I’m building a Shopify-related app with a subscription-based model and plan to use Stripe for recurring payments. The app will most likely operate as a third-party SaaS, as merchants can choose to use third-party services, or in some cases be a Shopify-integrated app.
Stripe isn’t natively available in my country, so I’m considering setting up a U.S. entity (LLC or C-Corp) via Stripe Atlas and using that entity’s Stripe account to handle subscriptions.
I’d love to hear from developers who have tried this: is this approach feasible for real-world Shopify apps, and are there any gotchas, limitations, or compliance issues when the developer is outside Stripe-supported countries but the business is U.S.-registered?
I’m not asking about Stripe API implementation, just practical experience, lessons learned, and guidance from others who’ve done this or what is the most feasible approach.
If you want to publish a Shopify app, you must use Shopify’s billing system to set up reoccurring payments.
It sounds like your app is horizontally integrated, and the Shopify connection is optional but isn’t your main focus.
If you’re not looking to list on the Shopify App Store, and instead just offer an integration into Shopify, then offering instructions for merchants to set up a custom app is the alternative. Then you don’t need to publish the app and you circumvent the billing API requirement.
However, Jan 1st it will become much more difficult for merchants to create custom apps. They’ll need to use a CLI tool to generate custom apps, define scopes, etc. It will be a large learning curve for most.
My target is definitely shopify, at least that’s what i have been thinking for now.
Actually, the reason im trying to incorporate a app/service out of the shopify store is that because i can make it to grow complex and performance wise.
And from what i know, integrating into its own shopify app store with some heavy models will break its architecture and performance ?
Or for e.g i can build complex system and dashboard in my own server and handle its payment from the shopify billing ? The app has to be in store to get to use Shopify billing no ?
There’s no limit to how complex your Shopify app can be.
I think potentially you think that your app will be running on Shopify’s infrastructure.
I assure you that’s not the case. You’ll still have ownership of the infrastructure. You can make as many performance tweaks as you’d like. But in this stage, I wouldn’t worry about that.
You cannot have both billing/payments outside of Shopify AND list your app on Shopify’s app store.
To list on Shopify’s app store, you must use their billing system.
Thank you for the response! Appreciate wholeheartedly.
If I may ask- Even if I incorporate the app in shopify store with their reoccurring billing system, there isn’t limit to how complex it can be actually?
That was my only confusion that made me shift to building opt out of the shopify store, if i end up using heavy ML, graphs, or data science libs. Or maybe i can do a hybrid approach with dashboard self hosted and billing still with shopify ?
If so, on what occasion/events do people build non-embed app for shopify merchants ? There must be some analytics or drawbacks it takes place ?
If I may ask- Even if I incorporate the app in shopify store with their reoccurring billing system, there isn’t limit to how complex it can be actually?
Shopify gives you many options to bill merchants, not just a flat monthly rate. I recommend reading about them in detail and seeing which fits your needs.
That was my only confusion that made me shift to building opt out of the shopify store, if i end up using heavy ML, graphs, or data science libs. Or maybe i can do a hybrid approach with dashboard self hosted and billing still with shopify ?
Again, you host your own app. You’re free to use whichever packages you need to build your app. There’s no restrictions.
You can choose to not use AppBridge to surface your app in the Shopify admin, if you choose. However you opt out of “Built for Shopify” status, and it may complicate your listing approval.
I’m sure there will be other negative effects by not embedding your app, potentially more in the future as well.