Hi everyone,
I’m currently working on a Shopify store and I’ve been testing different apps for things like reviews, upsells, and product recommendations.
One thing I’ve noticed is that it’s easy to install too many apps without realizing how much they can add to the store.
How do you guys decide whether an app is actually worth keeping? Do you mainly look at its features, store performance, or whether it’s bringing any real value?
Hi @big-bulk-discount Welcome To Shopify Community So The Store performance is usually the deciding factor for me, more than features. An app can have great features but if it’s adding noticeable load time or script weight, that cost applies on every single page load for every visitor, whether or not that visitor ever interacts with the feature. A quick way to check: look at your theme’s speed report before and after installing a new app, if there’s a measurable drop, that app needs to prove it’s worth that tradeoff.
For “worth keeping,” I look at actual usage data rather than assuming a feature is valuable, most review/upsell apps have some kind of dashboard showing impressions vs conversions. If an app has been installed for a month and the numbers show barely anyone is interacting with it, it’s not adding real value regardless of how good the feature sounds on paper, and it’s still costing you performance for nothing.
The other filter: does removing this app change customer behavior, or does it just remove a nice-to-have? Reviews and social proof tend to genuinely move conversion, a lot of “recommendation” or “upsell” apps end up being redundant with what a well-built theme section could already do natively, in which case the app isn’t earning its performance cost. Hope this helps, and if it does, don’t forget to like and mark it as the solution. Thank you!
Welcome to the community! 
One thing I’d add is: how much attention does the app require from me after installation?
For me, a useful app should either create measurable value or remove recurring work or risk.
So I’d ask:
What concrete job is this app doing today?
Would I actually notice if I removed it tomorrow?
Does Shopify now cover the same need natively?
What does it cost beyond the subscription — performance, maintenance, another dashboard to check, additional dependencies?
Does it reduce things I need to worry about, or does it give me one more thing to monitor?
I think the last point is often underrated.
An app that I rarely open can still be extremely valuable if the reason I rarely open it is that it quietly does its job and only needs my attention when something is wrong.
So I wouldn’t use “how often do I use/open this app?” as the main criterion. I’d rather ask: What would I have to do myself, or what could I miss, if this app wasn’t there?
If I can’t give a good answer to that, I’d probably question whether I still need it.
That’s a really good point. I hadn’t thought much about the maintenance side of an app. I usually focus more on the features and performance, but the question of what would actually happen if the app was removed makes a lot of sense.
Do you think you would still keep an app if it doesn’t directly increase conversions but saves you a lot of manual work?
Thanks, Mustafa! That makes sense. Do you usually check the speed impact right after installing an app or later?
Yes, definitely. I don’t think direct conversion impact is the only way an app can create value.
A lot of useful apps solve operational problems instead: reducing repetitive work, catching mistakes earlier, or making sure something doesn’t have to be checked manually over and over again.
I think the interesting question is whether the app actually removes work and uncertainty, or whether it simply creates another dashboard that someone still has to monitor.
If a process normally takes an hour every week, or there is a meaningful risk of something being missed, automating that can have a very clear ROI even if you can’t tie it directly to an additional sale.
That’s also why I think “how often is the app opened?” can be a misleading metric. In some cases, rarely needing to open an app may actually be a sign that it’s doing its job well.
That makes a lot of sense. I really like the point about rarely opening an app actually being a good sign if it’s doing its job in the background. Thanks for sharing!
My rule is that an app has to earn a job, not a slot. If I can’t say in one sentence what it does for a shopper in their first session on the site, it goes.
The three questions I ask at renewal: does it replace something I’d otherwise pay for or build, what does it cost me in load time on mobile, and does it overlap with what my popup or my email platform already does? Overlap is where most of the waste is I’ve paid twice for the same capture flow more than once without noticing.
I also try to kill apps in a quiet week rather than during a promo, and I check the theme afterward for leftover script tags. A surprising number of uninstalls leave code behind, so the speed cost sticks around after the bill stops.
Disclosure: we build Atomato, a shopper-opened notification bell/feed for offers, restocks, drops and upsells, with email/SMS capture as one card inside the feed. It’s not an ESP and it isn’t a popup replacement — it sits next to your existing popup and Klaviyo rather than instead of them, which is the only reason I think it survives this kind of audit. Atomato Email, SMS & Upsell - Grow email and SMS lists and upsell from a feed... | Shopify App Store
When I choose an app, the main goal is getting certain features; When I decide which ones to keep, the priority shifts to reliability. Don’t want to keep ones which only cause trouble and break down all the time.
Hey! Good question. My approach is to rank real value first, performance impact second, and features third since features alone don’t tell you whether an app is actually helping the store.
I’d also recommend testing apps one at a time, so you can tell which one is actually affecting conversions or performance. Keep an eye on your total monthly app spend too, and review each app before its free trial ends to decide if it’s worth keeping.
Oh this is actually a good concern to take into consideration seriously because merchants, especially new ones often install a bunch of apps because they need the help in multiple aspects without noticing they slow down the site.
From personal perspective, I would say “business value first”, an app that’s worth installing is either helping you with increasing revenue, saving valuable time or fixing a real gap you’re facing. If it doesn’t, then you can reconsider it. And when you evaluate this, you need metric to follow, it it doesn’t show any “measurable” effects on your store, then you again can reconsider it.
Regarding checking the metrics, you can try checking the before/after effects including: theme speed report, Page speed, whether the scripts load sidewide, if the app only helps with single page type and hurts your LCP, it’s a red flag. Also you can check if you have many apps that’re doing the same jobs, remove unimportant one and keep the one that can solve more problems within one app.
Another thing you can consider while deciding on apps is maintenance cost: theme conflicts, support tickets, monthly fee,..
Final words is for promoting our own app SEOWILL if you’re facing problems with SEO/audit tool, and conversions longterm. It can also spot when app/script weight is hurting page speed while you clean up the stack.
Hope this helps you decide better!
Adding onto this - if you can’t tell what an app does for your store within a minute of opening it, that’s usually a sign it can go 
For the speed side, benchmark a page, turn the app off, re-run and compare 
I agree with this. I think testing apps one at a time is especially useful because it makes it much easier to see whether an app is actually improving conversions or just adding another monthly cost. Checking the results before deciding to keep it seems like a good approach.
My rule is simple: if I can’t point at revenue it brought in within 30 days, it goes.
Anything that touches conversion should be the easiest one to prove. If it can’t show you the actual conversations it turned into orders, you’re paying for a feeling