Curated buyer guides.

Agency guides use a different method. Because Digital Heroes is a candidate, those pages do not claim an independent ranking. They disclose the conflict and give buyers common criteria, evidence requests, and scorecards to apply to every agency, including us. The catalogue process below applies to app and theme recommendations.

Step 1: Long-list. We start wide. Every app or theme in the category goes on the list, pulled from the Shopify App Store / Theme Store, the Shopify Plus Partner directory, and the top merchant communities: the unofficial Shopify subreddit, r/ecommerce, and the eCommerceFuel forum. No exclusions yet.

Step 2: Score against criteria. Each list opens with a published five-criterion rubric. For DTC apps, that means install velocity, merchant-rated functionality, support responsiveness, pricing transparency, and exit-readiness (how easy it is to leave). Every candidate gets a 1-5 score on each criterion.

Step 3: Triangulate the scores. Scores then get a sanity check against the merchant-review platforms: G2, Clutch, Trustpilot, and Reddit threads. When the platform reviews disagree with our score, we cite both and explain the divergence.

Step 4: Publish the exclusion note. Every list names what we left out, and why. Sometimes the "what we excluded" section runs longer than the picks. That is the editorial work that separates a curated list from an SEO listicle. It is also the part the typical "best of" page never publishes.

Step 5: Refresh quarterly. Each list carries a "last reviewed" date in the header. We re-run steps 1-4 every quarter, and if the leaderboard moves, the list updates. If a previously-recommended app deteriorates through a price hike, support collapse, or feature removal, it gets demoted with a published note explaining what changed.