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What Is the Shopify Partner Program and Why Should You Hire a Shopify Partner Agency?
Ayo is the founder of Why Matters, a Shopify agency based in Brighton. With over 20 years of experience in ecommerce, digital marketing, and ROI-driven growth, he has helped hundreds of Shopify brands build, launch, and scale their online stores. Why Matters is a certified Shopify, Klaviyo, and Recharge partner.
Key Takeaways
- The Shopify Partner Program has five service tiers: Registered, Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum. Registered is free to join, and the other four are earned.
- Tiers are earned on commercial impact: the revenue a partner brings to Shopify plus a minimum number of new merchants. Nothing in the criteria measures design quality, code quality or client satisfaction.
- Shopify retired the Experts brand and Experts Marketplace in December 2023 and the standalone Plus Partner programme in December 2024. Anyone still using those labels is quoting a structure that no longer exists.
- Plus is the lowest tier with guaranteed eligibility for the Shopify Partner Directory, so an agency without a listing may still be a genuine partner.
- Ask which tier an agency holds, look at live stores like yours, and give the agency a collaborator account rather than your login.
- A tier tells you about an agency's size and the merchants it serves. Fit, communication and trust decide whether it is right for you.
Quick Answer
The Shopify Partner Program is Shopify's programme for the agencies, freelancers, developers and consultants who build on its platform. Joining is free, and service partners sit in one of five tiers: Registered, Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum. The four earned tiers depend on the annual revenue a partner brings to Shopify and a minimum number of new merchants, and Shopify recalculates them every quarter. A higher tier usually means a larger practice working with larger merchants, not better work. When you hire, check the tier, look at live stores like yours, read independent reviews and give the agency collaborator access rather than your login.
Table of Contents
- What the Shopify Partner Program Is
- What Changed, and Why It Matters
- The Five Tiers and What Earns Them
- What a Tier Tells You, and What It Does Not
- Who Is Listed in the Partner Directory
- How to Check an Agency Before You Hire
- Give Access the Safe Way
- What to Judge Beyond Tier
- Why Matters Perspective
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Thoughts
- Related Articles
What the Shopify Partner Program Is
The Shopify Partner Program is how Shopify works with the businesses that build, design, market and support stores on its platform. According to Shopify's Partner Program overview, joining is free, partners get unlimited test stores for building and testing, training comes through Shopify Academy, and partners can earn a monthly revenue share from Shopify.
Two things follow for a merchant. First, anyone can call themselves a Shopify partner once they have signed up, so the word on its own tells you very little. Second, the tier a service partner holds is something you can ask about, and it tells you something specific about that partner's business.
App developers now have their own route through Shopify's Certified Technology Partner Program. This article is about service partners: the agencies and freelancers you would hire to build or grow your store.
What Changed, and Why It Matters
Much of what is published about the programme is out of date. Three retirements matter:
- Shopify Experts and the Experts Marketplace. Shopify launched the Partner Directory in October 2023 to replace the marketplace, and retired the Experts brand and the Experts Marketplace in December 2023.
- The standalone Shopify Plus Partner programme was retired in December 2024. Plus is now a tier within the unified Partner Program.
- The Plus Certified App Program and the Technology Track tier brands were retired in December 2025.
Shopify states that these programme brands should not be used after those dates. That gives you a quick test: an agency still describing itself as a "Shopify Expert" has not updated its materials since 2023, and it is fair to ask what else has not been updated.
The Five Tiers and What Earns Them
Shopify's Partner Program Tiering Guide for Q3 2026 sets out what earns each tier. Partners qualify on either of two revenue measures, and Shopify uses whichever is stronger: new referral and co sell revenue, or revenue from existing merchants. Each earned tier also needs a minimum number of new merchants.
| Tier | Annual revenue to Shopify | Minimum new merchants |
|---|---|---|
| Registered | None, free to join | None |
| Select | $100,000 new, or $500,000 existing | 1 Plus or Enterprise, or 10 on standard plans |
| Plus | $500,000 new, or $2.5 million existing | 2 Plus or Enterprise, or 40 on standard plans |
| Premier | $2 million new, or $10 million existing | 4 Plus or Enterprise |
| Platinum | $5 million new, or $25 million existing | 6 Plus or Enterprise |
How the guide applies those rules:
- Standard plans means Basic, Grow and Advanced.
