Your Shopify App Stack Is Quietly Eating Your Profit

Hey PH... something we don't talk about enough in ecommerce.

Just published: "Your Shopify App Stack Is Quietly Eating Your Profit"

Most merchants celebrate revenue growth and app installs.. but never do the reverse calculation.

The average Shopify store spends $200-$400/month on apps. Breaking down the 10 categories by typical cost:

- Reviews: $15-$99

- Email/SMS: $45-$350

- Upsells: $20-$50

- Shipping: $25-$100

- Pop-ups: $25-$75

- Returns: $30-$100

- Analytics: $0-$399

- Page builder: $25-$100

- SEO: $20-$40

- Other: $20-$80

Total potential: $225-$1,393/month.

The article covers 3 types of app waste (forgotten, overlapping, "just in case"), a 15-minute monthly audit you can do right now, and the profit waterfall example showing how $150/month in saved app costs = $1,800/year in pure profit... which, at 10% margin, is equivalent to $18,000 in extra product sales.

The free Shopify built-in alternatives section was a surprise to write. A lot of what we pay subscription fees for is already included in Shopify 2025+.

Read it here: https://okiela.io/blog/shopify-apps-subscription-stacking-killing-profit

Question for the community: what's the most useful free Shopify built-in you discovered after cancelling a paid app?