Shopify Tech Stack: What Successful Stores Actually Run [120,017-Store Study]

TL;DR from 120,017 real Shopify stores:

• Average store runs 1.8 apps and 4.6 tracking pixels
• Klaviyo leads email at 25.8% adoption, but 59% of stores have no email app at all
• Paid theme stores are 1.8x more likely to use email marketing than free theme stores
• Beauty stores invest the most in apps (2.4 avg), hobby stores the least (1.5 avg)
• Most common app combo: Klaviyo + Judge.me
• All data from real frontend scans, not surveys or App Store rankings

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Every "best Shopify apps" article says the same thing. They list 20-50 apps, add star ratings from the Shopify App Store, and call it a guide.

The problem? They're recommendations, not data. No one shows you what stores actually use.

We took a different approach. We scanned 120,017 live Shopify stores across 16 categories and detected their themes, apps, and tracking pixels. This isn't what bloggers think you should install. It's what real stores, from brand-new shops to stores doing millions in monthly revenue, are actually running.

Use this data to benchmark your own store, study your competitors, or find new sales leads.

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How We Collected This Data

Dataset: 120,017 Shopify stores in the StoreInspect database

Method: We use frontend detection patterns to identify apps, themes, and pixels. Our scanner checks script signatures, JavaScript variables, DOM elements, and network requests for each store.

Store sizes:

Categories: 16 niches including Fashion (30,002), Home & Garden (15,845), Food & Beverage (12,156), Beauty (9,363), and more.

What we can detect: Frontend apps (email, reviews, support, upsell, analytics, loyalty), tracking pixels, themes, and Shopify Plus status. We cannot detect backend-only apps (inventory, fulfillment, accounting).

Shopify Plus: 70.8% of stores in our dataset are on Shopify Plus. Our sample skews toward established businesses.

Methodology note: Some apps are detected through multiple script signatures, which can create duplicate entries in raw counts. The category-level and percentage-based data in this post accounts for this - we count each store once per app category.

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How Many Apps Does a Shopify Store Need?

The average Shopify store in our dataset uses 1.8 detected apps and 4.6 tracking pixels. But averages hide the real story. App count changes a lot depending on store size.

*Lead Score is our 0-100 rating of how built-out a store's marketing setup is, based on apps, pixels, theme type, and Shopify Plus status. Higher = more marketing tools installed.

Higher-traffic stores run more apps. Stores in the 1M-5M tier use nearly double the apps of stores under 50k visitors. For a full breakdown of what stores install at each level, see our tech stack by growth stage analysis.

Do more apps drive growth, or does growth lead to more apps? Hard to say. But the pattern holds across every niche we looked at.

App Stack Complexity Distribution

How many apps do most stores run?

19% of stores have zero detected apps. These are either very early-stage or running purely backend tools we can't see.

The sweet spot looks like 3-5 apps. Stores in this range have much higher lead scores (89 vs 42 for zero-app stores) and more tracking pixels (6.6 vs 2.4), which points to a more serious marketing setup.

Only 2.7% of stores run 6+ apps. If you're running more than 5 frontend apps, you're in the top 3% of Shopify stores by tech stack complexity.

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What Are the Most Popular Shopify Apps?

Here are the top apps by adoption rate across 120,017 stores. We've excluded payment processors (Shop Pay, Afterpay, Klarna) to focus on marketing and operations apps.

Email Marketing

Klaviyo dominates email marketing with 25.8% adoption. That's nearly double Mailchimp's 14.1%. Big brands like Gymshark and Brooklinen run Klaviyo for their email and SMS flows. But the biggest number here is the gap: 59% of Shopify stores have no detected email marketing app.

For stores with 1M+ traffic, email adoption jumps to 57%. The message: email marketing is a must-have once you're scaling.

For a full breakdown of Klaviyo vs Mailchimp vs Omnisend adoption by niche and traffic tier, see our best Shopify email marketing apps study.

Reviews

Judge.me leads reviews, probably because of its generous free tier. Yotpo shows up more in larger stores. Brands like Allbirds and Steve Madden use it for photo and video reviews. But 78% of stores have no reviews app at all. That's a huge gap in social proof (customer reviews that help other shoppers trust your product).

Customer Support

Gorgias leads support apps. Its native Shopify integration lets you look up orders and process refunds right from the inbox, which makes it the go-to for brands that outgrow email-only customer support.

Upsell & Cross-Sell

Rebuy leads upsells, but adoption is low overall. Only stores actively optimizing average order value tend to invest here. See our full upsell app analysis for adoption by niche, traffic tier, and the complete Rebuy power stack.

Loyalty

Smile.io's free tier drives its lead. Yotpo Loyalty is more common paired with Yotpo Reviews in enterprise setups.

