Shopify Development Agency: 15 Sorted by the Layer of Your Store They Build

Ask ten agencies for a Shopify development quote and you get ten ways of saying it depends. It depends on the layer. A store has several parts a developer can change, from a theme you can edit alone in the theme editor to a storefront that has nothing to do with a theme at all, and the price, the skills and the risks differ at every step.

Pay for the lightest layer that does the job. This guide goes through the layers in that order, then covers pricing, how to choose and what happens after launch. What an agency says about its own results is its claim, repeated here without an audit.

What Does a Shopify Development Agency Do?

A Shopify development agency writes and maintains the code and integrations around a store: custom themes, apps, checkout extensions, Functions, API connections to other systems and, in some cases, a separate storefront. It differs from a marketing agency, which buys traffic and runs email, and from an SEO agency, which works on search. The Shopify marketing agency comparison covers that side.

Shopify development services at a glance (Shopify’s developer and help pages, read 5 November 2026)

When to Hire a Shopify Development Agency

Shopify’s own customisation guidance points merchants to the theme editor and installed apps first. It says that knowing how to code is necessary when the theme does not expose the change you need. That is the dividing line.

• A new look on the same store: theme development. A theme shop, not an engineering firm.
• A feature the App Store almost covers: try the app first, then consider a custom app.
• A custom discount or delivery rule: extensions and Functions, and check the plan.
• Orders and stock syncing with an ERP: API integration, and ask about rate limits.
• An experience a theme cannot hold: a headless storefront, and prove the case first.
• Moving from another platform first: start with the Shopify migration agency guide.

Shopify Theme Development Services

How Shopify Theme Customisation Works

Shopify’s architecture page describes JSON templates as wrappers for sections, and sections as reusable modules that merchants can customise. A merchant can rearrange sections in the theme editor without a developer. Anything the theme does not expose needs code.

Developers work with Shopify CLI. The command that creates a development theme does not count toward your theme limit, and Shopify deletes it after seven days of inactivity. To work on a live store, a developer asks for collaborator access with the Themes permission, pulls the theme, edits locally and pushes it unpublished until you approve it. Shopify’s help page says to hire a Shopify Partner if you need help customising a theme. The Theme Store minimums, a Lighthouse performance score of 60 and an accessibility score of 90, apply to themes submitted to the store, not to a custom theme built for one merchant.

Custom Shopify Theme Development Agencies

A Bunch of Creators, a small New York team, quotes a custom theme at 6 to 8 weeks from design approval, a template-based setup at 3 to 4, redesigns on a template from $5,000 to $8,000 and custom design and development from $15,000 to $50,000 or more, with a year of support in every build. Codersy in Belgrade prints the clearest ladder in euros: a store build from 3,000, a custom theme from a client’s design from 8,000 and a design in Figma plus the theme from 9,000, though it states no timelines and shows a team of six on one page and sixteen on another. Realm Web Design, Shopify-only since 2012, lists packages from $20,000 and $40,000 and names the kinds of sites it refuses, among them adult, CBD and vaping. Charle Agency separates bespoke themes at about 6 to 8 months from template themes at about 8 to 12 weeks and publishes no prices. Byteex works in Liquid sections and speed, with launches given as 14 to 30 days on one page and 2 to 4 weeks on another. WebSenor, with a claimed 140 engineers, prices a Theme Sprint from 3 lakh rupees (300,000) and says themes take 4 to 6 weeks.

What to Ask a Shopify Theme Developer

Is the theme built from my design or yours, who owns the Git repository, and how will my team edit sections without a developer afterwards? Theme weight also feeds search performance, so if speed is the real reason for the rebuild, the Shopify SEO agency guide lists teams that fix technical issues.

Shopify App Development Services

Custom Shopify Apps vs Public Apps

A public app is listed on the App Store and approved by Shopify. A custom app, in Shopify’s words, is built exclusively for your store. A custom app cannot charge merchants through Shopify’s billing system, and the distribution choice cannot be changed afterwards. Since 1 January 2026 you can no longer create new custom apps in the Shopify admin. A developer builds them in the Dev Dashboard and installs them on your store, while existing custom apps keep working. Shopify says creating one “requires development knowledge and can be challenging”.

Shopify App Development Agencies

Folio3 claims more than 50 custom apps delivered and names NetSuite, Dynamics and SAP integrations, but it publishes no price and its client counts disagree (200 merchants on one page, 2,000 clients on another). Digittrix in India prints app tiers of $1,499 for an MVP and $1,500 to $2,499 for an advanced app, with focused apps at 2 to 4 weeks and connected business apps at 6 to 12 or more, although the case studies on its site, including IKEA, are not Shopify projects. Metizsoft quotes 3 to 5 weeks for a simple app and 6 to 10 for one with ERP or shipping integrations, plus 2 to 4 weeks for public app review. It says code and IP pass to you at the end, but several of its case metrics are not tied to a named Shopify merchant. Script Engine in Surat builds custom and public apps and has launched its own, including a wishlist app rated 4.8 from more than 275 reviews and labelled Built for Shopify. Its contact form offers budget bands from under $1,000 to $15,000 or more, which are form options and not prices. Codersy sells custom apps from 3,000 euros and publishes seven of its own.

