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Shopify App Development Cost in India (2026)

#shopify #ecommerce #costguide #india

A custom Shopify app built in India costs roughly what a small custom web application costs, because that is what it is: a web application that talks to Shopify's APIs. On WavX's published cost model, the planning range is about ₹2.2 lakh to ₹3.25 lakh for a small private app that does one job, ₹5.6 lakh to ₹8.25 lakh for a full embedded app with its own data and admin screens, and ₹8.5 lakh to ₹12.5 lakh for a public app sold on the Shopify App Store. These are planning ranges with the assumptions shown below, not quotes. Shopify's own charges (the plan, the transaction fee and, for some features, the Plus plan) are separate, and are listed here as read on Shopify's pricing page on 2 October 2026.

What counts as a Shopify app

Shopify's help centre describes three kinds of app, and the kind decides most of the cost.

Kind Who it is for Review by Shopify Billing through Shopify
Public app Many stores. Installed from the Shopify App Store, listed or unlisted Yes, it goes through app review Yes
Custom app One store, or several stores inside the same Plus organisation No No. Shopify's distribution guide says a custom app cannot charge merchants through Shopify's app billing
App made by Shopify Any store Not applicable Usually free

A custom app is created and managed in Shopify's Dev Dashboard. The older route, creating a custom app inside the Shopify admin, is no longer available for new apps according to the same guide.

Most merchants asking about cost want a custom app: something that connects the store to an accounting system, a courier, a CRM or a warehouse, or that adds a rule Shopify does not have. That is the work described on WavX's custom Shopify app development page.

Planning ranges, with the assumptions shown

WavX does not publish a separate Shopify rate card. A custom app is priced the way any custom web application with integrations is priced, so the figures below come from the software cost estimator, the same model behind every WavX software planning range. The method is simple: take the base for the type of build, add the listed features, and show the result as a range from 15% below to 25% above that subtotal.

App Assumptions taken from the cost model Subtotal Planning range Planning timeline
Small private app. One job, such as pushing paid orders into an accounting system or tagging customers by a rule Internal tool base ₹2,00,000 + third-party integrations ₹60,000 ₹2,60,000 ₹2,21,000 to ₹3,25,000 3–6 weeks
Integration app with reporting. Two-way sync with an ERP, courier or CRM, a status screen and exports Internal tool base ₹2,00,000 + third-party integrations ₹60,000 + real-time ₹70,000 + exports and reporting ₹50,000 ₹3,80,000 ₹3,23,000 to ₹4,75,000 6–10 weeks
Full custom app. Embedded admin app with its own database, staff roles, an admin panel and storefront or checkout extensions Custom web application base ₹4,50,000 + auth and roles ₹60,000 + third-party integrations ₹60,000 + admin panel ₹90,000 ₹6,60,000 ₹5,61,000 to ₹8,25,000 10–16 weeks
Public App Store app. A product for many merchants, with billing and onboarding SaaS product base ₹7,00,000 + auth and roles ₹60,000 + payments and billing ₹90,000 + admin panel ₹90,000 + third-party integrations ₹60,000 ₹10,00,000 ₹8,50,000 to ₹12,50,000 10–16 weeks

Every row assumes the model's small scale (multiplier 1.0) and standard design (multiplier 1.0). The growing scale multiplies the subtotal by 1.3 and the large scale by 1.7. Timelines are the model's bands: a subtotal under ₹3,00,000 maps to 3–6 weeks, under ₹6,00,000 to 6–10 weeks, and anything above to 10–16 weeks.

Three caveats belong next to this table.

  1. The first two rows use the estimator's "internal tool" base. The reasoning is that a back-office sync app with one status screen is closer to an internal tool than to a customer-facing web application. If your app has a substantial interface of its own, read the third row instead.
  2. The model has one line for third-party integrations. An app that connects four systems is not the same job as one that connects a single system, and the real quote reflects that. The table is for budgeting, and a quote follows a written scope.
  3. Smaller jobs exist. WavX's Shopify store setup cost guide puts installing and configuring existing App Store apps at ₹40,000 inside its mid-tier example, and the ecommerce website cost guide says bespoke integration work typically adds ₹30,000 to ₹1,50,000 to a build. If all you need is a short script or a configuration, it may not be an app project at all.

