Most Shopify stores run on apps. Before you pay for a fourth app to cover the gaps between three others, it is worth asking whether the job needs an app built for your store.
Two kinds of app
Public apps are listed on the Shopify App Store. Any store can install one in a few clicks, it passes Shopify’s review before it is listed, and you pay for it through your Shopify bill. A public app is built for many stores, so it covers the common case well.
Custom apps are built for one store. They are not listed on the App Store and do not go through its review: you decide exactly what the app does and which of your data it can read or change.
Both kinds use the same Shopify APIs and can reach the same places: the admin, the storefront through theme app blocks and embeds, and parts of checkout through extensions.
When a public app is the right choice
- The job is common. Reviews, subscriptions, bundles, sign-up forms: other developers have already solved them, and the cost is shared by many stores.
- You want to try an idea quickly. Most apps have a free trial, so you can test before you commit.
- You do not want to maintain code. The developer keeps the app working as Shopify changes.
When a custom app is worth it
- Your process is what makes the store different. A quote flow, a sample programme or a fitting service rarely fits the shape a general app gives it.
- Several apps each do part of one job. You pay for the overlap, and every app adds its own scripts to your storefront.
- Data has to move between Shopify and your own systems: stock, orders or customers in an ERP, a warehouse or a CRM.
- You need a rule that no settings page offers.
Four questions to ask before you build
1. Who maintains it?
Shopify releases a new API version every quarter and supports each one for at least twelve months. A custom app needs someone to move it forward, so agree on that before the first line of code.
2. What does it touch?
List the data and the pages the app needs, and ask for the narrowest access that does the job. Fewer permissions mean less to secure and less to break.
3. Can it start small?
A first version that does one thing well is cheaper to build, faster to ship and easier to change once real customers use it.
4. What happens if it stops?
Decide how orders, emails or pages behave if the app is switched off, so a problem never takes the store down with it.
Often the answer is both
Many stores do best with a mix: public apps for the common jobs, and one small custom app for the part that makes the store different. We work on both sides. We run five apps of our own on the Shopify App Store, and we build custom Shopify apps for stores that need something no public app does.
