A small case-study companion to the app replacement service page. Different store, same pattern, different numbers.
The store
Mid-size jewelry brand on Shopify Plus, doing roughly $1.4M/yr. Catalog around 3,200 SKUs. Eleven installed apps. App subscription bill: $612/mo. Annualized: $7,344.
The audit
Three days, written report, Loom walkthrough. Recommendations:
- Keep (recurring justified): Klaviyo ($200/mo — real CDP), ReCharge ($60/mo — subscriptions), Triple Whale ($129/mo — attribution), Searchanise ($79/mo — ML search on jewelry SKUs is genuinely useful). Total kept: $468/mo.
- Cut (no replacement needed): Currency Converter ($19 — Markets handles it), Hextom Free Shipping Bar ($15 — trivial theme code), Pre-Order Manager ($25 — they weren’t actually using pre-orders, install was historical), Cookie Banner App ($15 — replaced with a proper theme-side Consent Mode 2 implementation). Total cut, immediate: $74/mo.
- Replace with native code: Wishlist ($29), Reviews (Loox at $30), Sticky Cart ($24), Recently Viewed ($19), Size Chart ($9), Smart Search Autocomplete ($15). Total to replace: $126/mo.
The rebuild
Two and a half weeks of focused work. The variant-aware wishlist was the biggest single piece — jewelry wishlists need metal/size/stone fidelity, off-the-shelf Wishlist Plus saves only the parent product. Reviews migration via Loox export → product metafields → server-side render. Sticky cart with line-item editing inline. Recently viewed via localStorage + the Section Rendering API. Size chart as a snippet keyed to a product metafield. Search autocomplete using Shopify’s predictive search API + light Liquid + light JS — about 2 days vs. paying for it forever.
The numbers, after
- Recurring app spend: $612/mo → $412/mo. Monthly savings: $200.
- Annual savings: $2,400.
- Rebuild cost: $3,800.
- Payback: 19 months.
- 5-year savings: $8,200 net of rebuild.
The speed bonus
Removing seven apps removed ten scripts, three CSS files, and one font. Before/after on the product template (real-device, Moto G4 + 3G fast):
- LCP: 3.4s → 1.9s
- INP: 280ms → 140ms
- CLS: 0.06 → 0.03
The merchandising team didn’t notice the apps were gone (the customer-facing UX is identical). They did notice the store felt snappier — and conversion rate ticked up 8% over the 30 days after launch.
What the merchant said
“We’d looked at the app bill for two years and assumed we needed everything we were paying for. Turns out we were paying $2,400/year for things our team could rebuild in a couple of weeks.” — Owner, jewelry brand (name on request).
If your store is in a similar shape, the calculator at /tools/shopify-app-cost-calculator/ gives a quick read. For a free written audit, see /shopify-app-replacement-service/.
