The hidden cost of every app you install

Hello again,

Installing an app feels free. You click add, it does its little job, and you move on. But most apps quietly load their own JavaScript on every page a customer visits — whether that page uses the app or not. Stack up a dozen of them and you've got a store that's carrying a lot of dead weight.

The maths nobody shows you

Say you have fifteen apps. Even if each one only adds a small script, that's fifteen separate files your customer's phone has to fetch, read, and run before the page feels ready. The reviews widget runs on your contact page. The upsell tool runs on your policy pages. None of it needed, all of it costing you.

Here's what I look for:

1. Apps you no longer use but never uninstalled
2. Apps that load everywhere when they only matter on one page type
3. Two apps doing the same job — you rarely need both
4. Apps that leave code behind even after you remove them

Uninstalling isn't always clean

This one catches people out. Removing an app from your admin doesn't always strip its leftover code from your theme. I've found snippets from apps that were deleted two years ago still running on live stores.

Every script you don't need is a customer waiting for something that does nothing for them.

A simple habit

Once a quarter, list every app, and next to each one write what it does and where it needs to run. Anything you can't justify, remove — and then check the theme afterwards to make sure it actually left.

If your app list has crept up over the years and you're not sure what's earning its place, book advisory time and we'll go through it together.