How Much Money Can You Make With Shopify Apps in 2025?
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Building a Shopify app looks like the perfect business model until you realize that 35% of all apps have zero reviews, which usually means zero revenue.
The numbers tell a brutal story that most developers discover too late.
While Klaviyo pulls in $49 million monthly and the top performers exceed $1 million annually, the median app generates just $725 per month.
Let's dig into what you can actually expect to make.
Quick Summary
Most Shopify apps earn essentially nothing, with 35% showing zero reviews and the median developer making just $8,700 annually.
The top 0.18% of developers earn over $1 million yearly while 54.53% make less than $1,000 monthly, creating a winner-takes-most marketplace. Breaking through requires 6-12 months minimum before seeing meaningful revenue, with most developers investing $15,000-50,000 before earning their first dollar.
Success demands exceptional execution across product quality, customer support, pricing strategy, and persistence through months of zero revenue.
| Revenue Tier | Percentage of Apps | What This Means |
|---|---|---|
| $0 (Zero reviews) | 34.98% | Complete failure or recent launch |
| Under $1,000/month | 54.53% | Below sustainable business level |
| $1,000-$10,000/month | ~30-35% | Modest but viable business |
| $10,000-$83,000/month | ~10% | Strong profitable business |
| Over $83,000/month ($1M+ annually) | 0.18% | Exceptional success stories |
How much do the best Shopify apps make?
We've compiled the top 50 highest-earning Shopify apps to show you what's actually possible at the top of the market.
For those wondering about profitability rather than just revenue, check out our analysis on whether Shopify apps are actually profitable.
| App Name | Monthly Revenue | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Klaviyo | $48.76M | Email and SMS marketing platform that watches customer behavior on your site, then automatically sends personalized messages based on browsing, purchases, and cart abandonment. Their behavioral targeting and deep Shopify integration helped them reach $585.1M annual revenue. |
| Attentive | $41.67M | Pure SMS marketing platform focused on e-commerce brands, helping stores send text messages with exceptional open rates. They handle everything from cart reminders to sale alerts and order updates, hitting $500M in annual recurring revenue. |
| ShipBob | $41.67M | Third-party logistics company that stores your inventory and ships orders from their warehouses. When customers buy, ShipBob picks, packs, and ships from the nearest location so merchants never touch fulfillment. |
| ActiveCampaign | $24.21M | Combines email marketing with CRM functionality to track customer interactions and send automated sequences based on behavior. Creates complex email flows that respond differently based on whether customers opened, clicked, or ignored previous messages. |
| Signifyd | $24.40M | Fraud protection using machine learning to spot sketchy transactions before they become chargebacks. They guarantee their decisions, covering chargeback costs if they approve an order that turns out fraudulent. |
What percentage of Shopify apps make $0?
Approximately 35% of all Shopify apps have zero reviews, which serves as the clearest indicator of zero or near-zero revenue since only 1-3% of users typically leave reviews.
This means roughly 4,310 apps out of 12,320 total have never gained enough traction to generate even a single review. When you consider that an app needs 33-100 users to get just one review on average, apps with zero reviews likely have fewer than 30-50 total installs.
The data gets worse for new apps specifically, where the median revenue in the first three months is literally $0, with an average of only $39.72 across 700 tracked launches. Combined with the fact that 54.53% of all developers earn less than $1,000 monthly, we're looking at an ecosystem where more than half of participants earn below minimum wage levels.
The harsh reality is that building a Shopify app puts you in a marketplace where failure is the norm, not the exception.
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How long does it take to generate meaningful revenue from a Shopify app?
Instead of guessing about timelines, we analyze real data from actual founders who've built successful apps. This is the same evidence-based approach we use in our market clarity reports, where we dig through real testimonies rather than relying on theory.
