What Shopify merchants complain about in 1- and 2-star app reviews
2,418 low-star reviews with text (2,013 one-star, the rest two-star) of 192 popular apps in 12 Shopify App Store categories, posted 26 Oct 2025 – 25 Oct 2026. Classified by published keyword patterns into 13 themes. No AI.
Key findings
- Slow or no support is the most common complaint: 31.2% of low-star reviews, ahead of bugs & broke the store (17.9%) and charges & refunds (13.9%).
- Money: 13.9% mention charges or refunds and 4.7% say the app is too expensive; 1.4% (33 reviews) say they were still charged after uninstalling or cancelling.
- Next come hard to use (9.1%), sync and order errors (6.5%) and export or migration pain (6.4%). Only 4 reviews (0.2%) mention code left in the theme after uninstalling.
- 43.9% of low-star reviews got a public developer reply (median 2 days after the review). SEO & speed apps reply most (86.7%), Marketplaces least (5.5%).
- 19.1% were written within a week of installing (11.8% within the first day), while 36.5% came from merchants who had used the app for over a year.
- By category: Helpdesk & chat leads on support complaints (66.2%), Product options & variants on bugs (31.7%), Dropshipping on charges (26.2%).
- Bad reviews are a small slice of the store: across these apps, only 2.9% of 392,701 all-time reviews are one or two stars.
- 38.3% of low-star reviews match none of the 13 themes: short verdicts, other languages, or app-specific problems.
For journalists and researchers
| Sample | 2,418 one- and two-star reviews with text of 192 popular apps in 12 Shopify App Store categories |
|---|---|
| Period | 26 Oct 2025 – 25 Oct 2026; fetched 25 Oct 2026 from apps.shopify.com |
| Method | 13 complaint themes matched by published keyword patterns (no AI); hand check 53 of 64 matches on topic. Details |
| Credit line | Source: Revunda (revunda.xyz), analysis of 2,418 low-star Shopify App Store reviews, 2026 |
| Licence | CC BY 4.0: reuse, chart and republish with credit and a link to this page |
| Data | CSV · Themes chart (SVG) · Reply chart (SVG) · Usage chart (SVG) |
| Questions | hello@revunda.xyz |
Summary to quote
Complaint themes across all apps
Share of 2,418 one- and two-star reviews with text mentioning each theme. A review can match several themes. “Charged after uninstalling” is a subset of “Charges & refunds”.
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By category
Share of each category’s low-star reviews mentioning each theme, %.
| Category | Apps | 1–2★ | Support | Bugs | Charges | Price rise | Missing | Slow | Leftover code | Scam | Expensive | Hard to use | Export | Sync |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces | 16 | 581 | 29.4 | 16.9 | 7.1 | 0 | 3.1 | 1.7 | 0 | 3.6 | 2.8 | 9.3 | 5.0 | 13.4 |
| Email & SMS marketing | 16 | 411 | 17.5 | 18.5 | 8.5 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 3.2 | 0 | 5.4 | 3.6 | 11.9 | 4.9 | 1.9 |
| Dropshipping | 16 | 298 | 38.3 | 10.7 | 26.2 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 3.4 | 0 | 7.7 | 3.4 | 5.7 | 6.7 | 15.1 |
| Product reviews | 16 | 209 | 28.2 | 18.7 | 15.8 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 5.3 | 6.7 | 10.0 | 13.9 | 2.4 |
| Upsell & bundles | 16 | 169 | 30.8 | 16.6 | 17.2 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 8.3 | 4.7 | 9.5 | 4.7 | 0.6 |
| Translation & currency | 16 | 135 | 28.9 | 28.9 | 7.4 | 1.5 | 3.7 | 4.4 | 0 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 5.9 | 3.7 | 0.7 |
| Subscriptions | 16 | 131 | 23.7 | 7.6 | 11.5 | 0.8 | 6.9 | 2.3 | 0 | 3.8 | 2.3 | 7.6 | 6.1 | 0.8 |
| Shipping | 16 | 128 | 45.3 | 16.4 | 25.0 | 0 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 0 | 7.8 | 5.5 | 7.0 | 7.8 | 6.2 |
| Product options & variants | 16 | 126 | 38.1 | 31.7 | 14.3 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 0 | 4.8 | 9.5 | 12.7 | 7.1 | 3.2 |
| SEO & speed | 16 | 83 | 36.1 | 16.9 | 25.3 | 2.4 | 1.2 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 12.0 | 9.6 | 8.4 | 2.4 | 1.2 |
| Helpdesk & chat | 16 | 74 | 66.2 | 23.0 | 17.6 | 1.4 | 9.5 | 2.7 | 0 | 6.8 | 8.1 | 10.8 | 13.5 | 4.1 |
| Loyalty & rewards | 16 | 73 | 42.5 | 24.7 | 15.1 | 1.4 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 1.4 |
Do developers reply to bad reviews?
