10 Best Free Shopify Apps in 2021

Most Shopify merchants just starting on the platform aim to make their online store as best as possible. To do that, Shopify users have to invest in expensive apps that promise to take their Shopify store to another level. But is it possible to start an online business without investing too much money on the apps (at least, at the beginning)?

It is! And in this blog post, we’ll show you how.

We’ll review our 10 best free Shopify apps that will improve your online store in no time. If you are in a rush, here’s a shortlist of the free Shopify apps we’ll be covering:

1. 1. Firepush - best free plan for website pushes
   2. Tobi - best free options for SMS marketing automation
   3. TinyIMG - perfect for image and SEO optimization
   4. Tada - the best free wheel popup app
   5. PageFly - superb for landing pages

Best Free Shopify apps overview

In the list below, you will find top Shopify apps that are completely free. With them, you are sure to improve your online store.

To make a list, we considered the following:

• functionality;
• ease of use;
• integrations.

1. Firepush - best free plan for website pushes

Firepush is our favorite online tool for SMS and email marketing, as well as web push notifications with some great free features.

With the app’s free plan, you get the following:

• 100 web pushes per month;
• welcome campaigns;
• basic reports;
• basic growth tools.

As you can manage everything in a single dashboard, reaching your customers is easy and comfortable. Firepush makes sending promotional SMS, email newsletters, and push campaigns as easy as possible.

If you want to take advantage of SMS and email marketing, you can opt for a 14-day free trial and choose one of their three paid plans.

PROS:

• Dedicated Customer Success Manager
• Free migration
• Priority support
• Personalized strategic sessions

CONS:

• Email and SMS marketing is not available with a free plan

2. Tobi - best free options for SMS marketing automation

Tobi is a one-stop SMS marketing automation solution designed to give you a competitive advantage in the market.

With the free plan, you get:

• SMS popup;
• SMS subscription;
• through checkout.

Due to the powerful features, the Tobi app offers, you can track customer behavior. Hence, you can choose when to send your prewritten messages so that your customers get them. They are so powerful when they are ready to take action.

On top of that, Tobi provides you with insightful reports (e.g., number of orders, customer spend, customer location, and more). Taking advantage of this feature is a sure way to improve your business.

PROS:

• User-friendly app
• Highly intuitive
• Packed with powerful customer-tracking features

CONS:

• The free plan offers limited options, hence you’ll need to upgrade eventually

3. TinyIMG - perfect for image and SEO optimization

TinyIMG is your go-to choice for image and SEO optimization!

With the free plan, you get 50 FREE images per month - that’s more than enough for someone taking the first steps on the Shopify platform!

Both free and paid plans offer a great variety of features to improve the SEO of the images you upload on your Shopify store.

Some other features that make TinyIMG an excellent choice include:

• alt-text optimization;
• broken links reports;
• JSON-LD feature;
• WebP converter.

PROS:

• Excellent for image and SEO optimization
• Highly intuitive
• User-friendly pricing plans (if you decide to upgrade)
• Dedicated support team.

CONS:

• No automatic SEO title and description generation

4. Tada - the best wheel popup app

Tada is the highest converting wheel discounts popup with excellent exit intent and spin the wheel discount popups.

With the app, you can create customizable Spin a Wheel and Pick a Gift pop-ups. They are so powerful that your users are offered to win a discount if they share their email addresses with you.

In turn, the likelihood of increasing your conversion rates skyrockets!

PROS:

• Converting popups
• 100% Customizable
• Increased customer loyalty

CONS:

• Beginners may need extra help from the Support team on starting using the app

5. PageFly - superb for landing pages

PageFly is one of the best free Shopify apps we could think of for landing pages.

With the app, you can enhance your store appearance due to access to the:

• biggest element library;
• and page sections to build your store pages.

What’s also great about PageFly is that it helps you improve your Shopify store’s speed and page performance with a built-in Lazy Load feature and optimized code.

Pros

• Highly intuitive
• Compatible with Online Store 2.0
• Flexible pricing (if you decide to upgrade)

Cons

• With the free plan, you only get 1 page per page type

6. Plug in SEO - best for fixing SEO issues

If you are looking for a free Shopify app to help you fix SEO issues, Plug in SEO is your best bet!