What moves the number

The assumptions column is where a real project differs from the table. These are the questions that change the price, roughly in order of effect.

  • How many systems, and in which direction. Sending orders out of Shopify is simpler than keeping stock, prices and orders in step both ways, where two systems can disagree and one has to win.
  • Where the app shows up. An app that only runs in the background is the cheapest. Screens inside the Shopify admin add interface work. Anything the shopper sees on the storefront or in checkout adds design, testing on real devices and stricter performance limits.
  • Whether it holds its own data. An app that stores nothing and only moves data between two APIs is small. An app with its own database needs backups, access control and a plan for what happens when Shopify and the database disagree.
  • Volume. A few hundred orders a day can be processed one at a time. Sale-day peaks need queues and retries, because Shopify rate-limits its Admin API by plan. Shopify's pricing page lists API rate limits as standard on Basic and Grow, up to 2x on Advanced and up to 10x on Plus.
  • The other system. A documented API with a sandbox is quick to integrate. Desktop accounting software, a courier with a spreadsheet upload, or an ERP nobody has credentials for can each take longer than the Shopify side.
  • Failure handling. What should happen when the ERP is down for an hour? Deciding that, and building the retry and the alert, is a large part of any integration.

Shopify's own fees that sit beside the build

The build cost is paid once. Shopify's fees are paid every month and are set by Shopify, so they are quoted here exactly as shown on Shopify's India pricing page on 2 October 2026.

Plan Price, billed monthly Price per month, billed yearly Fee on third-party payment providers API rate limits
Basic ₹1,994 ₹1,499 2% Standard
Grow ₹7,447 ₹5,599 1% Standard
Advanced ₹30,164 ₹22,680 0.6% Up to 2x
Plus From ₹1,75,000 From ₹1,75,000 0.2% Up to 10x

Three points about these figures.

  • The transaction fee matters more in India than elsewhere. Shopify Payments is not on Shopify's list of supported countries for India, so an Indian store uses a third-party gateway and pays the percentage in the table on those orders, on top of the gateway's own fee. Shopify's help centre says manual payment methods, including cash on delivery, are not charged this fee.
  • GST applies. Shopify's billing help page says a store located in India is charged GST on its Shopify fees, and that the exemption for a store that provides its GSTIN applies only to invoices issued after the GSTIN is submitted. Add it to the billing profile before the first bill.
  • Prices change. Earlier WavX guides quote plan prices as they stood on the day they were written. Use Shopify's page for the current figure.

Shopify does not charge a fee for installing a custom app on your own store. App Store apps are different: each sets its own subscription price.

Plan rules that change the scope

Two Shopify rules decide whether a custom app can do what you want on your current plan. Both are quoted from Shopify's developer documentation as of October 2026.

Shopify Functions. Functions are how an app changes discounts, delivery options, payment methods and cart validation on Shopify's servers. Shopify's documentation says stores on any plan can use public apps from the App Store that contain Functions, and that only stores on a Shopify Plus plan can use custom apps that contain Functions. So a custom discount rule written only for your store needs Plus. On other plans the choices are an App Store app that offers the rule, or a different design. The Scripts to Functions migration guide covers this in detail.

Checkout interface. Shopify's checkout UI extensions reference says extensions for the information, shipping and payment steps are available only to stores on a Shopify Plus plan.

For a store on Basic, Grow or Advanced, this means a requirement such as "hide cash on delivery above ₹5,000 with our own rule" may turn a ₹3 lakh app discussion into a decision about a plan that starts at ₹1,75,000 a month. It is better to find that out before the build than during it.

Costs after launch

A Shopify app is not finished when it is installed. Three recurring costs follow.

Hosting. Shopify's deployment guide describes deployment as moving your code to a hosting service, and names Vercel, Google Cloud Run, Fly.io and Render as options. The app's web backend runs on hosting you pay for. Extensions and Functions are deployed to Shopify with the Shopify CLI. Hosting is billed by the provider you choose and depends on traffic, so no figure is given here.

