Best free Shopify apps: 8 that stay free, and where each one stops

At a glance

What are the best free Shopify apps?

Each of these top free Shopify apps does one job, so start from your problem.

Then check where each free plan stops.

Free, or free to install

What does "Free" mean on the Shopify App Store?

The listing said free, and a charge still turned up on your Shopify bill. No Shopify page we found defines these labels, so here is what each one sat beside.

A free trial counts down to a paid plan, while a free plan has no end date. Some apps bill outside Shopify, so their charges never reach your Shopify bill. After each install, open Settings, then Billing, and click "View current charges".

The best Shopify apps for a growing store covers what uninstalling does and doesn't stop, and do too many apps slow your Shopify store? covers speed.

1 · Shopify Messaging

Shopify Messaging: how many emails are free?

You have a list of subscribers and no budget for an email tool. Shopify Messaging, formerly Shopify Email, sends your first 10,000 emails each calendar month at no charge.

Every campaign that month draws on the same 10,000, and unused emails don't carry over. Extra emails land on your Shopify bill as "Marketing emails", and you can set an alert for a monthly spending threshold.

Text messages cost from the first one: $0.012 each to US numbers, plus $2.15 a month per toll-free number. On a Shopify free trial you can build campaigns and send tests to yourself, but not to your subscribers. Messaging also needs "Shopify Network Intelligence" switched on, a privacy setting under Settings, then Customer privacy.

If you want a separate email tool, Klaviyo's free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month, and Klaviyo can bill you outside your Shopify invoice.

Best for: a store emailing a list of a few thousand a few times a month.

2 · Shopify Forms

Shopify Forms: what can a free sign-up form do?

A visitor browses, leaves, and you have no way to reach them again. Shopify Forms adds pop-up and inline sign-up forms that can offer a discount and tag each new customer.

It is free to install and use, translates forms inside the app, and can start a Shopify Messaging automation.

Each store gets up to 25 forms. Multi-step forms and conditional logic aren't supported. Pop-ups show only once you switch Forms on under "App embeds" in the theme editor, and inline forms also need a compatible theme. With Sign in with Shop on, eligible forms show a "Claim with Shop" button by default, and you can remove it form by form. Each form has to ask for an email or a phone number, so to announce a sale without a sign-up, compare Shopify popup apps by job.

Best for: one sign-up pop-up and a wholesale form.

3 · Judge.me

Judge.me: what does the free plan leave out?

Your products sit at zero reviews, and your first buyers rarely think to leave one. Judge.me's Forever Free plan sends unlimited review requests and takes unlimited reviews with photos and video.

Stars show on product pages and in carousels, and Google can show them in its search results. An importer brings in the reviews you already have.

A buyer who ignores the first request gets no nudge on the free plan. Automatic reminders, questions and answers, Google Shopping and coupons sit on Awesome, which costs $15 a month once its 15-day free trial ends. Judge.me's pricing page calls $15 a month the most you can ever pay it.

Compare free review plans in which free review plan to start on.

Best for: a store with few or no reviews yet.

4 · Shopify Search & Discovery

Shopify Search & Discovery: are 25 filters enough?

Shoppers can't narrow your catalog to their size or color. Search & Discovery, Shopify's free app, adds filters, raises chosen products in search and picks products to recommend.

Each product can carry up to 10 complementary and 10 related products.

You add a 26th filter and the app stops at 25, for the whole store, not per collection. No filter appears on a collection of more than 5,000 products, and your theme has to support filters. Inside the app, a notice reads "Synonyms have been retired", though the listing still offers synonym groups. Search & Discovery needs the same Network Intelligence setting as Messaging.

Set it up with how to use the Search & Discovery app, and see what comes past 25 filters in seven Shopify search apps.

Best for: a catalog that fits in 25 filters.

5 · Shopify Inbox

Shopify Inbox: does the chat agent cost extra?

A shopper has one question before buying, and nobody is there to answer. Shopify Inbox adds a chat window to your store at no charge, and its Inbox agent comes in the same free app.

Inbox runs on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. Its listing now reads "An AI sales associate for your online store" and shows no paid plan. You choose whether to run the agent at all.

If your store still uses the older, legacy customer accounts, the agent stays off and your staff answer every chat. Inbox's quick replies fill in a saved answer from a one-word shortcut, and these customer service email templates give you ten to start from. Shopify's help pages describe chat on your own store, not one inbox for email or social messages. For chat apps that gather email, Instagram and store chat in one inbox, see the best Shopify live chat apps.

Setup and paid chat prices are in what conversational commerce is. What the agent can do is in the best Shopify AI tools.

Best for: answering pre-sale questions on your own store.

6 · Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow: which chores can run on their own?

You tag the same customers and check the same stock by hand every week. Shopify Flow runs those chores for you, starting from hundreds of ready-made templates.

One workflow can tag a customer after a big order. Another can alert you when stock runs low. The listing promises unlimited actions, and workflows can reach Slack and Google Sheets.

Flow is free on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, and your Shopify plan sets its usage limits. The action that sends your store's data to any web address you enter needs Grow or up, and tasks from custom partner apps need Plus.

Best for: repeat admin chores.

7 · Shopify Translate & Adapt

Shopify Translate & Adapt: how many languages are free?

Shoppers abroad land on a store they can't read. Shopify Translate & Adapt translates it by hand or automatically, and its listing counts 100+ languages.

Manual translations have no cap. If the app shows "Translate now", as it does for stores in the US, UK, Canada and 11 more countries, you get 8 automatic languages and a weekly Auto-sync. Other stores get 2, with no Auto-sync.

Removing a language doesn't give the slot back, and an automatic language can't be swapped for another. Translate & Adapt can't translate collection filters, tags or product images, and forms built in Shopify Forms are translated inside Forms instead.

Best for: selling in one or two more languages.

8 · Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity: will free recordings ever cost you?

You know which page shoppers leave from, and not what they did before they left. Clarity replays visits and maps where shoppers click and scroll, and Microsoft calls it a free service forever.

There is nothing to upgrade to. Microsoft's FAQ says you'll never be pushed onto a paid version, and Clarity doesn't sample your traffic. Its ceilings are the daily session cap and the 30-day life of most recordings, both in the table above.

If you sell into the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, those shoppers must accept cookies, or their recordings break into fragments.

More recording tools are in six heatmap and recording apps, and reports to read beside your recordings are in the best Shopify analytics apps.

Best for: seeing where shoppers stall.

The bill

When does each free app start to cost?

Only two of these eight can charge you: Shopify Messaging bills by use, and Judge.me's paid plan is a flat $15 a month. The other six have no paid plan of their own, so their line is a cap, not a bill.

Say you send 3,000 subscribers the four emails of a product launch sequence in one month. That is 12,000 emails, so 2,000 go on your Shopify bill at $1 per 1,000: $2. Automated emails, such as the thank-you after an order, count toward the 10,000 as well, and abandoned checkout emails never do.

More free apps

What other free Shopify apps are worth knowing?

Five more apps cost nothing to install, and three of them can still lead to a charge.

Where to start

Which free app should you install first?

The must-have free Shopify apps are the ones that fix a job you have today. If visitors leave without a trace, add Shopify Forms and Shopify Messaging together. Put Judge.me in before you pay for ads, so reviews have time to come in before paid visitors land. Search & Discovery earns its place once your catalog outgrows a menu.

Install one app at a time and check your current charges after each. Selling clothes? Read the best Shopify apps for a clothing store. For apps aimed at more sales, see where you are losing the sale.