Live data about the Shopify App Store ecosystem.
Tracks growth, developers, and categories over time.
The Shopify App Store has grown steadily over the past decade, reaching more than 18,000 apps and over 11,000 developers. Developer growth closely follows app growth, suggesting continued interest in the ecosystem.
Who is succeeding? These charts reveal how installs and reviews are distributed across developers and apps.
Apps are distributed across a large number of categories. The charts below show growth at different levels of the category hierarchy, from broad categories to more specialized niches.
| Marketplaces | 4.61 | 53,184 | 147 | 362 | 106 | 48% | 1,932 |
| Product bundles | 4.86 | 54,058 | 236 | 229 | 89 | 22% | 1,694 |
| Loyalty and rewards | 4.88 | 48,251 | 205 | 235 | 75 | 32% | 1,378 |
| Product reviews | 4.91 | 85,705 | 214 | 400 | 83 | 63% | 1,346 |
| Currency and translation | 4.64 | 17,847 | 99 | 180 | 98 | 28% | 1,278 |
| Pre-orders | 4.86 | 19,347 | 76 | 255 | 81.5 | 45% | 1,268 |
| Email marketing | 4.73 | 58,187 | 192 | 303 | 60.5 | 46% | 1,262 |
| Stock alerts | 4.87 | 27,714 | 135 | 205 | 82.5 | 38% | 1,160 |
| Digital products | 4.89 | 11,972 | 60 | 200 | 89 | 39% | 1,140 |
| SMS marketing | 4.67 | 22,697 | 86 | 264 | 57.5 | 48% | 1,034 |
| Upsell and cross-sell | 4.84 | 85,180 | 590 | 144 | 65 | 17% | 969 |
| Subscriptions | 4.87 | 21,016 | 80 | 263 | 78.5 | 60% | 923 |
| Event booking | 4.88 | 10,195 | 61 | 167 | 90 | 47% | 836 |
| Product variants | 4.82 | 38,136 | 263 | 145 | 60 | 26% | 826 |
| Geolocation | 4.65 | 11,963 | 86 | 139 | 100 | 43% | 789 |
| Social proof | 4.85 | 31,481 | 234 | 135 | 83 | 37% | 776 |
| Pop-ups | 4.83 | 43,921 | 274 | 160 | 70 | 45% | 740 |
| Banners | 4.88 | 20,401 | 178 | 115 | 92 | 33% | 739 |
| Wholesale | 4.75 | 13,274 | 130 | 102 | 65 | 23% | 630 |
| Image editor | 4.85 | 25,125 | 161 | 156 | 51 | 45% | 617 |
Average rating weighted by review count:
Rating = Σ(rating × reviews) ÷ Σ(reviews)
Represents overall customer satisfaction in the category.
Total number of reviews across all apps in the category. Serves as a proxy for total market demand (more reviews ≈ more installs).
Number of apps with more than 0 reviews. Represents serious competitors that have achieved real traction.
Average demand per serious competitor:
Demand = Total Reviews ÷ Active Apps
Higher values indicate more demand per competitor.
Median number of reviews among active apps (> 0 reviews). Estimates what a typical successful app in the category achieves.
Percentage of total reviews captured by the three largest apps:
Top3 Share = Top 3 Reviews ÷ Total Reviews
Measures market concentration. Higher values indicate stronger dominance by leading apps.
Composite metric estimating category attractiveness:
Opportunity Score = Demand × √(Median Active Reviews) × (1 − Top3 Share)
Higher scores indicate categories with strong demand, achievable success levels, and less market domination.
General rules of thumb:
Categories with high Opportunity Scores tend to offer the best balance between demand and competition.
Data is collected automatically from the Shopify App Store.
Historical records track app counts, developers, and categories over time.
This data is maintained by Applicy, a platform for Shopify app analytics.
Track installs, revenue, rankings and growth over time with Appicly.