Onboard your next client store today — not after app review.
Shopify's own answer to serving many merchants outside the App Store is one custom-distribution app per client store, created in your organization. DeploTeka runs that mechanism for you: it creates each store's dedicated app inside your organization, delivers sealed credentials to your backend, releases your app version, and refuses to call a store live without install proof.
You connect your Shopify organization once, in your browser. We read your app's config — nothing is cloned or run on our servers. Shopify still requires each merchant to approve their own install.
The review queue, the hand-run fleet, or the fleet layer.
Since January 1, 2026, new custom apps can no longer be created in a store's admin (Shopify changelog) — and the copyable admin token is gone from every screen. What's left: build a public app and wait out review, or run one custom-distribution app per client store — by hand, or with DeploTeka.
Run the fleet by hand
Shopify's prescribed mechanism, manually- Create and configure every store's app in the Dev Dashboard, client by client
- Track N client IDs, N secrets, N install links — across people, docs, and browser tabs
- Re-release every store's app whenever your configuration changes
- One person's memory is the system of record
This is the mechanism Shopify staff prescribe — and it's free. Their own caveat is the catch: "for a handful of stores it's manageable."
Build a public app
one App Store listing- Developers report 4–10 weeks just to reach reviewer assignment, and months to approval — no published SLA, no escalation path (thread, thread)
- Public distribution brings Shopify's billing requirements with it
- "Limited visibility" (formerly "unlisted") still requires the same review
- Public apps must also migrate to expiring offline tokens by January 1, 2027; as of today, Shopify's changelog lists custom apps as unaffected (changelog)
Right if you sell to strangers on the App Store. If your clients come through your own sales channel, the queue is pure delay — one developer in it wrote, 2026-04-30: "we have 500 Shopify stores connected that depend directly on this." (thread)
DeploTeka
from €49/month- A dedicated custom-distribution app for every client store, inside your organization
- One repeatable setup run, with explicit pauses where Shopify needs a person
- Sealed credentials delivered straight into your product's backend
- A store counts as live only after install proof — never before
Four Shopify employees describe this exact mechanism. On the record.
Public posts on Shopify's own developer forum — quoted verbatim, named, dated, linked. They are answers to developers' questions, not endorsements of DeploTeka.
"Create the app in your Dev Dashboard (your organization) · Click 'Select distribution method' · Choose 'Custom distribution' and generate an install link for the client's store · Send the link to your client to install"
— KyleG-Shopify, 2026-02-03 · community.shopify.dev/t/29171
"You'd create one app per client store, each with its own install link. Once installed, your app uses the authorization code grant to get an offline access token for that store. Your automation script stores each token and loops through the stores… It's a bit more setup up front, but for a handful of stores it's manageable"
— Donal-Shopify, 2026-04-15 · community.shopify.dev/t/33016
"Separate client organizations need separate custom apps… If a client has multiple stores that aren't part of the same Plus organization, each store needs its own custom app."
— Alan_G (Shopify), 2026-08-12 · community.shopify.dev/t/36631
"You can create an app in the dev dashboard and then distribute it to your client's store. When you choose distribution for your app you will want it to be a custom app… Then you can install the app into that client's store with the URL provided in the partner dashboard."
— TerenceShopify, 2025-11-04 · community.shopify.dev/t/22401
Read the second quote again: "for a handful of stores it's manageable." Everything past the handful is what DeploTeka does.
DeploTeka is independent software and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Shopify. "Shopify" is a trademark of Shopify Inc.
Is this even allowed?
Custom distribution is a Shopify-supported path with a hard rule attached. Here is the rule, the strongest reading against us, and our answer — sources linked, so you can check all of it in five minutes.
The rule, verbatim
Shopify's API Terms (§2.3.20) say: "When using the Shopify API, you will not make Custom Applications available to or for use by more than one Merchant. For the avoidance of doubt, this means that Custom Applications may not be installed by more than one Merchant." (shopify.com/legal/api-terms) One app may never serve two merchants — which is exactly why the model is one dedicated app per client store. DeploTeka never attaches one app to a second store; the one-app-per-store fleet is what following this rule looks like at fleet size.
Your organization. Your apps.
Every app is created inside your Shopify organization, with access you grant to DeploTeka — and can revoke. Open your Dev Dashboard and the apps are right there, indistinguishable from ones you made by hand, because mechanically they are. Disconnecting DeploTeka does not delete them.
The honest counter-note
One Shopify staff member reads the multi-merchant case differently: in a January 2026 thread, Liam-Shopify described creating a fresh custom app per unrelated merchant as treating a custom app "as a 'private public app'" and said that at scale "you should use public distribution" (community.shopify.dev/t/28011, 2026-01-07). Our answer: the ToS clause he quotes forbids one app serving many merchants — the one-app-per-store model is built to never do that — and four other Shopify staff prescribe exactly this setup for teams serving client stores (see above). Both readings exist in public on Shopify's own forum. We'd rather you read them before you sign up than after.
DeploTeka is independent software and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Shopify. "Shopify" is a trademark of Shopify Inc.
You've built the app. This is everything after.
DeploTeka sits downstream of your build tools. Import your app's configuration once, wire the two-route fleet contract into your backend (details below), and every new client becomes a repeatable setup run that ends in install proof.
Onboard the app
Connect your Shopify organization, import the app configuration — we read shopify.app.toml; nothing is cloned or run — and wire your backend with npx deploteka or one of the guides. Your source code and Shopify CLI login stay on your machine.
