Running a Shopify store can be very expensive. Thus, if you are just starting out your e-commerce business or testing the waters on some important features, then free apps in Shopify can be very helpful.
As a Shopify enthusiast and a content marketer with experience in optimizing eCommerce workflows, I have personally tried and validated these Shopify free apps on a test store.
Here are the most useful free eCommerce tools that can actually deliver. From marketing to automation and customer support, these apps can handle all your e-commerce needs.
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Why You Need Free Apps for Shopify Store
I was quick to realize that just having products listed isn’t enough to build a Shopify business.
Your Shopify store needs tools for optimizing customer experience, managing inventory, and driving sales, yeah marketing.
While investing huge amounts in such apps isn’t practical, using free Shopify apps can get the work done easily.
I discovered that the right combination of Shopify free apps can help you:
- Automate customer support
- Increase sales conversion
- Manage inventory efficiently
- Create professional store designs
- Handle marketing campaigns
Quick Verdict and Overview of Best Free Shopify Apps in 2025
If you want a quick overview of the free Shopify apps that can help with Shopify automation for free, here is the list
- Section Store – Best for adding customizable sections without coding, improving speed and design flexibility.
- Shopify Inbox – Ideal for real-time customer chat with AI-powered automation for quick responses.
- BestChat: AI Chatbot+Live Chat – Best for 24/7 AI-driven support with seamless human handover.
- Show Recent Orders | Urgenzy – Great for creating urgency with real-time sales notifications.
- SellUp ‑ Upsell & Add-ons – Best for one-click upselling and smart product recommendations.
- syncX: Stock Sync – Top choice for automated inventory updates and preventing overselling.
- Multi‑Store Sync Power – Ideal for managing multiple stores with real-time synchronization.
- Afflr – Affiliate Marketing – Best for setting up a free affiliate program with flexible commissions.
- CW: WhatsApp Marketing & SMS – Excellent for abandoned cart recovery and direct customer engagement.
- PayWhirl Subscriptions – Best for handling recurring payments with flexible subscription options.
- NoFraud Fraud Protection – Essential for AI-powered fraud detection and reducing chargebacks.
- Zendrop ‑ Dropshipping & POD – Best for automated order fulfillment with fast shipping.
- Sup Dropshipping – Top pick for print-on-demand and custom branding options.
Best Free Shopify Apps for Beginners
If you’re new to Shopify, start with these essential free Shopify apps to set up your store efficiently:
- Section Store – Simplifies store design with drag-and-drop sections.
- Shopify Inbox – Handles customer queries with AI-powered automation.
- Show Recent Orders | Urgenzy – Creates urgency with real-time purchase notifications.
- syncX: Stock Sync – Prevents overselling with automatic inventory updates.
These Shopify free apps provide the foundation to get your store up and running. You can do all this without hiring developers or investing in paid tools.
Best Free Shopify Apps Combo for Maximum Sales
For those focusing on boosting conversions and automating Shopify workflow for free, these free Shopify app combinations will work better:
- SellUp – Upsell & Add-ons – Smart product recommendations to increase order value.
- TCW: SMS Marketing & WhatsApp – Automated cart recovery through SMS and WhatsApp.
- Afflr – Affiliate Marketing – Build an affiliate network for referrals and increased sales.
- Zendrop – Dropshipping & POD – Automate order fulfillment for a hassle-free dropshipping business.
Business Size Breakdown
Business Size | Best Free Apps to Use |
Small Business | Section Store, Shopify Inbox, Urgenzy |
Scaling Stores | SellUp, TCW WhatsApp & SMS, BestChat |
Enterprise-Level | syncX, Multi-Store Sync Power, NoFraud |
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13 Best Free Shopify Apps
I’ve organized these top free Shopify apps based on their primary functions. Each recommendation comes from hands-on testing.
The Best Free Shopify Apps are:
- Section Store: Theme sections
- Shopify Inbox
- BestChat: AI Chatbot+Live Chat
- Show Recent Orders | Urgenzy
- SellUp ‑ Upsell & Add-ons
- syncX: Stock Sync
- Multi‑Store Sync Power
- Afflr – Affiliate Marketing
- CW: WhatsApp Marketing & SMS
- PayWhirl Subscriptions
- NoFraud Fraud Protection
- Zendrop ‑ Dropshipping & POD
- Sup Dropshipping
1. Section Store: Theme sections
Section Store is a free e-commerce app that changed my basic store design into something very classy and appealing.
Key Features:
- Increase app speed by replacing slow-loading areas with customizable sections.
