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Shopify Maintenance Services and Store Managers

Two very different people get hired under the word "maintenance": a developer who keeps the theme, apps and code healthy, and a store manager who uploads products, answers order queries and sets up next week's promotion. Both are useful, and few stores need them from the same person.

That's why quotes for Shopify maintenance services are so hard to compare — most mix the two without saying which one you're getting. This page covers ongoing help on a monthly retainer or a regular block of hours. A single broken feature is a job for a bug-fix specialist, and slow pages are a speed optimisation project; neither needs a monthly contract.

Compare the maintenance experts and store managers below, or list the store tasks your team handles each week and request a quote.

Top-rated Shopify store managers and maintenance agencies

Erick Kagai
EK
Shopify ConsultantNairobi, KenyaFrom $285
4.93(74 reviews)
shopexpertsscore
85

I help online businesses make more money with what they already have. Your $100 in ads once brought back $1,000. Now the same $100, in ads or apps, quietly brings back less every month. You are busy running the business, so nobody chases why. So I start with an audit, the way a hospital starts with triage. A short call is the triage. A fixed-price read is the lab test. The results decide the fix, and the fix has a fixed price before it starts. Shopify speed and ad tracking fixes: for stores where the ads bring visitors but not sales. One example. A clothing brand's product pages took 15.4 seconds to load. Five weeks before Black Friday, I got them to 7.4 seconds. That is the job: I find what slows your store down, and I fix it. The same work keeps finding a second problem: numbers you cannot trust. The code that tells Meta or Google about a sale fires twice, so sales count double. Ads run across every product, with no check on which ones earn. Apps bill every month for work nobody has measured. So I also check what your money is really doing, instead of trusting what Google, Meta and the apps say. Then I fix what I find. I work with established stores run by their founders. To me, speed and ad spend are sales problems, not technical boxes to tick. What I work on, eight ways in: Speed check. I measure how fast your pages load for real shoppers on a phone. I find what makes them wait, and I fix it. Accessibility check. I test your store the way a keyboard user or a screen reader meets it. I check whether a widget sits on top of problems it does not fix. You get the findings in the order a complaint would reach them. Shopify deadline check. Shopify changes its rules on set dates. Scripts ended on 30 June. Order status script tags ended on 26 August. I find what has already stopped working on your store and what is dated ahead, and I make the repairs. Tracking and attribution fix. Meta Pixel, GA4 (Google Analytics) and server-side tracking. I remove the double counting and prove it in your own dashboards. Ad spend by product and the app bill get read in the same pass. Google and Meta recovery. Your products stopped showing on Google or Meta. I find where the connection broke and get them showing again. Sale price check. AI shopping tools, like ChatGPT, now get your "was" prices from Shopify. I check that yours reach them right. Builds and theme upgrades. New sections and modern themes, with your custom work and your tracking still running. Every change to the live site has a way back. Partner Seat. 25 hours a month. I watch speed, the pages customers see, broken links, tracking and app bills. Your work goes first in the queue. Each check is $285. If you go ahead, I take the fee off the fix price. Key results: Product page load time cut from 15.4 seconds to 7.4 seconds, 52% faster. Mobile PageSpeed on product pages from 18 to 28. The apps the client chose stayed in place, at their call. Two apps were billing to track what the store's own Google channel already did. I removed them, checked the tracking was clean, and took $199 a year off the app bill. Repeat clients going back to 2018. One store has come back for 14 projects over four years. How I work: A paid check first. It measures the real problem, no guessing. If you go ahead, I take the fee off the fix price. Work in stages. You approve each one. Every delivery ends with before and after numbers, and a short list of the next things I found. 80+ projects done. Clients in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and Denmark. Send me your store address. I will tell you what slows it down, whether your numbers add up, and what a complaint would find first. No commitment.

