Hi there! New business starter and curious as to what the essential apps are for your sites that really make a difference? There are so many but I know that too much can bogg down site speed and some of the pricing plans really seem like a lot compared to the benefits. All advice welcome!
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Hi @BGordon7789
This is PageFly - Advanced Page Builder with 6 years of experience providing conversion rate optimization solutions to more than 100.000 Shopify stores.
You can start to build your store with the Free plan of PageFly. In the Free plan, you can access all elements and functions even the analytics. Whether you are a small or medium-sized business, or even a Shopify Plus brand, with PageFly, you can publish high-quality pages and manage your site with confidence and utmost control without any coding knowledge. One of the greatest things is that PageFly doesn’t affect your store’s speed.
Last but not least, you can reach out to 24/7 support live chat anytime you need.
And PageFly integrates with a lot of apps, you can use Judge.me for adding reviews to your store and the ReCharge subscription app to create your own business subscriptions. Both of them have a Free plan and also work well with PageFly! 
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Hey @BGordon7789 ,
We are Judge.me and we power the product reviews for 7000+ Ecommerce store on Shopify.
You can totally start using our Forever Free Plan, with more features than you can imagine:
- Queue up and send unlimited review request emails to your customers.
- Import reviews easily with a CSV file with unlimited amount of reviews.
- Allow photo and video reviews.
- SEO snippets.
- Multi Languages Widgets.
- And many more!
As you have just started your business, we are definitely the app for you to try out, and our Only Paid Plan Awesome is only $15/month where you can get access to all the features in our app.
And Judge.me doesn’t affect your site speed as well! We have optimized our widgets because we understand the importance of site speed.
You can reach out to us here at: support@judge.me, or get on our 24/7 live chat so we can help you resolve your concerns in the fastest manner!
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We recently did a little research on the TOP 100 Shopify stores and which apps they use to boost their performance. While not all of them are completely free, this might give you some insight on what could be beneficial for your store.
TOP tools used in promotion and marketing category:
- Klaviyo (email and SMS marketing)
- Bing Shopping (ads)
- Tone SMS Marketing And Support
TOP tools used in loyalty, rewards, and referrals category:
TOP tools used in the store design category:
- Shogun Landing Page Builder (landing pages)
- Smart Search & Instant Search (search bar)
- Filter Menu (navigation)
TOP tools used in push notifications and pop-ups category:
- Back In Stock (customer alerts)
- PushOwl (push notifications)
- Mailchimp Forms (pop-ups)
TOP tools used in analytics and tracking category:
- Hotjar (analytics - compatible with Shopify)
- Full Story (behavior tracking - compatible with Shopify)
TOP tools used in customer service category:
- Zendesk support (help desk - compatible with Shopify)
- Zopim Live Chat
TOP tools used in the order management and fulfillment category:
TOP tools used in the social media category:
- Shoppable Instagram & UGC (Instagram shopping)
- Powr.io (social media feed and icons)
- Oxi Social Login (one-click SM login)
TOP tools used in the upselling/cross-selling category:
- Geolizr (geo targeting)
- Recomatic (product recommendations)
- Bold Sales Motivator (upselling)
Hey, @BGordon7789 .
Thanks for reaching out in our Community forum. I’m so excited to hear that you’re starting a new business venture. Congratulations!
Using apps can be a great way to enhance your website and increase sales. Whether you want to add customer reviews, improve email marketing, publish your products to Facebook, or get in-depth analytics, etc. Deciding on which apps to use, can definitely be overwhelming at times when there are so many to choose from. I recommend reading through our** 27 Best Free Shopify Apps**. Some of my personal favorites include:
- Shopify Email: With Shopify Email, you can send branded emails to subscribers from your Shopify admin dashboard in just a few clicks.
- Fancy FAQ: This app makes it easy for you to build attractive, search-friendly FAQ pages into your pages so you can establish trust with shoppers and encourage them to make a purchase.
- PixPix Image Editor: Easy-to-use image editor with a ton of great features. You can crop, resize, and adjust color and lighting issues quickly.
When deciding on an app, I recommend looking for great ratings, as browsing the reviews on an app can be a great way to learn more about what the app offers, and how other businesses have benefited from using the app. Keep in mind that most apps offer a free trial period so that you can test it out before committing. If you decide to not use the app, just ensure that you delete it from your apps before the trial ends to avoid getting charged.
In the meantime, is there anything in particular that you are hoping to achieve with the use of an app? What type of products will you be selling? I’m happy to provide you with more suggestions based on that context.
Talk soon,