TLDR: A Shopify app audit reviews every app on your store for cost, value and fit. Squashed Pixel’s rule is the right app for the right reason. Tally app fees over at least 12 months, cut anything Flow, Markets or Sidekick can now handle, and remove apps that feel bolted on. Keep the two that earn their place on almost every build: server-side tracking and email.
Most Shopify stores collect apps faster than they remove them. A Shopify app audit fixes that: a regular review of every app you pay for, what it really costs and whether it still earns its place.
Tom from Squashed Pixel has been building on Shopify for 17 years, and his agency was one of the first 10 Shopify partners in the UK. On Leaders on Shopify, he explained why his team installs as few apps as possible. Here’s how to apply that approach to your own store in five checks.
Why your store needs a Shopify app audit
“There’s an app for that” used to be Shopify’s best selling point. Now, Tom says, there are around 25 apps for every possible job. “I’ve got app fatigue with the App Store,” he admits. “Even I don’t know where to look a lot of the time.”
Shopify appears to agree. Host John reported from a recent Shopify developer event that the company is concerned about the volume of vibe-coded apps trying to get into the App Store, and is doubling down on Built for Shopify.
Every app you add carries two costs: your monthly bill and your customer experience. A good audit tackles both.
Check 1: List every app and its true cost
Start with a full list of installed apps and their monthly fees. On their own, they look cheap. “These $3, $4 here and there massively add up,” Tom says.
Then look further out. Squashed Pixel models total cost of ownership over a minimum of 12 months, with app fees alongside Shopify’s own costs, conversion fees and currency charges. Three to five years gives a truer picture. “People kind of forget about those apps and those extra add-ons,” Tom says.
Check 2: Ask whether each app still earns its place
Squashed Pixel’s test is simple. “It’s not that we’re anti app, but it’s the right app for the right reason,” Tom says. For each app, ask whether it solves a problem your store can’t easily solve another way.
Very few apps pass that test on every site Squashed Pixel builds. The two that usually do:
- A server-side tracking tool, usually Littledata (more in Check 5)
- An email platform, usually Klaviyo, because “that’s just not something you can replicate yourself”
One to watch is Shopify Messaging, Shopify’s recently renamed email tool, which now integrates with WhatsApp. Tom hasn’t tested it yet, but he sees WhatsApp as the next big channel after email. His 14-year-old daughter would much rather get a message than an email.
Check 3: Replace apps with native Shopify features
Shopify keeps building features into the platform that used to need an app. Before you keep an app, check whether Shopify now does the job itself. Squashed Pixel leans on:
- Flow for automation, with custom admin apps filling the gaps where it falls short
- Sidekick for building admin apps, though Tom says it takes several iterations and you need to know exactly what you’re asking for
- Markets for selling internationally from a single store
Drowsy Sleep, the sleep mask brand, shows what this looks like in practice. It previously ran separate UK, US and EU sites. It has now merged back into one Shopify store, using Markets to handle the different bank accounts and tax registrations. Tom describes Drowsy as using every bit of Shopify, with minimal apps on top.
Check 4: Look for apps that feel bolted on
The bigger cost of app overload shows up on the front end. Many apps, especially vibe-coded ones, look exactly like what they are: something bolted onto the site. “It doesn’t feel natural. It doesn’t feel native to the site,” Tom says.
Browse your store the way a customer would. Anything that looks out of place is a candidate to remove, replace or rebuild natively.
Check 5: Make sure your data flows to the right places
With cookies and GDPR reshaping tracking, data is one of the biggest issues for brands right now. Tom recommends Littledata on pretty much every site that runs server-side tracking. Where tools like Triple Whale build their own dashboard, Littledata focuses on getting the right data into the right platforms and enriching it.
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Your Shopify app audit checklist
- List every installed app and its monthly fee
- Work out each fee over 12 months, then over three to five years
- Ask whether each app solves a problem your store can’t solve another way
- Check whether Flow, Markets or a Sidekick-built admin app now covers it
- Browse your storefront for anything that looks bolted on
- Confirm your tracking sends the right data to the right platforms
Listen to the full conversation with Tom on Leaders on Shopify.
