DorrisTo audit your Shopify app subscriptions, list every app you pay for from your card statements, write down what each one does and costs per month, total the month and the year, then mark each one keep, replace or build. Rule of thumb: under about $100 a month, keep what you have. At $200 or more, price replacing the ones that only show your own data. The worksheet does the adding up.
Step 1: find every charge
Open twelve months of card and bank statements and look for recurring charges, not only app-store ones. Some tools bill outside Shopify, and some bill yearly, so a monthly view misses them. Also look at the apps installed in your store admin; an app you stopped using may still be billing.
Step 2: write one line per tool
For each: its name, what it does for you in a few words, what it costs per month (divide yearly charges by twelve), and whether you used it this month.
Step 3: total it
Add the monthly column and multiply by twelve. If you're honest and the number surprises you, you've found the reason to do this.
While you add them up, mark any two apps that do the same job, and any app where you only use one feature, and note the last time you opened each. Those are the first ones to look at.
Step 4: sort each tool into one of four kinds
- My own data. A support inbox, reports, invoices, a spreadsheet feed. It reads your orders and customers and shows them back. These are the best candidates to replace with something you own.
- Acts for me. It sends emails or texts, moves money or changes orders on its own. Replace these later, with more checking.
- Tied to another system. For example a feed to a retailer. Keep these until you have a reason to change.
- Faces customers. It runs on your storefront, like a video widget or a blog. Change it carefully: customers see it if it breaks.
Step 5: decide
Mark each keep, replace or build. Start with the biggest line in the first group. For one worked example of a finished list, see what my own store paid.
The shortcut
To start with a list in front of you, print the free one-page checklist of 28 kinds of app. The app stack audit is this method as a spreadsheet: one row per tool, dropdowns for the kind and the decision, and the monthly and yearly totals done for you, with a filled-in example. If you'd rather have a second pair of eyes on your list, ask for a free teardown.
Or add your bills up with the free calculator.
Want it built for you? Book a demo.
Tim Haines