Run each store setup
DeploTeka creates the dedicated app and seals its credentials. The local agent receives public config, releases through Shopify CLI, and returns a receipt so the setup can continue to the merchant install.
Keep one operational record
See setup state, required manual actions, installation evidence, credential metadata, and run activity without reconstructing the story from chat and spreadsheets.
What connecting actually takes.
DeploTeka delivers each store's credentials into your product's backend. That means your backend has to be able to receive them — this is the one step that takes engineering time, and we'd rather you price it here than discover it after signup.
The contract
Your backend exposes two routes — /api/fleet/register and /api/fleet/installed — plus a per-shop credential lookup. DeploTeka pushes each dedicated app's credentials in, then reads them back and verifies they match before any store goes live.
Remix v2–v4 / React Router v7
npx deploteka applies the change to your code for you. Review the diff, commit, done.
Express and Laravel
An adapter package plus a documented recipe you follow: Express guide · Laravel guide.
Everything else
Rails, Python, webhook-only, any stack — a written guide with starter files: Rails · Python · webhook-only · any stack.
One more honest line: if your app ships extensions (a theme extension, a web pixel), releases run through a small deploy agent on your machine or CI — your code can run install and build scripts, and keeping that execution on your side means it never touches our servers. Extension-free apps release entirely server-side; no agent needed. (extension-only guide)
Not sure where your stack lands? Email hello@deploteka.com with the framework and we'll tell you plainly — including if DeploTeka is a bad fit.
See the console.
The health view uses July 2026 data from our own fleet; the setup and credential cards show the real states DeploTeka records. Client domains are anonymized.
This is the founder's own fleet, not a customer's. FixelPixel health, worst-first. This adapter is live for our own product today. Customer-specific health integrations are scoped during onboarding, not silently assumed.
The cabinet names the blocking action and does not call the store installed early.
No false green states. Every store has a resumable setup run. Human steps are visible, assigned, and followed by explicit installation proof.
Metadata, not secret values. The cabinet shows whether credentials exist without rendering them. Install-link reveals are explicit and written to the audit trail.
Built from a real 94-store operating problem.
DeploTeka came out of migrating and operating FixelPixel, our own Shopify attribution product — 94 stores that had to keep working while Shopify's rules changed under them. Customer zero is us.
In July 2026 we imported the complete fixelpixel registry into DeploTeka: 94 store records, 75 active installations, 19 archived, with no failed imports. Each store has its own app record and sealed credential inventory.
The current production system creates each store's dedicated app, runs per-store configuration work, resumable setup runs, audit history, and FixelPixel's health sweep. Outside teams now create their own workspace and move through the same first-store checklist; unusual templates and fleet migrations still receive hands-on support.
Self-serve does not mean pretending Shopify has no approval steps. Your studio connects its own Partner organization, the merchant approves the install, and DeploTeka only calls the store live after real installation proof.
We hold Shopify credentials. The design starts there.
Running store setup means handling sensitive Shopify credentials. The vault, the boundary between workspaces, audit history, and an honest exit path are part of the product contract.
How credentials are held
Sealed at rest
Every credential lives in an AES-256-GCM envelope-encrypted vault with per-tenant data keys. Plaintext is never stored and never logged.
Values stay out of cabinet views
The cabinet shows credential metadata without rendering secret values. Install-link reveals are explicit, time-bound operational actions and are written to the audit history.
Isolated per workspace
Your fleet's keys belong to your organization alone. Isolation is enforced in the vault, not in the interface.
Scope changes stay explicit
The requested configuration is recorded per app. New Shopify scopes still require merchant approval; DeploTeka does not silently widen access.
Why trust us with it
The escape hatch is structural
Your apps live in your Partner org — not ours. Ending DeploTeka access does not delete those app records. The exact handover and data-return steps are written into the early-access agreement. We can leave and your fleet stays.
Revocation stays on your side
You can revoke the granted Partner organization access through Shopify-side controls. We then complete the agreed credential and operational handover without deleting your apps.
In writing, not just on a landing page
Cheaper than keeping onboarding in a person's queue.
Same core DeploTeka workflow on every plan. You pay per app and per active client store — never per seat, and never for credits or support tiers.
Studio
For a small studio proving the workflow on its first client fleet.
- 1 app
- 10 active stores included
- First app & store setup included
- Core cabinet & setup workflow
Growth
For one repeatable app already serving dozens of clients.
- 1 app
- 50 active stores included
- First app & store setup included
- Same core DeploTeka workflow
Fleet
For a studio operating several repeatable apps at scale.
- Up to 3 apps
- 200 active stores included
- First app & store setup included
- Same core DeploTeka workflow
Custom
For unusual fleet shape, migration, or integration requirements.
- Custom app & store limits
- Migration plan for your current fleet
- Product-specific integration scope
- Commercial terms agreed in writing
Founding-cohort pricing is locked for 12 months. Billing starts after your first store is verified live. Early-access invoices are issued directly by DeploTeka; custom-distribution apps cannot use Shopify Billing — which also means your pricing, your invoices, and 100% of your revenue stay yours. DeploTeka never touches it.
Start yourself. Bring us the unusual cases.
Any plan can create a workspace right now, and your source code stays in your repository on every plan. If you need a managed migration, a product-specific backend integration, or a different commercial shape, we will scope the Custom format with you.
No deck, no sales team. We look at the onboarding work you repeat today and tell you plainly whether DeploTeka can replace it.
Prefer email? hello@deploteka.com — a human replies within one business day.