Written from running these things
Guides and comparisons
Every page here exists because someone asked me the question. Pricing is taken from the vendor's own page and dated, so you can check whether it has moved since.
Building your own
- Custom Shopify app development. When it is the right answer, when it is not, and how apps are actually built and installed now.
- What a custom Shopify app costs. Real prices, why quotes vary so much, and the running costs most of them leave out.
- Hiring a Shopify developer. Freelancer, agency or neither, and the four questions that separate a good one from an expensive one.
Subscriptions
- What Shopify subscription apps actually cost at your revenue. Recharge, Skio, Bold and Appstle, with the same sum run at four revenue levels.
- Moving from Recharge to Shopify's native subscriptions. What carries across, what you lose, and how to run it without risking live subscribers.
- Recharge alternatives: the four real options. A cheaper app, a flat fee app, native plus a build, or staying put. Which fits, by situation.
Inventory and fulfilment
- Shopify Stocky replacement. Stocky closed on 31 August 2026 and native inventory does not cover purchasing. The three routes out.
- Getting your data out of Stocky. Two things in there cannot be reconstructed from Shopify afterwards.
- ShipStation alternatives for UK merchants. There is no UK price list, and what that costs in currency conversion.
- Alternatives to Linnworks. It does not publish pricing and tiers on order volume. What to establish before the sales call.
Customer service
- What a Shopify help desk actually costs. Gorgias bills per ticket, Zendesk per agent, Re:amaze per user, and the same support load prices very differently on each.
- Leaving Gorgias, and what you actually have to replace. Starting with what it does well, because that is the list you rebuild.
- Zendesk alternatives for a small Shopify team. Priced per agent for support departments, and most stores are three people sharing an inbox.
Or skip the reading
Send me your store and the apps you pay for. I work out what a build plus the monthly would come to against what you are spending now, and tell you if it does not save you money.