- Only net new merchants count towards the merchant minimum.
- Look back periods: revenue counts merchants acquired in the last five years. Merchant counts look back five years for Select and Plus, and two years for Premier and Platinum.
- Client transfer stores, where a partner builds a store and transfers it to the merchant, count as new referral revenue.
- Tiers are recalculated every quarter, on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October. The tier sits on the partner's Partner ID and shows in its Partner Dashboard.
- Credentials are waived for 2026, so only commercial activity counts towards a tier this year.
- Badges must be current. Partners must use the badge for their current status and update it after any change.
Shopify updates the guide over time, and the figures here come from its Q3 2026 edition, so check the current guide before relying on them.
What a Tier Tells You, and What It Does Not
A tier measures commercial impact on Shopify. It tells you roughly how much business a partner brings to the platform and how many new merchants it has onboarded. It does not measure design quality, code quality, communication or how happy clients are.
That makes a tier a guide to size and focus rather than to quality. Shopify's own guide for merchants hiring a partner describes the tiers this way: Select partners are typically preferred by small and medium businesses, Plus partners by mid market and larger businesses, Premier partners by large enterprises, and Platinum partners by global enterprises.
For most small and medium merchants, a Select or Plus partner is the natural fit. Paying for a Premier or Platinum practice on a straightforward build usually means paying for capability you will not use.
Who Is Listed in the Partner Directory
The Shopify Partner Directory is where merchants search for partners, compare profiles and read reviews. It is not a complete list of partners.
- Eligibility: Plus is the minimum tier for guaranteed eligibility, and Plus, Premier and Platinum partners are invited on an ongoing basis. Shopify's eligibility page says a limited number of Registered partners are also eligible, and the merchant tier filter includes Select.
- Reviews: merchants rate quality of work and communication. Reviews from merchants on paid plans appear within 48 hours, and if no review is left, Shopify sends an automatic request 90 days after a collaboration that started in the Directory.
- Ranking: Shopify's explanation of how the Directory works says default results favour activity, referrals, collaborations, certifications and local partners.
- Profiles: partners show a price range or ask you to contact them for pricing, and can display up to six work samples. You need to be logged in to your Shopify account to contact a partner.
One inconsistency is worth knowing about. The eligibility page still lists Verified Skills requirements for Plus partners, even though the 2026 tiering criteria waive credentials. Where the two disagree, ask the agency directly.
Because only some partners are listed, the absence of a listing does not prove an agency is not a partner. Ask which tier it holds.
How to Check an Agency Before You Hire
- Ask which tier it holds. A genuine partner can answer straight away and should be using the badge for its current status.
- Check the Directory if it is listed. Read the reviews, the price range and the work samples.
- Ask for live stores like yours. Not screenshots. Open them on your phone and see how quickly they load and how easy they are to buy from.
- Ask who will work on your store. The people on your project matter more than the agency's collective credentials.
- Ask for references from clients at a similar size and in a similar category.
- Read the terms. Look for published pricing, the notice period and any guarantee on development work.
Our guide to choosing the best Shopify development company covers the full evaluation, and our guide to UK Shopify agencies shows how different agencies position themselves.
Give Access the Safe Way
Never share your store owner login. Shopify's collaborator accounts exist so that partners can work on your store without it:
- The partner requests access using your collaborator request code, which Shopify turns on for merchants by default
- You choose exactly which permissions the partner gets
- Collaborators must use two step authentication
- Access expires after 90 days without a login
- You can remove a collaborator permanently at any time
If an agency asks for your password rather than sending a collaborator request, treat it as a warning sign.