Other Notable Apps

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Want to see what apps any Shopify store is running? The free Store Inspector extension scans any live store and shows its apps, theme, and pixels in seconds. For bulk research across thousands of stores, try the StoreInspect dashboard.

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What Tracking Pixels Do Shopify Stores Use?

Tracking pixels tell you where a store spends its ad budget. A store running Meta + TikTok + Google + Pinterest pixels is spending real money across platforms.

Key takeaways:

• GA4 at 69.6% - Nearly 7 in 10 stores run Google Analytics 4
• Meta Pixel at 46.8% - Still the most popular ad pixel, but lower than you'd expect
• TikTok at 10.6% - Growing but still early. Less than 1 in 9 stores use it
• Klaviyo pixel at 20.6% - Almost exactly matches Klaviyo app adoption, which confirms the data
• Pinterest at 14.1% - Quietly popular, especially for home, fashion, and beauty stores

A store running 7+ pixels is spending heavily on paid ads and analytics. Only the most advanced stores track across that many platforms.

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What Themes Do Shopify Stores Use?

Dawn leads at 12%. No surprise there. It's been Shopify's default theme since the Online Store 2.0 update. Debut at 8.7% reflects stores that launched before Dawn became the default and haven't switched yet.

Theme Type by Traffic Tier

The pattern: Free themes dominate at the entry level (41% of stores under 50k). Paid themes peak in the 50k-200k range (45%). Custom themes become most common at the highest traffic tiers (36% at 5M-20M).

Stores under 50k traffic are 1.6x more likely to use a free theme than stores at 5M+ traffic. If you're scaling past 50k monthly visitors, a paid theme is the norm.

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Do Paid Themes Correlate With Better Tech Stacks?

Yes. Stores that pay for their theme also tend to invest more in apps.

Stores with paid themes are 1.8x more likely to have email marketing than stores with free themes (55.3% vs 30.4%). They're also nearly 2x more likely to have reviews apps and loyalty programs.

Buying a paid theme doesn't cause better marketing. But stores willing to invest in their storefront also invest in their marketing stack. If you're evaluating a store, theme choice is a good signal of how seriously they take their tech.

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Shopify Plus vs Standard: Tech Stack Comparison

Shopify Plus stores run 2.75x more apps and 3.5x more pixels than standard stores. They also carry twice as many products and score much higher on our lead fit scale.

Part of this is the extra features Shopify Plus provides (automation tools, checkout customization, dedicated support). Part of it is just budget. Stores that can afford $2,300+/month for their plan can also afford $500/month in apps.

If you're prospecting Shopify stores as an agency or app vendor, filtering by Shopify Plus is the fastest way to find stores with real budget.

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Which Apps Appear Together Most Often?

Instead of looking at individual apps, we also checked which apps get installed together. These combos show you what real "stacks" look like in practice.

Most Common App Pairs

Klaviyo is the center of every popular app combination. It pairs with reviews apps most often (Judge.me, Yotpo, Loox), followed by support (Gorgias) and loyalty (Smile.io).

The Klaviyo + Mailchimp pairing (2.1%) is interesting. These are probably stores switching from Mailchimp to Klaviyo and running both during the move. This happens a lot as stores grow, since Klaviyo plugs into Shopify more deeply and has stronger automation.

Why Klaviyo dominates pairings: Klaviyo's Shopify integration syncs customer data, purchase history, and browsing behavior automatically. That makes it easy to trigger emails based on events from other apps, like a review request after delivery or a loyalty reward after a repeat purchase.

Most Common App Trios

When we look at three-app combinations (excluding payment processors like Shop Pay), the same pattern repeats.

The dominant trios all follow the same pattern: Klaviyo + a reviews app + one more tool (loyalty, support, or upsell). Judge.me wins on budget. Yotpo wins with bigger brands that want photo and video reviews. Either way, email + customer reviews is the most popular foundation.

App Category Combinations

Looking at broader category pairings:

Only 0.1% of stores run a full stack across all five major app categories. Most stores that invest in apps start with email, then add reviews, then support or loyalty. Upsell and analytics come last.

The takeaway: You don't need 10 apps on day one. The data shows a clear order of operations that successful stores follow.

Here's the order most stores follow:

1. First app: Email marketing (Klaviyo or Mailchimp)
2. Second app: Reviews (Judge.me or Yotpo)
3. Third app: Support (Gorgias) or Loyalty (Smile.io)
4. Fourth app: Upsell (Rebuy) or Analytics (Elevar)

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Tech Stack by Niche

App usage varies a lot by what stores sell. Here's how each niche compares.

Beauty stores lead at 2.4 average apps. Brands like Glossier and Kylie Cosmetics set the bar. Beauty stores rely heavily on reviews (social proof is critical for cosmetics), email sequences (reminders to reorder products), and loyalty programs (encouraging repeat purchases).

