DorrisMy tent company's Shopify store was paying about $2,270 a month for twelve app subscriptions, roughly $27,000 over twelve months. By my own worksheet estimates, the ones worth replacing with software you own are the ones that only show your own orders and customers back to you: the support inbox, reports, invoices and spreadsheet feeds.
Want your own figure? The app stack audit worksheet adds it up, $9 →
These are my figures from memory, not yet checked line by line against twelve months of statements. I'm showing the kind of tool, not the brand, and I'll say where I'm unsure.
The list
| Kind of tool | What it did for the store | Per month (my estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| Shoppable video widget | Video on the homepage and in stories | $600 |
| ERP | Pushed Amazon and other data into Google Sheets | $550 |
| Support inbox | All customer email in one place | $500 |
| Bundling app | Split bundles into single line items | $199 |
| A/B testing for page content | Tested headlines and layouts | $150 |
| Retailer order feed (EDI) | Connected Shopify to one big retailer | $100 |
| Blog app | Powered the blog | $33 |
| Invoicing app | Made invoices | $30 |
| Help centre app | Help articles | $30 |
| Report builder | Reports Shopify's own couldn't do | $30 |
| Events and tickets app | Ticket sales, and it took a cut per ticket | $30 |
| Discount tool | Discounts beyond Shopify's own | $20 |
Those twelve add up to about $2,272 a month, or $27,268 over twelve months. Two more, shipping software and back-in-stock emails, are not in the total because I can't yet quote their bills with confidence.
This exact list is the worked example in the worksheet, with a blank copy for yours. App stack audit, $9 →
That is a lot of software for one store, and a bigger bill than many small shops have: if you pay for only a few apps, your total will be far lower, and the sorting below still applies to whatever you pay.
On the home page I say about $4,000 a month. That is my own count across everything I stopped paying for. This table is only the part I've itemised so far, and I'm still adding to it, so the two numbers will move closer as I check more statements.
Which kinds are worth replacing
Not all of them. What I've found:
- Replace the ones that are a view of your own data. A support inbox, reports, invoices and a Google Sheets feed are your orders and customers shown the way you want. An AI coding agent can build these, and they start read-only, so they can't change your store.
- Be careful with anything that sends money or messages for you. Those can come later, with more checking. Start with reading.
- Keep the ones tied to another company's system, like a retailer's order feed, until you have a reason to change.
Which Shopify apps to keep and which to replace with Claude Code
Sorted by what the app does, not by brand. The "my bill" column is my own estimate from the list above, and only where I itemised one.
| Kind of app | Keep or replace | Why | My bill (estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payments and checkout | Keep | Handles card data and money; the processor's job, not a side project. | Not an app bill |
| Sales tax | Keep | Rates and rules change by place; someone else should track them. | Not itemised |
| Shipping labels and rates | Keep for now | Tied to carrier accounts. I haven't itemised mine, so no figure. | Not itemised |
| Product reviews | Keep | Reviews need to be collected, verified and shown in your theme. | Not itemised |
| Support inbox | Replace | It shows your own orders beside each customer's email. | $500 a month |
| Reports and spreadsheet feeds | Replace | Your own data, shown the way you want. | $30 report builder, $550 ERP feed |
| Bundles, simple upsells and discounts | Replace, once you know what you need | Rules you can write down in a sentence. | $199 bundling, $20 discount tool |
| Page tests | Replace if you only use a little | Often a few lines of theme code. | $150 A/B testing |
| Invoices and help articles | Replace | Built from your own orders and your own words. | $30 each |
Banners and size charts are the same kind of job: static content in your theme that an AI coding agent can write for you. I didn't pay for a banner or size chart app, so I have no number for them.
The same sorting, with three questions to ask of any app, is on can you replace Shopify apps with custom software?
If the biggest line on your list is a helpdesk, see a Shopify helpdesk alternative you build with Claude.
To add up your own bills, use the free app-cost calculator.
Worried about who fixes it? Who fixes a custom Shopify app when it breaks.
Reports and data feeds are the easiest to replace: a Shopify reports app alternative you own.
What it takes
An AI coding agent plan and somewhere to host the app. The first thing the Dorris kit builds is the support inbox, each customer's email next to their Shopify order, and setup takes under an hour. Each extra tool you ask your agent for takes longer. Current costs are on what you need.
Is it worth it for you?
My rule of thumb: if your app subscriptions total under about $100 a month, keep paying. If they run to several hundred, it's worth working out what replacing one would cost. For me the support inbox alone was $500 a month. Not for you if lists the cases where you should keep your money, and why pay does the sums. To add up your own, the App stack audit worksheet does the sums and sorting for you. If you'd like help sorting your own list, there's a short checklist, the step-by-step method, a side-by-side of renting or owning the support inbox, reports and invoices, and what running a store with an AI agent looks like. The case study shows what I built first.
Want it built for you? Book a demo.
Tim Haines