# Developing Shopify Apps, Part 1: The Setup

DevFeed: [Developing Shopify Apps, Part 1: The Setup](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/developing-shopify-apps-part-1-the-setup-1260.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://shopify.engineering/17488288-developing-shopify-apps-part-1-the-setup>)

Author: Shopify Engineering

Published: 2011-07-23T00:06:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Shopify Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/shopify-engineering.md>), [Shopify Engineering - Shopify Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/shopify-engineering-shopify-engineering.md>)

Topics: [Shopify](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/shopify.md>), [App](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/app.md>), [API](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/api.md>)

Tags: [api](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/api.md>), [app-ecosystem](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/app-ecosystem.md>), [apps](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apps.md>), [build](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/build.md>), [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [ecommerce](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ecommerce.md>), [ecosystem](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ecosystem.md>), [shopify](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/shopify.md>)

## AI overview

This introductory article explains what Shopify apps are, why merchants use them to add capabilities beyond Shopify's built-in features, and how apps use the Shopify API to access shop data and perform administrative actions. It also describes example apps and opportunities for developers to build private or publicly distributed apps.

## Source excerpt

What is a Shopify App? Shopify is a pretty capable ecommerce platform on its own, and for a lot of shopowners, it's all they need for their shops. However, there are many cases where shopowners need features and capabilities that don't come "out of the box" with Shopify. That's what apps are for: to add those extra features and capabilities to Shopify.