Research · 7 min read
What apps is my competitor using on Shopify?
If a competitor is outperforming you, part of the answer is usually in their apps. The tools they've installed — for reviews, email, upsells, subscriptions — are the machinery behind their results, and most of it is publicly visible. Here's how to find exactly what a competitor runs, and more importantly, what to do with that knowledge.
The quick way to find their apps
Paste your competitor's store URL into the app detector and check its apps. In a few seconds you'll get their app stack, grouped by category with logos, read straight from their store's public code. No login, no paid subscription, no browser extension. For most stores this gives you the great majority of their customer-facing tools instantly.
Find your competitor's apps
Scan their store free, in seconds.
What their apps tell you
Don't just collect the list — read it. The categories your competitor invests in reveal their strategy:
- A reviews app means they compete on trust and social proof. If you're not gathering reviews, that's an immediate gap.
- An email platform means they're capturing and re-selling to past visitors — the cheapest revenue there is.
- Upsell or page-builder apps mean they're working to increase the value of each visit.
- A subscription app means they've built recurring revenue, if their product suits it.
- Bundle apps mean they're pushing average order value with quantity deals and combos.
Each app is a decision your competitor paid for — so the stack is essentially their strategy, made visible.
Scan several competitors, not just one
One competitor is a data point; several are a pattern. Scan your top three or four competitors and look at what they have in common. If all of them run a reviews app and an email tool, those aren't optional in your niche — they're table stakes, and any you're missing are your first priorities. If just one runs something unusual and is clearly winning, that's a lead worth investigating. The overlap across competitors is the most reliable signal of what actually works in your market.
The apps every successful competitor shares are the ones you can't afford to skip. The apps only one runs are the experiments worth watching.
Turning the list into a plan
Here's how to act on what you find. First, note the gaps — categories your competitors use that you don't. Rank them by how consistently they appear across competitors; the most common gaps are your highest priority. Then tackle them one at a time, starting with the fundamentals almost every winner runs: reviews and email. Don't try to copy an entire stack at once — that's expensive and slows your store down. Add deliberately, one proven category at a time, and measure the effect before moving to the next.
What you won't see — and why that's fine
Be aware of the limits. You'll see customer-facing apps that leave a public trace, which is most of what matters. You won't see back-office tools (accounting, internal inventory) or functionality a competitor has custom-coded rather than installed. But those hidden pieces rarely change your plan — the visible stack, the reviews and email and upsell tools, is exactly the part you'd want to learn from anyway.
Do it now
Pick your single biggest competitor and scan their apps. Write down what they run that you don't. That list — reviews, email, whatever's there — is your roadmap, pulled straight from a store that's already winning in your space. It took five minutes and cost nothing.
Keep reading: how to see a competitor's apps for free, or what a store's apps reveal about its business model.