Hey there! I hope you’re doing well and you’re enjoying some free time

New week, new email!

Let’s dive right into this newsletter!

In today’s email we’re going to talk about:

• Redesigning the dashboard of my app

• What to do if you have an app with only free users?

• Your app is worth less than you think

Let’s go! 🔥

Redesigning the dashboard of my app

I was audited by the BFS team. It’s not all beautiful! What’s weird is that some stuff that did pass the review last year… didn’t pass that one!

It’s really subjective, and some changes they ask you to make are counterintuitive.

For example: They kind of force you to have an onboarding to help people use your app even if it’s simple, and you can have only up to 5 steps.

Well, after spending almost 1 and a half months with them, I passed it! But it’s worth it in the end.

Remember, sooner or later, every app will need that badge because Shopify will make it mandatory. I don’t have any proof but I’m 99% sure about it because that’s how Shopify has been working with important updates these last few years.

The point is: I’ve been here since 2020 and our dashboard wasn’t like that in the beginning, we tweaked it many time without rebuilding it completely.

And when you add the BFS changes, it becomes kind of messy. That’s ironic. You’re supposed to make your dashboard better for the users, yet it becomes more complicated 🙃

So we’re changing all of that using users feedback (especially new ones in this case)

Here is the process:

• Acquire new users and onboard them.

• Do not interact or help them.

• Ensure they speak as they think.

This process helps you understand what’s not clear because they might say things like

• “What’s that button for?”

• “Why can’t I click here?”

• “What does that mean?”

Improve your UX that way.

If they don’t do it with you, you can ask them to record a video and do the exact same process.

You’ll discover UX problems you never thought about.

Now my goal is to say: all right, I’ve got all these insights, now how can I improve it? How can I make it clearer?

Sometimes it’s about removing steps, sometimes about adding some.

And at the same time, you track analytics. For example, for WideBundle, I can track the time it takes to go from Install → App correctly set up. And also track the conversion rate on that specific step.

If my changes make sense, the time is supposed to decrease, and the conversion rate is supposed to increase.

Remember something: technically, everyone installing your app has the need your app solves (otherwise they wouldn’t have installed your app)

So you can definitely have a conversion rate of 90-95%!

Otherwise your app is too complicated to use, or what your app does wasn’t clear from the listing page.

What to do if you have an app with only free users?

Recently, someone posted this in our community (Click here to join the community for free)

This person has an app with 10,000 free users and no paying users.

It’s even ranking number 1 for the best keywords and the person even mentions that other apps are charging 10-60 USD per month!

What is going on?

The easy answer here is “Just ask for money!”

But when you’re the owner of such app, it’s way more complicated in your mind. This is what happens:

• You create your app and start to bring a lot of users, you’re happy about that. The number of users becomes your key metric and your dopamine boost.

• You start to think your app isn’t good enough because you get a lot of feature requests. So you may think “I’ll add plans later when the app is better”. Spoiler: The app will never be perfect

• You start to lose faith because you’re working on it and it doesn’t generate revenue. At some point, you lose interest and it becomes more complicated for you to continue (probably the reason why this person wants to sell it)

• Your number of installs became your favorite metric and you know that if you add a paid plan, you may get 90% less installs (which will trigger something negative in your mind)

• You start wondering if people will pay for your app or if you will be disappointed. So you’re postponing it.

All these thoughts go through the person’s mind.

But here is the truth: An app with 500 paying users will always be better than a free app with 10,000 free users.

Let me rephrase it: An app making $5000 per month will always be better than an app making $0 per month.

So in this situation it’s simple: add paud plans!

If you can, only add a free trial. If you can’t offer a free trial (because your app doesn’t make sense with one), consider adding paid plans and keeping your free plan so basic that people won’t have any other choice but to pay for it.

And you should add paid plans for everyone. Not just new users!

We talk a lot about grandfathering old users (which means you don’t change the price for old users).

But it’s usually true when they’re already paying for your solution. Which isn’t the case here.

For new users it’s simple, they choose the plans, they never knew that your app was free, so it’s fine.

For old users you may think many things:

• What if they leave a bad review?

• What if they uninstall my app?

For the first point, you will simply not make the change instantly. You will prepare it 2 months before.

1. Release your paid plans for new users

2. Send an email to current users telling them your app is not free anymore but since they installed before, they have 2 months for free.

3. Add this information to the dashboard homepage as well.

4. Send emails 2 months before, 1 and a half months before, 1 month before, 2 weeks before, 1 week before, 3 days before, 1 day before.

5. That way, you’re slowly preparing them to pay for the app.

Then you may receive a few bad reviews. Accept it.

Thanks to this slow transition you won’t have many bad reviews don’t worry. You won’t suddenly get 20 of them.

But see it that way: Would you prefer to make $0 per month and have a rating of 5/5 or make $5K a month and have a rating of 4.7/5?

And you won’t even have 4.7, but that’s just to give you an idea of how it’s not that bad.

I was talking to a friend who sold his app for 8 figures. Yes, 9 figures. It wasn’t only a Shopify App and it was a long time ago so the valuations weren’t the same.

His app had a 4.6 rating, which, in our mind, is pretty low considering best apps have 4.8 at least.

I asked him: Aren’t you worried about that 4.6?

And he just replied: As soon as I’m making money, I don’t care about the rating.

And that’s true!

Also, to answer the initial message. An app making $5K per month with 500 users will always be more valuable than an app making $0 with 10,000 users

Your app is worth less than you think

In 2020, Shopify Apps valuations were crazy.

We had an e-commerce boom and everyone was jumping in the boat, including investors and buyers.

But from 2020 to 2025, we started to see a decline in the valuations.

I know someone who was making $70K per month and sold his Shopify App for $10M.

That wouldn’t happen today. And every day I see the valuation going lower and lower.

A few reasons to that:

• Recession. People inject less money and try to reduce costs

• Competitors. When someone wants to buy an app, they look at the other apps and if you have 20 competitors vs 4 a few years ago, the price isn’t the same

• Shopify changes. As Shopify continues to accelerate, buyers perceive the platform as a risk. The risk that, one day, a Shopify App can be killed by a major update.

• Shopify payments policy. They recently changed the fees they take on your app. A 15% revenue threshold over $1M, resetting annually. To 15% revenue threshold over $1M that doesn’t reset anymore! Buyers know it: as soon as you reach $1M, they will get 15% less profits.

It may change in the future and go back to high valuations again.

But right now that’s not the case. When I see people thinking their $3,000-a-month Shopify app is worth $200K, I know they’re in for a shock when they find out it’s worth less.

Thanks for reading!

I’ll see you in the next email, in 14 days. Until then, take care!

Mat.