What Changed on January 1, 2026
None of this is dramatic on its own. Together it means a quote written on 2024 assumptions is describing a workflow that no longer exists.
- No more apps from the admin. New custom apps are created in the Dev Dashboard or through the CLI. The old create-an-app-in-settings route is gone.
- OAuth instead of a pasted token. Authentication runs through standard OAuth. Older integrations holding a permanent Admin API token still work but sit outside the current management model.
- GraphQL by default. The REST Admin API became legacy in October 2024. New integrations are built on GraphQL, and an agency quoting REST is quoting maintenance.
- Functions need Plus. A custom app containing Shopify Function APIs installs only on Shopify Plus, so plan tier is part of the estimate, not a detail.
Ask any agency to state which of these apply to your build before they quote. The answers change the price more than the feature list does.
Build, Buy, or Generate
The bottom of this table used to be billable work. Sidekick now generates simple admin apps on request, which means the cheap end of custom development has largely stopped being a project.
| What you need | Where it should come from | What it costs you later |
| A one-off admin task | Sidekick or a script | Nothing, if you never need it twice |
| A recurring internal workflow | A custom app in the Dev Dashboard | API version maintenance, roughly yearly |
| Checkout, discount, or delivery logic | A Function inside an app | Custom apps with Function APIs need Plus |
| The same need across many merchants | A public app | Review cycles and Shopify’s roadmap |
| A link to an ERP or CRM | Middleware or a custom app | The data contract, not the code |
Most disappointing app projects are a row two problem funded as a row one budget: a recurring workflow built once, then left to drift out of API support.
What to Ask a Canadian Agency Before Signing
Five questions, answered in writing, are worth more than a portfolio.
- Who owns the app and the repository? Name the Partner account, the code, and who can deploy. This is the question that decides whether your next agency starts from your code.
- What is the API version policy? Shopify ships API versions on a schedule and supports each for a limited window. Ask who upgrades, how often, and at whose cost.
- What happens when a call fails? Retries, dead letter handling, and who sees the alert. An integration without an exception queue is a manual process waiting to happen.
- Where does the data go? If the app moves customer or order data outside Shopify, name the host, the region, and the subprocessors.
- What is the exit? Documentation, credentials, and a working deploy from a machine that is not theirs, defined as a deliverable rather than a favour.
An agency that answers all five in a paragraph each has already told you more than a case study will.
The Canadian Clauses Worth Adding
Three items belong in a Canadian engagement and are usually missing from a template contract.
- Data handling under PIPEDA. If the app touches customer or company records, the contract should say where that data is processed and who may access it. Quebec Law 25 adds consent and breach obligations if you have buyers there.
- Intellectual property assignment. Written assignment of the code to your company, not a licence. Assumed ownership is the most common surprise at handover.
- Bilingual output. If the app generates anything a customer sees, invoices, portals, notifications, French of equal quality is a build requirement in Quebec, not a phase two.
None of these adds cost during the build. All of them add cost when raised afterwards.
Working with Binary Future on Custom Apps
Binary Future is a Shopify Plus Partner agency in Toronto. We start by testing whether the requirement needs an app at all, because the honest answer in 2026 is more often no than it was two years ago.
When it does, we confirm plan tier, name the ownership arrangement, and put API version maintenance in the plan rather than in a future surprise.
See our custom Shopify app development and Shopify ERP and CRM integrations for how we scope this work.
