Why Shopify Private (Custom) Apps Still Matter in 2026 — Even After the Deprecation

If you’ve been on Shopify for a while, you’ve probably heard some version of this:

“Private apps are deprecated. Custom apps are changing again in 2026.
Are our integrations… doomed?”

Short answer: no.
Longer answer: the label “private app” is gone, but the need for private-style, store-specific apps is very much alive in 2026—it’s just delivered through custom apps and the Shopify Dev Dashboard, not the old admin-based private app flow.

This post will:

• Explain how private apps evolved into custom apps (and what’s actually being deprecated).
• Show when you still should invest in a custom/private-style solution vs just using public apps.
• Give you a practical migration checklist for legacy private apps and older custom apps so you preserve functionality and data.

1. Shopify’s App Types in Plain English (2019–2026 Timeline)

Let’s get the terminology straight first, because a lot of the confusion is simply language.

Private Apps → Custom Apps

Historically:

• Private apps were store-specific apps created inside the Shopify admin. They were often used for:
  • ERP / WMS / PIM integrations
  • Custom automation
  • Backend “glue code” between Shopify and other systems

Shopify deprecated private apps in January 2022—you could no longer create new ones—and encouraged merchants and partners to use custom apps instead. Shopify+1

Then, between January 19–20, 2023, Shopify automatically converted all existing private apps to custom apps managed via the admin. Custom apps were designed to support all the functionality private apps had, but with better security and management. Shopify+1

So if you still talk about a “private app,” you’re almost certainly running a custom app under the hood.

What’s Actually Happening in 2026?

In October 2025, Shopify announced that:

Starting January 1, 2026, you can no longer create new custom apps directly from the Shopify admin.
To create a new custom app, you must use the Dev Dashboard and then install it on your store.
Existing custom apps continue to work. Shopify Changelog+1

Key point: Shopify is not killing the concept of a store-specific app.
It’s retiring the old way of creating them (inside the admin UI) and moving everything to the Dev Dashboard for better security and lifecycle management.

Where Custom Apps Fit Now

• Public apps
  • Listed on the Shopify App Store, installable by many merchants.
• Custom apps
  • Built for one merchant or one organization’s stores.
  • Installed via a private install link; managed through Dev Dashboard and/or admin. Shopify+2Shopify Help Center+2

Functionally, a modern custom app is the spiritual successor of the old private app—just safer, more structured, and better aligned with Shopify’s current platform architecture.

2. Why Private/Custom-Style Apps Still Matter in 2026

If Shopify is pushing the Dev Dashboard and public apps, why bother with a custom/private-style solution at all?

Because some business problems will never be fully solved by generic, off-the-shelf apps.

Situations Where a Public App Is Usually Enough

Public apps are great when:

• Your needs are standard and common (reviews, basic subscriptions, simple bundles, chat widgets, simple upsells).
• You want fast time-to-value with minimal dev involvement.
• Your team doesn’t want to maintain custom code.
• You’re okay with:
  • Paying recurring subscription fees.
  • Adapting processes to how the app works out of the box.

If your requirement sounds like “we just need what most stores need, but nicer,” the app store is your best first stop.

Situations That Still Justify a Custom/Private-Style App

Custom apps shine when your store is doing something truly specific, like:

Deep, opinionated integrations with ERPs and back-office systems

• • Complex sync logic between Shopify and:
    • ERP (NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Acumatica, etc.)
    • WMS / 3PL
    • PIM / DAM
  • Non-trivial rules: partial shipments, multi-warehouse routing, channel-specific inventory rules, etc.

Highly specialized pricing, B2B, or contract logic

• • Multi-layer discounts based on:
    • Contract tier
    • Segment
    • Currency or region
  • Custom purchasing flows for B2B clients (quotes, approvals, purchase orders).
  • Logic that ties into Shopify Functions for discounts, shipping, or payment customization, driven by your own rules engine.

Strict compliance and data residency

• • You need specific logging, data masking, pseudonymization, or geographic data residency that no public app supports out of the box.
  • You want full visibility into which systems touch what data and how.

