Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.9 out of 5 (10,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $24/month.
38.5% of web designers agree that an outdated design is the top reason why visitors leave a website.
As such, your website needs to have a modern look and feel if you want to prevent potential customers from leaving your site. That means you’ll need a landing page builder that not only allows you to design your store, but also helps you optimize its functionality and make it more appealing to your target audience.
The first option on our list of the best Shopify free apps is PageFly, the leading landing page builder in the Shopify app ecosystem.
It has grown in popularity because of its easy-to-use drag-and-drop page builder, kind of similar to that of Shopify’s theme editor. This intuitive interface allows for easier customization of any page in your ecommerce store. And since no prior coding knowledge is required, you can design stunning landing pages on your own.
PageFly offers a free plan that allows potential users to explore all of its functionalities and design one landing page. After designing, you can publish this landing page on your store for free.
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.7 out of 5 (6,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Printful membership plans start at $24.99/month.
Dropshipping is a business model that is continuously growing in popularity every year because of its high profit potential and the convenience of relying on third-party suppliers to build your business.
Dropshipping also takes the burden of handling logistics off merchants’ hands as many dropshipping suppliers offer extensive delivery networks in the US and beyond.
If you’re in the apparel business and you’re still doing the procurement, warehousing, and printing yourself, there’s a better option: you should consider using Printful.
Printful is a print-on-demand (POD) dropshipping supplier that allows entrepreneurs to launch their apparel brands quickly and easily.
It’s free to get started and Printful makes all its tools available from the beginning. This lets you create mockups of your designs and conceptualize a full branding strategy for your apparel business from the start. You only pay once orders start coming in and products are being fulfilled.
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 5 out of 5 (5,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $19.99/month.
One of the most difficult problems that you’ll face as an online entrepreneur is gaining the trust of potential customers. Without establishing credibility, you won’t be able to convince them to part with their hard-earned money and buy your products.
In fact, upselling and cross-selling are responsible for 10-30% of ecommerce revenue. So you’ll want to take advantage of this if you don’t want to miss out on potential profits.
Luckily, this free app called Avada Trust Badges & Upsell lets you to integrate trust badges into your Shopify store and establish online credibility. This app also has upsell features to help increase sales in your ecommerce store.
Avada Trust Badges & Upsell is on our list of the best free Shopify apps because it’s functions are crucial to achieving your business goals.
4. Shop: reach more customers in the marketplace
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.8 out of 5 (2,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Completely free.
Online marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, and Amazon are proven to be effective ecommerce platforms because users can find what they’re looking for all in one place. This is the main advantage retail marketplaces have over a standalone online store.
In fact, online marketplaces are experiencing explosive growth, with the Top 100 marketplaces projected to reach a staggering $3.832 trillion in total Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) by the end of 2024.
As a Shopify store owner, you might be wondering how you can get in on the action. You could use platforms like Amazon, but you’d be competing with significantly cheaper alternatives for your products.
For that reason, you might want to look into Shop. Shop is a proprietary app from Shopify that establishes an online marketplace exclusively for Shopify store owners. This means that you can have a separate standalone store, as well as an online store in the Shop app to improve your brand visibility. The best of both worlds!
Added bonus: you can manage both of these sales channels through your Shopify admin.
Do you know what else you can use for free? Shopify! Check out this article to shed more light on the question, “Is Shopify free?”
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (8,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free to install. Additional charges apply.
The next one on our list of the best free Shopify apps is Google & YouTube.
Google is the most popular search engine in the world with over 81% of the internet market share, and it’s followed by YouTube with over 2.5 billion logged-in users per month.
What’s more interesting is that users don’t only use Google and YouTube to find information and entertain themselves. They also use these sites to find things to buy.
So it makes sense to make your products (and your Shopify store) searchable on Google Shopping whenever your target customers search for similar products. You’ll also want to tag your products on YouTube if you’re running a personal channel to widen your reach and increase potential sales.
Interested in learning more about competitor strategies? Try out these Shopify spy tools.
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.8 out of 5 (20+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $6/month.
Social commerce is the integration of ecommerce stores into social media platforms for marketing and selling. And social media as a tool for ecommerce is experiencing a rapid rise in popularity. In fact, social commerce revenues are poised to surpass one trillion USD by 2028 (up from over 570 billion in 2023).
Where’s a good place to start? Instagram is the #1 social media platform for people to connect with brands.
Instagram’s popularity comes from its large user base and available features that make it very easy for businesses to organically market and showcase their brands.
That’s why, if you want to tap into a wider audience, you can’t just rely on your online store to do the selling for you. You should also have an Instagram integration to your Shopify store.