| App Name | Timeline to Revenue | Source |
|---|---|---|
| ABConvert | Built the first version in just 7 days, but struggled for over a month with a paid-only model before switching to free. Reached $1,000 MRR after 5 months, then $5,000 MRR at 7 months, and $10,000 MRR by month 12. By 18 months hit $25,000 MRR with a $1M+ valuation, and at 24 months reached $50,000 MRR with a multi-million acquisition offer. | Medium |
| DropCommerce | Got 18 installs per day immediately after launch, but didn't see first subscription revenue until 3 months later. The founder worked full-time while building and only quit his day job after 11 months when reaching $3,000 MRR. Hit $12,000 MRR by month 17, then exploded to $46,000 MRR during COVID at month 20, eventually reaching $78,000 CAD MRR after 36 months. | Indie Hackers |
| Guarantees & Features Icons | Built MVP in 2 weeks with a co-founder, launched free and hit 500 merchants in week one, becoming the #1 trending app. Introduced monetization after 2-3 weeks with 1,200 existing users and started getting subscriptions on day one of paid plans. Reached $1,051 MRR after 2 months of monetization, hit the $1,000 MRR goal at month 4 total, and eventually sold at $6,700 MRR for $250,000. | Medium |
| WideBundle | Built during COVID as a student in just 14 days for the MVP. Got first 50 customers in less than 1 month, reached $10,000 MRR in under 6 months, and hit $25,000 MRR in less than 1 year. After 3 years reached $50,000 MRR and now maintains $55,000-57,000 MRR with a team of 7 full-time employees. | Indie Hackers, Starter Story |
| SuperLemon | Both founders quit jobs with 12 months of savings, built MVP in 2 weeks, but got rejected twice over 6 weeks. After approval, gained 2,000+ users in 40 days and launched paid plans. Hit $400 MRR after 70 days from launch (30 days after monetization), reached $25,000 MRR by month 14, and peaked at $29,000 MRR in month 15 with 1,700+ paying customers from 20,000+ total users. | Preetam Nath |
| OrderlyPrint | Started as a side project in 2011 while working at an investment bank, launched in early 2012 with $2,000 outsourced to India. Got 1-2 customers per day from day one, reached $4,000/month after 2 years, but sales slowed when Shopify launched a competing free app. Launched a second app in 2015, hit $10,000/month and quit full-time job, now makes $27,000/month with $275,000 annual profit at 85% margin. | Justin Jackson |
| ezInvoices | Made the critical mistake of keeping the app completely free for the first 9 months, earning $0 revenue despite 587 active merchants. Finally introduced billing in month 10 and earned $735.66 over months 10-13. The founder admits waiting 9 months was their biggest mistake since power users doing 1,000+ invoices monthly would have happily paid from day one. | ezApps |
What can we learn from these timelines?
Most successful Shopify apps take 3-6 months to reach their first $1,000 MRR, with faster paths possible only when launching completely free initially to accumulate reviews before introducing pricing.
The critical mistake is waiting too long to monetize, as ezInvoices discovered after 9 months of zero revenue despite having power users who would have paid from day one. Founders consistently recommend introducing billing by month 3 at the latest, using a generous free tier for growth while charging heavy users who get real value.
Breaking even typically happens between months 6-12, with most founders able to quit their day jobs around $3,000-10,000 MRR depending on their location and lifestyle. The path from $1K to $10K MRR usually takes another 6-12 months.
Year one is essentially an investment phase where you're building product-market fit and accumulating reviews, while year two is when real business growth begins. Shopify apps that persist through the initial "valley of death" often see dramatic acceleration, like DropCommerce jumping from $12K to $46K MRR during COVID or ABConvert doubling from $25K to $50K MRR in just 6 months.
The data shows that success requires 6-12 months of cash reserves to survive the pre-revenue period, obsessive customer support to generate positive reviews, and the persistence to iterate through multiple pricing models until finding what works.
Do costs eat up most of a Shopify app's profit margin?
Here's how the numbers actually break down at different revenue levels:
| Cost Category | $1,000/month | $10,000/month | $100,000/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify commission (0% first $1M, then 15%) | $0 | $0 | $1,500* |
| Infrastructure/hosting | $50-100 | $200-400 | $1,000-2,000 |
| Payment processing (3%) | $30 | $300 | $3,000 |
| Customer support | $50-100 | $1,000-1,500 | $25,000-35,000 |
| Development/maintenance | $200-300 | $2,000-3,000 | $10,000-15,000 |
| Marketing/customer acquisition | $100-200 | $1,000-2,000 | $10,000-20,000 |
| Tools & subscriptions | $50 | $200-300 | $1,000-2,000 |
| Accounting/legal/compliance | $0 | $200 | $2,000 |
| Office/operational | $0 | $0 | $2,000-3,000 |
| Total costs | $480-780 | $4,900-7,700 | $55,500-82,500 |
| Net profit | $220-520 | $2,300-5,100 | $17,500-44,500 |
| Profit margin | 22-52% | 23-51% | 17.5-44.5% |
*Assumes app has passed $1M lifetime revenue threshold
How much can I realistically make with a Shopify app?