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Shopify Development
Marketing & Growth
Technical Support & Maintenance
Awais Javed
AJ
Front-End DeveloperOttawa, CanadaFrom $295
5.00(20 reviews)
shopexpertsscore
95

I'm a Shopify developer with years of hands-on experience building and scaling e-commerce stores — from custom theme development to conversion rate optimization and third-party integrations. I've worked with brands like Après Nail and through platforms like Storetasker, delivering solutions that look great and perform even better. I specialize in Liquid programming, frontend development, and UI/UX enhancement. Whether you need a full theme build, a tricky app integration, or a speed and SEO overhaul, I bring a detail-oriented approach that gets results — not just code. I leverage AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot throughout my workflow — drafting Liquid logic faster, QA-testing edge cases, and generating content-ready section structures. This means faster turnaround, fewer revisions, and more value for your budget. My background spans custom store builds, GA4 + GTM tracking setups, Klaviyo integrations, loyalty app configurations, A/B testing, and cross-functional collaboration with design and marketing teams. I treat every project like it's my own store on the line. I'm a Computer Software Engineering graduate and Growth Collective certified in Creative Website Design (Shopify). Let's build something that converts.

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Shopify Development
Technical Support & Maintenance
AI & Emerging Tech
Marketing & Growth
Design, UX & Branding

Let us match you with the right Shopify expert for your needs.

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Phil Blakemore
PB
Shopify Plus EngineerLondon, United KingdomFrom $40
5.00(2 reviews)
shopexpertsscore
85

I'm Phil, founder of Candystore Studio, a Shopify studio. I've spent over 12 years building for the web and the last 6 on Shopify, including work for brands such as BrewDog, Hoodrich, Ooni and Vuse UK. Most of my work now is keeping Shopify stores working, secure and lean as brands do more themselves with AI tools and native Shopify features. Building a section with Sidekick or ChatGPT takes an afternoon. What takes the time is everything after: code that breaks on the next theme update, apps nobody remembers installing, scripts left behind by old apps, tracking that quietly stops. That is the part I take off your plate. In practice that means auditing what is installed and who has access, repairing and documenting AI-generated code, replacing single-job apps with native Shopify features or clean theme code, and monthly care for brands that want an expert watching the store. My core stack is Liquid and Online Store 2.0, JavaScript and TypeScript, and I work regularly with Klaviyo, Recharge, Rebuy, Algolia and Judge.me. When a project needs design or branding, Candystore's design team works alongside me. Every engagement starts with a fixed-price review and a written report you can act on with me or anyone else. Work happens on a duplicate theme and goes live only after your sign-off.

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Shopify Development
Consulting & Strategy
Kate Wilson
KW
Front-End DeveloperWashington, United StatesFrom $2500
5.00(11 reviews)
shopexpertsscore
80

I help Shopify brands launch, scale, and optimize their online stores through custom theme development, advanced section builds, and seamless app integrations like subscriptions. With 8 years of hands-on Shopify experience and over a decade in tech, I deliver reliable, conversion-focused solutions that are easy to maintain as your business grows.

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Shopify Development
Consulting & Strategy
Design, UX & Branding
Domani.
D
AgencyOttawa, CanadaFrom $500
Not yet rated
shopexpertsscore
15

Tomorrow belongs to the brands who build for it. Domani is a consulting agency built by partners who have owned and scaled e-commerce brands for over a decade. We specialize in launching, scaling, and optimizing high-performing Shopify stores with a focus on clarity, speed, and tangible impact. We partner with ambitious DTC and B2B brands to build high-performing Shopify experiences rooted in operational efficiency. Whether we are optimizing your UX, mapping complex customer journeys, or automating back-end workflows, our goal is simple: building the Shopify foundation for tomorrow’s growth. Core Expertise: Design & UX: Conversion-focused theme optimization. Retention: Advanced Klaviyo lifecycle and retention programs. Systems: Seamless POS, B2B, and third-party app integrations. Automation: Workflow streamlining to help your team move faster.

