store. At first glance, this seems convenient, but it can quickly become a problem because orders often change.
Customers may request partial refunds, or you might edit an order to add or remove items.
When this happens, an order printer app will regenerate the invoice to reflect the updated order. As a result, multiple versions of the same invoice can exist, meaning you and your customers may no longer be looking at the same document even if the invoice numbers match.
In many countries, invoices are expected to remain unchanged once they have been issued to customers, accountants, or tax authorities.
Having several versions of the same invoice can therefore create both legal and accounting risks and may result in issues with your local tax authority.
The upside of order printer apps is cost. Because these apps rely entirely on Shopify’s order data and do not store separate invoice records, they are usually very affordable.
Invoicing apps
Invoicing apps like Sufio take a different approach by keeping invoices separate from the underlying order data in your Shopify store. This ensures that once an invoice is issued, it remains unchanged and retains its value as a valid financial document.
If an order is later modified, such as through a refund or item adjustment, the original invoice is left untouched. Instead, the app generates additional documents to capture the change.
For example, a credit note records refunded items, creating a clear and auditable trail without altering the original invoice.
Compared to order printer apps, invoicing solutions typically include features designed to meet legal requirements, such as sequential invoice numbering or support for e‑invoicing standards. This makes them a better fit for businesses that need to stay compliant.
These benefits come at a higher cost, reflecting the more robust systems involved.
Since invoicing apps store independent copies of financial documents, choosing a reliable and secure provider becomes increasingly important as your invoicing volume grows.
Feature comparison
Here's how Sufio and Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice compare across the features that matter most to Shopify merchants.
Invoice automation
Sufio is built around a fully automated workflow. It creates and sends invoices based on specific triggers, such as when an order is paid or fulfilled. You can customize exactly when documents are generated and which types of orders they apply to.
It also handles follow‑up documents automatically, issuing credit notes for refunds and returns and sending reminders for overdue invoices.
In addition, Sufio supports fully configurable sequential invoice numbering. Each invoice is assigned a unique, consecutive number in the order it is created, helping businesses meet legal and accounting requirements in key regions like the EU and the UK.
You can customize the numbering format using prefixes, dates, or order references to align with local regulations or internal processes.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice takes a different approach. It focuses on generating documents from the current state of the Shopify order rather than running a fully automated invoicing workflow.
Invoices are created from live order data when they are requested, and while the app can automatically send invoices when an order is placed, the document itself is not generated as part of a broader, event‑driven system.
As a result, Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice does not offer features such as conditional invoice creation for specific order types, separate invoices per fulfillment, or automated document generation tied to accounting events. It also relies on Shopify order numbers for invoice numbering and does not provide an independent, sequential invoice number series, which may be problematic in regions that require gap‑free numbering.
Credit notes
Credit notes are essential for handling refunds while keeping accounting records accurate.
Sufio automatically generates credit notes whenever a refund or return is processed in Shopify. These documents are kept separate from the original invoice, preserving a clear and complete transaction history.
Sufio also supports multiple types of credit notes, including cancellation credit notes and incremental (partial) credit notes.
This flexibility makes it easier to handle full cancellations, partial refunds, and more complex return scenarios while remaining compliant with accounting and tax requirements.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice can generate credit notes using refund data from Shopify, but the process is on demand. It does not support different types of credit notes, and there is no option to distinguish between cancellation and incremental credit notes.
B2B support
For merchants selling to other businesses, support for Shopify B2B features is often essential.
Sufio is officially recommended by Shopify due to its native integration with Shopify B2B.
Sufio automatically handles payment terms to set due dates, displays PO numbers, and can capture and validate VAT numbers from business customers. This ensures tax exemptions are applied correctly and that all required business details appear on the final document.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice supports payment terms, but only on its Wholesale (enterprise) plan for Shopify Plus stores. PO numbers are not supported.
Support for VAT numbers from B2B company locations is also available to users on the Wholesale plan.
International sales
Selling internationally requires support for multiple languages, currencies, and region-specific shipping documents.
