B2B Onboard vs Helium Customer Fields
Purpose-built wholesale onboarding, or a flexible field collector.
Helium Customer Fields is a general-purpose custom-fields app for any Shopify storefront use case. B2B Onboard is purpose-built for wholesale: an approval queue, Shopify B2B Company creation, and built-in tax compliance covering EU and UK VAT verification plus resale-certificate review. Here is where the two apps differ and where Helium is a good fit.
Last updated 2026-06-13
How B2B Onboard and Helium differ
Four workflow areas where the two apps are aimed at different jobs.
Scope: wholesale vs general-purpose
Helium is a general-purpose custom-fields app. It captures data on any Shopify storefront use case, from loyalty sign-ups to profile capture. B2B Onboard does one job: wholesale registration with an approval step. The narrower scope is the point. A public Helium review describes wholesale validation as "can't validate accounts like before," which is the seam where a purpose-built tool helps.
Built-in tax compliance
B2B Onboard checks EU VAT numbers against VIES and UK VAT numbers against HMRC in real time during form submission, with a paid backup source so verification keeps working when VIES or HMRC is down. Uploaded resale and tax-exemption certificates are read and checked against the application, and on approval the buyer is set tax-exempt in Shopify automatically: reverse charge for EU and UK, resale exemption for the US. Existing customers renew through a self-service portal and get expiry reminders. Helium includes none of this.
Shopify B2B Company creation
On approval, B2B Onboard creates a proper Shopify B2B Company record on Basic, Shopify, Advanced, and Plus stores. The customer gets wholesale catalog access, location-based pricing, and tax exemption inside Shopify's native B2B model. Helium captures field data on a customer record but does not create a B2B Company, so wholesale pricing and tax need to be wired up separately.
Dedicated approval workflow
B2B Onboard ships a built-in approval queue with one-click approve, reject, or request more info. Auto-approval rules trigger on VAT-verified submissions or trusted email domains. Helium captures data into custom fields on a customer record; the approval step is built by the merchant on top, often as a manual review in Shopify admin with no audit trail.
Where Helium is a good fit
Helium Customer Fields is a good fit for stores that need flexible custom-fields collection across non-B2B use cases: loyalty program sign-ups, customer profile capture, contest entries, gated content registrations. If the goal is "extend the Shopify customer record with a few extra fields anywhere in the buyer journey," Helium has a wide and well-built feature set for that.
B2B Onboard is the better choice when the goal is specifically wholesale registration with an approval workflow, EU and UK VAT verification with resale-certificate review, and a Shopify B2B Company created on approval.
Data stored in the EU (Frankfurt, AWS eu-central-1). GDPR compliant with a full Data Processing Agreement. Free tier available so you can run a side-by-side test before you choose.
See the wholesale flow end to end.
Install free, build a registration form with a B2B template, submit a test application, and watch the approval flow create a Shopify B2B Company. Keep Helium installed if you want to compare side by side.