What to Judge Beyond Tier
| What to look at | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Relevant work | Stores at your size and in your category show the agency understands your problems |
| Independent reviews | Directory, Google or Clutch reviews are harder to curate than testimonials on the agency site |
| The team | Specialists who work on Shopify every day usually outperform generalists covering several platforms |
| Communication | How quickly and clearly an agency answers before you sign is a good guide to the project |
| Life after launch | Most problems appear in the weeks after go live, so ask what support looks like then |
| Terms | Published pricing, contract length and guarantees show how an agency treats clients |
| Tools | Partnerships with platforms such as Klaviyo or Recharge show depth beyond the core platform |
When clients come to us from another agency, the reasons they give are almost always about trust, responsiveness and closeness: how the relationship felt, not what the previous agency could build. They almost never leave over technical ability. That is why communication and support after launch sit so high on this list, and why a tier alone cannot choose an agency for you.
Why Matters Perspective
Why Matters is a Shopify Select partner, with Verified Skills held across development and marketing, and we are also a Klaviyo partner and a Recharge partner. We name our tier because this article tells you to ask agencies that question.
Select is the first earned tier. It reflects the business we bring to Shopify rather than being a quality mark, and Plus, Premier and Platinum sit above it. Select does not guarantee a Partner Directory listing, and we are not claiming one here.
What we would ask you to judge us on is what this article recommends: relevant live stores, independent reviews, clear communication and fair terms. Our pricing is published on our website, retainer clients are billed one month in arrears and are never tied into long contracts, and every development project carries a 3 month guarantee.
If you are looking for a Shopify partner agency for a build, a migration or ongoing growth, email us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Shopify Partner Program?
It is Shopify's programme for the agencies, freelancers, developers and consultants who build on its platform. Joining is free, partners get unlimited test stores and training, and they can earn a revenue share from Shopify. Service partners sit in one of five tiers based on the business they bring to Shopify.
What are the Shopify partner tiers?
Registered, Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum. Registered is the free starting tier. The other four are earned through annual revenue to Shopify from merchants a partner has brought or supports, plus a minimum number of new merchants, and every tier is recalculated each quarter.
What happened to Shopify Experts and Shopify Plus Partners?
Shopify retired the Experts brand and the Experts Marketplace in December 2023, replacing the marketplace with the Shopify Partner Directory, and ended the standalone Plus Partner programme in December 2024. Plus is now a tier within the unified Partner Program.
Does a higher Shopify partner tier mean a better agency?
Not necessarily. Tiers measure commercial impact on Shopify, meaning revenue and the number of new merchants, not design quality, code quality or client satisfaction. A higher tier usually means a larger practice working with larger merchants.
Is every Shopify partner listed in the Partner Directory?
No. Plus is the lowest tier with guaranteed eligibility, and only a limited number of partners below it are eligible. An agency without a listing may still be a genuine partner, so ask which tier it holds.
Should I give a Shopify agency my login?
No. Give the agency a collaborator account instead. It needs your collaborator request code to ask for access, you choose its permissions, it must use two step authentication, and you can remove it at any time.
Which partner tier suits a small business?
Shopify says Select partners are typically preferred by small and medium businesses, and Plus partners by mid market and larger businesses. Use that as a guide to size, then choose on relevant work, reviews and terms.
Final Thoughts
The Partner Program is a useful filter, provided you read the current version rather than the one most articles still describe. Registered is free and tells you little. The earned tiers tell you about an agency's scale and the merchants it serves. None of them tells you whether an agency will do good work for you.
Use the tier to narrow your shortlist, then decide on evidence: stores like yours, reviews you did not have to take on trust, clear answers about who does the work, and access handled through a collaborator account.
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- How to Choose the Best Shopify Development Company for Your Business
- Top 10 Shopify Agencies in the UK
- The Complete Shopify Migration Checklist: Before, During and After
- How Much Does a Shopify Migration Cost? A Transparent Pricing Guide
- How to Set Up a Shopify Store: A Step by Step Agency Guide
- How Much Does It Cost to Build a Shopify Store? A Transparent Guide
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