Shopify removed private-plan limits: what changes for beauty?

Shopify removed the numeric limit on private plans and the per-plan limit on target stores. According to the September 21, 2026 announcement, developers can now create as many private plans as needed and make each plan available to any number of selected stores; the previous limits were 15 private plans per app and 20 stores per plan (Shopify (2026)).

A private plan is not a public App Store offer. Shopify's plan documentation says private plans are available only to a selected list of stores and can support bespoke features and app pricing for a complex or high-needs client (Shopify Developers (2026)).

No action is required for existing private plans to keep working. This announcement is therefore not a migration deadline; it opens additional plan and target-store capacity (Shopify (2026)).

No. Shopify private plans are not product, collection or wholesale-order pricing; they are subscription, feature and usage packages that a Shopify app offers to merchants. Shopify describes App Pricing as the default way for new public apps to charge merchants when their pricing model is supported (Shopify Developers (2026)).

That distinction keeps the project honest. A beauty brand that wants to offer product prices or discounts to selected retailers still needs to design its B2B, catalogue, market or discount structure separately. A private App Pricing plan can determine the app fee and feature set available to stores that run that commercial workflow; it is not the workflow itself.

A new private feature package can also be unnecessary when the only need is a temporary price incentive. Shopify's plan guide explicitly says a discount or trial extension may be simpler when an incentive is all that is required (Shopify Developers (2026)).

Unlimited Shopify target stores help when a beauty brand needs to use the same app with different scopes across multiple stores. The value is not creating endless plans; it is grouping stores clearly and assigning the right app capabilities to each group.

• Regional storefronts: enable different app capabilities for country stores with different regulatory, currency or integration needs.
• DTC and professional channels: separate the integration scope for consumer stores from salons, non-clinical care locations or authorized retailer stores.
• Pilot programmes: test a loyalty, sampling or product-discovery function in selected stores before expanding it to a broader group.
• Enterprise packages: separate store groups that require added support, data transfer or a bespoke workflow from the standard package.

These are design examples, not ready-made beauty use cases automatically supplied by Shopify. The underlying store, market and integration decisions still need separate work. Our Shopify store setup guide for cosmetics brands provides a useful foundation.

A Shopify private-plan operation should define a store group, feature scope, app price, accountable owner and exit rule for every plan. Removing a technical limit does not make uncontrolled plan growth safe.

• Group stores by a durable criterion such as country, channel or business model; avoid ad hoc plan names for individual stores.
• Record the price, enabled features, trial terms and support scope together for every private plan.
• Have a second person verify target-store domains so that process controls prevent a private offer reaching the wrong store.
• Give pilot plans a start, review and closure date; review test packages that otherwise remain open indefinitely.
• Ask the app provider for store-level active-plan reporting and reconcile it with the brand's contract and access inventory.

Shopify hosts the app's plan-selection page and automates common billing tasks such as recurring charges, usage-based pricing, free trials, proration and price updates (Shopify Developers (2026)). That automation does not replace the brand decision about which store belongs to which package.

Today, map the current private plans and target stores with your app provider, then identify packages that were split, deferred or managed manually because of the 15-plan or 20-store limits. Because no action is required for existing plans, teams can simplify deliberately rather than rush into a migration (Shopify (2026)).

For each candidate package, answer three questions: Does it carry a genuinely different feature set? Which stores share the same need? Who owns the plan and its retirement rule? Consider a discount or trial when only the price incentive differs; consider a private plan when functionality and support differ.

Finish with a small pilot. Confirm plan visibility, enabled features, contract-aligned charges and the exit path for one store group, then expand with the same naming and record standard. Repeatable governance—not the number of plans—is what makes unlimited capacity useful.