What Apps We Actually Use to Run Dozens of Shopify Stores

"What apps should I use on my Shopify store?" is a question we hear all the time. Leighton and Patrick break down how to decide between a Shopify app and custom development, the trade-offs of each, and the apps they install on almost every store, from reviews and subscriptions to CRO, SEO, and indexing. Links Mentioned Shopify Search & Discovery: https://apps.shopify.com/search-and-discovery Judge.me Product Reviews: https://apps.shopify.com/judgeme Microsoft Clarity: https://apps.shopify.com/microsoft-clarity Matrixify: https://apps.shopify.com/excel-export-import Ilana's JSON-LD for SEO: https://apps.shopify.com/json-ld-for-seo Frequently Bought Together (CBB): https://apps.shopify.com/frequently-bought-together Rebuy Personalization Engine: https://apps.shopify.com/rebuy Awtomic Subscriptions: https://apps.shopify.com/awtomic InstaIndex: IndexNow for Bing: https://apps.shopify.com/instaindex AI image alt text app: [URL TO BE ADDED] Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:46 App vs Custom Question 3:02 The Three App Categories 5:57 Must-Have Review Apps 10:03 App vs Custom Trade-offs 16:33 Theme Updates & Maintenance 18:36 Reviews & Subscription Apps 21:22 Should You Build Your Own? 23:09 Microsoft Clarity Deep Dive 30:31 Matrixify & JSON-LD SEO 31:52 Bought Together & Rebuy 36:21 Apps That Hijack Collections 38:46 SEO Apps & Bing IndexNow 44:00 AI Alt Text & Sitemaps 45:25 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.