The Shopify Plus tech stack: what a serious store runs, by job

How to read this guide

Shopify’s own feature set is wider than it was. Subscriptions, search, bundles, B2B, email, Flow automation and basic analytics all ship from Shopify now, some free and some on Plus. So the first question for every job below is whether Shopify’s own tool does enough, and only then which app to add.

Every app named here was checked on apps.shopify.com on October 17, 2026 to confirm it exists and what it is called today. “Needs Plus” means the app itself requires the Plus plan. “Better on Plus” means the app runs on any plan but its checkout placements or custom logic need Plus. We don’t list app prices; they change and most are tiered.

Email and SMS

Shopify’s own Email app covers campaigns and basic automations, and for a store under a few thousand contacts it is often enough. Past that, Klaviyo is the default because it reads Shopify’s customer, order and segment data natively and most other apps in this guide push events into it. The decision is really email plus SMS in one tool (Klaviyo) or a dedicated SMS tool (Attentive or Postscript) next to it.

What moves in a migration: contact lists, consent status and historical engagement, which most of these tools import from a CSV or from the old platform directly. What doesn’t move is the flow logic, which is rebuilt against Shopify’s events.

Customer support

The thing to look for is whether the agent can see and edit the Shopify order without leaving the helpdesk: refund, duplicate, change address. Gorgias and Richpanel were built for that; Zendesk does it through its Shopify integration and makes sense when support already lives there for other reasons. Shopify’s own Inbox app handles storefront chat if chat is all you need.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions on Shopify run through Shopify Checkout and Shopify’s selling plan API, so whichever app you choose, the subscription contract is a Shopify object and the card is vaulted with Shopify Payments. That is why Shopify’s own Subscriptions app can only import contracts from apps already on Shopify Checkout, and why a WooCommerce or Magento subscriber base moves through the app vendor’s migration service, with tokens transferred from the old gateway. Plan that step early; it depends on your current processor cooperating.

Returns and exchanges

Shopify’s own returns in the admin cover the basics: a return created on the order, a label, a refund or exchange. The apps add the customer-facing portal, exchange-for-anything, store credit and the rules engine. Return history from Magento or WooCommerce does not migrate; the portal starts with orders placed on Shopify, which is one more reason to import your order history with a return window in mind.

Reviews

Reviews are one of the few things that move from the old platform, because every review app imports a CSV of reviewer, rating, text, date and product handle. Map the product handles before the import, since a review attached to a product that was merged or renamed in the catalog migration lands nowhere.

Search and merchandising

Shopify’s free app covers filters, synonyms, product boosts and recommendations, and for a catalog under a few thousand products it is the right starting point. The paid tools earn their place on larger catalogs with merchandising rules by collection, search analytics and personalization. Magento stores are usually the ones that need them, because Magento’s attribute-driven layered navigation is what customers are used to and Shopify’s filters are built on product options, tags and metafields instead.

Loyalty and referrals

Points balances migrate by CSV in all three. Redemption at checkout is where Plus shows up: on Plus the loyalty app can place a redemption block in checkout, and on other plans the customer redeems on the cart page or in their account. Shopify’s own discount system handles the mechanics once the app issues the discount.

Analytics and attribution

Shopify’s built-in reports are good enough that many Advanced stores never add an analytics app. What the paid tools add is marketing attribution, profit after ad spend and cohort reporting across stores, which matters more once there are expansion stores. GA4 runs on every plan through Shopify’s Google & YouTube app. Shopify Audiences, which builds ad audiences from Shopify’s network, is Plus-only and limited to US and Canadian stores on Shopify Payments.

ERP and OMS connectors

This is the job where Plus is most often decided. The connector itself installs on any plan, but a catalog or inventory sync that runs hundreds of updates a minute lives or dies on the API limit: 200 GraphQL points a second on Advanced, 1,000 on Plus, with the option to ask support for more. Shopify also exempts Plus stores from the 10,000 new variants a day cap that applies once a store has 500,000 variants. If your integration partner has built retry queues around throttling, that is a Plus store already.

For simpler rules, such as tagging orders, holding fulfillment on risk, or notifying a channel, Flow replaces a surprising amount of middleware for free.

B2B

Start with Shopify’s own B2B. Companies, locations, net terms, quantity rules, price breaks, PO numbers and the Trade theme are on every plan, and the cap that forces the Plus decision is 3 catalogs across all B2B markets. Once each key account needs its own prices or you take deposits on wholesale orders, Plus is the plan. The apps earn their place on top of that for sales rep ordering, quote requests and bulk order forms, which Shopify does not do natively. Shopify’s old Plus Wholesale Channel was discontinued on June 28, 2024, so any store still carrying its data moves it to B2B companies and catalogs.

What we do with this list

In a Plus readiness audit we take your current extension or plugin list and this reference stack and produce one table: each job, the tool you run today, the Shopify-native option, the app we’d pick, what migrates and what is rebuilt, and whether Plus is needed. That table is most of the scope for the upgrade project, and it is why the audit comes first. The when to upgrade guide covers the plan decision itself, and the cost page covers what you’ll pay Shopify after.