Custom apps
Private / custom apps
Single-store apps installed directly from the admin without App Store review. The right shape for internal tooling, ERP bridges, B2B portals, and any feature specific to one merchant. Fastest path from idea to live.
Shopify Apps
Custom Shopify App Development
Beyond themes — apps that connect Shopify to real business systems. Private and public apps, embedded admin tools, Shopify Functions, App Proxy, Admin GraphQL workflows, and hosted apps on Azure or dedicated infrastructure.
Most Shopify stores reach a point where the app store stops being enough. The integration you need doesn't exist, the app you bought is unmaintained, the workflow your operations team runs every day is held together by spreadsheets, or the customer-facing feature you need lives outside what themes and standard apps can deliver. That's the point at which a custom Shopify app stops being a luxury and becomes the right tool.
We build Shopify apps that do real work — connecting Shopify to ERPs, 3PLs, PIMs, subscription engines, custom checkout flows, and internal admin tooling. Our team is fluent in Liquid, Polaris, App Bridge, Admin GraphQL, the Storefront API, Functions, Checkout Extensibility, and the App Proxy surface. For where Shopify sits relative to other platforms, see our platform notes; if you're on or considering Plus specifically, our Shopify Plus page goes deeper. For ERP and back-office integrations, see our integration services.
Need custom Shopify functionality the app store can't deliver? Talk to us about an app build before you start hacking the theme.
Discuss Your AppApp Types
Apps we build.
From a single-store custom app installed in an afternoon to a public app submitted to the Shopify App Store.
Public apps
Public App Store apps
Apps designed for many merchants, listed on the Shopify App Store. We design for review compliance from day one — Polaris, App Bridge, GDPR webhooks, billing flows — and handle the submission and revision cycle ourselves.
Embedded admin
Embedded admin apps
Apps that live inside the Shopify admin via App Bridge. Native nav, native top bar, native design language through Polaris. The modern default for any app the merchant interacts with day to day.
Theme extensions
Theme app extensions
App blocks and embeds that merchants drop into themes from the theme editor — without touching Liquid. The right shape for storefront UI features that need to ship as part of an app rather than a bespoke theme edit.
Headless
Headless storefronts (Hydrogen)
Custom storefronts built on Hydrogen or directly against the Storefront API and deployed to Oxygen or your own infrastructure. The right call when standard themes can't deliver the UX or when one back-end serves multiple front-ends.
Hosting
Hosted apps on Azure
Apps deployed to Azure App Service or Functions, with Azure SQL or Cosmos DB, Key Vault for secrets, and Application Insights for monitoring. AWS and dedicated infrastructure also supported when that's the better fit.
Common Builds
What custom Shopify apps usually do.
The categories we keep building, because the off-the-shelf options stop short of what the business actually needs.
B2B
B2B portals & wholesale
Customer-specific catalogues and pricing, draft order workflows, quote request flows, and approval chains beyond what Shopify Plus B2B ships natively. Often integrated with the ERP for live pricing and credit limits.
Inventory
Inventory & 3PL bridges
Real-time inventory sync between Shopify, multiple warehouses, and 3PLs. Order routing logic, fulfilment status sync, returns and exchanges, and the reconciliation tooling that keeps stock accurate across systems.
ERP
ERP integrations
SAP, NetSuite, MS Dynamics, and custom ERP integrations using Admin GraphQL, webhooks, and middleware where needed. Pricing, availability, orders, customers, and invoices kept in sync with proper error handling and replay logic.
Subscriptions
Subscription & billing
Custom subscription engines for products that don't fit standard subscription apps — staggered shipments, dynamic pricing, mid-cycle modifications, ERP-driven billing, and complex renewal logic.
Checkout
Custom checkout flows
Checkout UI extensions, Shopify Functions for shipping and payment customisations, and post-purchase pages on Plus. Validation logic, custom fields, and merchant-specific checkout rules without modifying Shopify's hosted checkout itself.
Customer accounts
Customer account extensions
Account-page features beyond what Shopify ships — order history with custom fields, loyalty status, subscription management, B2B reordering, warranty registration, and account-driven personalisation.
Real Examples
Examples of custom Shopify apps we build.
A sampling of the categories we ship most often. Each one is built to fit specific business workflows rather than a generic app-store pattern.
Warranty
Warranty & product registration
Customers register purchased products against their account; data flows into ERP/CRM, support gets context, marketing gets opt-in segments.
ERP bridge
ERP / customer sync apps
Bidirectional sync of customers, orders, fulfilment, and inventory between Shopify and SAP, NetSuite, MS Dynamics, or custom ERPs — with retry, monitoring, and reconciliation.
