Best Tech Stack for a Shopify App as a Solo Developer

Shopify has over 2 million active merchants. Building an app for their ecosystem gives you access to store owners who are already spending money to grow their business. The Shopify App Store is a proven distribution channel, and solo developers have built apps that generate $10k-50k+/month. The catch? Shopify has strong opinions about how apps should be built, and fighting their ecosystem choices will cost you time.

Here's the stack that works best when you lean into what Shopify provides.

Recommended Stack at a Glance

The Foundation: Remix + Shopify CLI

Shopify has made their preferred stack crystal clear. Running shopify app init scaffolds a Remix application with everything pre-configured: OAuth flow, session management, webhook handling, and Polaris integration. This isn't just a recommendation. It's the path of least resistance, and for a solo developer, that matters more than any technical preference.

The Remix template includes:

• Authentication with Shopify OAuth (already working)
• Session storage with Prisma
• Webhook registration and handling
• App Bridge integration for embedded app behavior
• Polaris components for Shopify-native UI

Could you build with Next.js or a different framework? Technically yes, but you'd spend days reimplementing what the Remix template gives you for free. As a solo developer, that's days you can't afford.

Frontend: Polaris Components

Polaris is Shopify's design system, and using it is essentially mandatory for apps displayed in the Shopify admin. Your app needs to look and feel native to the Shopify experience. Polaris gives you every component you need: data tables, forms, navigation, modals, banners, cards, and layout primitives.

The React version of Polaris is mature and well-documented. It handles responsive layouts, accessibility, and dark mode automatically. Don't waste time building custom UI components when Polaris covers 95% of what you need.

For the storefront side (if your app injects UI into the merchant's store), use Shopify's Theme App Extensions. These use Liquid templates and vanilla JavaScript. Keep them lightweight. Merchants will uninstall your app if it slows down their store.

Backend: Remix Server + Prisma

The Remix template handles your backend through Remix loaders and actions. This is a solid pattern for Shopify apps because most operations follow a request-response cycle: merchant loads a page, you fetch data from Shopify's API, display it, and handle form submissions.

Prisma comes pre-configured as the ORM and handles session storage out of the box. Extend it with your own models for app-specific data. Prisma's type-safe queries and migration system are a huge productivity win for solo developers.

For interacting with Shopify's APIs, use the official @shopify/shopify-api package. It handles rate limiting, pagination, and authentication. The GraphQL Admin API is Shopify's preferred interface and gives you more flexibility than the REST API.

Database: PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is the right choice. You'll store session data, merchant preferences, and whatever domain data your app manages. Shopify apps typically need to cache data from Shopify's API (products, orders, collections) to avoid hitting rate limits on every page load.

For hosting, Railway includes managed PostgreSQL with one click. Neon (serverless Postgres) is a good alternative if you want a separate database service with a generous free tier.

Keep a Redis instance alongside Postgres. You'll need it for background jobs and potentially for caching Shopify API responses.

Hosting: Railway or Fly.io

Shopify apps need to be always-on. They handle OAuth callbacks, webhooks, and embedded admin requests in real-time. Serverless platforms with cold starts are a poor fit.

Railway is my top pick for solo developers building Shopify apps:

• One-click PostgreSQL and Redis provisioning
• Simple deploys from GitHub
• Environment variables management
• Logs and metrics included
• Starts at $5/month

Fly.io is the alternative if you want more control over deployment regions. Shopify merchants are global, and having your app close to their location reduces latency. Fly's multi-region deployment is straightforward.

Billing: Shopify's Built-In Billing API

This is a huge advantage of the Shopify ecosystem. You don't need Stripe. Shopify handles all billing through their Billing API. You create charges or subscription plans through the API, Shopify shows the merchant a confirmation screen, and you get paid through your Shopify Partner account.

Shopify takes a 20% revenue share (reduced to 0% for the first $1M/year since August 2021 changes), but in exchange, you get:

• Zero payment processing setup
• Merchant trust (they're already paying through Shopify)
• Automatic currency handling
• Free trial support built-in
• Dunning and failed payment management

For a solo developer, not having to build or maintain a billing system is worth the revenue share.

Nice-to-Haves

• Shopify CLI dev tools - Live reloading, tunnel setup, and app preview
• GraphiQL - Built into the Shopify admin for testing GraphQL queries
• Sentry - Error tracking (webhook failures can be silent)
• Metafield definitions - Store app data directly on Shopify resources

Monthly Cost Breakdown

The Shopify Partner program is free to join, and listing your app is free. Shopify takes a revenue share only when you make money, not before.

Conclusion

The best stack for a solo developer building a Shopify app: Remix (Shopify's official template) with Polaris for UI, Prisma + PostgreSQL for data, hosted on Railway, with Shopify's Billing API for monetization.

Don't fight the ecosystem. Shopify has done the hard work of deciding the stack, building the templates, and providing the billing infrastructure. Your job as a solo developer is to find a real merchant pain point, build a focused solution, and ship it fast. Let Shopify's 2 million merchants be your marketing team through the App Store, and focus your energy on the product, not the plumbing.