Shopify

Raised as a usability problem by 52 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 39 threads.

People raised many different problems with Shopify, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.

Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.

The newest 50 complaints

Features differ across website, desktop and mobile, so users must hunt for each feature2026-09-11
Couldn't unlink her email from a fraudster's account except via a convoluted password-reset workaround2026-09-10
Marketing opt-in hidden at bottom; full address needed before seeing shipping prices2026-09-07
Making custom app installs so confusing a friend gave up2026-06-03
Friend found building a custom Shopify app so confusing he gave up2026-06-03
Abandoned checkout triggers unwanted cart reminder emails without an account2025-07-29
Design guidelines force simple buttons into full pages of useless text2025-05-17
One in four clicks takes over half a second to complete2025-01-17
Store browsing and checkout feel clunky and slow, making users doubt themselves2025-01-17
Over half-second delay after tapping before screen responds, feels sluggish2025-01-16
Web views load in abruptly with no easing, making the app feel janky2025-01-16
Half-second screen loads leave the app idle, hurting productivity for heavy users2025-01-16
Recurring order management is extremely hard to use for customers2024-08-28
Simple change like adding a product label takes weeks due to over-engineered code2024-05-29
Search results reload slowly after clicking a product and pressing back2023-12-14
Can't open products in new tab, no loading feedback, and unclear way back to results2023-12-14
Users added items from different shops and couldn't figure out how to check out2023-12-14
Product card clicks fail unreliably, and closing the product popup resets the search list2023-12-14
Cities appear in suggestions but lack data when selected2023-11-24
Dragged items get stuck with no feedback, sometimes jump to mouse location2023-08-18
PayPal checkout ignores unchecking the promo email box, forcing a manual fix afterward2023-08-02
Migration docs are poor and removed old docs, leaving no guidance for theme app extensions2023-01-13
Newer CLI forces full app restructuring and many hoops, making it brutal to use2023-01-12
CSS-only Polaris is hard to use because it isn't designed for human use2023-01-12
Subscription ordering UX on a Shopify site is astoundingly bad2022-07-09
Shopping sites built on it feel noticeably slow and frustrating to use2022-06-03
Navigating nested cursor-based queries to reach a node is painful and nearly impossible2022-05-06
Poorly documented, and nested union types are hard to figure out2022-05-06
Gets pushed into rating and feedback prompts after every order with no easy way to opt out2022-02-17
Commenter's own shop has a bad user experience they attribute to Shopify2021-05-14
Slashing a collection's price requires manually editing each product one by one2021-04-16
Auto-installers push files into the production theme, breaking developers' version control and testing workflow2021-03-20
Three-step checkout causes shoppers to abandon carts2021-03-19
Shopify admin takes about 40% of the screen, leaving little room for complex app interfaces2021-03-19
Docs omit how fields work, e.g. can't tell how to add multiple tracking numbers2021-03-19
Pop-ups show other customers' purchases, pushing people into buying through social proof2021-03-07
Partners struggle with terrible documentation and confusing API design choices2021-02-25
Some API data only reachable by paying more, forcing CSV parsing instead2021-02-25
Hard to tell legitimate stores from one-person scam shops2021-02-10
Commenter can't tell what the site is for; too many random offerings to click through2020-10-24
After install, asks to add a store with only a search box and no browsable suggestions2020-06-17
Default editor is slow and buggy, making editing frustrating2020-02-25
Developers find the Shopify APIs sluggish and poorly documented, making development a mess2020-01-16
Metafields must be fetched one product at a time, and endpoints are inconsistent2020-01-16
Docs omit when values can be null or change type, causing parse crashes2019-12-19
Store pages load slowly because of third-party scripts and apps2019-07-12
Mobile shopping pages are slow to load, so visitors leave before they appear2018-11-29
No version control, so you can't tell who changed live theme code2018-04-26
Blog post shows only a blank white screen when JavaScript is disabled2017-06-21
No local copy or staging, so every edit must be uploaded and checked live2015-01-14