Worst-case scenario (Bottom 35% of apps)
These Shopify apps generate essentially zero revenue, with most earning $0-200 monthly after a full year of operation. Around 35% of all apps fall into this category, abandoned or struggling with fundamental issues that prevent any meaningful traction.
| Factor | Reality Check |
|---|---|
| Initial budget | $5,000-10,000 cobbled together from savings, barely covering basic development with an offshore freelancer who delivers buggy code requiring constant fixes |
| Value proposition | Generic solution in oversaturated category like email pop-ups or discount codes, competing against 300+ similar apps with no meaningful differentiation beyond slightly different UI colors |
| User experience | Confusing onboarding that loses 70% of users on day one, doesn't follow Shopify's design guidelines, requires manual CSV imports, and breaks with every Shopify update |
| Distribution strategy | Purely relying on Shopify App Store organic traffic, no external marketing, buried on page 15 of search results with zero visibility |
| Reviews & social proof | Zero reviews after 6 months, or worse, 1-2 negative reviews complaining about bugs that tank your 2.5-star rating permanently |
| Support & retention | Reply to support tickets once a week if at all, 10%+ monthly churn, users uninstall within days and never come back |
| First 3 months | $0 - Zero paying customers, 20-50 free users who installed then immediately abandoned, burning through savings on hosting costs |
| Months 3-6 | $0-50/month - Maybe 1-2 paying customers at $19/month who churn after first billing cycle, spending more on infrastructure than earning |
| Months 6-12 | $50-200/month - Stuck at 5-10 paying customers who constantly complain, can't afford to fix bugs properly, death spiral begins |
| After 1 year | Abandoned - App removed from store for policy violations or abandoned, $10,000+ lost, developer returns to regular job defeated |
Average scenario (Middle 50% of apps)
The typical Shopify app reaches $1,500-3,000 monthly revenue after one year, representing a modest but sustainable business. This middle 50% of apps generates enough to cover costs and provide some income, though rarely enough for full-time commitment without additional revenue streams.
| Factor | Reality Check |
|---|---|
| Initial budget | $15,000-25,000 from savings or small loan, enough for decent development with a reliable contractor and 6 months of runway |
| Value proposition | Solves a real problem but in competitive space like reviews or upsells, has 2-3 unique features but fights against 50+ established competitors |
| User experience | Clean interface following Shopify guidelines, 7-minute setup process, loses 25% of users on day one but retains engaged merchants reasonably well |
| Distribution strategy | Some content marketing and Facebook group engagement, ranks on page 2-3 for main keywords, gets 20-30 organic installs weekly |
| Reviews & social proof | 20-40 reviews with 4.2-star average after aggressive review campaigns, enough social proof to convert visitors but not outstanding |
| Support & retention | Respond within 24 hours, 5-7% monthly churn, part-time virtual assistant helps with basic tickets while you handle complex issues |
| First 3 months | $0-100/month - Launch with free tier to gain traction, 5-10 paying customers at $10-20/month by month 3 |
| Months 3-6 | $300-600/month - 20-40 paying customers, starting to see organic growth from app store rankings improving with reviews |
| Months 6-12 | $800-1,500/month - 50-100 paying customers, covering costs but not profitable yet after development time |
| After 1 year | $1,500-3,000/month - Sustainable but modest income, can work full-time on app but lifestyle business rather than high-growth startup |
Best-case scenario (Top 10% of apps)
The top 10% of Shopify apps achieve $20,000-50,000 monthly revenue within their first year, with some exceptional cases reaching $100,000+ monthly. These apps combine superior execution with strategic positioning, often becoming acquisition targets or category leaders within 12-24 months.
| Factor | Reality Check |
|---|---|
| Initial budget | $30,000-50,000 from savings, angel investment, or successful previous exit, enough for professional development team and 12-month runway |
| Value proposition | Solves urgent pain point in underserved niche like B2B wholesale or specific vertical, or dramatically better execution than bloated competitors |
| User experience | Exceptional onboarding with instant value delivery, automated setup, beautiful UI that makes merchants say "wow", under 15% day-one churn |
| Distribution strategy | Strategic partnerships with agencies, active in multiple communities, content marketing machine, ranks top 3 for primary keywords within 6 months |
| Reviews & social proof | 100+ reviews with 4.8+ stars through exceptional support, featured by Shopify, testimonials from recognized brands |
| Support & retention | Dedicated support person or team, respond within 2 hours, proactive check-ins, under 3% monthly churn through continuous value delivery |
| First 3 months | $500-1,500/month - Fast initial traction through pre-launch list, 30-50 paying customers even with free tier focus on reviews |
| Months 3-6 | $2,000-5,000/month - Hockey stick growth begins, 100-200 paying customers, word-of-mouth kicksoff |
| Months 6-12 | $8,000-15,000/month - Top rankings drive organic installs, 300-500 paying customers, can hire first full-time employee |
| After 1 year | $20,000-50,000/month - Market leader in niche, acquisition offers coming in, choosing between growth and exit |
Why do most Shopify apps fail?
