State of the Shopify App Store — May 2026 Report | AppstorePulse
Monthly reportPublished 1 June 2026 · Data through 31 May<br>State of the<br>Shopify App Store<br>May 2026 report<br>A monthly, data-backed look at what shipped, what got removed, what got reviewed, and what's actually growing on the Shopify App Store — built from AppstorePulse's daily index of every public listing.<br>21,509<br>Live apps
2,713<br>Launched in May
21,254<br>New reviews in May
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TL;DR<br>Five things to take away
If you only read one block, read this one. Every bullet starts with a number.<br>2,713 apps launched on the Shopify App Store in May 2026 — and 23.8% of them mention AI in their name, tagline, or description, vs 14.7% of the installed base.<br>21,509 live public apps now serve Shopify merchants, carrying 828,076 reviews at an average rating of 4.65 stars.<br>21,254 new reviews were posted in May, +4.0% over April — the only honest month-over-month signal in this report, since review timestamps come straight from Shopify.<br>1,497 apps now carry the Built for Shopify badge , about 7% of the live catalogue. Only one of the top 10 most-reviewed apps does not have it.<br>76.6% of live apps are English-only . Localization remains the largest, cheapest, most-ignored optimization on the App Store.<br>appstorepulse.com/reports · State of the Shopify App Store, May 2026
Section 1<br>The App Store today
The Shopify App Store now hosts 21,509 live public apps with 828,076 reviews across them at an average rating of 4.65 stars .<br>21,509<br>Live public apps
828,076<br>Reviews on live apps
4.65 ★<br>Average rating (5+ reviews)
1,497<br>Built for Shopify apps (7%)
Free vs paid split<br>65% of live apps offer at least one free plan; 35% are paid-only. The Shopify App Store is structurally a freemium marketplace.
Free plan available · 14,071<br>Paid-only · 7,438
Total reviews ever<br>We have collected 950,996 reviews going back to 2013. Of those, 828,076 (87%) sit on apps that are still live — a useful reminder that the App Store has a meaningful long-tail of delisted history.
On live apps · 828,076<br>On removed apps · 122,920
appstorepulse.com/reports · State of the Shopify App Store, May 2026
Section 2<br>May in numbers
2,713 apps launched and 56 apps were removed in May 2026, while merchants posted 21,254 new reviews — up 4.0% over April .<br>2,713<br>Apps launched in May
56<br>Apps removed from the store
21,254<br>New reviews posted
+4%<br>Review growth MoM
Review velocity, April vs May<br>Review timestamps come from Shopify's posted_at field and are stable month-over-month. New-review volume grew from 20,439 in April to 21,254 in May (+4.0%) .<br>20,439
April
21,254 (+4.0%)
May
Who's getting reviewed<br>2,243 distinct apps received at least one review in May — roughly 1 in 10 live apps . The new reviews themselves skewed positive: an average of 4.81 stars , slightly above the all-time mean of 4.65.<br>Apps reviewed in May<br>2,243<br>10% of live
Avg rating of new reviews<br>4.81 ★<br>vs 4.65 all-time
infoWhy no month-over-month launch comparison? Data coverage was still expanding through April 2026, so an apples-to-apples MoM for launches would be misleading. Review timestamps are comparable because they come from Shopify directly. We'll publish honest launch MoM starting next month.<br>appstorepulse.com/reports · State of the Shopify App Store, May 2026
Section 3<br>The AI surge
AI mentions are 1.6× over-represented in May launches : 23.8% of new apps mention AI , vs 14.7% of the installed base .<br>23.8%<br>of May launches mention AI (647 of 2,713)
14.7%<br>of all live apps mention AI (3,163 of 21,509)
Share of apps mentioning AI<br>May 2026 launches23.8%647 of 2,713
All live apps14.7%3,163 of 21,509
Methodology note: this counts the literal token "AI" (and related forms like "AI-powered") in an app's name, tagline, or description. It's a proxy for marketed as AI, not for what the app technically does under the hood.
appstorepulse.com/reports · State of the Shopify App Store, May 2026
Section 4<br>Categories: where the apps are
Analytics is the single largest category on the Shopify App Store, with 982 live apps — and it was also the most-launched category in May, with 188 new entries.<br>Top 10 categories by total live apps<br>Snapshot as of 31 May 2026.<br>1.Analytics
982 apps<br>2.Chat
703 apps<br>3.Shipping
694 apps<br>4.Discounts
671 apps<br>5.SEO
649 apps<br>6.Upsell and cross-sell
516 apps<br>7.Dropshipping
505 apps<br>8.Inventory sync
425 apps<br>9.Delivery and pickup
394 apps<br>10.Cart customization
393 apps
Top 10 categories by May launches<br>Apps that first appeared on the Shopify App Store during May 2026.<br>1.Analytics
188 new<br>2.SEO
139 new<br>3.Chat
112 new<br>4.Upsell and cross-sell
75 new<br>5.Product content
66 new<br>6.Inventory optimization
61 new<br>7.Discounts
61 new<br>8.3D/AR/VR
51 new<br>9.Orders – Other
50 new<br>10.Invoices and receipts
49 new
SEO and Analytics dominate new-app supply (139 and 188 launches respectively in May). Both categories already...