I hated their CLI tool for app dev because I like tinkering myself, but I would've probably built the same thing in bash, so having a maintained CLI is nice.

Too bad I'm a medior, so there's a low chance they'd hire me ;P

I can't speak to stability but I get the impression it's a poster child for being all in on AI, moreso than other tech companies. By far.

Last month I found a critical bug in the forum where you could edit anyone’s post title.

You will never know. Lots of pretty important people publicly laid down the law that AI must be used; any indication that it produces crap will be hidden.

And even then we won't be able to tell if it's because of the AI or because they fired everybody that knows what they are doing.

In what ways? I'm sure there are businesses they refuse to support (like any company) but I have a family member running a Shopify store (selling things that you couldn't over Amazon due to logistics) and Shopify

- Doesn't have any pre approval process for products. We can add and edit products instantaneously with no process involving anyone else.

- Has never appeared to care, even when "products" are things like "we agreed on a delivery method over the phone".

I'd also point out that the store owns the brand with Shopify. We could switch out the backend for a different ones and the users wouldn't really notice. You couldn't do the same with Amazon.

I have much more freedom with Shopify, it's not even comparable. It's not even apples to oranges, it's apples to calculators.

Amazon places a lot more restrictions on everything, from products, product descriptions, images, it's quite difficult to list original products on Amazon (took me 2 weeks of work to register our product backlog when I started selling via Amazon, despite having GTINs and everything already in place). Cashflow etc is not comparable in ANY way.

Just wanted to call out a blatantly wrong comment.

have found Shopify's AI implementation to be sane and really useful ( building flows and surfacing documentation correctly ).

Never worked there, probably never will, but they have my respect for the things I have seen, read and heard.

This isn't the first outage and won't be the last but it's one of the most disruptive in recent memory.

Don't ask me for details but I got the impression they got just involved enough to maximize harm.

It's not software but a platform which has both pros and cons.

You used to be able to install custom Shopify apps on your own store, now they make you jump through hoops. Their ideal situation is an Apple like walled garden where you can only install apps from their store. Had a friend trying to vibecode a custom Shopify app so he could replace one from the App Store that was running him $250/m. It was so confusing that he just gave up. I’m trying to get him to switch to an open-source alternative.

Try selling Vape products or adult products and you’ll see you don’t really control the software. Selling used Apple products, vapes, and adult products is completely legal. Yes Stripe and PayPal can stop you from accepting payments for those products. But why is my business software doing the same?

Apparently not

"Employees must explain why AI can’t be used before asking for additional resources, like more staff or time. [...] Shopify is now factoring AI usage into performance reviews and peer evaluations."

Then we realized we weren’t really building a brand on Amazon so we started a Shopify store. Listed the same products and one day just unpublished. Messaged Shopify and they said we can’t sell used Apple products. Send them our Amazon and eBay stores with thousands of sales. Didn’t care. I brought in a payment processor myself, still unpublished. I just built my own Shopify alternative at that point.

In the end, you’re selling products that Shopify deems ok so you’re not going to face these issues. Do you really think Shopify doesn’t have issues just cause you don’t face them?

> I’m trying to get him to switch to an open-source alternative.

Well if you want an argument in favor between terrible support, glitchy software, huge price hikes, and so on we aren't particularly happy with Shopify either...

Are these legal in the place they are selling? Or is it against shopify TOS to do so? These two I am not surprised.

>will unpublish products without even telling you.

Giving some benefits of doubt here first. May be someone could explain the rationale behind it. Because on the surface this seems wrong.

Shopify runs a payment network called Shop Pay, and that network has relationships with the credit card companies like Visa. Honestly how do you expect to transact in goods that almost nobody will do business in? Even if you have the listing, what supported Shopify payment system will do the business?

I’m talking about connecting Shopify to authorize.net (credit card gateway) and a custom high risk processor. In that case, we are not using Shop Pay. But Shopify can still unpublish and restrict what you sell. That’s the issue. No one is saying Shopify has to allow sellers to sell high risk items under Shop Pay. It’s when you connect to a different payment processor.

It is the same.

Or rather the latter is inclusive of the former.

I mean take a look at how peptides are exploding. It's legal to sell them for research purposes, but you can't on Shopify. Unless you are on Plus and have an account manager and go thru backchannels. Literally Shopify picking winners instead of letting the market do it's job.

Because we were in electronic recycling, many items came without batteries or chargers due to fire-risk concerns, so we had to source replacements ourselves. We eventually launched a private-label brand for generic camera batteries, drone batteries, power-tool batteries, chargers, and similar accessories.

Then Shopify unpublished those products too after Canon contacted them, claiming we were not allowed to sell them. But these were generic replacement products, the same kind of items sold by Anker and countless other electronics brands online.

If Canon believed we were doing something illegal, they could have sent a cease-and-desist and gone through the normal legal process. Instead, they went through Shopify’s back channels and effectively skirted due process, using platform pressure to remove products they simply did not want us selling.

But don’t worry, companies like Anker who have resources and pull can still sell them and have online websites. Again, the market is being manipulated and winners chosen.

I can't imagine this is actually possible in 2026 unless your business is a something like a cash-only lemonade stand.

Outside of crypto, there's no way to not depend on a service that won't shut your business down on their priorities.

(See: Gab and Stripe/PayPal/Coinbase)