What is a Shopify Partner?

Five tiers, and the line where directory listings start

Every Shopify Partner sits in a tier. As of September 2026, Shopify's documentation for the Shopify Partner Program names five tiers, in order: Registered, Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum. Those five names are the ones to check against whatever a proposal or an agency website says.

The rule that matters most to a store owner is the listing line. A profile in the Shopify Partner Directory needs Plus tier or above. Read the other way, the directory is not a roll call of every Shopify Partner. A firm at Registered or Select can belong to the program and still have no directory profile, so a missing listing says nothing certain about membership.

The program itself is large. According to Shopify's partners page, the Shopify Partner Program counts 100,000+ partners as of September 2026. The directory, with its tier floor, is the narrower list.

Where the Shopify Expert title went

Before late 2023, a merchant looking for hired help browsed the Experts Marketplace, and the firms there carried the Shopify Expert name. Shopify retired both before the end of 2023. In October 2023 the Shopify Partner Directory replaced the Experts Marketplace. In December 2023 Shopify sunset the "Shopify Expert" brand. The current vocabulary is Shopify Partner plus a tier word.

So why does the old name keep turning up? Web pages are slow to change. Agency websites, freelancer profiles and articles written before the switch can still carry it, and anything that copies from those pages carries it forward. Search for help with a store today and you can still meet the phrase.

When you see it, read it as history rather than a credential. A firm that still leads with Shopify Expert is using a name Shopify retired. That alone says nothing bad about its work. It just means the label gives you no current information, so the directory and the firm's own stores have to do the talking.

Plus Partner is a retired name as well

Shopify has also sunset a second label: the "Plus Partner" name. Plus lives on as one of the five tiers, but the old two-word title is no longer in use.

That leaves room for mix-ups, because Shopify Plus is also the name of a plan merchants pay for. A firm at the Plus tier and a store on the Shopify Plus plan are two separate uses of one word. When a pitch leans on Plus, ask which it means: where the firm stands in the Shopify Partner Program, or its experience building stores on the Shopify Plus plan. Both are fair questions, and they have different answers.

Checking a Shopify Partner before you sign

A tier word and a directory profile are useful signals, and neither is the work itself. A careful check looks at each of these:

• The directory. If a firm says it is listed, find its profile in the Shopify Partner Directory yourself instead of taking the claim from its own website. If it is not listed, remember the listing starts at Plus tier and ask which tier it holds before assuming anything.
• The tier, by name. Registered, Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum are the current tiers. An answer of Shopify Expert or Plus Partner points to a retired name, not a present standing.
• The stores. Ask to see live stores the firm built, what it changed on each one, and who will do the hands-on work on yours. A tier describes standing in a program. A live store shows what you would be paying for.

Before any of that, settle whether the store needs hired help at all; should you hire a Shopify developer or use a theme takes that question on.

If you are hiring for a Shopify store now

Kelly Webmasters and Marketers builds on Shopify from Orlando: custom Shopify theme development, Shopify store setup, Shopify store redesigns and Shopify SEO. Shopify web design and development brings all four together.

Those builds are scoped per store, quoted after the free consult; for what goes into the bill, read how much a Shopify website costs. To talk through your store, call (407) 694-2055 or book a free 30-minute consult with the owner.