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Design, UX & Branding
Marketing & Growth
Marwane lougrad
ML
Theme DeveloperLondon, United KingdomFrom $1000
Not yet rated
shopexpertsscore
30

Looking for a Shopify store that doesn't just look great, but actually converts? You're in the right place. I'm Marwane, a Top Rated Shopify Developer and Designer with a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork. I specialise in building conversion-optimised Shopify stores for DTC brands, e-commerce startups, and established businesses ready to scale online. What I bring to the table: - Custom Shopify store design & development (from scratch or theme-based) - High-converting landing pages & product pages (Replo, Shopify 2.0, Liquid) - Shopify theme customisation & redesigns Mobile-first, responsive design that looks flawless on every device - CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) strategies baked into every build - SEO-friendly architecture to help your store rank and get found - Shopify Plus experience for scaling brands

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Design, UX & Branding
Shopify Development
Ecom Swift LLC
ES
AgencySheridan, United StatesFrom $5
4.90(380 reviews)
shopexpertsscore
60

Ecom Swift LLC is an affordable digital marketing company serving Shopify since 2018 with 900+ satisfied customers. We serve clients worldwide. Low sales? Find out why ➜ https://audit.ecomswiftllc.com/ Whatsapp💬: +1 631 251 1767 Email 📧: [email protected]

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Shopify Development
Marketing & Growth
Copywriting & Content
Consulting & Strategy
Finance, Taxes & Compliance
XeeDevelopers
X
AgencyManchester, United KingdomFrom $100
5.00(156 reviews)
shopexpertsscore
55

Shopify Store Development Agency established in 2019, worked on 500+ Shopify stores. We offer end to end Shopify solutions ranging from Store Setup, Store Design, Store Migration, Theme Customization to SEO. We just don't say it, we deliver it. 🥇🥇

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Shopify Development
Marketing & Growth
Copywriting & Content
eBizTrait Inc
EI
AgencyLaguna Beach, United StatesFrom $20
4.90(1325 reviews)
shopexpertsscore
55

Expertise in Shopify Store design, Speed Optimization, Theme Customization, Store Migration & SEO. TOP SHOPIFY EXPERTS with 2000+ Jobs Completed! Call Us +1 (209) 207-0499 Email Us: [email protected] Get In Touch!

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Shopify Development
Marketing & Growth
RNR Digital Media Group LLC
RD
AgencyThornwood, United StatesFrom $195
5.00(160 reviews)
shopexpertsscore
60

We do not solicit. Verify you're speaking to me 646-683-9374. We build high-performing Shopify stores backed by proven results. Trusted by leading automotive, beauty, and lifestyle brands for clean design, seamless functionality, and conversion-focused user experiences.

Offered services
Store Setup & Management
Shopify Development
Marketing & Growth
Design, UX & Branding
Copywriting & Content
Consulting & Strategy
Finance, Taxes & Compliance

How to hire Shopify support and maintenance services

List your tasks before you talk to anyone. Write down every store task from the last month and who did it. Theme, code and app issues point to a developer. Product uploads, order admin and content changes point to a store manager or virtual assistant, and most stores find they need some of each.

Ask how they handle theme updates. A good maintenance developer keeps a log of every code change they make, because those are the edits that may need redoing after an update. Ask to see a redacted log from a current client.

Ask what they do when an app is removed. Some apps leave code behind in the theme after they're uninstalled. Whoever looks after your store should check for leftover snippets and scripts, and tell you which apps overlap before you pay for two that do the same job.

Plan the exit on day one. The provider should work from its own collaborator or staff account, and any app or tool they sign up for on your behalf should be billed to your business, not theirs. When the retainer ends, you remove one account and keep everything else.

Ask for a monthly report. A good retainer ends each month with what was done, what's pending and what they'd fix next. If the only output is an invoice, you can't tell whether the hours were well spent.

Start with a trial month. Give a new provider a real month of tasks before signing a long contract. Speed of reply, quality of notes and whether they flag problems unprompted all show up quickly.

Walk away from three things. A retainer with no defined scope, no agreed response time for problems that stop orders, and code changes made straight on the live theme with no copy to test on first.

Developer retainer or Shopify store manager: what each covers

A developer retainer covers the technical layer. Theme and app updates, app conflicts, small fixes, small features such as a new section or a change to the product page, and regular checks that nothing has quietly broken. The work arrives in bursts: two hours one month, twenty the next.