- Add new sections without altering the existing design of your website
- Preview the outlook of your website before finalizing
- Consistent updates to increase your convenience in using the website
- They have important sections to include like trust badges, a circle menu, an announcement bar, etc
- With this theme, you can add images, blogs, FAQs, etc.
- Decrease website built time by offering sections for everything.
My Observation:
You can use Section Store to enhance your Shopify store’s design without hiring a developer. It will allow you to add trust badges, announcement bars, and customizable sections without altering your theme. The drag-and-drop feature will make it easy to create professional-looking pages, and the preview option will help you visualize changes before publishing. Plus, it will improve your store’s loading speed by optimizing slow-loading sections.
What I Love: The drag-and-drop interface made it incredibly easy to create professional-looking pages without any coding knowledge.
Limitations: Only the first 500 monthly views the use of the app is free.
Rating: 4.9/5
2. Shopify Inbox
You can use this free customer engagement app to handle customer queries. Your customer service workflow can be automated efficiently.
Key Features:
- Easy integration with Shopify store to interact with your customers
- Live customer insights like products in the cart, past orders, etc to personalize messages
- Leverage upselling opportunities by providing personalized recommendation
- AI-powered to suggest prompt responses based on the query
- Automate greeting messages, FAQs, etc to help save time
- You can send photos, discounts, product recommendations, etc inside the chat to encourage purchase
My Observation:
Shopify Inbox will make your customer communication seamless. With real-time chat, you can instantly engage with visitors, view their cart details, and personalize responses. AI-powered suggestions will save you hours by automating replies, while the ability to send product recommendations, discounts, and images directly in chat will boost conversions effortlessly.
What I Love: The AI suggestions saved me hours of typing repetitive responses.
Limitations: Lacks advanced chatbot features for automated workflows.
Rating: 4.8/5
Related Reading: Learn more about Shopify apps for discounts and product bundles to carry out them effectively.
3. BestChat: AI Chatbot+Live Chat
To keep your customers engaged and responsive with instant replies, Best Chat is a free Shopify app for live chat that allows human as well as AI interaction with your customers.
Key Features:
- Provides AI-driven chat support on the web store 24*7
- Chatbots learn on their own based on data from product catalogs, orders, and customer
- Data analysis based on store insights to help make better decisions
- Smooth handover from chat to agent without alarming the customer
- Frequently asked queries can be handled by bots and the customer support team can concentrate on other major issues
My Observation:
BestChat will provide you with 24/7 AI-driven support, reducing response time while handling FAQs efficiently. The chatbot learned from product catalogs and customer interactions, will offer you personalized responses. The smooth handover to a human agent will help you handle complex queries properly, improving customer satisfaction.
What I Love: Using AI can help in analyzing FAQs and answer promptly saving time for human conversation for more critical problem solving.
Limitations: Some AI responses felt generic without manual training
Rating: 4.7/5
4. Show Recent Orders | Urgenzy
During my two-week test period, this free upselling app proved incredibly effective at instilling FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) by creating urgency.
Key Features:
- Cart notification to buyers to avoid cart abandonment
- Recent order notifications to visitors based on what they are browsing to increase the chance of purchase
- No coding required to set and integrate the app into the store
- Create an atmosphere that the store receives many purchases at any given time
My Observation:
Urgenzy will help you create urgency by displaying recent order notifications and cart reminders. The FOMO effect will increase your conversion rates without annoying customers. You will find the setup straightforward as it requires no coding. The notifications will blend well with your store’s design.
What I Love: The subtle notifications increased urgency without being intrusive. This can effortlessly increase the conversion rate during testing.
Limitations: Too many notifications might overwhelm your customers and affect conversion optimization
Rating: 4.7/5
Related Reading: Shopify abandoned cart apps are exclusively available to help with your cart recovery.
5. SellUp ‑ Upsell & Add-ons
SellUp is a free Shopify app that helps you one-click upsell products to your customers without hassle. This will easily increase cart order value and, eventually, sales.
Key Features
- Targeted recommendation to customers to increase the average cart value and sales
- Upsell and add-on recommendations on product page, thank you page, cart, etc.
- Match recommendation popup to match the design of your store
- Upsell purchases can be added to the cart in one click
- Frequently bought together items are recommended to increase order value
- Track performance using the app to optimize the recommendation
My Observation:
SellUp will improve your average order value with targeted upsell and add-on recommendations. The pop-ups will match your store’s branding, and customers can add upsell items to their cart with one click. The app’s tracking feature will help you optimize recommendations for better conversions.
What I Love: The AI-powered recommendations were surprisingly accurate, suggesting truly relevant products.
