About custom apps

Retired Boards Appdev Partners Discussion

Topic summary

Goal: Build an AWS-hosted program that automates data updates for several acquaintances’ Shopify stores, reusing the same core code but with per-store configs. The plan is to register a custom app for each shop since no existing public app fits.

Policy context: Shopify API Terms state custom/private apps cannot be made available to or installed by more than one merchant (a merchant can have multiple stores). Custom/private = single-merchant apps; public = installable by multiple stores/merchants.

Key reply and guidance:

  • For multi-store or multi-merchant use, create a public app. Using custom/private apps is restricted to one merchant; using them across multiple merchants would violate terms.
  • Workaround: create a separate custom/private app per store, but this becomes hard to manage and update at scale.
  • Clarifying prompt: Why not build a public app?

Outcome/status: No decision from the original poster yet. The recommendation leans toward a public app for multi-merchant deployment; managing many per-store custom apps is discouraged due to maintenance overhead.

Summarized with AI on February 10. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Thank you for your help.

I would like to create a program that automatically updates the data of a shop operated by an acquaintance with the Shopify API, and provide a service to improve work efficiency for my acquaintance.
(I get paid)

Since I have several acquaintances, I would like to use the same program for multiple shops (settings, databases, and batches are different for each shop, but I plan to use the same program for core functions) to provide services. We are here.
(Assuming the program will be deployed on my AWS server and serve multiple shops from there)

In this case, there is no problem with registering a custom application for each shop and calling the API, right?

By the way, I couldn’t find an app that perfectly matches the existing public apps, so I’m trying to create one myself. Therefore, we would like to respond with a custom application instead of a public application.

The reason why I am asking this kind of question is because there was the following description in the terms of service of Shopify’s API.

https://www.shopify.com/legal/api-terms

not make Custom Applications or Private Applications available to or for use by more than one Merchant. For the avoidance of doubt, this means that Custom Applications and Private Applications may not be installed by more than one Merchant. For clarity, a Merchant may have more than one Merchant Store.

2

Shopify terms and conditions requires that custom/private apps are used ONLY by one store. If you want your app to be used by multiple stores/merchants - you then need to create a public app.

An alternative to this rule (and depending on how many users you are expecting to have) will be to create multiple Apps each for a single store. It can quickly become a bloody nightmare to manage and do updates it’s probably not worthy it.

Why you don’t want to create a public app?