How to get reviews for your Shopify app, within Shopify's rules

What changed in July 2026

On July 6, 2026, Shopify turned its review rules into a standalone App Store requirement, rule 1.3: "Always use honest and transparent review practices". Until then they sat in the Partner Program Agreement.

Since that change, only reviews that pass Shopify's trust standards are shown publicly, and Shopify is gradually unpublishing the ones that fail them. Shopify warns that genuine apps may lose some reviews in the process, which can explain a review count that dropped this summer.

What is forbidden

• Fake or incentivized reviews (rule 1.3). That covers any reward: a discount, a free month, a feature.
• Withholding features in exchange for a review, whether in the app or through any other channel (rule 1.3.1).
• Asking for a positive review. Shopify's own example of what not to write: "Like our service? Leave us a positive review!". Requests must use neutral language.
• Asking while a merchant is installing your app or still onboarding.
• Asking from admin UI blocks, admin actions or admin links (rule 2.2.6), from Sidekick extensions (2.2.9), or from checkout extensions (5.6.2 and 5.6.3).
• For Built for Shopify apps: rewards for 5-star reviews, and a review prompt that pops up on its own after a few seconds (requirement 4.3.3 gives a modal opening after 3 seconds as an example).

Ask with the Reviews API

Inside your app, call shopify.reviews.request(). Shopify then decides whether to show its own review window, and enforces the limits for you:

• at most once every 60 days, and three times in 365 days, per merchant;
• never on mobile, never within 24 hours of the install, never for a merchant who already reviewed the app.

The call returns a code that tells you why nothing was shown, such as cooldown-period, annual-limit-reached, recently-installed or already-reviewed. Shopify advises asking right after a merchant finishes a task in your app, and not tying the request to a button they click.

Outside the app, in a newsletter merchants opted into for example, you can link straight to the review form by adding #modal-show=WriteReviewModal to your listing's address. After asking once, give merchants a way to never be asked again.

Who can review, and how the rating is computed

• Only merchants who have your app installed, or who uninstalled it within the last 45 days, can leave a review.
• Your rating is not a simple average: Shopify weights it toward recent, useful and trustworthy reviews.
• Unpublished reviews count neither in your number of reviews nor in your rating.
• The AI summary of reviews shown on a listing needs at least 100 reviews with text and a rating of 4.0 or more.

Your first five reviews

Five reviews is one of the entry thresholds for Built for Shopify, next to 50 net installs from active stores on paid plans. Before that, every review weighs a lot. A way to get the first ones without breaking a rule:

1. Find the moment a merchant gets value from your app: the first order processed, the first report sent, the first result shown.
2. Call the Reviews API right after that moment, not before.
3. In a newsletter merchants opted into, ask everyone with the same neutral words and the direct link to the review form.
4. Reply to every review, good or bad. The merchant is notified and can update both the review and the rating.

Replying and reporting

Replies are written in the Partner Dashboard, under Apps, then "View and reply to reviews", by the account owner or staff with the "Manage public listings" permission. You can edit a reply at any time; only the latest is shown.

A review you believe breaks Shopify's rules can be reported through Shopify's partner violation form. Shopify does not tell you the outcome. To dispute the removal of one of your own reviews, contact Partner Support with evidence.

What happens to apps that cross the line

Shopify's help center lists the consequences, from the mildest to the most severe: removal or editing of some reviews, a lower ranking, removal from promoted sections, unpublishing of the app, and in severe cases the end of the Partner account.

Luseri follows your reviews and rating over a year, next to those of up to six competitors, so you can see whether a change in how you ask actually moves anything.