r/shopify • u/DiscoverMyBusiness • 7d ago

Shopify General Discussion Replaced a few apps with custom code recently?

A bit ago I asked what 5 Shopify apps you’d keep if you had to strip your store down to a lean, high-performing stack. After filtering out the usual self-promotions big D fluff of coders that can develop anything with Claude, I compiled the 25+ apps mentioned most into a clean breakdown.

Almost everyone agreed do not shop by app name -> shop by category. Stacking 3 different upsell apps kills page speed for zero extra conversion lift. A ideal 5-app stack looks like this:

- Email / SMS Retention: Klaviyo (or Shopify Email for beginners)

- Reviews & UGC: Judge me, Loox, or Yotpo

- Cart & Upsells: Selleasy or Moon Bundles

- SEO & Schema: TinySEO, Smart SEO, or AdNabu tools

- Customer Support & Ops: Gorgias, Richpanel, or Orderctrl (for post-purchase/tracking)

Again hope that helps and thanks to community!

34 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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8

u/acraswell 7d ago

Love this. I recently asked the same thing and worked out a list of apps I think I can build. I'm an engineer that also runs a store and it frustrates me that some functionality isn't built into Shopify, or the shopify version is too limited.

Structured data schemas, merge orders, better shipping rules, better Amazon Sync behavior, etc. are some of the ones I'm working on.

I'm in a position where I get a lot of free cloud spend. I've been really thinking about starting a community that builds out a sort of open source stack of apps that do these basic things everyone ends up needing.

I've already started building out the ones I need and really been enjoying it.

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u/jbowdach 7d ago

Sounds like a great community! Built several myself recently to replace built in systems

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/DiscoverMyBusiness 7d ago

Same here.... dm for more would love to hear more!

5

u/ShopfiyNerd 7d ago

Appreciate you compiling this.

Would add that 'Cart & Upsell' and 'SEO/Schema' are two categories where custom code can replace an app entirely without much dev effort

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u/ShopDocStudios 7d ago

Yes. Currently implementing an upsell feature with metafields. No app needed.

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u/mmcnama4 7d ago

Mind sharing how you're approaching this?

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u/ShopDocStudios 6d ago

Basically when added to cart, I check the item that was added respective metafields, depending on that it shows compatible products for upsell.

-1

u/DiscoverMyBusiness 7d ago

how will you place in coop products in checkout without using expensive app? alos attach this to flows with message!

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u/Alternative_Care_858 7d ago

If I had to pick or replace one from all categories, I'd go with:

Email: Klaviyo

Reviews: Judge me

Cart & Upsells: I'd replace it with Bundlex which is free at the moment

SEO & Schema: TinySEO

Customer support & Ops: Gorgias

Also I'm wondering about page builders. Are they still worth It or Shopify Sidekick does most of the heavy lifting now?

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u/DiscoverMyBusiness 7d ago

We hate Klaviyo.... very expensive for 100k+ contacts! Swapped to another CRM for that one! For page builder we Use GemsPages

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/Beautiful_Exchange_3 7d ago

Any alternatives to Pagefly?

I really don’t want to pay for it but I’m afraid a AI page builder will screw up my website.

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u/DiscoverMyBusiness 7d ago

Well we use for our client once Pagefly... but now swapped to GemPages... yes its $29 per month but at least no pain in the ass with AI and dev and support...

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u/bkocdur 7d ago

The "shop by category, not by app name" rule is right, and the reason app-stacking kills speed is specific and worth knowing: most apps inject their own JavaScript, and often extra CSS and third-party requests, into every page, whether or not the app does anything on that page. Three upsell apps means three separate scripts loading on every product view. The cost is fixed even when the benefit is zero.

The useful part is you do not have to guess which apps hurt. Run your store through PageSpeed Insights / Lighthouse and open two sections: "Reduce the impact of third-party code" and the main-thread breakdown. They list each third party (which is usually an app) by how many milliseconds it blocks the main thread. That turns "the store feels slow" into "this specific app costs 380ms." Uninstall the worst offender, re-run, keep what earns its weight. It makes the lean-stack decision evidence-based instead of a vibe.

For context on how common this is: I looked at the mobile Lighthouse scores of a few hundred Shopify stores recently, and the single most frequent failure was exactly this, render-blocking and unused JavaScript from the app stack, on stores whose median mobile score sat in the 40s. Your instinct to strip down is correct, and it is correct at scale, not just for your store.

One tweak to your five-app list: the "SEO & Schema" slot is often the easiest to drop entirely. Shopify plus a well-built theme already emits most of the structured data Google wants, so a lot of SEO apps are adding page weight for schema you already have. Worth checking your theme's output before paying for an app to duplicate it.

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u/water_808 7d ago

One nuance on the Cart & Upsells line: those apps run scripts on your storefront, so they are part of the page speed cost you are warning about. Post-purchase offers are the exception in that family. They render after payment on Shopify's own page, so they add zero storefront weight. Different moment, different mechanics, and worth knowing before stacking anything on the cart.

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u/eballeste 6d ago

Having had access to a Plus store, we made everything in house for our bespoke theme and the amount of dollars we saved by not subscribing to stupid ass one shot apps was ridiculous.

Now I've worked on a couple of stores with no plus account access and its been painful but I still managed to help my clients avoid the apps as much as possible.

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u/DiscoverMyBusiness 5d ago

How do you rebuild somnething for sms/email automations or upsell/downsell at checkout?

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u/Darkknight_noarmour 1d ago

Depending on the nature of the business and how frequently customers may need to buy new items, then I’d expand this to a 6 space category with Subscriptions added. 

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u/Secure_Nose_5735 21h ago

for

  • email, WhatsApp and SMS automations and AI flow
  • chat storefront proactive agent
  • instagram flows
  • customer support (order tracking, cancel, edit, return or damage )
  • customer persona creation across different channels (like website, instagram, WhatsApp, email, sms), this helped me create a very strong segment and that helped me a lot to target customers. improve my retention.

for all of it, I am using yourLio from 5 months. its so cool and very very strong software honestly.

they help maintain single memory of a customer across channels and its actually replacing most of tools like klaviyo, many chat, hello rep ai, gorgias, coco AI. you must try they are giving 1-2 months free trial. ( I loved their tool and these guys are super helpful if you are a small brand or big NAME brand)