Understanding failure patterns helps you avoid the traps that kill most Shopify apps, which is why we analyze these patterns extensively in our market clarity reports.
- Poor market research
Developers build apps without validating merchant needs, entering oversaturated categories with 300+ competitors, or solving problems that don't actually exist. Multiple successful developers cite this as the single biggest mistake, with one noting "I was building in a bubble" without engaging potential users during development. Apps fail when they target audiences that don't need the solution or enter markets dominated by 10+ established players without meaningful differentiation.
Source: Oyecommerz - Bad user experience kills retention
Apps that ignore Shopify's Polaris design guidelines, create complicated onboarding flows, or deliver slow loading times lose 40-70% of users on day one. Research shows 62% of third-party integrations slow down websites, with each app adding 0.75 seconds average delay potentially costing merchants 5% revenue per app. When 74% of users abandon apps that don't perform as expected, even solving real problems can't save an app with poor UX.
Source: SpurIT - Pricing mistakes from both directions
Apps priced at $25-50 monthly experience the highest churn at 8.7%, caught between being too expensive for small merchants but not valuable enough for enterprises. Charging too little makes operations unsustainable, while apps without free trials struggle to demonstrate value. The median app price of just $4/month shows intense downward pressure, yet apps need $20+ monthly to cover costs.
Source: UserMotion - Technical issues and API failures
38% of all app issues stem from incorrect API calls, while 25% of developers face webhook failures from improper configuration. Shopify's evolving APIs mean apps break when developers don't update for new versions, with 30% reporting functionality errors from deprecated endpoints. One developer warned that increasingly stringent approval processes requiring weeks of rewrites mean "the days of a solo engineer being able to build a viable Shopify app business are nearly over."
Source: Moldstud - Zero marketing equals zero growth
Apps relying solely on Shopify App Store organic traffic get buried among 12,320 competitors, with new apps starting on page 15+ of search results. Without external marketing through content, partnerships, or communities, apps never accumulate the 20-60 reviews needed for visibility. The marketplace adds 250-450 new apps monthly, pushing existing apps further down unless they actively fight for rankings.
Source: Meetanshi
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Why do some Shopify apps succeed?
The Shopify apps that break through to profitability follow recognizable patterns, as shown in our analysis of the top 50 highest-earning apps. Understanding these success factors is something we explore deeply in our market clarity reports.
- Portfolio strategy spreads risk and compounds growth
Successful developers build 5-10 related apps where free apps generate leads for 2-3 paid apps driving revenue. Companies like Elfsight, Hextom, and HulkApps exemplify this strategy, cross-promoting between apps to achieve $10,000+ monthly across their portfolio even when individual apps earn modestly. The Singapore Portfolio generates $950K monthly from 36 utility apps, proving that multiple small wins can create substantial income.
Source: HulkApps - Category selection determines ceiling
Marketing apps average $19,900 annually while reporting apps average just $5 monthly, a 398X difference that shows category choice matters more than execution quality. Store Design apps average $13,500 annually, demonstrating clear winner categories. Successful developers target areas with clear ROI where merchants can justify $50-500+ monthly pricing based on revenue impact rather than competing in commodity categories.
Source: SpurIT - Review generation becomes the growth engine
Apps implementing aggressive review prompts convert at 10% versus 5% for passive approaches, and since reviews directly impact ranking and conversion, systematic review generation separates winners from losers. Successful apps use manual outreach to early users, provide exceptional support that prompts organic reviews, and time automated requests to moments of high satisfaction. Apps need 20-60 reviews minimum to gain organic traction.
Source: Case studies compilation - External traffic sources drive real scale
Every Shopify app over $5M monthly grew primarily outside the app store through agency partnerships, influencer affiliations, or direct sales. Klaviyo grew through agency partnerships, Printful through influencers, Gorgias through funded startups. Successful Shopify apps derive 30-50% of installs from external marketing like YouTube tutorials, SEO-focused content sites, and community engagement rather than purely App Store discovery.
- Persistence through the valley of death
Multiple developers emphasize success required 6-12 months of sustained effort before meaningful traction, with Shopify apps experiencing a period where installs grow slowly and revenue remains minimal. Those who quit before reaching critical mass of 20-60 reviews never achieve organic discovery. ABConvert went from 18 daily installs at launch to 100+ after 6 months of optimization and review accumulation.