Share of low-star reviews with a public developer reply shown on the review page. Overall 43.9%; median reply 2 days after the review, 51.2% of replies within 2 days.
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Highest reply rates (apps with ≥15 low-star reviews): Zendrop 100.0% of 42; Transcy 100.0% of 22; PageFly ✦ AI Page Builder 100.0% of 18. Lowest: TikTok 0.0% of 111; Facebook & Instagram 0.0% of 108; Shopify Subscriptions 0.0% of 78.
When merchants leave the bad review
Time using the app at the moment of the review, as shown on the review (2,418 low-star reviews with that field).
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Apps with the highest share of each complaint
Among 45 apps with at least 15 low-star reviews with text in the period; 3+ matching reviews required.
Slow or no support
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gorgias | Helpdesk & chat | 27 | 88.9% |
| PageFly ✦ AI Page Builder | Upsell & bundles | 18 | 55.6% |
| Easify Custom Product Options | Product options & variants | 22 | 54.5% |
Bugs & broke the store
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transcy | Translation & currency | 22 | 59.1% |
| Easify Custom Product Options | Product options & variants | 22 | 59.1% |
| Shopify Marketplace Connect | Marketplaces | 93 | 34.4% |
Charges & refunds
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| ReConvert Post Purchase Upsell | Upsell & bundles | 24 | 45.8% |
| Auto DS | Dropshipping | 45 | 42.2% |
| UpPromote Affiliate Marketing | Loyalty & rewards | 17 | 41.2% |
Hard to use or set up
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Flow | Email & SMS marketing | 142 | 22.5% |
| CedCommerce Etsy Integration | Marketplaces | 20 | 20.0% |
| CedCommerce Amazon Channel | Marketplaces | 20 | 20.0% |
Sync, orders & inventory errors
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| CedCommerce Etsy Integration | Marketplaces | 20 | 45.0% |
| CJdropshipping | Dropshipping | 17 | 35.3% |
| Trendsi | Dropshipping | 17 | 35.3% |
Export, import & migration pain
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omnisend Email Marketing & SMS | Email & SMS marketing | 35 | 20.0% |
| CWILL Popup Email Marketing | Email & SMS marketing | 15 | 20.0% |
| Judge.me Product Reviews App | Product reviews | 62 | 17.7% |
Called it a scam or misleading
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| UpPromote Affiliate Marketing | Loyalty & rewards | 17 | 29.4% |
| Omnisend Email Marketing & SMS | Email & SMS marketing | 35 | 17.1% |
| Shop | Marketplaces | 66 | 13.6% |
Too expensive for what it does
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| UpPromote Affiliate Marketing | Loyalty & rewards | 17 | 29.4% |
| Klaviyo | Email & SMS marketing | 51 | 19.6% |
| BOOSTER AI SEO + AEO OPTIMIZER | SEO & speed | 21 | 19.0% |
Missing features & limits
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gorgias | Helpdesk & chat | 27 | 11.1% |
| Shopify Subscriptions | Subscriptions | 78 | 7.7% |
| Printify | Dropshipping | 43 | 7.0% |
Slow store & app speed
| App | Category | 1–2★ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transcy | Translation & currency | 22 | 13.6% |
| Omnisend Email Marketing & SMS | Email & SMS marketing | 35 | 8.6% |
| Printify | Dropshipping | 43 | 7.0% |
Where the reviewers are
United States 1,024 (42.3%); United Kingdom 207 (8.6%); Australia 135 (5.6%); Canada 129 (5.3%); Germany 94 (3.9%); France 90 (3.7%); India 73 (3.0%); Spain 65 (2.7%).