Custom App or Existing App: What to Ask

Would an existing app do this, who pays for the Shopify API changes every year, and what happens to the app if you stop working with the agency? Byteex says on its own pages that it will recommend an app over custom code when an app is the better answer. That is the right instinct to test for.

Shopify Checkout and Theme App Extensions

What Theme App Extensions and Checkout UI Extensions Need

Theme app extensions do not edit theme code, which is why they survive theme updates. Checkout UI extensions on the information, shipping and payment steps are available only to Plus stores, and Shopify caps the compiled bundle at 64 KB and merchants at three extensions in the same block target. Standard checkout customisation, such as the branding editor and eligible apps on the thank you and order status pages, is open to Basic and above. For the wider Plus picture, read our Shopify Plus agency guide.

Agencies That Build Shopify Extensions

Script Engine names theme app extensions and API version upgrades for existing apps. Dynamic Dreamz lists Checkout Extensibility, Functions and Markets. Byteex and Digittrix list checkout extensions as Plus work. Ask whether your need is an app block, which any plan can use, or a checkout extension, which needs Plus on the key steps.

Shopify Functions Development

Shopify Functions Limits and Plan Rules

Shopify lists nine Function APIs, covering discounts, delivery and payment customisation, cart transforms, order routing and validation. Functions are written in anything that compiles to WebAssembly, with templates for Rust and JavaScript and a strong recommendation for Rust. A compiled function cannot exceed 256 kB and gets 11 million instructions on carts up to 200 line items. Public apps containing Functions work on any plan, while custom apps with Function APIs are Plus only, as set out in Shopify’s Functions developer documentation.

Agencies That Build Shopify Functions

Script Engine lists Functions for discounts, payment and delivery customisation and cart validation. Dynamic Dreamz and Byteex list them too. Two agencies in this guide, A Bunch of Creators and WebSenor, still list Shopify Scripts among their Plus work, but Shopify’s changelog says Scripts were switched off on 30 June 2026, so that wording is out of date. Ask which language the function will use, and whether it is a custom app (Plus only) or a public app that does the same job.

Shopify API Integration and ERP Development

Admin API Rate Limits by Plan

The GraphQL Admin API restores 100 points a second on standard plans, 200 on Advanced, 1,000 on Plus and 2,000 on enterprise, and no single query may cost more than 1,000 points. The REST Admin API has been legacy since 1 October 2024, with 2, 4, 20 and 40 requests a second across the same plans. A sync that works at 500 products can fail at 50,000, and that is why this is a different skill from a theme change.

Shopify ERP and Integration Agencies

Rocketify in Paris is the narrowest and the most candid: it builds ERP connectors, for systems such as Sage and Cegid, and custom apps, and says plainly that it does not do stores, themes or SEO. Its profile on a developer marketplace shows an unexplained $3,000+, which its own site never mentions. Folio3 and Metizsoft publish the broadest app and integration scope, Script Engine lists ERP, CRM and shipping integrations, and Codersy prices an ERP or POS integration from 2,500 euros. Digittrix names React, Polaris, App Bridge, Node.js and the GraphQL Admin API as its stack. Ask how the agency will stay inside your plan’s rate limit, who monitors failed syncs, and who upgrades the API version when Shopify retires the old one.

Headless Shopify Development with Hydrogen

Hydrogen, Oxygen and the Storefront API

A custom storefront talks to Shopify through the Storefront API, which exists only in GraphQL, while checkout stays on Shopify. Hydrogen is Shopify’s headless toolkit, with starter templates for React Router and Next.js and hosting on Oxygen. Buyer traffic is not subject to a fixed request limit on the Storefront API. Shopify’s own customisation guidance says to avoid headless unless necessary, and to consider it when a theme cannot reasonably deliver the interaction you need. On Plus a store may run up to 25 headless storefronts, against one elsewhere. Costs and the Plus detail are in the Shopify Plus agency guide.

Headless Shopify Agencies

Codersy prices a Hydrogen storefront at 10,000 to 20,000 euros. WebSenor gives 8 to 14 weeks for Plus or Hydrogen builds. A Bunch of Creators lists Hydrogen and Next.js builds, and Aureate Labs shows two headless cases without figures. Ask which part of your brief cannot be done in a theme, and what it will cost to run this storefront in year two.

How Much Does a Shopify Development Agency Cost?

Most of the 15 print nothing. Those that do measure different things, so compare the unit, not the headline.