Hobby stores rank lowest at 1.5 average apps. These tend to be passion projects with simpler operations and lower marketing budgets.

Top Apps by Niche

Each niche has its own patterns. Here's what the top niches actually run:

Beauty (9,363 stores): Highest Klaviyo adoption at 38%. Yotpo Reviews is more popular here than in other niches (9.7%), probably because visual reviews matter more for cosmetics and skincare.

Food & Beverage (12,156 stores): Klaviyo at 30.6%, Smile.io Loyalty at 6.3%. Food brands invest in loyalty because their products drive natural repeat purchases.

Fashion (30,002 stores): The largest niche but average in tech investment. Klaviyo at 27.8%, Judge.me at 9.0%, Smile.io at 5.0%. Fashion brands lean more on brand image and social media than on apps.

Health & Wellness (5,959 stores): Klaviyo at 35.6%, Yotpo Reviews at 7.2%. Health brands invest heavily in email (supplements need "time to reorder" reminders) and trust signals (reviews help shoppers trust a new health product).

Baby & Kids (2,573 stores): Highest Smile.io adoption at 7.5%. Parents are loyal shoppers with long customer lifetimes, so loyalty programs make sense here.

Niche insight: Your category matters more than your store size when choosing apps. A beauty store with 50k visitors needs reviews more urgently than an electronics store with 200k visitors, because beauty shoppers rely more heavily on social proof to make buying decisions.

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Where the Gaps Are (Opportunity Data)

For agencies, app vendors, and freelancers, the gaps are the opportunity. Here's what's missing by traffic tier (we break this down further in our growth stage gap map):

Even among stores with 1M+ traffic, 43% have no detected email app. For stores under 50k, it's 69%.

These gaps represent real revenue left on the table. A store doing 50k monthly visitors without email marketing is skipping what's usually the highest-ROI marketing channel.

Best Prospecting Opportunities by Segment

If you sell email marketing services: Target stores in the 50k-200k tier (49% have no email app). These stores have enough traffic to generate meaningful email revenue but haven't invested yet.

If you sell reviews apps or CRO services: 78% of all stores have no reviews app. Even at 1M+ traffic, a third are missing social proof. Easy pitch, clear ROI.

If you build support tools: 93% of stores overall have no customer support app. Even among 1M-5M stores, 80% are missing dedicated support. As these stores scale, support becomes a bottleneck.

Use StoreInspect to filter stores by missing app categories and export prospects with verified contacts.

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App Adoption by Traffic Tier

How does app category adoption change as stores grow?

As stores grow, they add apps in a predictable order:

1. Email first - jumps from 31% to 57% between smallest and largest tiers
2. Reviews next - doubles from 17% to 34%
3. Support scales last - 5x increase from 4% to 20% as customer volume demands it
4. Analytics is the biggest gap at scale. Only 11% of 1M+ stores have dedicated analytics, despite needing it most

The single biggest tech stack mistake: not adding email marketing before 50k visitors. Stores in the 50k-200k tier that DO have email likely started it much earlier.

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What Does a Typical Shopify Tech Stack Cost?

App costs add up fast. Here's what a typical stack costs at different stages, based on the apps we see most often at each traffic tier.

Early-stage store (under 50k visitors/month):

• Theme: Free (Dawn) - $0
• Email: Klaviyo free tier (up to 250 contacts) - $0
• Reviews: Judge.me free tier - $0
• Total: $0-20/month

Growing store (50k-200k visitors/month):

• Theme: Paid theme like Prestige or Impulse - $350 one-time
• Email: Klaviyo (5,000-10,000 contacts) - $100-150/month
• Reviews: Judge.me paid or Yotpo - $15-119/month
• Loyalty: Smile.io free tier - $0
• Total: $115-270/month + theme

Scaling store (200k-1M+ visitors/month):

• Theme: Custom or premium paid - $350-5,000+
• Email: Klaviyo (25,000+ contacts) - $400-600/month
• Reviews: Yotpo Premium - $119-229/month
• Support: Gorgias - $300-750/month
• Upsell: Rebuy - $99-500/month
• Analytics: Elevar - $150-500/month
• Total: $1,070-2,580/month + theme

Keep in mind: These are list prices. Many apps offer discounts for annual billing. And the ROI matters more than the cost. A $150/month email tool that generates $15,000 in monthly revenue pays for itself many times over.

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What This Means For You

This data means different things depending on who you are and what you're trying to do.

If You Own a Shopify Store

Benchmark your stack. Compare your apps to what stores in your niche and traffic tier actually use. If you're in Beauty with no email app, you're behind 62% of your competitors who do.

