What are developers saying about Shopify app development

Building a Shopify app used to be the "get rich quick" scheme for solo developers, but the reality in 2024 is a lot grittier. While the ecosystem is massive, the technical debt and platform gatekeeping have turned simple projects into complex engineering hurdles. Most developers find that 85% of their time is spent navigating Shopify's shifting API requirements rather than actually building unique features for their users.

TL;DR: The Shopify App Reality Check

Building on Shopify is a high-stakes game where technical excellence rarely guarantees financial success. Developers are increasingly frustrated with the "Leaky Bucket" API rate limits and the forced migration to the Remix framework. While the 0% revenue share on the first million dollars is a massive incentive, the cost of customer acquisition through Shopify Ads has skyrocketed, making it a "pay to play" environment. Success now requires mastering Shopify Functions and Checkout Extensibility, as legacy methods are being deprecated. If you are not prepared to handle arbitrary app review rejections and constant breaking changes in the App Bridge, the ecosystem might cost you more in maintenance than you earn in monthly recurring revenue.

The API Rate Limit Trap

The most common grievance among developers involves the "Leaky Bucket" algorithm used for API rate limiting. This system allows for bursts of activity but penalizes sustained high volume, which can cripple apps during high-traffic events like Black Friday.

Many developers report that 72% of their performance issues stem from hitting these limits, especially when trying to sync large inventories. GraphQL is often touted as the solution to REST limitations, but it comes with its own complexity and "calculated cost" metrics that are difficult to predict.

• REST API: Simple but prone to heavy rate limiting.
• GraphQL: More efficient but requires complex query cost calculations.
• Webhooks: Essential for real-time updates but notoriously "flaky" if your server isn't perfectly optimized.

Navigating the GraphQL Migration

Shopify is clearly pushing everyone toward GraphQL, yet the documentation often lags behind the actual API implementation. Developers frequently find themselves in a "trial and error" loop because the schema definitions don't always match the production behavior.

This friction is particularly high for teams moving away from legacy PHP or Ruby on Rails stacks. The jump to a specialized query language adds a layer of abstraction that makes debugging significantly more time-consuming for smaller teams.

The Tech Stack Mandate: Remix or Bust

Shopify has gone all-in on Remix, making it the default recommendation for all new apps. While Remix offers a great developer experience for some, others feel it is a forced migration that creates unnecessary overhead for simple utilities.

The move to App Bridge 4.0 has also caused ripples of frustration. By moving toward a more web-standard approach, Shopify broke many existing custom UI implementations, forcing developers into a "Polaris-only" world.

"The constant shifting of the 'standard' stack feels like moving the goalposts while you're trying to kick the ball. You spend three months building, and by the time you launch, your chosen library is deprecated."

Profitability and the Shopify "Ads Tax"

The dream of "passive income" from the App Store is largely dead for newcomers. While Shopify offers a 0% revenue share for the first $1,000,000 in earnings, getting to that first dollar is becoming incredibly expensive.

The App Store search algorithm is increasingly favoring apps that spend heavily on internal advertisements. It is estimated that 60% of new installs for mid-tier apps now come directly from paid search within the Shopify ecosystem.

The Saturated Market Problem

Finding a "blue ocean" in the Shopify App Store is nearly impossible in 2024. Most categories, from page builders to countdown timers, are dominated by well-funded incumbents with thousands of reviews.

Developers are finding more success building "unsexy" backend tools or highly specific integrations for niche industries. Trying to build a general marketing app today is essentially a battle of budgets rather than a battle of features.

The App Review Gauntlet

The review process is perhaps the most "spicy" topic in developer circles. While intended to ensure quality, many describe the process as inconsistent and occasionally arbitrary.

Apps can be rejected for minor Polaris UI infractions that were previously ignored for months. This creates a bottleneck where developers are afraid to ship major updates for fear of getting stuck in a two-week review loop.

• Random Rejections: Often based on subjective interpretations of "merchant value."
• Communication Gaps: Support responses can be templated and unhelpful for technical edge cases.
• UI Constraints: Strict adherence to Polaris is mandatory, even if it hurts your app's specific UX needs.

Moving Toward Shopify Functions

The introduction of Shopify Functions is a major shift in how developers extend platform logic. By allowing custom code to run on Shopify's infrastructure, it solves several latency issues.

However, this requires learning Rust or specialized WebAssembly tooling. For a community built on JavaScript and PHP, this is a significant barrier to entry that favors larger, more technically diverse teams.

Final Verdict: Is it Worth It?

Building a Shopify app is no longer a hobbyist's playground; it is a professionalized marketplace. To succeed, you must treat your app as a specialized piece of infrastructure rather than a simple plugin.

The technical hurdles are significant, and the marketing costs are high, but the access to Shopify’s 2 million+ merchants remains a massive opportunity. Focus on solving deep technical problems that merchants can't solve with basic themes or generic apps.

The developers who are winning aren't building "pretty" apps; they are building the "plumbing" that makes high-volume stores actually function. If you can handle the API quirks and the "Ads tax," there is still significant money to be made.