The average Shopify merchant is paying for at least one app they don't need. Usually two or three.
It's not because merchants are careless. It's because app costs compound quietly. You install something to solve a problem, forget it's running, add a better tool, and never cancel the old one. After two years of growth, your billing invoice looks like a small software company.
This guide walks you through a 30-minute audit that surfaces every duplicate, every unused subscription, and every over-provisioned plan. We recommend doing this every 90 days.
What you'll need
Step 1: Get your billing invoice
5 minutes
In your Shopify admin: Settings → Billing → View detailed bill. Download the invoice as a CSV (not PDF — the CSV is easier to work with).
The CSV lists every charge line-by-line: app name, amount, billing date, and plan name. This is your ground truth — more reliable than going to Shopify Admin → Apps, which only shows currently installed apps (not apps you cancelled but were still billed for that month).
Download 3 months of invoices, not just one. Some apps bill quarterly or have charges that appear irregularly. Patterns over 3 months reveal usage you'd miss in a single snapshot.
Step 2: Categorize every app
10 minutes
Group every app charge into a category. This is where the duplicates become visible. A quick spreadsheet works — or use AppTrim to do it automatically.
Step 3: Flag duplicates
5 minutes
Any category with 2+ active paid apps is a duplicate. This is the most common and most expensive finding.
Most common duplicates (from real invoice data)
Pick one and migrate. Klaviyo if you need deep segmentation; Omnisend if you want SMS+email cheaper.
Judge.me covers 90% of stores. Stamped only makes sense if you actively use its loyalty features.
Shopify Shipping rates are competitive for most stores. ShipStation only adds value above ~500 orders/month.
You only need one page builder. Audit which pages are actually live and cut the other tool.
Support stacks are often over-provisioned. Gorgias is overkill under ~100 tickets/month.
Step 4: Check for unused apps
5 minutes
Go to Shopify Admin → Apps and look at each app in your billing invoice. For each one, ask:
When did we last actually use this?
Could we recreate this feature with a tool we already pay for?
Did we install this for a campaign that ended months ago?
Is this still installed but generating zero orders/events?
The most common "zombie apps": page builders built for a specific sale that's long over, SMS tools installed for a BFCM campaign, and analytics apps from before you settled on a primary reporting tool.
Step 5: Benchmark your total spend
5 minutes
After identifying duplicates and unused apps, check whether your remaining spend is reasonable for your store size. This tells you whether you're over-apped even after the obvious cuts.
Reference ranges by GMV tier:
Free tool
Get your exact percentile ranking
Enter your GMV tier, app count, and monthly spend — we'll show you where you rank against merchants your size and flag if you're over the threshold for your stage.
Benchmark my store — freeStep 6: Cut or downgrade
5 minutes
With your audit complete, you'll have three buckets:
Unused apps, clear duplicates where one tool does the same job as another. Cancel in Shopify Admin → Apps → [App name] → Delete app.
Apps you need but are on a tier you've outgrown upwards or haven't grown into yet. Email most vendors — they often honor downgrades without requiring a cancellation and reinstall.
Apps that are genuinely earning their cost. Mark a calendar event to review this list again in 90 days — your needs change as you scale.
One merchant we spoke to had three active page builders after cycling through them over 18 months. None of the previous ones had been cancelled. Combined cost: $147/month.
Automating your audit
The manual process above works well once. To make it routine — and to catch things that change month-to-month — you need two things:
Upload your Shopify billing invoice to AppTrim and it automatically categorizes every charge, flags duplicates, and shows month-over-month cost changes. Saves 15-20 minutes per audit cycle.
The average app stack changes materially every 90 days as you test tools and scale. A recurring reminder is the simplest system to stay on top of it.
The 30-minute payoff
Most merchants who run this audit for the first time find $80-300/month in recoverable spend. The most common wins: one duplicate email tool, one forgotten page builder, and one support app that's over-provisioned for their ticket volume.
At $150/month saved, that's $1,800/year — from a 30-minute exercise you can repeat every quarter.