Shopify just pulled hundreds of apps nobody installed. If you're commissioning one, choose custom or public first
Shopify unpublished hundreds of App Store apps on October 29 and says limits on submissions are coming. If you're paying someone to build a Shopify app, the bigger question is one most briefs skip: is it for your store, or for everyone's? You can't change the answer later.
If the app is for your own store, or stores in the same Shopify Plus organization, choose custom distribution: no App Store review, no listing, but no Shopify billing. Choose public distribution only if you plan to sell it to other merchants, and budget for App Store review, the one-time registration fee and Shopify's data-sync requirements. Shopify says the choice can't be changed later, and submission limits are coming.
What happened on October 29
Shopify's Blair Beckwith posted that Shopify had unpublished hundreds of apps from its App Store. They came from "a small group of high-volume submitters" and had no merchant installs. "The App Store exists to solve real problems for merchants," he wrote, and mass submissions distract from the partners doing that work. He said limits on submissions were coming. As The Founder's Inn noted, the announcement didn't give a number or a date.
If you're a merchant, that's mostly good news: fewer junk listings to wade through. But it raises a question for anyone paying a developer to build a Shopify app right now. A surprising number of commissioned apps end up headed for the App Store when they never needed to be there. And with Shopify tightening the queue, that's a worse idea than it was.
The decision underneath is called distribution, and Shopify's docs are blunt about one thing: you can't change the distribution method after you select it.
The two routes, side by side
Shopify's developer docs describe two ways to distribute an app built today.
Custom distribution is for a specific merchant. The app installs on a single store, on several stores that belong to the same Shopify Plus organization, or on development stores. It needs no approval from Shopify. The trade-off: you can't charge merchants through Shopify's app billing system. Some features, such as App Home UI extensions, are available only with custom distribution.
Public distribution is for many merchants. The app can be installed on any number of Shopify stores and can be listed in the App Store. It requires approval through Shopify's review, registration for the App Store with a one-time fee, and the app must sync certain data with Shopify.
There used to be a third way: custom apps created directly in a store's admin. Shopify's docs say those can no longer be created for new apps, though existing ones keep working. If your developer's plan relies on one, ask about it.
Checkout apps and extensions have design requirements whichever route you choose.
Decision guide
Custom or public
| Consideration | Custom distribution | Public distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Stores | One store, or stores in one Plus organization. | Any number of stores. |
| Review | No approval needed. | App Store review and approval. |
| Billing | Can't use Shopify's app billing. | Charge through Shopify billing. |
| Cost to list | No listing. | One-time App Store registration fee. |
| Can you switch? | No; build a new app. | No; build a new app. |
Most apps commissioned by a store are for that store. Listing them publicly adds a review, a queue and a public promise, and buys nothing.
When custom is the right answer
Most apps commissioned by a store are for that store. Listing them publicly adds a review, a queue and a public promise, and buys nothing. Think of a connection to your warehouse system, a wholesale pricing rule, a custom bundle builder or a sync with your ERP: nobody else will install it, and nobody else should.
Custom distribution also covers a common case people forget: a brand with several stores. If they're in the same Shopify Plus organization, one custom app can install on all of them.
The edge of that rule is worth knowing. Several stores that aren't in one Plus organization, say a brand and its separately owned distributor, or an agency's three unrelated clients, can't share one custom app. Each store needs its own. That's often fine: the code can be the same, and each store gets an app it controls. But if an agency tells you it's building one app to serve many of its clients at once, that's a public app, whether or not anyone intends to list it, and it should be planned like one.
And custom isn't second class. It uses the same APIs and extensions, with the exceptions Shopify lists, and it skips the review. Your developer still has to build it properly, with sensible permissions and error handling. We wrote about what to ask a developer before you start in ask your Shopify app developer.
The one real limit is billing. A custom app can't charge through Shopify's app billing. If you're paying an agency to build it for you, that doesn't matter. If you planned to charge other stores, it does, and that's a sign you want the other route.
When public is the right answer
Choose public distribution when the app is a product: you intend to sell it to merchants you don't know yet, and you're prepared to support them.
That means planning for things a custom app never faces. App Store review, with its requirements and its timeline. The one-time registration fee. The data Shopify requires public apps to sync. A listing, support pages and a support inbox. And soon, a limit on how many submissions you can have in progress at once. Beckwith's post doesn't say what that limit will be. Leave room in your schedule for it rather than guessing.
It also means thinking about the merchants you'll serve. A public app installed on stores you don't know will be asked for features you didn't plan, run on themes you've never seen, and be judged in public reviews. That's a business, with support costs that don't stop after launch. If that's the plan, good. If it isn't, it's a lot to take on by accident.
What not to do is list publicly for the wrong reasons: because it seemed more official, because a developer assumed it, or because you might sell it one day. Shopify has just shown it will remove listings that no merchant uses.
The choice you can't undo
Because the distribution method is fixed once chosen, the safest approach when you're genuinely unsure is to separate the two decisions.
Build the app for your store with custom distribution, and keep the core logic separate from anything that's only about your store. If it proves itself and you decide to sell it, your developer can create a new public app that reuses that core, rather than trying to convert the one you have. That's more work later, but less than rebuilding after picking the wrong route now.
Ask for this in writing at the start of the project:
Which distribution method, and why? One sentence.
Who owns the app? The Partner organization or developer account it lives in should be one you control, or one you can have transferred.
What features depend on the choice? App Home UI extensions, billing and anything else that only works one way.
What happens if we want to sell it later? The answer should describe a second app, not a conversion.
If you'd like help choosing, or building the app either way, that's what our web applications team does. Talk to us before the brief is signed.
Related work: Spin Market.
How the work moves
Deciding before the brief is signed
- Who will install it?
Your stores, or merchants you don't know.
- Will you charge?
Billing only works with public.
- Pick and write it down
The choice is permanent.
- Keep the core separate
So a public version can reuse it later.
We build alongside the people doing the work.
Bring us the problem you’re thinking about.