How To Detect What Shopify Apps A Store Is Using?
By Sam Nguyen
This guide will walk you through the process if you want to uncover the apps a Shopify store uses. We’ll start by explaining what a Shopify app is and how a Shopify app detector can help identify the tools behind a store’s functionality.
You’ll also learn why detecting these apps can be useful for optimizing your store or gaining insights from others. Finally, we’ll introduce featured tools that make it easy to find which Shopify apps are in use, including popular Shopify app detector Chrome extensions.
When running an eCommerce business, knowing what apps a successful Shopify store uses can provide valuable insights into optimizing and improving your own store. Shopify apps are essential tools that can enhance a store’s functionality, improve customer experience, and boost sales. Whether it’s for marketing, SEO, inventory management, or customer service, apps play a significant role. So, detecting what apps a Shopify store uses can give you an edge in understanding the strategies behind their success and how you can apply similar tactics to your own business.
In this guide, we’ll explore methods and tools you can use to discover what apps are using for a Shopify store. Let’s get started!
What Is A Shopify App?
A Shopify app is a tool that helps store owners add new features or extend the functionality of their online stores. These apps can manage various tasks like inventory, marketing, shipping, and customer service.
There are three main types of Shopify apps:
| Public apps | These apps are divided into two categories – listed and unlisted. Both types must pass Shopify’s app review process before being available for installation from the Shopify App Store. Listed apps are easily found in search results and categories, while unlisted apps can only be accessed via a direct link from the developer’s website or their App Store listing. |
| Custom apps | Custom apps can be developed to add unique features to your Shopify admin or connect your store to other platforms. Unlike public apps, they aren’t available in the Shopify App Store and can be installed using an installation link provided by the developer. These apps don’t require API access or full access to your Shopify admin. |
| Draft apps | Used primarily by Shopify Partners during development, draft apps are installed only on development stores for testing. Once installed, the store can no longer be transferred. A draft app can only be used on a live store after it passes Shopify’s review or is converted into a custom app. |
You can discover the difference between all types of Shopify apps here.
What Is A Shopify App Detector?
A Shopify app detector is a tool for identifying the apps, plugins, and integrations running on any Shopify store. It works by scanning the store’s source code and uncovering all the installed apps. This allows store owners and e-commerce enthusiasts to gain insights into the technology behind successful stores, such as marketing or customer experience apps.
Here’s how it works:
- Code Analysis: The detector scans the Shopify store source code, identifying script tags, meta tags, or data attributes associated with installed apps. These tags help pinpoint the specific apps in use.
- Automated Scanning: Tools like Koala Inspector and Pipiads use automated technology to detect Shopify apps. You simply enter the store’s URL, and the tool scans the code to generate a list of apps.
- Results Display: After the scan, the detector provides a list of detected apps, often with descriptions, features, and links to the app’s page. This helps store owners explore or replicate the same functionality with similar apps.
Shopify app detectors are especially useful for analyzing competitors. They allow you to see the tools contributing to other stores’ success, helping you adopt similar strategies. Plus, these tools are easy to use and often available as browser extensions, so you don’t need technical expertise to access them.
Why Would You Want To Detect A Shopify App
Using a Shopify store app detector offers several advantages. It allows you to see which apps and plugins other Shopify stores use, providing valuable insight into how competitors boost their store’s performance. Whether it’s for marketing, customer experience, or sales optimization, you can identify the apps they rely on and apply similar strategies to your own store.
When you know what apps work well for others, picking the right tools for your store becomes easier. You can replicate successful stores or find apps that offer features your competitors might be missing, giving you an advantage.
In addition, these detectors simplify the process by providing detailed insights without manually searching through a store’s code. If you’re curious whether Shopify has an app for a specific feature, these tools quickly provide the answers, saving you time and effort.
Methods To Find What Shopify App A Shopify Store Is Using
#1: Using Browser Extensions
Using browser extensions is a quick and easy way to detect Shopify apps. Here are some popular extensions you can use:
- Shopify App Detector by Fera.ai (Chrome): This extension can detect apps and themes used by a Shopify store.
- Wappalyzer (Chrome, Firefox, Edge): This extension analyzes the technologies used on websites, including Shopify apps.
- Koala Inspector (Chrome): This extension provides insights into Shopify stores, including the apps they use.
If you’re looking for an example of how to detect apps with a Shopify app detector extension, here’s a step-by-step guide using Fera.ai:
Step 1: Install the extension of your choice from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons.
Step 2: Navigate to the Shopify store you want to analyze.
Step 3: Click the extension icon in your browser toolbar.
Step 4: The extension will analyze the store’s code and display a list of detected apps.
# 2: Checking Page Source Manually
Manual code inspection is a more technical method requiring some HTML and coding knowledge. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Check out the page source: Just right-click on the webpage and choose “View Page Source” or press:
- Ctrl+U (Windows/Linux)
- Cmd+Option+U (Mac).
Step 2: Check meta tags and comments: Search for “<!– BEGIN app block: shopify://apps/“. The app’s name comes right after /apps/. You can use this by changing dashes to spaces to look for the app in the Shopify App marketplace.
For example, in the screenshot, you can see shopify://apps/triplewhale/ indicating the app TripleWhale.
Now you’ve got a clearer picture of Shopify Apps’ appearance in the page source. It might take a while, but soon enough, you can spot these apps easily!
Top 5 Shopify Apps A Store Should Use To Boost Conversion Rates
Here are the top 5 Shopify apps designed to improve your store’s performance and drive more sales:
Avada SEO Speed Image Optimize – Best for SEO Performance
Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, Avada SEO Speed Image Optimize provides a complete toolkit to improve your website’s SEO performance effortlessly.
