Custom Shopify App Development Cost:

How Shopify Developers Determine the Price for Custom Apps

Many Shopify store owners come to Whidegroup when standard platform features or ready-made apps are no longer enough for their business needs. And almost every custom app development request starts with the same question: how much will it cost?

The thing is, in practice it is almost impossible to give a precise cost estimate for the development of a custom app before we know all the details of the project needs. To bridge the cost estimation gap, we decided to create this detailed guide for estimating the development time and cost that you should expect when addressing Shopify development companies. Continue reading and you will learn:

• Factors affecting the cost of custom apps
• App cost calculation methods
• Stages of Shopify custom app development
• An approximate estimate of the time required for an app to be completed

And, of course, we will help you get an idea of the final Shopify app development cost to expect.

Note that in this guide, “custom app” means a bespoke app built for your specific needs, regardless of how it’s distributed. Shopify’s own “public” and “custom” distribution methods are explained in the section What type of a Shopify app do you need?

What Factors Determine the Cost of Shopify App Development

Before telling the client how much a custom Shopify app will cost, it is necessary to clarify the maximum number of requirements to the future app. In the case of Shopify apps, there are several factors that directly affect the final cost which we try to figure out first.

The functionality of an app

The more complex the functionality of a future app, the more it will cost you.

If you want to develop one simple function, like a product filter or add a customer feedback form to your store, usually, it won’t cost you a fortune. At the same time, though, these simple features are usually already available in the Shopify App store for you to add on. You can also check our two-part Top Shopify apps compilation, where we gathered only the best apps that will help you meet almost any need.

If we talk about the cost to develop a more complex custom functionality, it’s quite reasonable that it is going to be higher than the cost of an add-on app. So how do we actually determine the future cost of a Shopify app to give an estimation that is as precise as possible?

What type of a Shopify app do you need?

When talking about the type of a Shopify app, we do not mean its features or the ecommerce niche it serves — we mean the app’s purpose and who will be able to install it. 

Are you building an app for one or several stores that belong to the same company? Or do you have an idea you want to share with all Shopify merchants? The answer defines your app’s distribution method: public or custom. You select one in the Dev Dashboard, and it can’t be changed afterward.

Public Shopify Apps

Public Shopify apps are built for use by different businesses and distributed through the Shopify App Store. For example, you could develop a product review app that merchants install and use in their own stores. Public distribution is suitable if you want to offer your app to a wider market.

The app’s listing can have either of two visibility settings:

• Full visibility: merchants can find the app through App Store search and category pages.
• Limited visibility: the app does not appear in App Store search or categories. Merchants access the page through a direct link and install it from there.

Custom Apps

Custom Shopify apps are built specifically for one business. For example, you could develop an app that connects your store to your company’s inventory management system and follows your internal stock update rules.

A custom app is available only to a single Shopify store or multiple stores within the same Shopify Plus organization and is not listed in the Shopify App Store.

Who will be engaged in the development of a custom Shopify app?

In fact, this stage determines not only the final cost of a project, but also the quality of the final product. In general, there are three options for organizing the development process:

• Collaborate with a Shopify development team
• Work with a freelance developer
• Build an app yourself

How do these options differ? Let’s take a look at each of them separately.

When should you hire a Shopify app development company?

Most often, in order to hire a close-knit team of developers, you will have to find a development company that has decent experience in Shopify app development.

Why a company? Let’s take a look at the main benefits of such collaboration:

• Companies usually provide comprehensive services. The result of this collaboration is a completely tested product that is ready to be installed and used.
• You will communicate directly with the project manager, not the developer. If you are not tech-savvy, the project manager is the one who eliminates all inconveniences and conveys the info from you to developers and back.
• Specialists working in Shopify development companies always have deeper expertise and more experience in this area.
• In most cases, cooperation with a company protects you from unforeseen situations and missed deadlines. For example, if you hired a freelancer, but for some reason they can’t continue working on your project, further work stops for an undefined period. In development companies such situations have contingency plans in place.

Is working with freelancers right for you?

Today, using freelance services is just as popular as working with companies. A business will often choose a freelancer because:

• You can save a lot of money by coordinating the process of a Shopify app development independently, and don’t have to pay extra for the project manager’s services.
• You will communicate with the specialist directly, without intermediaries.
• Some freelancers are ready to work on weekends and holidays, which means that even at the height of the vacation season and winter holidays you can count on active work on your tasks.

However, there is another side of the coin. Depending on the technical requirements and overall complexity of your future Shopify app, you may need to hire one to five freelancers (designer, developers, etc.) to create your development team. In order to develop a quality product, specialists working on the project need to communicate with each other. This means that you will have to first find and hire every freelancer, and later establish contact between them potentially being the go-between and having to understand the technical aspects to communicate.

If you hire specialists from different countries, mutual understanding between them can turn problematic for many reasons. Accordingly, there is a risk of misunderstandings between remote employees and other issues like language barrier or work schedules that will negatively affect the quality of the final product.

Can you manage the Shopify app development yourself?

If you answer “Yes”, this only means that you do not need this guide. Having enough knowledge about the intricacies of the Shopify app development and, of course, practice, you can start the development right away and without third-party assistance. Here is your answer to the main question of this article, namely “how much does it cost to build a Shopify app?”. For you, it will account to 0. Instead, you may be interested in reading our definitive guide on how to create a custom Shopify theme.

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How Shopify App Development Pricing is Usually Formed

Generally, there are two ways to calculate the costs of web development: fixed price and time and material.

Fixed price model is applicable to projects with a clear or default functionality. These are the projects that have:

• A clear technical task
• No, or almost no, custom logics
• Minimal risks associated with a change in the project requirements

This option is often a good idea for startups and small scale projects.