Follow the growth path. The data shows a clear order: email first, reviews second, then support or loyalty as you scale. Don't skip ahead. Get the basics right before adding complexity.

Don't over-install. The sweet spot is 3-5 apps. Only 2.7% of stores run 6+. More apps means more scripts, slower page loads, and more monthly costs. Every app should earn its spot.

If You're an Agency or Freelancer

Use gaps for prospecting. 59% of stores have no email app. 78% have no reviews. These aren't just stats. They're sales opportunities. A store doing 100k monthly visitors with no email marketing is leaving money on the table, and they probably know it.

Filter by Shopify Plus. Plus stores have 2.75x more apps and much higher budgets. They're also more likely to hire agencies. Use StoreInspect to filter by Plus status, traffic tier, and missing app categories to build targeted prospect lists.

Lead with data. Instead of cold outreach like "Do you need email marketing?", try: "I noticed your store is in the top 30% by traffic but you're missing email and reviews, the two most common apps in your niche." Data-backed outreach converts better.

If You're an App Developer or SaaS Vendor

Find the white space. 93% of stores have no support app. 98% have no upsell tool. 92% have no loyalty program. Tons of room for growth in every category.

Study co-installation patterns. If you build a reviews app, know that your users likely also run Klaviyo. Build integrations with the apps that pair most often with your category.

Target by niche. Beauty stores run 60% more apps than the average. Health & Wellness has the highest email adoption outside the 1M+ tier. Focus your marketing where adoption is already high and growing.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Shopify tech stack?

A Shopify tech stack is the combination of theme, apps, tracking pixels, and third-party integrations that a Shopify store uses. A typical established store runs a theme (free, paid, or custom), 2-5 frontend apps covering email, reviews, and support, plus 4-7 tracking pixels for analytics and advertising.

How many apps should a Shopify store have?

Based on our data from 120,017 stores, the average store uses 1.8 detected apps. Stores in the 1M-5M traffic tier average 2.9 apps. The sweet spot looks like 3-5 apps. Stores in this range score highest on marketing setup metrics. More than 6 apps is rare (only 2.7% of stores).

What is the most popular Shopify app?

Excluding payment processors, Klaviyo is the most popular Shopify app at 25.8% adoption across 120,017 stores. Mailchimp is second at 14.1%. For reviews, Judge.me leads at approximately 10.4% adoption, followed by Yotpo at 4.1%.

What is the most popular Shopify theme?

Dawn is the most popular Shopify theme, used by 12% of stores in our dataset. It's Shopify's default free theme built for Online Store 2.0. Debut is second at 8.7%, followed by custom themes at 7.3%. Among paid themes, Prestige (3.8%) and Impulse (3.7%) lead.

Do Shopify apps slow down your store?

We can't measure speed impact directly from our data. But stores with more apps also run more pixels and have higher lead scores, which suggests the performance trade-off is worth it for most growing stores. Pick the right apps rather than trying to minimize app count.

What apps do the most successful Shopify stores use?

Stores with 1M+ monthly traffic most commonly run Klaviyo (email), a reviews app (Judge.me or Yotpo), and Gorgias (support). The most popular trio is Klaviyo + Judge.me + a loyalty app. At scale, Elevar (analytics) and Rebuy (upsell) become more common.

How can I see what apps any Shopify store uses?

Use the free Store Inspector extension to scan any live Shopify store and see its detected theme, apps, and pixels. For bulk analysis across thousands of stores, use the StoreInspect dashboard.

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Summary

Based on 120,017 Shopify stores:

The typical growing Shopify store stack: Klaviyo for email, Judge.me or Yotpo for reviews, a paid theme (Prestige or Impulse), and 5+ tracking pixels including Meta, GA4, and Google Ads.

The biggest gaps: Email (59%), reviews (78%), and support (93%). If you're an agency or app vendor, these are your prospecting opportunities. If you own a store, these are your quick wins.

The bottom line: Tech stack complexity grows with traffic, but more apps isn't always better. The data suggests 3-5 well-chosen apps is the sweet spot for most stores. Start with email, add reviews, then build from there.

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Related Guides

• What Apps Do Top Shopify Stores Use? [500-Store Analysis] - Our original study on app adoption patterns
• How to Audit a Shopify Store [40,928-Store Benchmark Study] - Benchmarks to audit any store's tech stack
• How to See What Apps a Shopify Store Is Using [4 Free Methods] - Step-by-step guide to detecting competitor apps
• How to Detect What Shopify Theme a Store Is Using [5 Free Methods] - How to identify any store's theme
• How to Detect What Pixels a Shopify Store Is Using [108,292-Store Study] - Full breakdown of pixel and tracking data
• How to Find Shopify Stores by App [Sales Prospecting Guide] - How to prospect using app-based filters