From conducting in-depth SEO audits to optimizing page speed and providing structured data, our app covers all aspects of on-page and technical SEO. With support for multiple languages and seamless integration with popular tools like Google Search Console, Judge.me, and Loox, this app ensures your site performs optimally across all platforms.
Key Features:
- Improve site speed with image compression, lazy loading, and minification techniques.
- On-page SEO include meta titles, blog posts, keywords, ALT text, and internal linking.
- Detect broken links, manage 404 pages, and implement structured data (JSON-LD), sitemaps, and rich snippets.
- Generate detailed monthly reports to help you stay on top of optimization tasks.
- Automatically optimize images with compression and ALT text updates to improve load times and search engine rankings.
- Quickly edit ALT text, file names, format conversions, and compression across multiple images and files.
- Local SEO & URL optimization for better search engine indexing.
- Track SEO scores, analyze performance, and gain insights on competitors, keywords, content, speed, and overall website traffic.
Avada Trust Badges & Upsell – Best for Boosting Sales
One of the best-boosting sales Shopify apps, Avada Trust Badges & Upsell is a perfect choice to boost your store’s credibility and increase your average order value (AOV). The app offers to upsell and cross-sell features, trust badges, and urgency-building tools like sales popups.
It also helps you maximize sales by recommending frequently bought-together items and offering one-click upsells after checkout, all while enhancing customer trust with customizable trust badges.
Key Features:
- Build consumer trust with customizable trust badges and guarantee icons.
- Tailor badges, popups, and upsells to match your brand’s identity.
- Track click-through rates and conversion rates to measure performance.
- Create urgency and encourage conversions by adding sales popups & free shipping bar.
- Boost sales with features like Frequently Bought Together and post-purchase upsells for one-click offers.
Shopify Email – Best For Building Lasting Relationships
Shopify Email is a powerful and easy-to-use email marketing tool that helps you connect with your customers directly from the Shopify platform. Whether you’re sending product updates, promoting sales, or re-engaging customers with personalized emails, Shopify Email is designed to make your email marketing campaigns seamless and effective. Best of all, the app is free to install, and your first 10,000 emails each month are completely free, making it a great choice for small businesses or those just starting out.
Key Features:
- Free to install with 10,000 free emails per month
- Automatically create subject lines, and body copy, and optimize send times.
- A drag-and-drop editor or customized templates to match your style.
- Set up pre-built email automation for abandoned carts, restock notifications, welcome emails, and more.
- Monitor key metrics like click-through rates, products added to the cart, and purchases.
- Available in 20+ languages, including Vietnamese, French, German, and Spanish.
- Wide range of campaign types, such as newsletters, promotions, abandoned cart emails, and upsell campaigns.
Shopify Search & Discovery – Best For
Shopify Search & Discovery is a free app designed to improve your store’s search functionality and product discovery experience, helping customers find exactly what they’re looking for with ease. By customizing search filters, creating product recommendations, and using data-driven insights, this app ensures that your store delivers relevant results to shoppers while boosting sales.
Key Features:
- Customizable filters to refine their search by categories like size, color, price, and more.
- Highlight featured products at the top of search results to increase visibility.
- Add related or complementary products to product detail pages to encourage more purchases.
- Gain insights into store activity, including how customers interact with search and product recommendations.
- Available in 18+ languages, including Vietnamese, French, German, and Spanish.
Trustoo Product Reviews App – Best For Building A Reliable Brand
Trustoo Product Reviews App helps Shopify store owners collect and display customer reviews, including photos and videos, to build social proof and trust. With automated review collection, visually appealing widgets, and integration with social media platforms, Trustoo improves your brand’s credibility and helps drive sales. The app also supports multiple languages and offers 24/7 customer support.
Key Features:
- Collect reviews with photos and videos from customers automatically.
- Display reviews in beautiful, customizable widgets to match your brand.
- Auto-translate reviews and offer unlimited translations.
- Share reviews on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to attract organic traffic.
Final Thoughts
Using a Shopify app detector can be a game changer for store owners and e-commerce enthusiasts. It lets you quickly and easily see the apps and themes used by other Shopify stores, helping you gather valuable insights for improving your store.
By detecting these tools, you can stay ahead of the competition and make better decisions about the apps that suit your business needs.
FAQs about Shopify App Detector
Can you tell what apps a Shopify store is using?
Yes, you can use Shopify app detectors like Koala Inspector or Wappalyzer to determine which apps a Shopify store uses. These tools scan the store’s code and list the installed apps.
How do you find out what Shopify theme a store is using?
You can use tools like the AVADA Shopify Theme Detector to detect a Shopify store’s theme easily. By simply inputting the store URLs into the tool, you can quickly find the theme’s name, saving time and effort in manually searching through the store’s code or inspecting its design elements.
How can a Shopify app detector help me improve my own store’s performance?
A Shopify app detector helps you see what apps successful stores are using. You can analyze these apps and adopt similar ones to enhance your store’s functionality, optimize marketing, or improve customer experience.
What are the limitations of relying solely on a Shopify app detector for competitive analysis?
Shopify app detectors only reveal the installed apps and themes, not how those apps are configured or optimized. They also don’t provide insights into custom code or unique strategies a store might use.
Could Shopify app detectors potentially be used to identify vulnerabilities in a competitor’s store setup?
No, Shopify app detectors are not designed to identify security vulnerabilities. They only scan the front-end code to detect apps and themes but do not reveal backend security details.
Are there any potential legal issues to be aware of when using Shopify app detectors to gather competitive data?
Generally, using app detectors is legal as they access public information. However, using the information for malicious purposes, such as copying proprietary content or violating privacy laws, could result in legal issues.
