Using Apps with themes

Info

Visit Shopify's help centre for an extensive guide on extending your theme with apps.

Online Store 2.0 and compatible themes

With Online Store 2.0 compatible themes, some apps can now be added via the theme editor as an app block.

You may need to update your theme to utilize this feature. To check whether your theme is compatible with OS 2.0 refer to our theme release notes or visit our guide on how to update your theme.

Choosing apps

The majority of Shopify Apps are developed by third-party developers. Before committing to an app, it can be worthwhile reviewing the app documentation or contacting their support for information on how it integrates into themes.

As theme developers, we're unable to modify our code to make our themes compatible with any app because resolving one issue for one app often introduces errors in other theme functionality or other apps. Instead, we do offer app developers access to our code so they can make the necessary changes on their end to make their app work with our themes.

Apps and performance

Apps that edit or add elements to the frontend of the store often add javascript files that increase page load time. Try to limit apps that are added into themes to under 5 to reduce load times.

Updating themes with apps

Adding apps to your store can help add new features and functionality, but can often make theme maintenance a little more complex.

Depending on the theme version you're running, some apps may require custom code to be added to theme template files. When updating your theme, these customizations will have to be added back in to the new version.