Method
- Apps: the most-reviewed apps in 12 Shopify App Store categories (Product reviews, Email & SMS marketing, Upsell & bundles, Subscriptions, Loyalty & rewards, SEO & speed, Translation & currency, Dropshipping, Shipping, Product options & variants, Marketplaces, Helpdesk & chat), up to 16 per category, from the public category listings on 25 Oct 2026. Each app counts once, in the first category it was found in; ads were skipped.
- Reviews: the public review pages on apps.shopify.com, filtered to 1★ and to 2★ and sorted newest first, read until reviews were older than 26 Oct 2025 (one request about every 1.1 seconds). 3,049 low-star reviews in the window; 631 had no text and are left out of theme shares. For 1 very large app the read stopped at 200 one-star or 100 two-star reviews: Facebook & Instagram.
- Fields used: rating, date, text, reviewer country, “time using the app” and whether the developer replied (with date), as shown on each review. All-time star counts come from the app’s rating summary.
- Classification: each review text is matched against one case-insensitive regular expression per theme, written for this study (mostly English, a few Spanish, French, German and Dutch price words). A review can match several themes or none. No AI is involved.
- Thresholds: a category is shown with ≥50 low-star reviews; an app is ranked with ≥15.
Theme patterns
Slow or no support\bsupport\b|customer service|no (?:response|reply|answer)|never (?:got|received|heard)|(?:didn['’]?t|did not|don['’]?t|do not|won['’]?t|never) (?:respond|reply|answer|get back)|(?:no one|nobody) (?:respond|repl|answer|help|got back)|ignor(?:ed|ing) (?:my|our|me|us)|\bticket\b|live chat|chat ?bot|\bai (?:bot|agent|support|assistant)
Bugs & broke the store\bbugs?\b|\bbuggy\b|glitch|\bbroke\b|\bbroken\b|break(?:s|ing)? (?:my|our|the) (?:store|site|theme|checkout|page)|not working|doesn['’]?t work|does not work|didn['’]?t work|did not work|stopped working|\bcrash|\berrors?\b|messed up|conflict(?:s|ed|ing)? with|disappeared
Charges & refunds\bcharg(?:e|ed|es|ing)\b|\bbill(?:ed|ing)\b|\brefund|money back|overcharg|\binvoice|double charg|\bcredit card\b|recurring (?:fee|charge|payment)
Charged after uninstalling/cancelling(?:charg|bill)\w*[^.!?\n]{0,80}\bafter (?:i |we )?(?:had )?(?:uninstall|cancel|delet|remov|stopp)|(?:after|despite|even though)[^.!?\n]{0,15}(?:uninstall|cancel|delet|remov)\w*[^.!?\n]{0,80}(?:charg|bill)|still (?:being )?(?:charg|bill)
Price increases & plan changesprice (?:increase|hike|jump)|(?:raised|increased|doubled|tripled|hiked) (?:the |their |its |our )?(?:price|pricing|fee|cost|plan)|(?:price|pricing|prices|cost|fee)s? (?:went up|has gone up|have gone up|increased|doubled|tripled|changed|skyrocket)|(?:changed|new) (?:the |their )?pricing|legacy plan|grandfather|no longer free|(?:was|used to be) free|now (?:charg|requires? (?:a )?paid)|moved (?:features?|it) (?:to|behind)|paywall
Missing features & limitsmissing (?:feature|basic|option|functionality)|lack(?:s|ing)?(?: of)? (?:basic |many |key |essential |some )?(?:features?|options?|functionality|customi[sz]ation)|no option (?:to|for)|(?:doesn['’]?t|does not|didn['’]?t|did not) (?:have|support|allow|offer|let)|(?:can['’]?t|cannot|unable to) (?:customi[sz]e|change|edit|adjust|select|choose)|limited (?:features?|options?|functionality|customi[sz]ation)|very basic|too basic
