Jul 24, 2026

What Apps We Actually Use to Run Dozens of Shopify Stores

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"What apps should I use on my Shopify store?" is a question we hear all the time. Leighton and Patrick break down how to decide between a Shopify app and custom development, the trade-offs of each, and the apps they install on almost every store, from reviews and subscriptions to CRO, SEO, and indexing.

Links Mentioned

Shopify Search & Discovery: https://apps.shopify.com/search-and-discovery
Judge.me Product Reviews: https://apps.shopify.com/judgeme
Microsoft Clarity: https://apps.shopify.com/microsoft-clarity
Matrixify: https://apps.shopify.com/excel-export-import
Ilana's JSON-LD for SEO: https://apps.shopify.com/json-ld-for-seo
Frequently Bought Together (CBB): https://apps.shopify.com/frequently-bought-together
Rebuy Personalization Engine: https://apps.shopify.com/rebuy
Awtomic Subscriptions: https://apps.shopify.com/awtomic
InstaIndex: IndexNow for Bing: https://apps.shopify.com/instaindex
AI image alt text app: [URL TO BE ADDED]

Chapters

0:00 Intro
1:46 App vs Custom Question
3:02 The Three App Categories
5:57 Must-Have Review Apps
10:03 App vs Custom Trade-offs
16:33 Theme Updates & Maintenance
18:36 Reviews & Subscription Apps
21:22 Should You Build Your Own?
23:09 Microsoft Clarity Deep Dive
30:31 Matrixify & JSON-LD SEO
31:52 Bought Together & Rebuy
36:21 Apps That Hijack Collections
38:46 SEO Apps & Bing IndexNow
44:00 AI Alt Text & Sitemaps
45:25 Wrapping Up

Book a Call

Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call
Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast

Work with Us

Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/
Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io

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