Source: Jeff Lin
What hard truths should you know before building a Shopify app?
- You'll earn nothing for at least 3-6 months
New apps generate a median of $0 in their first three months, with an average of just $39.72 across 700 tracked launches. Even successful apps like ezInvoices made zero revenue for 9 months, while DropCommerce took 3 months to see their first subscription despite 18 daily installs from day one. You need 6-12 months of savings to survive this desert, as reaching $1,000 MRR typically takes 4-6 months even with good execution.
- You're competing against 645 apps in popular categories
The Shipping Labels category has 645 competing apps, Upsell has 412, Analytics has 382, making differentiation nearly impossible in saturated markets. With 250-450 new apps launching monthly and only the top 3 search results getting significant traffic, you need exceptional positioning or an underserved niche to break through. Even "small" categories have 50-100+ competitors fighting for the same merchants.
Source: Meetanshi, App Navigator - You'll spend $500-700 to acquire each customer
B2B SaaS customer acquisition costs average $536-702 in 2024, up 222% over the past decade due to iOS tracking changes and privacy regulations. With median app pricing at just $4/month and average at $19/month, your payback period extends to 25-70 months before recouping acquisition costs. This math forces you toward organic growth, which requires 6-12 months to build rankings and reviews.
- You need 20-60 reviews before merchants trust you
With only 1-3% of users leaving reviews, reaching 20 reviews requires 667-2,000 installs, while 60 reviews needs 2,000-6,000 installs. Since 90% of consumers consider ratings crucial and Shopify apps with under 20 reviews struggle to convert visitors, you face a catch-22 where you need installs to get reviews but need reviews to get installs. This forces most Shopify apps to launch free initially just to accumulate social proof.
Source: Shopify Partners, SpurIT - You'll invest $15,000-50,000 before seeing profit
Development costs range from $5,000 for basic apps to $75,000+ for complex features, plus $6,000-30,000 annual maintenance covering hosting, SSL, support tools, and updates. With zero revenue for 3-6 months, then slow growth to break-even around months 6-12, most developers burn through $15,000 minimum before achieving profitability. Solo developers working nights can reduce this, but opportunity cost remains substantial.
Source: Digital Suits, Folio3 - You should avoid the $25-50 monthly pricing death valley
Apps priced between $25-50 monthly experience 8.7% monthly churn, the highest across all tiers, versus 6.2% for apps under $10 and 7.1% for apps priced $100-250. This middle ground attracts price-sensitive merchants who aren't committed enough to stick around. Either price low for volume ($5-15) accepting thin margins, or price premium ($100+) for enterprise customers who value sophisticated functionality.
Source: UserMotion - You have only a 10-15% chance of building a sustainable business
With 34.98% of apps having zero reviews indicating failure, 54.53% of developers earning under $1,000 monthly, and median revenue at just $725/month, approximately 85-90% of apps fail to generate meaningful income. Only the top 25% of developers earn $167,000+ annually, with just 0.18% reaching $1M+. Success requires exceptional execution across product, marketing, and support, not just competent development.
- You must master distribution beyond the App Store
Every Shopify app earning over $5M monthly grew primarily through external channels like agency partnerships, content marketing, or influencer relationships. Relying solely on App Store organic traffic means competing for top 3 rankings among hundreds of apps, taking 6+ months in competitive categories. Successful Shopify apps derive 30-50% of installs from YouTube tutorials, SEO content, community engagement, and partnerships rather than App Store discovery.
- You need exceptional retention metrics to survive
With average B2B SaaS churn at 5-7% monthly, Shopify apps exceeding 10% monthly churn lose 72% of customers annually, requiring aggressive acquisition just to maintain revenue. The optimal LTV:CAC ratio of 3:1 means at $500 CAC and $20 monthly pricing, customers must stay 75+ months, far exceeding typical merchant lifespans in the Shopify ecosystem. Focus obsessively on activation, engagement, and reducing churn before scaling acquisition.
Source: Baremetrics - You're building for merchants who themselves have 90% failure rates
Your customers face their own brutal economics where 90-95% of Shopify stores fail within 1-2 years, creating constant customer churn regardless of your app quality. Merchants doing $50K-200K monthly represent your sweet spot, having budget ($500-5,000 for apps) and real pain points, but these successful merchants are rare. Building for beginners means high churn, while enterprises demand features beyond solo developer capacity.
Source: DemandSage
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