With the app, you can:

• take care of your Shopify store’s JSON-LD;
• fix broken links;
• get suggestions for the most suitable keywords;
• and as a result - rank higher in SERPs.

The app users praise its friendly support team is ready to answer all of your burning questions in no time!

Pros

• Fully packed with SEO optimization features;
• Intuitive;
• Easy to use

Cons

• Expensive if you choose to upgrade

7. Shopify Email - superb for email marketing

Shopify Email is one of our favorite free Shopify apps for email marketing.

With a free plan, you get 2,500 emails free each month and pay $1 for every 1,000 emails you send after that - that’s a great deal for those who are just starting out selling on Shopify!

Pros

• A huge number of free emails to send monthly
• Perfect for beginners

Cons

• May get too basic for advanced users

8. SEO Site Audit, Benchmark Hero - wonderful for SEO optimization

SEO Site Audit, Benchmark Hero is yet another great free alternative to fix your website’s SEO issues.

With it, you can:

• conduct an SEO site audit;
• get valuable business insights with analytics;
• get action items.

Shopify users claim that the app is easy to use, intuitive, and handy - and we couldn’t agree more!

PROS:

• Solves the basic SEO issues
• Intuitive and easy to use

CONS:

• It may be too basic for more advanced users

9. Transcy - content translation and currency conversion

We saved quite an unusual suggestion at the end! Transcy is a powerful content and image translation app that also has an automatic currency converter.

With the app, you can:

• translate all types of content (including checkout page & third-party apps) - all in one click with AI Translation,
• translate an unlimited number of words and pageviews,
• take advantage of multilingual SEO,
• enjoy automatic currency converter.

Should you need any help - Transcy offers friendly 24/7 support!

PROS:

• The app makes it easy to adapt your content to foreign customers
• Intuitive and easy to use
• Advanced AI features

CONS:

• With the free plan, you can only add one additional language and one additional currency

10. OptinMonster - best exit and email popup app

If you need a powerful app for exit and email popups, OptinMonster is an excellent choice.

It is fully packed with features that will convert leads into paying customers.

With OptinMonster this app, you can:

• drive more email signups;
• reduce cart abandonment cases;
• increase sales to boost ROI.

What is more, the app is all set to help you create superb marketing campaigns - be it popup messages, timers for time-limited campaigns, and much more.

Pros

• Superb campaign builder tool
• Integrated A/B testing
• Seamless integration
• Over 50 templates to choose from

Cons

• If you decide to upgrade, paid plans are relatively expensive

Quick tips for Shopify starters

We have compiled a short list of our TOP tips you should consider for those just starting on the Shopify platform.

1. Don't use a free domain. Unlike most free Shopify apps, free domains are no good as you put your website’s security at risk.
2. Make your Shopify store mobile-friendly. With so many shoppers buying via their phones today, it is KEY to make your online store all devices-friendly. By the way, we have a great guide on mobile SEO - check it out!
3. Learn the basics of SEO. To run your Shopify store, you MUST know the key rules of SEO as they will help you optimize your store and lead more customers to it.
4. Focus on high-quality images. To sell products, you need to have great pictures of them. The good thing is, you can achieve top-quality even with your mobile device! To learn how read our guide on taking better photos with mobile.
5. Use Facebook Messenger to chat with your customers. It’s the fastest and highly reliable way to answer your customers’ questions quickly.

Conclusion

Altogether, taking advantage of free Shopify apps is more than possible!

All the apps included in the list above are reliable tools that can improve your online store in no time.

However, one thing to keep in mind is that free Shopify apps can get pretty basics more often than not. To get more advanced features, you’ll eventually have to upgrade and choose a paid plan.

Therefore, if you’d like to continue growing your store, we highly recommend investing in some additional paid apps - just like TinyIMG!

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About the author

Nikoleta Kokleviciute

Nikoleta is a Marketing Manager at TinyIMG, an app for image and SEO optimization for Shopify merchants. Nikoleta loves diving deep into digital marketing, eCommerce, social media trends, and creating content that benefits its readers!