Custom Shopify App Development for UK Brands

A custom app is built for your store alone. It is not listed on the Shopify App Store, it does not go through public app review, and it does only what you need it to do. You need one when the business does something specific that no existing app handles properly, or when you are paying several subscriptions and still exporting spreadsheets to make them work together. If an off-the-shelf app genuinely covers the job, we will say so on the scoping call.

Every build starts with a free scoping call and a fixed-price quote sized to the work, delivered within 48 hours of the call. No hourly rates, no scope-creep invoices, you know the budget before any code is written. Cost is driven mostly by how many external systems are involved and how well documented their APIs are. A self-contained Function or a single admin extension is a small piece of work. A two-way ERP integration with reconciliation and error handling is not.

Four to eight weeks from kickoff to launch for most custom apps. Self-contained work such as a discount Function or a checkout extension lands at the shorter end. Anything syncing two ways with an ERP, a warehouse system or an ePOS lands at the longer end, because the integration testing is the bulk of the job. Public App Store apps run longer because of the review process. The timeline goes into the quote.

Often, yes, and it is one of the more common reasons brands call us. Several overlapping subscriptions, each doing part of a job, with monthly costs that have quietly grown. We audit what is installed, what it actually does and what it costs annually, then tell you honestly which ones are worth keeping. Consolidation is only worth doing when the numbers work, and sometimes they do not.

Yes. The repository is yours, handed to your team or your next developer on request, with documentation written for that handover from the start rather than assembled at the end of a relationship. No proprietary framework, no agency-owned licence, nothing you would have to rebuild if you moved on. Ongoing support is an optional retainer, not a condition of getting your own code.

It depends on the type. Shopify Functions and checkout UI extensions run on Shopify's infrastructure, so there is nothing to host. Embedded apps that need a server, a database or scheduled jobs run on hosting we set up, typically a managed platform sized to the workload, and it can sit in your own account so you are never locked to ours. Running costs are set out in the quote so there are no surprises after launch.

Yes, and this is the most common reason for a build. Stock levels, orders, customers, invoices and trade pricing moving between Shopify and the system of record, with retries, idempotency and logging so a failed sync is visible rather than silent. The scale of the job depends almost entirely on the other system. We review its API during scoping and tell you what we find before you commit.

Usually not. Custom apps, Functions, the Admin API and admin extensions are available across Shopify tiers. Plus matters for checkout UI extension depth, B2B at scale, multiple storefronts and higher API limits. If your requirement genuinely needs Plus we will say so, and if it does not we are not going to encourage an upgrade you do not need.

Often, yes. We start with a paid review of the code, the API version it targets and how it authenticates, then give you a written assessment of what it would take to maintain or extend it. Occasionally the honest answer is that a rebuild costs less than the repair, and you will get that in writing with the reasoning rather than as an assertion.

Shopify versions its APIs and retires older ones on a published schedule, so an app that is never touched will eventually break. On a support retainer we track version changes and migrate ahead of the deadlines. Without a retainer you still own the code and the documentation, and we will flag known upcoming changes at handover so nothing arrives as a surprise.