E-commerce · · 3 min read
Shopify apps worth paying for — and the ones to uninstall
The Shopify App Store has over 10,000 apps. Most of them slow your store down and deliver marginal value. Here's an honest evaluation of the apps that actually move metrics.
By Mediseo
Every Shopify app you install adds to your page load time. Some add 50 milliseconds. Some add 500. A store with fifteen apps, each adding a small delay, can end up 3–4 seconds slower than a comparable store with minimal app footprint.
Page speed affects conversion rate directly — about 7% conversion drop per additional second of load time. So the question for every app isn't just "does this do something useful?" It's "does the value it delivers outweigh the conversion cost of its JavaScript footprint?"
With that framing, here are categories worth paying for and ones to cut.
Apps worth paying for
Review apps: Okendo or Loox. Social proof is one of the highest-impact conversion elements on product pages. A review app that displays verified reviews, supports review photos, and can surface reviews on product pages, cart pages, and in ads is genuinely valuable. Okendo is more powerful (loyalty integration, attributes-based review filtering); Loox is simpler and produces better visual results for image-forward brands. Don't use Judge.me if you care about customisation.
Email + SMS: Klaviyo. For e-commerce, Klaviyo's integration with Shopify — abandoned cart flows, post-purchase sequences, browse abandonment, welcome series — is the most powerful email/SMS automation stack available. The ROI on a well-built Klaviyo setup typically exceeds any other single marketing investment. The cost scales with your list, but it's justified for stores with any real volume.
Subscription billing: Recharge or Skio. If you sell consumables, products people reorder, or anything with a logical subscription model, a subscription app is worth adding. Subscriptions dramatically increase LTV and reduce acquisition cost per order. Skio is the newer option with a cleaner UX; Recharge is more established with more integrations.
Loyalty and retention: Smile.io. A points and rewards program increases repeat purchase rate — the metric most directly tied to sustainable e-commerce profitability. Smile is well-integrated, has a usable free tier, and the paid tier ROI is clear when you have enough repeat buyers.
Upsell and cross-sell: ReConvert. Post-purchase upsell offers on the thank-you page have zero checkout abandonment risk (the purchase is already done) and high conversion rates. ReConvert handles this well and is one of the cleaner implementations.
Apps to be cautious about
Chatbots and support widgets. These are often the heaviest apps on a store's page weight. If you have a support team that actually uses live chat, they may be justified. If the chatbot just answers three FAQs, a well-placed FAQ section on your product pages and a clear email address achieves the same outcome with zero load cost.
Countdown timers and urgency apps. These can work for genuine scarcity (a sale that actually ends, a limited stock product). Fake urgency that resets after the timer ends has been documented to reduce conversion in some segments — sophisticated buyers distrust it. Use these only when the urgency is real.
Multiple apps that do the same thing. A common bloat pattern: the store has Klaviyo for email, plus a separate popup app, plus a separate form app, plus a separate upsell app — when Klaviyo handles all of those things natively. Audit for redundancy.
Apps you installed and never set up properly. Installation doesn't count as using an app. An app sitting on your store with no configured flows or automations is just load time. Uninstall it.
The audit process
Once a quarter:
- Go to Apps → All apps in Shopify admin
- For each app: what does it do, is it actively used, is there someone responsible for it, when was it last reviewed?
- Run a speed test before and after uninstalling unused apps (use Shopify's built-in Speed Report plus PageSpeed Insights)
- Kill anything you can't justify clearly
A clean app footprint is infrastructure. Stores that run fast and convert well are usually stores that are deliberate about what they install.
We help Shopify stores with technical performance and conversion rate optimisation as part of our e-commerce service. If your store is slow or you want a fresh audit of what's installed and what it's costing you, book a call.