A store manager or Shopify virtual assistant covers daily admin. Product uploads and edits, stock and price changes, order admin and customer emails, collection updates, homepage banners and discount codes for the next promotion. The work is steady and repeatable, so it's usually priced by the hour and runs best from written checklists.

How to scope either one:

- Hours: base the monthly block on three months of real tasks, not a guess. Start slightly below your estimate and top up if needed.

- Response times: agree one for urgent issues (anything stopping orders) and a slower one for everything else. A retainer without a response time is just a queue.

- Rollover: decide whether unused hours carry into next month, carry with a cap, or expire. Rollover suits stores with a quiet quarter before a big launch.

- Out of scope: write down what isn't covered, such as new templates or integrations, so larger jobs get quoted separately instead of eating the monthly hours.

- Hand-offs: the store manager needs to know which problems go to the developer, and a named person to send them to.

What do maintenance retainers and store managers charge?

Developers are usually paid by the month and store managers by the hour, so compare like with like. Typical ranges:

Maintenance retainer

$500 – $3,000

Per month, fixes and small updates

Store manager or VA

$10 – $40

Per hour, day-to-day admin tasks

Developer on retainer

$3,000 – $10,000

Per month, regular feature work

Directory data is thin for this service. Of the first 100 maintenance listings on shopexperts in September 2026, 85 are agencies and only 8 have claimed profiles with published prices, starting between $285 and $2,500 with a median of $500. Treat that as a sanity check, not a market rate.

What moves the price: hours in the block, the response time you need, cover for weekends and peak trading, and how heavily customised your theme is. A heavily edited theme costs more to keep current. The maintenance cost guide has more detail on package pricing. Send last month's task list when you request a quote, so the price reflects your real workload.

What's included in Shopify maintenance services?

The recurring work splits between the developer and the store manager:

Theme updates

New versions applied, custom code rechecked and tested

App upkeep

App updates, conflicts and code left behind by removed apps

Small fixes and features

New sections and minor fixes worked through from a monthly queue

Product and catalogue admin

Uploads, edits, stock, prices and collection updates

Orders and customer admin

Order edits, refunds, customer emails and tagging

Promotions and content

Discount codes, banners, landing pages and seasonal changes

Frequently asked questions about Shopify store management services

Why does a Shopify store need maintenance if Shopify hosts it?

Shopify runs the servers, security patching and checkout, so there's no hosting or core software for you to update. What still needs looking after is everything you added on top: the theme and its code edits, apps and the scripts they load, product data and content. Stores left alone for a year rarely break outright. They collect unused apps, an outdated theme and broken links instead.

Do Shopify website maintenance services include backups?

They should, and it's worth asking how. Shopify doesn't offer a store-wide restore button for products and content changed by mistake. A careful provider exports products before any bulk edit, duplicates the live theme before code changes, and tells you plainly whether a separate backup tool runs on your store and who pays for it.

When should I hire a Shopify virtual assistant?

When someone senior is spending regular hours on admin that follows the same steps every time: product uploads from supplier sheets, order tagging, where-is-my-order emails, stock updates. Write the process down first. A VA working from a written checklist is reliable; one asked to look after the store without one isn't. Most merchants hire Shopify virtual assistant support by the hour, starting with a small weekly block.

Is a monthly retainer better than paying per task?

Per task works when problems are rare and can wait a few days, and a bug-fix specialist on an hourly rate costs less than an idle retainer. A retainer earns its place when you run frequent promotions, change the theme often or need a guaranteed response when something stops orders. Plenty of stores start per task and move to a retainer once the queue is steady.

Can one person handle both maintenance and store management?

On a small store, sometimes. Freelancers who do both exist, but most are much stronger at one half. Paying developer rates for product uploads wastes money, and a VA editing theme code is how templates break. If you hire one person for both, ask which tasks they'd pass on, and check that their examples cover both code and admin work.

What should a Shopify store manager do before peak season?

Freeze theme and app changes a few weeks before your peak. Test discount codes and automatic discounts together, because unexpected stacking is a common sale-day problem. Check shipping rates, stock at each location and gift card settings, duplicate the live theme as a fallback, and agree who is on call during the sale and how to reach them.