B2B
B2B portal apps
Company-account experiences on Shopify Plus B2B — quote requests, approval workflows, customer-specific catalogues, payment-terms ordering, sales-rep impersonation.
Storefront
Custom account & member pages
Customer account extensions for loyalty dashboards, subscription management, document downloads, returns/RMAs, and other post-purchase workflows.
Operations
Admin workflow tools
Embedded admin apps for bulk product editing, custom reporting, vendor portals, content scheduling, and back-office routines that Shopify admin doesn't cover natively.
Recurring
Subscription & replenishment logic
Custom subscription flows where standard apps don't fit — variable cadence, prepaid contracts, usage-based billing, complex pause/skip rules, and ERP-driven renewals.
Our Process
From discovery to maintenance.
01
Discovery
Workshop the actual problem, the systems involved, the data flows, and the user journeys. Output is a written scope with the app surface, integrations, and acceptance criteria specified.
02
Architecture & Permissions
Pick the right Shopify primitives — embedded admin, App Proxy, Functions, theme extensions — and design the OAuth scopes, webhook subscriptions, and data model. Hosting topology decided here.
03
Build
Iterative development with regular demos. Code review on every change, linting and type checks in CI, and a staging environment that mirrors production before any merchant traffic lands.
04
Test & Review
Automated and manual testing, GDPR webhook validation, OAuth and uninstall flow validation. For public apps: full preparation for the Shopify App Store review and revision cycle.
05
Deploy & Install
Production deploy, monitoring set up in Application Insights or equivalent, install on the merchant store with verified webhooks and back-office handoff. We stay on standby through the first business day.
06
Post-Launch Maintenance
Quarterly Shopify API version migrations, security patches, dependency updates, monitoring, and ad-hoc feature work. Apps don't stay alive on their own. See the support relationship options.
FAQ
Shopify apps, answered.
What's the difference between a private and a public Shopify app?
A private app (now called a custom app) is built for a single store and installed directly from the Shopify admin without going through the App Store review. A public app is listed on the Shopify App Store, can be installed by any merchant, and goes through Shopify's review process. Most merchant-specific work — internal tooling, ERP bridges, B2B portals — is built as a custom app. Public apps make sense when you're building a product to sell to many merchants.
Where do Shopify apps get hosted?
Apps are external services that talk to Shopify over webhooks and the Admin or Storefront APIs — they need their own hosting. We typically host on Azure (App Service or Functions plus Azure SQL or Cosmos DB), but AWS, GCP, and dedicated infrastructure are all viable. The right choice depends on your existing cloud footprint, compliance posture, and the latency requirements of the integration.
What is Shopify App Bridge and embedded admin?
App Bridge is Shopify's framework for embedding apps directly inside the Shopify admin. The merchant never leaves the admin — your app appears as a native-looking screen with Shopify's nav, top bar, and design language via Polaris. Embedded apps using App Bridge are the modern default for any app the merchant interacts with day to day.
Do we need Shopify Plus to build a custom app?
No. Custom apps run on standard Shopify, Advanced, and Plus. Plus unlocks specific surfaces — Shopify Functions for shipping and payment customisations, Checkout Extensibility, the B2B API, and Customer Account extensions — that custom apps can take advantage of. If your app needs those surfaces, Plus becomes a requirement; otherwise, standard Shopify is fine.
How does the Shopify app review process work?
Public apps go through Shopify's App Store review — a multi-stage process covering technical requirements (OAuth, GDPR webhooks, performance, security), UX requirements (Polaris, App Bridge, billing flows), and listing quality. Reviews typically run 2–6 weeks per submission, with revisions often required. We design public apps for review compliance from day one and handle the submission and revision cycle ourselves. Custom apps for a single store skip this entirely.
What does ongoing app maintenance involve?
Shopify versions its API quarterly and deprecates old versions on a rolling 12-month cycle. Apps need to track version migrations, handle webhook schema changes, and keep up with deprecations to Polaris, App Bridge, and the GraphQL surface. We offer ongoing maintenance contracts that cover API version migrations, security patches, hosting management, monitoring, and ad-hoc feature work — the work that keeps apps alive once they ship.
What is App Proxy used for?
App Proxy lets you serve customer-facing endpoints from your app server through the merchant's own domain — useful for custom storefront features that need server-side logic, like personalised product feeds, custom account pages, or integrations that need to read data the storefront doesn't expose. Shopify forwards the request to your app, you respond with HTML or JSON, and the merchant's customers never see a different domain.
Have a Shopify app in mind?
Tell us what you need it to do, what systems it has to talk to, and the constraints you're working under. The first 30 minutes are on us. If a public app, custom app, or theme extension is the wrong shape, we'll say so up front.
Book a Free Consultation