Shopify Development Agency Hourly Rates

• Aureate Labs: $15 to $30 an hour, with pre-paid bundles of 80 or 160 hours and a 7-day trial. It is not Shopify-only and states no Shopify partner status.
• Dynamic Dreamz: support from $25 an hour, with a white-label model for agencies.
• Binaery: a $135 hourly trial with a $500 deposit.

Shopify Development Project Prices

• Codersy: store build from 3,000 euros, custom theme from 8,000, custom app from 3,000, ERP or POS integration from 2,500, Hydrogen storefront 10,000 to 20,000.
• A Bunch of Creators: template redesigns around $5,000 to $8,000 and custom design and development $15,000 to $50,000 or more.
• Realm Web Design: packages from $20,000 and $40,000.
• WebSenor: Theme Sprint from 3 lakh rupees, a Plus build from 9 lakh and migrations from 2,50,000.
• Digittrix: apps at $1,499 and $1,500 to $2,499.

Folio3, Metizsoft, Byteex, Charle, Script Engine and Rocketify publish no price, and Script Engine, like several others, only lists budget bands on its contact form.

Shopify Development Retainer Costs

• Binaery: $2,000 for 10 hours, $5,500 for 20 and $8,500 for 30 a month. Unused hours expire at the end of the next billing cycle, and its pricing page advertises unlimited revisions while its FAQ says revisions use your hours.
• Dynamic Dreamz: a dedicated developer from $2,000 a month.
• WebSenor: a Growth Retainer of 1 lakh rupees a month for 20 to 40 hours.
• Codersy: optimisation and support from 500 euros a month.
• XgenTech: tiers of about 20, 40 and 80 hours a month, month to month with 30 days’ notice and no rollover, with no dollar amounts. It promises 24/7/365 support while its own guide sets response times of 1 hour for critical issues and 24 to 48 hours for normal ones.

How Long a Shopify Development Project Takes

Stated timelines vary with the layer. A Bunch of Creators says 3 to 4 weeks for a template setup, 6 to 8 for a custom theme and 12 to 20 for complex builds. Binaery says a full site takes roughly 6 to 8 weeks and Realm Web Design says larger projects average 60 to 90 days. For apps, Digittrix quotes 2 to 4 weeks for a focused one and Metizsoft 3 to 5 weeks for a simple one.

Shopify Development Agency vs Marketing Agency vs Freelancer

An agency suits work that spans layers, and a marketing agency does not write code. A freelancer suits a single, well-defined job. Several agencies here offer a middle route, a dedicated developer or a block of pre-paid hours, which is why Dynamic Dreamz and Aureate Labs sit in the hourly list above. To compare freelancers, matchmaking services and the Partner Directory, use our guide on how to hire a Shopify expert. The agencies that say what they will not do help here: A Bunch of Creators states it does not run paid media, social or email in house, and Rocketify says it does not build stores or themes.

How to Choose a Shopify Development Agency

Shopify’s Partner Directory page says partners in the directory work independently, and tells you to check reviews, work samples and certifications. Its tiers reflect commercial activity, not code quality. A few concrete checks, drawn from what these 15 sites actually show:

• Look for a directory link. Only Codersy, A Bunch of Creators, Realm Web Design, Dynamic Dreamz and Script Engine link their Shopify Partner Directory profile from their own sites. Charle links a Shopify Experts page instead, and the others show badges only.
• Ask for per-client results. Codersy and Byteex name clients with conversion figures. A Bunch of Creators, Realm and Charle publish few or none tied to a client, and the figures that exist are agency claims.
• Distrust counters that disagree. Codersy shows a team of six and sixteen. Byteex and Charle show placeholder zeros on their about pages. Folio3 gives 200 merchants and 2,000 clients.
• Read what an agency refuses. Realm lists sites it will not build, and Rocketify says what it does not do. That is easier to trust than an agency that says yes to everything.

Shopify Maintenance, Support and Handover

Who Holds the Code, the Access and the Bill

Shopify’s help page on hiring a partner says a partner bills you directly, and the charge does not appear on your Shopify bill. A partner may ask for a collaborator account, and a collaborator who has not logged in for 90 days loses access automatically. You can also remove the account when the work ends.

Settle the rest in writing. Metizsoft says you receive the full code and the project board, and that it keeps no licence. Digittrix lists accounts, code, notes and training in handover, with support under a separate agreement. Byteex documents the handover and works on a version-controlled development theme.

What Maintenance Covers

Maintenance is the quiet cost. Shopify retires API versions and changes checkout rules, as the checkout.liquid and Scripts shutdowns showed. Script Engine lists API version upgrades for existing apps as a service, and XgenTech and Binaery sell ongoing hours for fixes. A Bunch of Creators includes a year of support in every build, then offers monthly maintenance.

Frequently Asked Questions