How we check and price apps
Two questions for every app: what will it cost my store, and what am I signing up for? The first is a bill at three store sizes. The second is eight checks, the same for every app.
The bill
We read each app's plans on its Shopify App Store listing and the developer's own pricing page. For each store size we pick the cheapest plan that covers the store and the job, billed monthly, and add any usage charges at that size. Your Shopify plan, taxes and payment fees are left out. When the plan a store needs is only priced on request, we show "Quote" and leave it out of totals rather than guess.
Every app is priced for the same store, so you can add the bills up:
| Store | Small | Growing | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orders a month | 300 | 2,000 | 10,000 |
| Average order value | $60 | $60 | $60 |
| Revenue a month | $18,000 | $120,000 | $600,000 |
| Products in the catalogue | 100 | 500 | 2,000 |
| Store sessions a month | 10,000 | 65,000 | 330,000 |
| Search queries a month | 1,000 | 6,500 | 33,000 |
| Email profiles | 3,000 | 20,000 | 100,000 |
| Emails sent a month | 24,000 | 160,000 | 800,000 |
| SMS subscribers (US) | 600 | 4,000 | 20,000 |
| SMS sent a month (US) | 2,400 | 16,000 | 80,000 |
| Subscription orders a month | 60 | 400 | 2,000 |
| Returns a month | 30 | 200 | 1,000 |
| Support conversations a month | 150 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
| Support agents | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Ad spend a month | $3,600 | $24,000 | $120,000 |
| Words to translate (one extra language) | 30,000 | 90,000 | 315,000 |
| New product images a month | 40 | 200 | 800 |
The eight checks
Each check is pass or fail, with the reason and a source on the app's page. Four of them come straight from the App Store listing and the bill, and our build refuses any record where they disagree.
- Free to startA free plan, or a free trial of 7 days or more. 43 of 46 apps pass.
- Prices public at every sizeWe can work out the monthly bill at 300, 2,000 and 10,000 orders from public prices, without asking for a quote. 35 of 46 apps pass.
- Built for ShopifyThe App Store listing carries Shopify's Built for Shopify badge. Shopify only grants it to apps that pass its review, including a limit of ten points on how far the app may lower a storefront's Lighthouse performance score. 14 of 46 apps pass.
- Rated 4.7 or higherMerchants rate it 4.7 out of 5 or higher on the Shopify App Store. 31 of 46 apps pass.
- 500+ merchant reviewsAt least 500 reviews on the Shopify App Store, so the rating rests on more than a handful of stores. 33 of 46 apps pass.
- Works with Shopify FlowListed as working with Shopify Flow, or documented by the developer, so you can automate around it. 21 of 46 apps pass.
- You can take your dataThe developer documents a CSV export or a public API, or (for page builders) that your pages stay live after you uninstall, so leaving does not mean losing your work. 41 of 46 apps pass.
- Security report namedThe developer names a SOC 2 Type II report or an ISO 27001 certification. 22 of 46 apps pass.
Verdicts and ranks
- Easy pick: passes 7 or 8 checks.
- Good, with caveats: 5 or 6.
- Read the fine print: 3 or 4.
- Look elsewhere: 2 or fewer.
Inside an aisle, apps rank by checks passed, then by the bill at 2,000 orders a month, cheapest first. Nobody can pay for a place, and we take no affiliate commission.
What we do not measure
We do not install apps on a test store or run our own speed tests yet. For speed we lean on Shopify's Built for Shopify review: among its requirements, an app must not lower a storefront's Lighthouse performance score by more than ten points, and storefront apps must use theme app extensions instead of editing theme files.1 An app without the badge is not necessarily slow; it has simply not passed that review.
Ratings come from the Shopify App Store. Developers often ask for reviews inside their apps, so treat high ratings as a sign of happy installs, not as an independent test.
Sources
- Built for Shopify requirements, Shopify. Accessed October 8, 2026.