Sufio supports 40 languages with professional translations. It can automatically detect the language used during checkout and automatically generate invoices in that language.
It also supports multi-currency billing and provides commercial invoices that include HS codes and country-of-origin values for international shipping.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice supports many languages (105), though translations appear to be automatically generated rather than professionally written. Invoices are not created automatically in the customer’s checkout language.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice does not support commercial invoices with HS codes or country‑of‑origin values.
E-invoicing support
E‑invoicing is becoming a legal requirement in many countries, particularly for B2B transactions. It ensures invoices follow standardized, machine‑readable formats that can be automatically validated and processed by tax authorities and business systems.
Sufio offers built‑in support for compliant e‑invoicing, helping merchants meet these legal obligations with minimal setup. It supports multiple country‑specific e‑invoicing standards, including ZUGFeRD in Germany, Factur‑X in France, and Peppol in Belgium.
In these countries, e‑invoicing is mandatory for B2B transactions, so Sufio automatically generates invoices in the required format and submits them to the appropriate e-invoicing network when applicable. This allows merchants to stay compliant with local regulations while continuing to use a familiar Shopify‑based workflow.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice does not support e‑invoicing and cannot generate invoices in any of the standardized e‑invoicing formats.
As a result, merchants operating in countries where e‑invoicing is mandatory must rely on external tools or manual processes, increasing complexity and the risk of non‑compliance.
Design
The way your documents look is an extension of your brand identity.
Sufio offers a range of professionally designed Shopify invoice templates that can be customized using a user-friendly visual editor.
Sufio also provides access to over 40,000 premium fonts from Monotype to ensure documents match your branding perfectly.
For users who want full control, the app also includes a powerful template editor—letting you customize the document layout and design, and display any order, customer, or product property directly in your documents.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice includes a visual editor for customizing document templates. There is also a theme section that suggests template code editing may be possible (?), but this could not be fully confirmed during our testing due to stability issues.
Note
During our testing, PDF previews in Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice did not display correctly, and some generated PDFs appeared corrupted. This may impact usability, and merchants are encouraged to test the current version to confirm performance.
Integrations
Both apps offer integration with Shopify POS, allowing you to print or send invoices directly from physical retail locations.
Sufio integrates with the new Shopify customer accounts, as well as popular email marketing platforms like Klaviyo and Omnisend. This allows merchants to include invoice download links in both marketing and post‑purchase email flows.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice provides extensions for the new Shopify customer accounts, including the order summary page, where customers can download invoices. Like many other order printer apps, Avada does not integrate with email marketing platforms or automatically upload files to services like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Pricing
Sufio offers tiered monthly plans starting at $7 for Starter (15 invoices), $19 for Growth (50 invoices), $49 for Professional (5,000 invoices), and $129 for Premium (unlimited).
All plans include a 14‑day free trial with no credit card required and prorated upgrades or downgrades.
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice offers a free plan that allows access to the latest 50 orders and document generation for those orders. Paid plans start at $15 per month, with a 7‑day free trial.
An enterprise‑level Wholesale plan is available for $49 per month, but it is limited to Shopify Plus stores.
Summary and conclusion
Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice is suitable for merchants who want an accessible way to generate invoices and packing slips on demand, with a visual editor and a fairly generous free plan.
Its approach centers on generating documents directly from the latest Shopify order data rather than managing invoices as independent financial records, which can create accounting (and legal) challenges in several regions.
Sufio is the stronger choice when invoices need to remain legally valid, auditable documents.
It automates invoice and credit note creation, supports sequential numbering and e‑invoicing, and is designed for B2B and international sales.
If your needs are simple and you prefer generating documents only when required, Avada AG Order Printer PDF Invoice may be sufficient.
For merchants facing stricter compliance requirements or scaling into B2B and cross‑border sales, Sufio is built to support that complexity.
Professional invoices for Shopify stores
Let Sufio automatically create and send beautiful invoices for every order in your store.
Install Sufio - Automatic Invoices from the Shopify App Store