Found what seems like a bug. Our app’s billing cannot be accepted on “store-transfer” dev stores since we migrated to Shopify App Pricing. Is this a known or expected issue?
I’ve confirmed that billing can be accepted on “test” dev stores (non-transfer).
We’ve been partner friendly for a long time and want to ensure that our partners can use our products when building out stores for merchants with no issue.
Hi @Jivan! I had a look for you. This one is expected store-type behavior rather than a migration regression. Client transfer stores can only install free apps and partner-friendly apps while they’re in your organization, so paid plan approval gets gated there. Plain dev stores in the same org as your app behave differently, which is why your test stores work. On those you can select any of your app’s plans at no charge.
The documented fix is to make your plans Partner-friendly. Edit each plan and check “Free for partners and developers” under Development stores, and those transfer stores can then install the app and approve the plan free. You can also add the stores to a free private plan’s store access list if you want tighter control over who gets it.
If a marked plan still doesn’t show up on an affected store, let me know and I can DM you to grab the app ID and the store’s myshopify URL and investigate further.
Hey @Donal-Shopify, our app plans are partner friendly. We have that checkbox checked for each plan that we offer yet one of our partners cannot select any plans from a transfer store.
Additionally, I setup a private plan for this use-case with free access but they can’t see the free plan to select.
Hey @Jivan, sent you a DM to gather some details from you. Thanks!
Hi @Jivan, I had a look at the details you shared via DM. Your setup is correct, but I need to correct my earlier reply. The Free for partners and developers checkbox only covers dev stores, so it can’t unlock plans on a transfer store. Sorry for that confusion on my part.
On a transfer store, only $0 plans can be selected. That’s why Starter, Growth, and Enterprise show as unavailable while the private Partner Growth plan works. If your partner still can’t see the private plan, check its access list holds their exact suffixed domain.
You also asked about the random string on new store domains. That suffix is new. Since around July 2026, new transfer stores get an 8-character suffix appended at creation, even when the plain name is free. The myshopify URL can’t be changed afterward. Use the exact suffixed domain on your private plan’s access list.
You’re right that the private free plan won’t switch to paid billing automatically at go-live. Subscribe to the SHOP_UPDATE webhook, block paid features when the store moves to a paid plan, and send the merchant to your hosted plan selection page. You can confirm the result with the Active Subscription API.
If the webhook flow doesn’t fit your setup, let me know and I can take another look at how best to handle this for your situation.
@Donal-Shopify Do you know if its on the roadmap to allow paid plans on transfer stores?
@Jivan I checked with the team on this one. There’s interest in allowing paid plans on transfer stores and the team is aware of the gap. There’s no confirmation yet on if or when it’ll happen, so I can’t share a timeline.
I’ll keep an eye out for movement on it internally and follow up here if/when there’s more I can share. Appreciate you waiting to hear back from me!