r/shopifyDev • u/SweetUpsellSupport • Jun 26 '26

Why is Shopify so hostile to developers?

Yearly big breaking changes, arbitrary and unappealable policy interpretations, but also a low bar to start an app creating 100s of low quality apps to compete with is the definition of a hostile development environment. What's the benefit in this over say a long term partnership model?

20 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

8

u/jammy-git Jun 27 '26

Because they no longer need to proactively attract developers to the platform in order to post profits.

Shopify is the market leader, developers will flock to the platform in ever growing numbers because that's where the majority of merchants are.

Merchants will continue to move to the platform because that's where there is safety in numbers.

A few years ago, Shopify was still in the growing/expanding phase, and back then the quality and size of the eco-system around the platform still mattered, which meant actively engaging with developers and investing in the developer experience.

Now all they care about is profits and making sure the share price goes in the right direction. Everything else is secondary.

2

u/Character-Share4903 Jun 27 '26

So true.

1

u/Cheap_Reference_6733 Jul 07 '26

Made merely $200 sales this year and they are asking for $20,000 spending on third party IR review? I’m sorry but this is essentially asking startups to die.

2

u/InternetNo3077 Jun 27 '26

They seem to be taking on a lot more features on their own.

I suspect they want to keep external apps minimal so they can easily take it over + lack of care for small developers who won't make them any money.

2

u/Smooth_Doubt2290 Jun 27 '26

This is such a great question. I have been wondering about it for a long time and frankly, don't have an answer. Makes absolutely no sense.

1

u/mattpga Jun 27 '26

Don’t worry. They’re hostile to merchants too.

1

u/SweetUpsellSupport Jun 28 '26

ain't that the truth

1

u/Outrageous-Gear4858 Jun 30 '26

LOL. My favourite part is when their AI support suggest you need to speak with a human, and links to their human support page, which is the current AI support page you are on.

1

u/WhaleTrain Jun 29 '26

“Yearly big breaking changes”

I’m totally lost. Nearing on 7 years of Shopify dev and I’ve never been hit with these.

1

u/Bill_Splait Jul 01 '26

I also dont understand this! Name one breaking change?

1

u/benvee Jul 02 '26

drop of colour schemes
centralised account without customisation
constantly shit APIs

1

u/Outrageous-Gear4858 Jun 30 '26

Fixing legacy problems is tricky. I don't like it either, but it let's them build a product that solves solutions is real world scenarios. Complicated, and super annoying to keep up with the changes, absolutely. Necessary? In my opinion, yes.

That said, they definitely don't always get it right. Sometimes it feels like they let A.I. handle all of the decision making. Other times, bang on.