API versions. Shopify releases a new API version every three months and supports each stable version for at least 12 months. When an app calls a version that has been retired, Shopify responds with the oldest version still supported, which may behave differently. In practice someone has to review and update the app at least once a year. Shopify also marks the REST Admin API as legacy since 1 October 2024, and requires new public apps to use the GraphQL Admin API from 1 April 2025, so an older app built on REST carries a migration cost.

Maintenance. WavX publishes 15% to 25% of the build cost per year as its maintenance band, explained in the app maintenance cost guide.

App Planning range for the build Maintenance per year at 15% to 25%
Small private app ₹2,21,000 to ₹3,25,000 ₹33,150 to ₹81,250
Integration app with reporting ₹3,23,000 to ₹4,75,000 ₹48,450 to ₹1,18,750
Full custom app ₹5,61,000 to ₹8,25,000 ₹84,150 to ₹2,06,250
Public App Store app ₹8,50,000 to ₹12,50,000 ₹1,27,500 to ₹3,12,500

The low figure is 15% of the low end of the range and the high figure is 25% of the high end.

A worked example over three years

Take the second row: an app that keeps orders and stock in step between Shopify and an ERP, with a status screen and exports.

Line Low High
Build, year one ₹3,23,000 ₹4,75,000
Maintenance, year two ₹48,450 ₹1,18,750
Maintenance, year three ₹48,450 ₹1,18,750
Three-year total, before hosting and GST ₹4,19,900 ₹7,12,500

This follows the cost model's own method, which treats the first year's maintenance as part of the build. It is a model for budgeting. Hosting, Shopify's plan and any fee charged by the other system are extra.

The useful comparison is the monthly cost of doing the same job by hand or with a subscription app. ₹4,19,900 over 36 months is about ₹11,700 a month, and ₹7,12,500 is about ₹19,800 a month. If the work the app replaces costs less than that, the app does not pay for itself on cost alone.

If the app is going on the App Store

A public app is a product business, and its costs go beyond the build.

  • Review. A public app goes through Shopify's app review before it can be installed from the App Store.
  • Revenue share. As of October 2026, Shopify's revenue share page says a developer keeps 100% of the first US$1,000,000 in gross app revenue earned from 1 January 2025 and 85% above that, with a one-time US$19 registration fee per partner account and a 2.9% processing fee on billing.
  • Support and onboarding. Every merchant who installs the app can raise a ticket. That is a running cost a custom app for one store does not have.
  • Many stores, many edge cases. Themes, plans, currencies and other apps differ from store to store, so testing takes longer.

The fourth row of the table is a starting point for a first version, not the cost of running an app business.

When you should not build an app

A page about app pricing should say when the answer is not to buy one.

  • An App Store app already does it. Shopify's help centre says apps made by Shopify are usually free, and a third-party app such as Judge.me Product Reviews lists its paid plan at US$15 a month as of October 2026. A custom build rarely beats that on cost. The comparison, with real subscription prices over two years, is in custom Shopify app or App Store app.
  • The process is still changing. If the team has not settled how returns or wholesale orders should work, software will fix the wrong process in place. Run it by hand for a month first.
  • The need is seasonal. A rule needed for one sale is better handled with Shopify's built-in discounts or a monthly app you cancel afterwards.
  • The rule needs Plus and you are not on Plus. A custom app with Functions will not run on your plan. Look for a public app first.
  • The other system has no way in. If the ERP or courier offers no API and no file exchange, the app cannot be built reliably at any price. The first job is on that side.

What to write down before asking for a quote

A scope on one page gets a firmer number than a conversation. These six answers are enough for any developer to price the work, WavX included.

  1. What the app must do, as a list of events: "when an order is paid, create an invoice in the accounting system".
  2. Which systems it touches, and whether each has an API and test credentials.
  3. Your Shopify plan, and whether the app needs to change discounts, shipping, payments or checkout.
  4. Daily order volume on a normal day and on your biggest sale day.
  5. Who uses the app's screens, if it has any, and what they need to see.
  6. What should happen when something fails, and who should be told.

With those, the planning ranges above can be replaced by a quote. The wider Shopify work WavX offers is listed on the Shopify and app development page.

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