The best free Shopify app to use for that is Vibe Shoppable Instagram Feed. It allows you to create shoppable IG posts and reels to make shopping easier for your target customers. That way they can do their shopping inside Instagram instead of being redirected to your online store.
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.9 out of 5 (7,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $39/month.
Search engine optimization is an effective marketing strategy for your Shopify store if you want long-term organic traffic to your website.
The only drawback to SEO is that it’s more of a long game. So for online stores that want to generate sales as soon as possible, SEO takes a back seat to paid ads that drive immediate traffic.
But if you don’t have a huge budget for paid marketing, SEO is the answer. And you can start as soon as you open your online store.
That’s where Booster SEO & Image Optimizer comes in. Optimizing your website for the relevant keywords is like planting a seed that will soon grow to a fruit-bearing tree.
Since advanced SEO tools can be pricey, consider using a free SEO tool that has enough capabilities to let you optimize your pages, meta tags, images, and other aspects of your Shopify store. Booster SEO & Image Optimizer is a great option.
8. Shopify Inbox: the best free Shopify app for live chat
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.8 out of 5 (4,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Completely free.
70% of businesses say offering live chat features has positively impacted sales, revenue, and customer loyalty.
This just goes to show that having a live chat on your online store is part of establishing a solid customer experience that could potentially lead to sales.
Shopify Inbox is a live chat app that allows merchants like you to talk to customers in real-time, as they shop. This gives you the ability to address their immediate questions and help them decide on a potential purchase.
But Shopify Inbox is not any old live chat app. You can also track customers’ activities on your website, like the products they viewed and what’s in their carts. You can even send product recommendations.
It’s a great free way to get essential customer insights and boost sales.
09. Judge.me Product Reviews: display customer reviews and establish trust
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 5 out of 5 (28,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $15/month.
89% of global consumers say checking online reviews is part of their buying journey.
So it goes without saying that having customer reviews on your homepage or product pages could heavily influence potential customers’ buying decisions.
Product review apps on Shopify differ in features, and some are better than others. But if you’re looking for a free product review app with powerful features, you have to check out Judge.me.
This app streamlines feedback requests from previous customers via automated email review requests. It can also be integrated with your social media accounts so positive reviews reach as many people as possible and increase your credibility.
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.8 out of 5 (800+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $39/month.
The last one on our list of the best free apps is OptiMonk Popup & Auto A/B Test.
Let’s face it, website pop-ups can be pretty annoying. It’s happened to all of us: you’re scrolling through a website and a pop-up suddenly appears, interrupting your session. For some users, this is enough to exit a page (or your ecommerce store) and not come back.
But pop-ups aren’t always bad. They just need to be used in the right place, at the right time. This is what OptiMonk offers.
This app helps you create several types of pop-ups for your Shopify store, depending on the page and the buyer journey stage your customer is in. If your pop-ups are persuasive enough, you’ll be able to steadily grow your email list, which will come in handy in reaching your target sales goals.
The free version of this app generously grants 15,000 page views per month, which is great if you’re just starting out.
This wraps up our list of the best free Shopify apps that you need in your store. But we’re not done yet, we discuss some bonus Shopify apps below that are also worth considering.
Bonus: must-have Shopify apps for ecommerce
Here some additional apps that are worth installing on your Shopify store if you’re keen to increase sales.
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.9 out of 5 (6,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $49/month.
The Smile: Loyalty & Rewards app will help increase customer engagement with your brand by encouraging buyers to be your brand ambassadors in exchange for exclusive rewards and deals.
Over time, this will enable you to establish a large and loyal customer base. And if used right, it can be a very potent app that’ll help you save on marketing costs.
2. Shopify Email: create email campaigns for free
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (1,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $1 per 1000 additional emails per month.
Among the best free apps for new Shopify stores is Shopify Email. This app gives you the ability to run marketing campaigns geared towards your email subscribers.
Unlike other email campaign apps, Shopify Email boasts an extremely easy-to-use interface that new email marketers will appreciate. And the best thing about this app? It allows you to send 10,000 emails per month for free.
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.9 out of 5 (1,000+ reviews).
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $19.90/month.
If you’re handling store logistics yourself or crafting products by hand, you know how easy it is to miscalculate stock.
And if customers try to place an order only to find out that it’s no longer available, you lose that sale.
Notify! Back In Stock | PreOrder solves this problem by allowing your store to accept pre-orders on your sold-out products. This is also a great app to use if you want to secure pre-sales for new or popular products and reduce the risk of overstock.
If you’re just starting out, their free plan accommodates up to five pre-orders.
