When the platform stops short of what you need.

We build primarily on Shopify and WooCommerce, along with BigCommerce, Magento/Adobe Commerce, and headless commerce stacks. Outside of commerce, we also build custom plugins for CMS platforms like WordPress when a client's workflow calls for it.

When your workflow, integration, or business logic doesn't map cleanly onto an off-the-shelf app's assumptions — or when you'd need three apps stitched together to approximate one clean feature. If an existing app covers 90% of the need with acceptable trade-offs, we'll tell you that instead of selling you a build.

A private (custom) app is built and installed for your store alone and never goes through public marketplace review. A public app is listed on the platform's App Store for other merchants to install, which means it must pass the platform's review, security, and UX requirements. We scope which one you need before development starts.

Yes. Many clients start with a private app to prove the workflow internally, then ask us to harden it for public listing once it's validated. We architect for that path from the start when it's on your roadmap, which saves a rebuild later.

Not if it's built right. We build against each platform's performance guidelines — async processing, webhook-driven updates instead of polling, and minimal storefront JavaScript — and load-test before launch. A well-scoped custom app is typically lighter than the two or three marketplace apps it replaces.

You do. Every custom app or plugin we build is delivered with full source and IP ownership assigned to your business, with no licensing fees back to Motion 8. You're never locked into us to keep running your own software.

It depends entirely on scope — a focused single-feature plugin and a full multi-integration app are very different builds. We scope against your specific requirements and give you a fixed quote before development starts, so there's no open-ended billing.

A focused private app usually ships in a few weeks. A public app headed for App Store review takes longer once you factor in the platform's review cycle, which can add another one to three weeks outside our control. We give you a realistic timeline once scope is locked.

We monitor platform release notes and API deprecations for apps under an ongoing support agreement, and patch ahead of breaking changes rather than after your storefront breaks. This is exactly the risk generic marketplace apps often leave merchants exposed to.

We run a test matrix across theme versions, checkout extensibility (Shopify) or plugin conflicts (WooCommerce), and common merchant configurations, plus a staging install on your actual store before go-live. Public apps also get tested against the platform's own review checklist before we submit.

Yes — that's one of the most common reasons a custom build beats a marketplace app. We regularly connect storefront plugins to CRMs, ERPs, inventory systems, and internal tools via API, so data flows one way instead of living in three disconnected places.

Yes. We prepare listing assets, complete the technical review checklist, and manage the submission and any reviewer feedback for public apps, so your team isn't navigating platform review requirements alone.

We build in short sprints with regular check-ins specifically so scope changes get caught early and re-quoted transparently, rather than surfacing as a surprise at delivery.

We're a dev team that also does growth marketing, so we understand how a plugin affects conversion, page speed, and reporting — not just whether the feature technically works. You get software built by people who also have to live with its impact on the storefront.

Start a project with the details of the workflow you're trying to solve. We'll set up a scoping call, confirm the right platform and app type, and follow up with a fixed quote and timeline within 24 hours.