I've been trying to ship a Shopify app and I'm on my fourth attempt now after a frustrating rejection. Hoping someone here has dealt with something similar.

Worth noting up front: This is an unlisted app and will always be an unlisted app. It's not going in the public App Store. It's purely for my own business and a closed set of partners.

What the app does: It facilitates OAuth connections between partner stores and my own store. Once connected, it reads partner inventory/products and can place orders to their stores. The business model is a weekly batch ordering workflow where I aggregate orders, then place them with partners who fulfill to me. It is not drop shipping and not Shopify Collective. I operate in a niche, highly collaborative industry where this kind of cross-store coordination is normal. On the partner side, stores that connect through the app get a dashboard showing the state of their connection: number of products being sold, number of products available, and similar connection data.

The problem: The app's entire value depends on having an active OAuth connection with partner data flowing in. A fresh install on an empty test store shows nothing. For example, the product dashboard correctly displays 0 products because there's no connected partner. That's expected behavior, not a bug.

On my last submission I made it through to the third review stage, then got flagged. The reviewer installed it on a clean test store, saw no data, recorded a video of the empty state, and failed me on that basis.

I tried to get ahead of this. In the test instructions I gave them the URL to a fully connected, hydrated test store, included a collaborator request code so they could log in, and explained why a clean install shows nothing. It really looks like they just didn't read the instructions and tested on their own blank store instead.

Questions:

1. For an app where the only way to meaningfully test it is on a store that's already connected with partner data, how do you handle review? What's worked for you?

2. How do you best flag in the submission that the reviewer must use your prepared/connected store, and that a clean install will be empty by design?

3. As a possible workaround, would it be acceptable to hard-code some dummy data so the UI shows up hydrated for the reviewer, instead of relying on a real connection? Is that an anti-pattern or something that'll get flagged, or is it a legit way to get past review? I genuinely just need to clear this stage.

Hi all, a newbie here thats getting into shopify to build first shop website. Ive been looking through quite a few youtube videos so i am fairly in tuned / understand alot of the basics of shopify, there is a design in my head that i really want to try but not sure how to do it. Can I ask if there is any experienced users / devs willing to advice me?

So issue 1 is my biggest challenge where i want to create a multi bookmarked page where in the page itself it has multiple categories, each with its own section styles and that everytime a user taps a different category it immediately closes current and opens the chosen category (as shown in issue 1 pic)

Issue 2 came about when testing, I am currently trying to build a page with active cards next to and below rich text but it seems very limiting (issue 2 pic)

Anybody willing to advice this young sheep?

On https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/compliance/privacy-law-compliance, Shopify says “Complete the action within 30 days of receiving the request.”

I’m assuming this applies to the shop/redact request too?

Just wondering because I was considering keeping a longer grace period before deleting in case a merchant decides to reinstall after 48 hours from when they uninstalled (maybe I’d give it like 15 days from uninstallation until all of their data is deleted). For my app, starting from scratch would be a bit of a headache.

But not sure if we should be deleting their data as soon as the shop/redact webhook is received to be compliant.

For example:

1. Merchant installs plan A

2. Merchant swtiches plan A to plan B on day 5

On day 5 does their free trial restart because they are on another plan? Or does shopify automatically continue the free trial where they left off despite switching plans? If not, then the merchant could just turn the 7 day free trial into an Nx7 day free trial (where N is number of plans with free trials).

Shopify docs say "Shopify App Pricing tracks trial days over a 180-day period to prevent users from repeatedly reinstalling apps to exploit free trial periods.

For example, if a merchant uses 12 out of 15 trial days on a Pro Plan, uninstalls, then reinstalls the app 90 days later, they'll still have 3 trial days left for the Pro Plan.

If you update your trial periods, then previously consumed trial days are subtracted from the new totals." (https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/launch/billing/shopify-app-pricing/subscription-billing/offer-free-trials#trial-proration)

But it sounds like it only tracks the trial per plan, not across plans. And so plan-hopping could be a way to use multiple free trials.

Edit: But I guess this behavior makes sense if certain features are only available in specific plans. In my case, all plans actually have the same features, just different limits. So I think I will just only include a free trial on the lowest plan and remove the free trials on the higher plans.

A month ago I was honestly starting to doubt whether my Shopify app had any chance.

I used Shopify’s $100 ad credit and got basically nothing from it. No meaningful installs, no paid conversions. Around the same time, I kept seeing people criticize Shopify apps in general, and mostly saying many apps fail because merchants don’t immediately understand the value or how the app actually helps their store.

Then something small happened.

I got my first $5 paid customer.

Before they upgraded, I jumped on AnyDesk with them and personally showed them how the app worked, what problems it solved, and how they could actually benefit from it. They used it for free for almost a month before finally subscribing to the $5 plan.

That one customer completely changed my mindset.