Slow store & app speed\bslow(?:s|ed|ing)? (?:down )?(?:my |our |the )?(?:store|site|website|page|theme|speed)|\bslow\b|page ?speed|site speed|load(?:ing)? (?:time|speed)|takes forever|\blag(?:gy|s|ging)?\b|speed score|lighthouse
Code left after uninstallleft(?:over)? (?:behind )?(?:code|scripts?|snippets?|junk|files|apps? blocks?)|\bleftover|residual|code (?:was |is )?(?:left|remain|still)|(?:remove|removing|clean(?:ing)? up|delete) (?:the |all |their |its |leftover )?(?:code|scripts?|snippets?)|after (?:i |we )?uninstall\w*[^.!?\n]{0,80}(?:code|script|snippet|theme files?|still (?:showing|there|on|in|appear))|still (?:in|on) (?:my|our|the) (?:theme|store|site|code)
Called it a scam or misleading\bscam|\bfraud|\bsteal|\bstole\b|\bthie(?:f|ves|very)|rip ?off|ripoff|misleading|false advertis|deceptiv|bait
Too expensive for what it doesexpensive|overpriced|over-priced|too pricey|\bpricey\b|costs? (?:too much|a fortune|way too)|not worth (?:the|it)|waste of money|rip ?off|\bcaro\b|\bcostos|\bcher\b|\bchère\b|\bteuer|\bduur\b
Hard to use or set up\bhard to\b|difficult|complicated|confusing|not (?:easy|intuitive|user[- ]friendly)|tedious|frustrating to|steep learning|clunky|\bunusable\b|can['’]?t figure|couldn['’]?t figure|set ?up (?:is|was) (?:a )?(?:pain|nightmare|hard)
Export, import & migration pain\bexport|\bimport|migrat|switch(?:ed|ing)? (?:from|to|apps?)|mov(?:e|ed|ing) (?:my |our |the )?(?:reviews|data|subscribers|customers) |lock(?:ed)? (?:in|me in|us in)|hostage
Sync, orders & inventory errors\bsync|out of sync|inventory|stock (?:levels?|count)|orders? (?:not|never|didn['’]?t|did not|weren['’]?t|were not|missing|stuck|lost|duplicat)|duplicate orders?|tracking (?:number|info)|fulfil(?:l)?ment
Spot check
We read 64 randomly drawn matches by hand (up to 5 per theme, fixed seed): 53 of 64 (83%) were on topic. Misses by theme: slow 2/5, hard to use 2/5, export 2/5, charges 1/5, after cancel 1/5, price rise 1/5, missing 1/5, expensive 1/5. Most misses are the word “slow”, “difficult” or “import” used about support or a side issue rather than the app itself.
Limitations
- Keyword patterns miss paraphrases, sarcasm, misspellings and most non-English reviews, and catch some off-topic uses; shares are approximate.
- Apps were picked by review count, so this describes popular apps, not the long tail.
- Shopify can hide or remove reviews; we only see what is public on the fetch date.
- Low-star reviews over-represent unhappy merchants and say nothing about how many merchants are happy.
- A developer reply is counted when it is shown under the review; we do not judge its quality.
Download the data
shopify-app-review-complaints-2026.csv (CSV): every number on this page by overall, category, reviewer country and app, with counts and shares per theme, reply rate and all-time star share. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Please credit Revunda with a link to this page.
Revunda (2026). What Shopify merchants complain about in 1- and 2-star app reviews. https://revunda.xyz/apps/research/shopify-app-review-complaints-2026/
Link:
<a href="https://revunda.xyz/apps/research/shopify-app-review-complaints-2026/">Revunda study of 2,418 low-star Shopify app reviews</a>Building a Shopify app?
AppGap runs this kind of analysis on the leading apps in one category and shows the complaints they all share: one PDF, €19 (launch price, €39 from 1 Dec 2026). See a sample for product review apps.