Building my first Shopify app – what's the best hosting stack before getting my first paying customers?

Hi everyone,

I'm a WordPress developer, and after years of building WordPress themes and plugins, I've decided to start building Shopify apps.

I'm currently working on my very first Shopify app, CartFly, a Sticky Add to Cart app built with the official Shopify Remix app template, Prisma, and PostgreSQL.

Since this is my first Shopify app, my goal isn't to generate revenue immediately. I want to focus on getting my first users, collecting feedback, improving the product, and earning my first reviews.

To keep my initial costs low, I'm looking for a hosting setup that stays close to $0 for the first 3–6 months. Once the app starts getting traction or paying customers, I'm happy to move to a paid plan.

Current stack:

Shopify Remix App Template
Prisma
PostgreSQL (considering Neon)
GitHub

Hosting options I'm considering:

Render Free + Neon Free
Railway
Fly.io

I'd love to hear from founders who've built Shopify apps or SaaS products.

A few questions:

What hosting stack did you use for your first app?
Is Render Free reliable enough for an MVP with Shopify OAuth and webhooks?
When did you decide it was time to upgrade to paid hosting?
If you were starting today, what stack would you choose?

Thanks in advance! I'd really appreciate learning from your experience.

Mizanur Rahaman

on July 14, 2026

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Before first paying customers the bottleneck is usually where to show up, not hosting.

Are you already hunting Reddit / niche communities for Shopify merchants, or still picking channels?

I built a small tool that scores fresh threads where your ICP describes the pain (discovery only, not auto-posting). Happy to walk through it on a 10-min call if useful — no pitch deck.

siromi

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a day ago
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  Thanks! I agree that distribution is probably the bigger challenge. I'm currently exploring Reddit, Indie Hackers, and the Shopify App Store. Your tool sounds interesting—do you have a demo or website I can check out first?
  
  devmizan
  
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  4 hours ago
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    Shopify App Store + IH + Reddit is a solid early mix. Reddit usually wins when merchants describe the pain in their own words, not when they're browsing apps.
    
    demo of the flow:
    https://www.loom.com/share/5b178932cc9149f1ac30970e179e819b
    
    Landing: https://threadscout-theta.vercel.app
    
    If useful, I can do a 10-min call and map a sample for your Shopify app — fuller than a dead feed link.
    Or if you'd rather skip the call, reply with your one-liner + 3–5 subs + keywords and I'll send a small sample.
    
    siromi
    
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    3 hours ago
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