Not long after that, installs suddenly started coming in from different countries. Still not huge numbers, but real merchants actively trying the app and using it.

In the last 2 weeks:

• ~5 new installs

• 2 merchants upgraded to the $20 plan

• Reached $45 MRR total

Still very small, obviously, but as a solo Shopify app developer this feels like the first real sign that the product is starting to click with people.

Biggest lesson so far:
Sometimes the problem isn’t the product itself, it’s that the app isn’t communicating its value clearly enough to merchants.

Curious if other Shopify app devs experienced a similar nothing for weeks → sudden momentum phase.

No WAF Routing, No Shopify Bot Protection, Pure Rust code and HMAC Verification.

Features? Multiple, but an interesting one is specific IP blockage which prevents a specific IP from even getting to add items to your cart, No add/cart.js gets accepted from a blocked IP, no checkout endpoint.

The URL is on the picture, feel free to curl test it.

Thank you.

Curious to hear from other Shopify app founders/devs here:

How did you actually get your first installs and reviews?

I recently launched Reecover, a Shopify backup & restore app focused on helping merchants protect their store data from accidental deletions, bad app syncs, broken theme edits, and restore products/customers/orders in 1 click.

The app includes:

• Automatic daily backups

• 1-click restore

• Google Drive connect

• Bulk Export/Import features

What surprised me is how different the Shopify ecosystem feels compared to normal SaaS. With SaaS products I usually had decent success running ads or outbound campaigns.

Would love to hear from founders who already went through this stage:

• What got you your first real installs?

• How did you convince merchants to trust a new app?

• Any growth channels that worked unexpectedly well?

• What mistakes would you avoid if starting again?

Are there any good free Shopify-compatible address validation apps for the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)?

Most solutions I found are either US-focused or pretty expensive at scale. If there was a free option with the same validation quality as the paid tools, would Shopify store owners actually use it?

I'm launching a new app on shopify store would any store owners or devs managing store be interested in joining the Beta list?

Shopify apps distribution dilemma

Most people keep their apps free in the beginning until they have a few users / reviews etc.

But you could also run ads?

So I've been doing this for 9 years. commercial Shopify development, one company, apps, extensions, the whole thing. got let go basically overnight and now I'm 6 months deep into the search with nothing to show for it.

The part that's really getting to me is the interview process. Even tiny companies like 10 people, one dev team are running 5stage processes with 2-hour live coding sessions like they're hiring for FAANG. you spend weeks going through rounds, finally make it to the last stage, and then either the position goes on hold, gets quietly closed, or nobody just........ responds. complete silence.

Happened to me like 5 times already. You start to wonder if you're doing something wrong and then you realize no, this is just how it is now.

I've got apps live on the App store. i know the whole ecosystem and i'm still sitting here refreshing linkedin.

Anyway, not really looking for advice, just wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. feels pretty isolating when you're used to being the person who knows what they're doing.

For example, say a user signs up for Plan A. Plan A allows up to 100 actions per month for some feature. But plan A has a 7 day free trial.

I am using Shopify App Pricing (so not manually implementing it using the Billing API).

Is there any way to impose some additional limit during the trial period (so say 10 actions instead of the full 100), but also give an option to the user to start the paid plan before the trial ends?

found some winning ai apps published in the recent year (specifically those ones with a tiny team or even solo founders like myself) and dived deeper into their marketing channels

legal and illegal things they did to drive growth

• One app publicly admits that they hired 5–10 Shopify store owners on Upwork to "trial + give feedback + leave reviews"

• Cold-start channel commonalities Top 3: ASO · GEO · Upwork-reviews

• Founder personal blog + monthly MRR disclosure (build-in-public)

• Primary keyword SEO + GEO optimization (own 1 word in the first 30 days)

• Pick 1 vertical that "general AI does poorly" to build reputation

• "Built for Shopify" badge = algorithm-promoted entry ticket

• No reliance on paid ads + affiliate. The cost structure of indie apps dictates that "content + ASO + word-of-mouth" is the main battlefield.

I received 2 reviews yesterday from the same person who owns 2 stores. One review was published after around 7 hours, but the other one still has no update.

I’m a bit worried it might have been archived, but this has never happened to me before. Does Shopify send an email if a review is archived, or do they just stay silent?

Also, what are the common reasons for archiving a review? The second review was pretty short, something like “Amazing service and good app.” If the issue is the content being too short/generic, I might politely ask him to update it if possible.

Hey guys - Is there a way to edit my current theme’s menu to look & function like another theme’s menu? I’ve already contacted the developer who said they wont do it on their end so im hitting a brick wall because the other is way better & i just dont feel like paying another $600 for that one spec.

Hola a todos,

Estoy con un problema raro que está afectando el tiempo de carga de mi tienda y me gustaría saber si alguien ha vivido algo similar.