Automation and workflows no app vendor will prioritize

• • Internal business rules that would never be a big enough market for a public app:
    • Complex internal approval flows
    • Custom reporting tied to your internal KPIs
    • Bespoke event handling using Shopify webhooks and external services.

Headless or heavily customized experiences

• • Storefront built with Remix, Next.js, Hydrogen, or another headless stack where Shopify is “just one of several backends.”
  • A custom app manages:
    • Tokens
    • Webhooks
    • Low-level admin automation
  • Business logic that’s shared across multiple frontends.

High-volume, performance-sensitive operations

• • You need:
    • Fine-grained control over rate limits.
    • Optimized GraphQL queries.
    • Queue-based webhook processing.
  • Public apps often optimize for broad compatibility, not your specific data patterns.

In all of these cases, a custom app gives you:

• • Precise control over behavior.
  • Direct access to your own codebase.
  • The ability to align tech exactly with process, not the other way around.

3. Private vs Custom vs Public: How the Policies Changed

Let’s connect this back to policy changes so you can see the big picture.

What Changed for Private Apps

• Before 2022: Private apps could be created in the admin, used API keys, and were common for integrations.
• January 2022: Private apps are deprecated; merchants are encouraged to use custom apps. Shopify+1
• January 2023: Existing private apps are auto-converted to custom apps. Functionality remains, security improves. Shopify+1

What Changed for Custom Apps

• 2022–2025: Custom apps become the standard for single-merchant apps, with better control and visibility.
• January 1, 2026: You cannot create new custom apps from the store admin.
  Instead, you must:

1. 1. Use the Dev Dashboard to build and configure the custom app.
   2. Install it on the store via an install link. Shopify Changelog+1

Again: your existing custom apps keep working. The “deprecation” is about the legacy creation flow, not the concept of store-specific apps.

4. When Should You Move Away from Legacy Private-App Usage?

Even though Shopify already converted private apps to custom apps, many stores still have “legacy” patterns:

• Hard-coded admin API keys in third-party systems.
• Very old API versions.
• No structured approach to webhooks or logging.

Here’s how to decide whether you should migrate or modernize.

Green Light to Leave Things Running (for now)

You can usually keep an existing converted app running as-is if:

• It’s using a reasonably current API version (not one Shopify is about to sunset).
• It’s scoped appropriately and not over-permissioned.
• It’s stable, monitored, and documented.
• You’re not planning major process or system changes in the next 6–12 months.

Even then, you should plan a medium-term modernization, but it doesn’t have to be an emergency.

Signs You Should Prioritize Migration Now

Prioritize a migration or rebuild if any of these are true:

You’re on outdated API versions.
Shopify versions its APIs and removes old ones regularly; if your app still talks to very old endpoints, you risk sudden breakage.

Your app uses legacy auth patterns.
Private apps typically relied on basic auth or long-lived admin API tokens. Shopify now encourages secure token management that’s more tightly controlled via custom apps and the Dev Dashboard. Shopify+1

No observability or documentation.

• Nobody knows exactly what the app does.
• No logs, metrics, or alerting.
• Only one developer “knows the magic.”

Scope creep and risk.

• The app has broad, unnecessary access scopes (“just in case”).
• It touches sensitive data in ways you can’t fully audit.

You’re adopting new platform features.

• Shopify Functions, B2B, Markets, etc. may require updated patterns or extra services that old apps weren’t designed for.
• When you see those warning signs, treat modernization as a risk reduction project—not just “tech debt.”

5. Migration Roadmap: From Legacy Private App to Modern Alternatives

Here’s a practical step-by-step approach your team (or your agency/Shopify Partner) can follow.

Step 1: Inventory Your Existing Apps

Create a simple spreadsheet with:

• App name
• Type (converted private → custom, custom, public)
• What it does (one-line summary + detail)
• Systems it talks to (ERP, WMS, PIM, 3PL, BI, etc.)
• API scopes and endpoints used
• Current API version
• Business owner / stakeholder

This alone will surface “forgotten” integrations that may need attention.