Limitations: Upsell popups may feel intrusive to some of your customers and reduce the experience.
Rating: 4.7/5
Related Reading: You can use a Shopify app for upselling that offers various features for upselling.
6. syncX: Stock Sync
SyncX can handle overselling and dead stock by handling all inventory-related work efficiently.
Key Features
- Adjusts the inventory levels automatically without manual intervention.
- Quantity rules are used to avoid overselling and maintain optimal stock levels.
- Easy to add and update product details and counts
- Data can be exported for easy tracking of inventory
- Helps dropshipping as inventory quantity can be shared with other businesses
My Observation:
Stock Sync will automate your inventory updates across multiple stores. This will eliminate overselling issues. The customizable quantity rules will ensure you maintain optimal stock levels. The ability to export data will simplify your inventory tracking. Its seamless integration makes it one of the best free Shopify apps for you.
What I Love: The automatic quantity rules of this free Shopify tool helped maintain optimal stock levels without manual intervention.
Limitations: Initial setup will take up your time for bulk inventory adjustments
Rating: 4.6/5
7. Multi‑Store Sync Power
Multi-store, true to its name, works magic in inventory management even if you have many stores.
I used this free Shopify app to manage inventory across three test stores, and it streamlined operations significantly.
Key Features
- Not just products but collection details are also synced across stores
- When a new product is added, its details are created across all stores and location
- Support is provided on the location-specific level while synchronizing the inventory
- Detect errors in identifying SKUs and barcodes that missed the sync process
- 24*7 assistance from the customer support team
My Observation:
Managing multiple stores will be easy for you with Multi-Store Sync Power. It will synchronize inventory, product details, and collections across all your locations. This will help you skip manual updates. The error detection feature will prevent your SKU mismatches. The 24/7 support will help resolve issues quickly.
What I Love: The error detection saved me from several potential inventory mismatches.
Limitations: Requires a strong internet connection for real-time syncing when you are doing multi-store management.
Rating: 4.5/5
8. Afflr – Affiliate Marketing
Afflr is one of the most comprehensive free Shopify apps I tested for marketing purposes. It supports affiliate, referral, and influencer marketing to help grow sales.
Key Features
- Create an affiliate and referral program with a single click
- Flexible commission and discount setup
- Quick and easy payout with multiple payout methods
- Automatic and accurate tracking of sales, commission, and payout
- Integrates with other third-party apps to automate workflow
- A dedicated dashboard for affiliates to check their stats
My Observation:
Afflr will help you launch an affiliate program in Shopify with flexible commissions and automated tracking. The built-in dashboard will enable you to monitor performance and integration with third-party apps like PayPal and Tremendous to streamline the payout process. You can highly benefit from this as you will be charged only for successful sales.
What I Love: Afflr follows the ‘Pay as you grow’ concept. This means all features are free and you pay only a small commission on successful sales.
Limitations: You will not get a detailed analysis report on affiliate performance
Rating: 5/5
9. CW: WhatsApp Marketing & SMS
CW helps direct connection with the customers through WhatsApp and SMS.
Over my testing period, this free Shopify app proved especially effective for cart recovery.
Key Features
- Recover abandoned carts by reaching out to customers via SMS
- Reach out to inactive customers using SMS or Whatsapp marketing campaign
- Pre-defined SMS templates can be used
- Interactive scratch cards can be sent with offers and discounts
- Segment customers to execute a targeted marketing campaign
- Feedback collection through SMS and WhatsApp
My Observation:
This free app in Shopify will make abandoned cart recovery easier for you by reaching customers directly via WhatsApp and SMS. You can use pre-defined templates to send reminders and promotions. The customer segmentation feature can help you run targeted campaigns. It will improve your engagement rates compared to email marketing.
What I Love: Connecting customers through their phones gets a better response than through emails.
Limitations: You will find only limited customization in message templates for SMS marketing.
Rating: 4.8/5
Related Reading: If you are interested in exploring these marketing strategies more, then checkout
10. PayWhirl Subscriptions
For a business that works with recurring renewal, PayWhirl is the best free Shopify app for a subscription.
Testing this Shopify app for subscription products revealed its strength in handling recurring payments smoothly.
Key Features
- Customize subscription plan based on requirements of the business
- Drag and drop builder to seamlessly integrate product page, cart page, and customer details
- Flexible and intuitive cancellation workflow to reduce churn
- Easy migration from other apps
My Observation:
PayWhirl will simplify managing subscription payments for you. Its flexible plan customization can help you develop different Shopify subscription plans. The drag-and-drop builder will make integration and the cancellation workflow seamless. This will help you reduce churn. Migrating from other platforms will be smooth for you.
