The best Shopify apps for a small store depend on the stage you're at. For your first 10 sales, focus on reviews and email with Judge.me or Loox and Shopify Email or Klaviyo. On the way to 100 orders, add upsells, abandoned checkout flows, an SEO helper and a Google product feed. Once you're growing, look at subscriptions with Recharge or Appstle, loyalty with Smile.io and a helpdesk like Gorgias.
A new Shopify store doesn't need dozens of apps. It needs the right few for the stage it's at. Install too much too early and you'll slow your store down, pay for tools you don't use and spend your evenings in settings screens instead of selling.
So rather than one long list, I've grouped these by store stage. Find the stage you're at, ignore the rest for now and come back when you've outgrown it. Every app here is well known in the Shopify App Store, and most have a free plan or a free trial, so check the current listing before you install.
Your first 10 sales
At this stage, your problem is trust. A visitor who's never heard of you needs a reason to believe you're real and that the product is good. Reviews and a way to follow up by email do most of that work.
Reviews
- Judge.me. Why: it collects product reviews, including photo and video reviews, sends review requests after delivery and has a free plan that suits a brand new store.
- Loox. Why: it's built around photo reviews, which works well for fashion, beauty, home and anything where seeing the product on a real person sells it.
- Shopify Email. Why: it's built into Shopify, pulls your products and branding into templates and is the simplest way to start a list and send your first campaigns.
- Klaviyo. Why: it goes much deeper, with automated flows, segments based on what people bought and SMS. It's the tool many stores move to once email starts driving sales.
Trust basics (no app needed)
- A clear shipping and returns page, linked from every product page.
- Real contact details, including an email address that someone answers.
- Your own product photos, not just supplier images.
- Shop Pay and other express payment options switched on, so returning shoppers can pay in a couple of taps.
Get these in place before you spend time on anything clever. A store with a handful of honest reviews, a clear returns page and a welcome email will usually convert better than one with ten apps and no proof that anyone has bought before.
Your first 100 orders
Now you've got proof that people will buy. The job shifts to getting more from each visitor and each order.
- Upsells and bundles. Why: Shopify's own Bundles app lets you sell fixed product sets, ReConvert adds offers to the thank-you page after someone's paid, and Frequently Bought Together suggests add-ons on the product page. Pick one approach to start, not all three.
- Abandoned checkout flows. Why: Shopify has abandoned checkout emails built in, so switch them on first. If you're on Klaviyo, its flows let you send a short series with different timing and content.
- SEO apps. Why: Plug in SEO, or a similar checker, scans your titles, meta descriptions and broken links so you can fix the basics without hiring anyone. Shopify's own SEO fields still do the main job.
- Product feeds for Google. Why: Shopify's Google and YouTube app sends your products to Google Merchant Center, which is how you show up in free product listings and Shopping ads.
If you sell print on demand products, your fulfilment app matters as much as any of these, so read my guide on how to choose a print on demand app for Shopify before you commit. And before you judge any of these apps, know your baseline: here's what counts as a good conversion rate for a Shopify store.
When you're growing
At this point you've got repeat customers, more support emails and stock that's harder to keep track of. These apps earn their place when the manual way starts to cost you hours every week.
- Recharge. Why: it's one of the longest-standing subscription apps on Shopify, built for replenishment products like coffee, skincare and pet food.
- Appstle Subscriptions. Why: a popular alternative to Recharge with a wide feature set, worth comparing if subscriptions are a smaller part of your range.
- Smile.io. Why: it runs points, referral rewards and VIP tiers, so your best customers have a reason to come back and bring friends.
- Gorgias. Why: it pulls Shopify order details into every support ticket and puts email, chat and social messages in one inbox, so you can answer 'where's my order?' without switching tabs.
- Inventory planning. Why: once you're reordering from several suppliers, a forecasting tool such as Inventory Planner helps you avoid both stockouts and cash tied up in slow sellers. Until then, Shopify's built-in inventory is enough.
If you're thinking about paying creators or affiliates to promote your store, that's another app category, and I've covered ecommerce affiliate software separately.
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Apps I'd avoid stacking
Every app you add can load its own scripts on your storefront. One or two won't hurt. A dozen, all loading on every page, will slow your store down, and slow stores lose sales, especially on mobile.
- Two apps doing the same job. Two review apps, two pop-up tools or two upsell apps fight each other and double the code. Choose one.
- Apps you installed to try. If you haven't used it in a month, uninstall it.
- Leftover code. Some apps leave snippets in your theme after you uninstall them. Check the app's own removal instructions, and if your theme still looks odd or loads slowly, ask the developer or a Shopify expert to clean it up.
- Unchecked speed. Check Shopify's web performance report in your admin, or run your homepage and a product page through PageSpeed Insights, before and after each new app.
One habit that saves a lot of pain: duplicate your live theme before installing anything that changes how your store looks. If something breaks, you can switch back in a minute.
Frequently asked questions
How many apps should a small Shopify store have?
There's no fixed number. Start with the few that solve a problem you have today, usually reviews and email, and add more only when a gap starts costing you sales.
Are free Shopify apps any good?
Many are. Judge.me and Shopify Email both have free options that suit a new store. Check the current plan limits before you rely on one.
Do Shopify apps slow down my store?
Some do, because many apps load extra scripts on your storefront. Test your speed before and after installing, and remove apps you no longer use.
What should I install first on a new Shopify store?
A reviews app and an email tool. Reviews build trust with new visitors, and email lets you follow up with people who don't buy straight away.