Step 2: Classify by Future Strategy

For each legacy private/custom app, decide:

1. Replace with a public app

• • If the feature is now commodity (e.g., simple syncing or tagging), shop the App Store.
  • Check cost vs build/maintenance.

2. Rebuild or refactor as a modern custom app

• • For unique logic, deep integrations, or compliance reasons.
  • Built and managed via the Dev Dashboard in 2026 and beyond. Shopify Changelog+1

3. Retire completely

• • If the process is no longer needed or duplicated by newer tools or native Shopify features (Flow, Functions, Markets, B2B).

Step 3: Design the Target Architecture

For apps you’ll keep (public or custom):

• Align with current Shopify best practices:
  • Use the latest supported API versions.
  • Prefer GraphQL for large or complex data operations.
  • Use webhooks + queues (or event bus) for reliability and resilience.
• Ensure:
  • Clear permission scopes.
  • Central secret/token management.
  • Logging and monitoring (e.g., central log storage, alerting).

Step 4: Plan Data and Functionality Preservation

To avoid losing data or breaking operations:

Backups and exports

• • Export any custom data your app stores externally.
  • Consider snapshotting related Shopify data (orders, metafields, tags, etc.) as a safety net.

Side-by-side (parallel) running

• • If feasible, run the new app and the old app in parallel on a subset of traffic or a test store.
  • Compare outputs: order tags, inventory updates, ERP sync records.

Webhooks and event handling

• • Ensure webhook topics in the new app match your real-world events.
  • Implement retries, idempotency, and dead-letter queues for failed events.

Clear rollback plan

• • Define what it means to “roll back” if something goes wrong at launch:
    • Switch DNS/URLs back?
    • Disable new app and re-enable old one?
    • Manual patch scripts to fix any data drift?

Step 5: Communication and Training

• Document:
  • What changed
  • Who owns the app
  • Where logs and dashboards live
• Train internal teams (ops, CS, finance) on any new workflows or dashboards.

6. How to Decide: Custom/Private-Style vs Public App (Quick Checklist)

When evaluating a new requirement, run through this:

Go public app first if:

• ✅ The requirement is common across many stores (reviews, basic loyalty, standard subscriptions).
• ✅ You don’t need deep back-office integration or heavily custom flows.
• ✅ You want speed, low upfront cost, and are okay adapting to the app’s way of doing things.

Lean toward a custom app if:

• ✅ The process is core to your business and differentiates you (e.g., your fulfillment or pricing model is a competitive edge).
• ✅ You’re integrating Shopify with multiple internal systems in a tightly coupled way.
• ✅ You have compliance, security, or data residency requirements that public apps can’t satisfy.
• ✅ You’re investing in headless or complex multi-channel architecture.
• ✅ Changes to this logic would be expensive or disruptive if you were locked into a third-party app roadmap.

If the answer to “Is this strategically important and unique to us?” is yes, a custom/private-style solution is usually the safer long-term bet.

7. Key Takeaways for 2026 and Beyond

• Private apps as a label are gone, but their spirit lives on in custom apps.
  Shopify deprecated the old private app type in 2022 and auto-migrated them to custom apps in 2023. Shopify+1
• 2026 doesn’t kill custom apps—it modernizes how you create them.
  From January 1, 2026, you create custom apps via the Dev Dashboard, then install them on your store. Existing custom apps keep working. Shopify Changelog+1
• Store-specific apps still absolutely matter.
  For deep integrations, unique workflows, compliance, and performance-sensitive automation, a custom app remains the right tool.
• Legacy private/custom apps should be audited, not blindly left alone.
  Evaluate API versions, auth patterns, scopes, logging, and whether the logic is still aligned with how your business runs today.
• Use public apps where it makes sense, reserve custom for what makes you unique.
  That balance gives you the best of both worlds: speed + stability from public apps, and differentiation + control from custom solutions.