It is important to note that nobody needs to develop an app with default functionality anymore. Such apps are already available either with Shopify out-of-the-box features or in the Shopify App Store. So every quote request we receive from potential clients concerns the development of complex solutions and needs to be individually researched and estimated.

That is why Whidegroup uses the Time & Material pricing model for all our projects. We know that it is simply impossible to precisely estimate the cost of a Shopify app development without having a clear technical task, which can be compiled only after a thorough interview with the client. Based on the detailed technical task, we can estimate the time (in hours) needed for the development and implementation of the requested app.

What are the Stages of a Shopify App Development Process

The Shopify app development process usually includes five stages. The number of stages mainly depends on the project requirements, which become clear after the initial interview.

Stage 1: Discovery

After the initial interview, our major task is conducting a deep analysis of the market and the client’s niche. As the result of the research we:

• Define the scope of a project
• Evaluate the competition in the niche market
• Map a user journey
• Choose a technology stack
• Give an even more precise time & cost estimation for a project
• And map our further steps

This stage usually takes up to 40 hours.

Stage 2: Design

An app design is not just about the way users will see your app. It is more about the way they will interact with it. The greater the user experience your app provides, the more likely it will succeed.

There are two steps of a Shopify app design creation – wireframing and prototyping:

• Wireframe represents the future structure and layout of the app. With its help you can understand the placement of elements and the functionality visible from the website front and back.
• Prototype is made to simulate user interaction with the app. It is a high-fidelity wireframe that looks and works almost like a finished app.

Rare apps don’t need a design. Such features are integrated into the website backend and do not require a store manager or a customer to directly interact with it. All other apps always require a visual part either on the website’s fron-tend, or back-end, or both of it, depending on who is the end user.

Stage 3: Development

Now that the app’s design is ready, we start working on the custom logics development. Again, depending on the app functionality, the development process might look different and take more or less time to be completed.

In the next section we will show an example of how much time the development of two different Shopify custom apps might take, from our own experience.

Stage 4: Testing

Testing is vital, as you know. Different teams can have different approaches to quality assurance on their projects. As for Whidegroup, to verify that every aspect of the developed Shopify app works properly and actually performs expected functionality, our QA specialists thoroughly test the app at every stage of development.

In general, there are two types of testing we perform for every custom Shopify app:

• Functional testing. This stage allows us to test the app’s features, validate that it is functional, usable and reliable, and report bugs.
• Non-functional testing. These are usability tests, the goal of which is to make sure that the app provides an effective interaction design for its users.

After the final tests are performed, we are ready to submit and launch a new app.

How do you launch your Shopify app?

Once development and testing are complete, the next steps depend on your app’s distribution method:

• For a public app, you create an App Store listing, ensure the app meets Shopify’s requirements, and submit it for review. The Shopify App Review team must approve the app before publishing.
• A custom app doesn’t require App Store review. You generate an install link in the Dev Dashboard and send it to the store owner who installs the app.

Regardless of the distribution method, every Shopify app must:

• Be properly configured
• Meet the functional and quality expectations
• Be secure
• Provide the support for further improvements and maintenance
• Offer customer support

Done? Congratulations. You now have your new Shopify feature ready for installation and use.

How Whidegroup Estimates the Time and Cost for a Custom Shopify App Development

As we’ve already mentioned, it is nearly impossible to estimate the time required to build a custom Shopify app before exploring all requirements to the future functionality. However, we’ll try to uncover time and price estimation peculiarities based on our own experience.

Lately, we’ve developed two totally different Shopify apps.

1. The first one is Census – a public survey app, which helps merchants to get valuable feedback from customers with the help of surveys, conducted after the purchase is complete. All surveys can be created right from the Shopify admin panel. A merchant defines the number and the order of questions to be asked. Right after the checkout, the customer is asked different questions depending on the product SKUs they’ve added to the cart and purchased. The discovery stage took us 30 hours to complete. For the design, development, and testing we spent about 130 hours. Consequently, the whole process from the first interaction with the client and until the app was submitted to the Shopify App Store took no more than 160 hours.

2. The second one is a public unlisted app made with several specific stores in mind and supposed to serve as a kind of out-of-stock tracker. The tracker is strongly tied to Shopify. Once a day, it is tracking all the products in-stock and compares the result to a previous day. So, the merchants have fresh data on their stock every day. The time spent for development of this app was less than the survey app. Whidegroup team spent 20 hours for the discovery and analysis, and about 95 hours for the development, testing, and implementation for a total of 115 hours.

Of course, the apps mentioned were not too complex to implement and didn’t have a long list of required functions so the hours spent in development reflected as such. Our portfolio also includes several, more complex, successfully developed apps, so we know that some high-level custom Shopify apps can take from 2,000 to even 20,000 hours to be developed, as well as discussing the alpha/beta version of the final product.

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So, How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Custom Shopify App?

After reading this article, you know that the cost to develop a custom Shopify app mostly depends on the time required for its development.

When searching for the Shopify app development team to assist you in the project, you’ll find out that their rates can differ significantly.

Generally, the rates for Shopify app development services start at $25/hr, and can reach as high as $200/hr. It usually depends on the professional qualification and size of the company you choose. So, how much does it cost to build a custom Shopify app?

Final Thoughts

Estimating your Shopify app development cost starts with a clear scope. Define the features your app needs and the tasks it should handle. If you plan to offer the app to other merchants, research competing tools to understand where yours could offer something different.

When choosing a development partner, look beyond hourly rates and location. Ask about similar projects the vendor has delivered and request a detailed estimate. Compare proposals from several agencies, paying attention to what each covers and which work could incur additional costs.

Need help planning your Shopify app? Send us an email or get in touch through our contact form to discuss your requirements with the Whidegroup team.