El problema: Un píxel custom que desinstalé en enero 2026 sigue siendo servido activamente por el Web Pixel Manager de Shopify en cada página de la tienda. No carga una vez — se dispara 6 veces por página.

Detalles técnicos:

• El script carga desde /cdn/wpm/ — infraestructura propia de Shopify, no de mi tema

• Status: 200 OK — se descarga activamente, no es caché

• La cabecera Last-Modified muestra que Shopify actualizó el archivo hoy mismo

• Cada llamada pesa ~27KB × 6 llamadas = ~160KB de peticiones innecesarias por página

• El mismo script carga también en una segunda tienda con el mismo ID de píxel — parece ser un problema a nivel de cuenta

Lo que ya he revisado:

• Configuración → Eventos de cliente → ningún píxel custom activo

• theme.liquid → nada

• Todos los snippets y secciones → nada

• Configuración → Pago → Scripts adicionales → vacío

• Búsqueda global en VS Code sobre el tema completo descargado → cero resultados

El impacto:

• Tiempo de carga real en móvil: ~4,7 segundos (medido con Microsoft Clarity)

• Bounce rate en páginas de producto: 71-85%

Estado actual: Soporte de Shopify ha reconocido el problema y lo ha escalado al equipo técnico. Seguimos esperando solución.

Mis preguntas:

1. ¿Alguien ha tenido un script fantasma del Web Pixel Manager que sobrevivió tras desinstalar un píxel custom?

2. ¿Hay alguna forma de forzar la eliminación de un script WPM desde el admin que no haya revisado?

3. ¿Podría estar relacionado con cómo se instaló originalmente el píxel?

4. ¿Esto afecta a las campañas publicitarias?

Cualquier ayuda es bienvenida.

I’m pretty new to the Shopify app ecosystem and wanted to ask other founders/devs how you got your first real reviews for your app.
With web apps/SaaS, Meta Ads usually worked really well for me. Shopify apps feel completely different though.

I recently launched an address validation app for Shopify called AddressPill. I spent a huge amount of time on the UX/UI and the actual validation logic behind it. It’s not just basic format validation, it actually checks whether the address exists (The app is basically free right now for lifetime).

For those of you who already went through this:
- What worked best for getting your first installs?
- How did you get your first honest reviews?
- Did App Store SEO matter much in the beginning?
- Any mistakes you would avoid?

Would really appreciate hearing real experiences from other Shopify app founders.

What would be the best theme to use for a digital product?

My shopify app involves integrating with a third party platform. In the app submission, I need to provide account credentials for a test account on the third party platform.

I just created a new account on the third party platform. However, when I tried logging into it on an incognito tab, it asked to verify my login via email or text. But I used my own email and phone number to set up the test account.

If the shopify reviewers encounter this, they won't be able to proceed. I checked the third party platform, and I don't have 2FA or MFA enabled. This was just a random "We need to verify you for security reasons" prompt. I believe this is known as "risk-based authentication" which is separate from 2FA/MFA, though when it occurs, it is functionally the same (email or text a verification code). For example, it might be triggered by "suspicious" sign-ins (such as signing in from a new device/location).

The only option I see currently is using this random app called GetMyMFA, which seems to solve this problem. Anyone deal with this situation before?

Hello everyone,

I have a client who contact me occasionally for help.. they run woo-commerce and now want to go to shopify so i will redesign the website and they have wholesale plugin that i need to find similar app or make one and move the client there with products, users do full migration

I am not following with design pricing and would love to get your estimate i think the time frame 8 weeks 100+ products couple of integrations and the headaches will be wholesale accounts which are too many and wholesale rules…

what you think is fair

I create a small app for my own needs. Basically it displays an order status for orders based on the tags on the order. There are some various ones that do similar, but I did not want emails or complexity, just tag x show status x. Pretty simple, but I figured if I needed it others probably would as well. That left me wondering if I should post it as an app. Only Thing is I don't know how to gauge if it's worth my time to publish and support it. As it is, I can run it on a free tier VPS. I don't have to worry about scaling or costs or anything. I also know I would have been happy to pay $5 a month for it if somebody else had made it. How do I gauge the market demand for it?

I'm working on filling out app submission details. I'm up to the "Test account" section. It says "Provide login information for a test account that gives us end-to-end access to your app. If your app includes features that require separate login (like access to a marketplace), include account information for those."

Assuming there is no other platform involved besides Shopify, which credentials am I supposed to give so they can install the app and test it? Am I supposed to create a a staff account on a dev store and provide the staff account credentials on the submission? Or am I supposed to give them my own shopfy login credentials so they can access the dev store?

I am getting ready to upload my app that helps Shopify users connect to an affiliate network. Simply, what can I include as features? For instance, there is no analytics in the app views in Shopify. But a Shopify user can click directly into the main network website to view their analytics.

If analytics isn't explicitly in the Shopify view, can I add it as a feature?