Matthew Collins, the 13th of November 2025
Many of the stores we inherit have a custom app nobody quite remembers creating. It was set up in the admin a few years ago to connect an ERP, a 3PL or a reporting tool. It still runs every day. The person who made it has moved on.
Those apps are safe. But from the 1st of January 2026, you can't create new ones that way. Custom apps made directly in the Shopify admin, often called legacy custom apps, are closing to new builds. Existing ones keep working. Anything new is built in the Dev Dashboard and installed on your store. If you planned to spin one up in the admin next year, plan differently.
What exactly is changing?
Shopify set out the change in its changelog entry on legacy custom apps, published on the 30th of October 2025.
- From the 1st of January 2026, you can no longer create new custom apps in the Shopify admin.
- It affects merchants and developers who create custom apps directly from the admin.
- Existing custom apps continue to work without interruption.
- New custom apps are built in the Dev Dashboard and deployed to the store from there.
Shopify gives two reasons. The change strengthens security and provides better long term support for custom apps.
Who does this affect?
Two groups, in different ways.
The first is any business that creates admin custom apps as a routine. Some teams make one every time they connect a new tool that asks for an API token. That habit ends at the turn of the year.
The second is any business with custom apps already running. Nothing breaks for you. This is still a good moment to understand what you have, because the next app you need will be built differently.
Agencies and freelance developers who use admin custom apps for client work should also update how they scope and hand over projects.
Your existing apps: a short audit
Since your current apps keep running, there's no emergency. There is a sensible piece of housekeeping. Set aside an hour and work through this list.
- Open the apps area of your admin and list every custom app.
- For each one, write down what it does and which system it connects to.
- Find out who owns it today, inside your team or with a partner.
- Check which access scopes it has. Apps often hold more access than they use.
- Remove any app that no longer does anything.
- Note where the credentials live, so a staff change doesn't leave you locked out.
That last point matters more than it sounds. When a sync breaks, the first question is always who has the keys. Having the answer written down saves hours.
Planning new custom apps for 2026
If a new integration is on your roadmap, the Dev Dashboard is now the starting point. For most merchants that means the app is created by a developer or partner, then installed on your store.
In practice this is a healthier way to work. The app has an owner. It can be versioned, reviewed and maintained like any other piece of software. That's what Shopify points to when it talks about security and long term support.
Before you commission one, it's worth asking whether you need a custom app at all. A public app from a solid vendor is often the better answer for common jobs. We cover how to make that call in custom Shopify app or public app. Custom apps earn their place when the workflow is yours alone, or when a system has no native connector.
ERP links and background syncs
The apps that matter most are usually the quiet ones. An order sync to the ERP. A stock feed from the warehouse. A price update for trade customers.
If one of those runs as an admin custom app today, it will keep running. When you next change it significantly, that's the time to rebuild it properly in the Dev Dashboard. We'd bundle that with a review of what the sync does and which system owns the truth.
Our note on connecting Shopify to Business Central for wholesale shows how we map that ownership. Once an app is built this way, it's also easier to watch. We've written about monitoring custom apps and their logs for teams who want to catch silent failures early.
Where parallel helps
We build and look after custom Shopify apps and ERP integrations for Business Central, Odoo, NetSuite, SAP and Sage. We can audit the custom apps on your store, tidy access, and plan any new builds so they start life in the right place. See how we approach apps and integrations.
If you've got custom apps nobody fully understands, book a call and we'll help you map what's running.