Is it possible to implement membership pricing sitewide without an app?

Topic summary

Core Question:
Whether membership-based pricing can be implemented across a Shopify store without using a third-party app, showing different prices to logged-in members while maintaining security.

Key Technical Constraints:

  • Shopify doesn’t natively support multiple price fields per product
  • Client-side price modifications (JavaScript) pose security risks
  • Automatic discounts are limited to one per checkout and cannot stack with coupon codes
  • Customer group targeting isn’t available in basic automatic discount settings

Suggested Solutions:

Without Apps:

  • Automatic discounts targeting customer tags (e.g., “Membership”), though this prevents customers from using additional discount codes
  • Variants with theme modifications (limited by Shopify’s 99-variant cap)
  • Duplicate product inventory with heavily customized themes
  • Draft orders with custom payment methods (manually intensive)

With Apps (recommended for flexibility):

  • Bold Customer Pricing
  • Discount Hub Unique Discounts (uses Shopify Functions, doesn’t modify storefront theme)
  • Locksmith (for inventory access control)
  • Shopify Plus features: wholesale channel, checkout scripts

Consensus:
While technically possible without apps using automatic discounts, apps provide significantly more flexibility and reduce manual overhead—worthwhile if revenue exceeds monthly app costs. Community radio stations and zero-budget operations face particular challenges since automatic discount customer targeting requires workarounds or paid solutions.

Summarized with AI on November 12. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

Oh i see. Ok. Can the discount apply automatically without them having to use a coupon code, such that they could also additionally use a coupon code on top of the automatic discount?