What I Love: The intuitive customer management interface made handling subscriptions much easier than expected.
Limitations: You will require additional customization for niche subscription models.
Rating: 4.8/5
Related Reading: Explore more features of a Shopify subscription app that can make your business efficient.
11. NoFraud Fraud Protection
Fraud during customer checkout is a big issue that can spoil your peace and credibility. NoFraud can help you handle this for free.
This app caught several suspicious transactions during my testing period, proving its worth.
Key Features
- Uses machine learning and AI to study data and detect fraud accurately
- Expert fraud analysts review high-risk orders
- Customize rules for allowlists and blocklists
- Flexible workflow to allow and cancel respective payments
- Easy integration with Shopify store
My Observation:
NoFraud will detect high-risk transactions using AI. This will reduce chargebacks significantly for you. The manual fraud review option will provide you with an extra layer of security. Customizable blocklists will give you full control over payments. Over time, machine learning improved accuracy, therefore, false positives will be reduced for you.
What I Love: The machine learning algorithms improved accuracy over time, reducing false positives.
Limitations: If you encounter false positives then it might lead to unnecessary order delays.
Rating: 4.5/5
12. Zendrop ‑ Dropshipping & POD
Shopify free app for dropshipping & POD is best for anyone who doesn’t want the hassle of managing inventory and concentrates only on order fulfillment.
Testing this app with various product types showed its versatility in handling different dropshipping needs.
Key Features
- Automatic order fulfillment and shipping once the customer confirms the order
- Fast shipping to ensure customers receive orders on time
- Personalized brand orders with customized packaging to focus on the brand
- A dedicated support team to help with dropshipping
My Observation:
Zendrop is a free Shopify app for automating order fulfillment. It will provide you with fast shipping, ensuring a smooth customer experience. The ability to customize packaging will help you with branding. The dedicated support team will resolve issues for you easily. The vast product catalog will give you a wide range of options for your store.
What I Love: The automated order routing significantly reduced fulfillment time.
Limitations: Some suppliers have higher pricing than AliExpress
Rating: 4.8/5
13. Sup Dropshipping
Sun Dropshipping app handles all processes involved in dropshipping like curating, purchasing, and delivering.
During my month-long test, this free Shopify app excelled in print-on-demand capabilities.
Key Features
- Accepts customizable designs for print-on-demand goods
- Mock-ups for good generated to display on the product page
- Brand building through custom packaging and labeling
- Image search technology is integrated to find products faster
My Observation:
Sup Dropshipping will streamline the entire dropshipping process for you, from sourcing to fulfillment. The AI-powered image search will make finding products effortless, and the Shopify print-on-demand customization options can create unique branded products for you. Personalized packaging is a great touch to enhance your brand identity.
What I Love: The image search technology made finding similar products remarkably easy.
Limitations: You might encounter a long process time for some custom products
Rating: 5/5
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Conclusion
Beginning your entrepreneurial journey can become more effective by using some of the best Free Shopify apps. These apps can help in all paths of a shop owner as well as a customer journey.
This blog covers all the important free apps in Shopify that can create a seamless experience. This will result in bringing more customers and sales.
Further Reading
- 10 Best Shopify Affiliate Marketing Apps
- 7 Best Shopify Appointment Booking Apps
- 10 Best Shopify Loyalty Apps
- 10 Best Shopify Ads Apps to Grow Traffic
The best free Shopify apps for increasing sales are SellUp – Upsell & Add-ons for smart product recommendations, Show Recent Orders | Urgenzy to create FOMO with real-time sales notifications, TCW: SMS Marketing & WhatsApp for automated cart recovery, and Afflr to increase sales and conversions through affiliate marketing.
You can automate your Shopify store for free by using apps like syncX: Stock Sync for automatic inventory updates, Shopify Inbox for AI-powered customer support, and PayWhirl Subscription Payments to manage recurring payments effortlessly. Automating your store reduces manual work, enhances efficiency, and improves customer experience, leading to higher sales.
Free Shopify app that helps with customer retention are Affiliate Marketing – Afflr to build a referral network, and TCW: SMS Marketing & WhatsApp for personalized engagement. These tools help businesses increase customer loyalty, reduce churn, and improve lifetime value.
The best free dropshipping Shopify apps are Zendrop – Dropshipping & POD for automated fulfillment, Sup Dropshipping for custom branding and print-on-demand services, and syncX: Stock Sync to prevent overselling. These apps streamline your dropshipping business and make it easy to scale while ensuring fast shipping and product quality.