Install on Shopify
On this page
The Shopify app is built and tested, including billing, plan changes, cancellation and the privacy webhooks against a simulated Shopify. It is not in the Shopify App Store yet: the listing follows Shopify's approval review, and the checks on a live development store are part of that submission. Until then you can use LgTranslate on a Shopify store with the one-line script (see Choose a path).
Two ways in#
| Path | How | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| A. Native | The app writes translations into your store through Shopify's translations interface | Products, collections, pages, articles, menus, theme text and policies, as far as Shopify allows |
| B. Loader | A theme app embed loads the loader, which applies the published files in the browser | Text that path A cannot reach, such as text drawn by other apps |
Path A is the default. It matters most for search. Shopify gives each published language its own addresses. It makes hreflang tags by itself only for markets that have their own domain, subdomain or subfolder, and its x-default points to the primary domain (Shopify's Markets help, checked 2026-10-29). If you set a market up differently, check the tags yourself.
Steps#
- Install the app and approve the permissions it asks for.
- Choose your target languages. They are enabled in the store but not published until you decide to publish them, because publishing makes the addresses public.
- Run Sync. It skips empty values, non-text content and address handles. It does not overwrite a translation you edited yourself in Shopify unless you ask it to.
- In the theme editor, open App embeds and switch on the LgTranslate embed. Shopify says merchants do not edit theme code for app embeds. The embed ships switched off after install. If you later publish a different theme, switch it on again in the new theme. Add the language switcher block where you want it.
- Read the report. It lists strings that had no translation yet, so you can translate them and sync again.
What Shopify does not let apps translate#
- Checkout, customer accounts, order status pages and notifications are drawn by Shopify. The loader does not run there. Shopify's own languages apply.
- Product tags cannot be translated through the interface. Custom fields only when they are public.
- Shopify limits how many languages a store can enable and publish. We have not confirmed the numbers: verify.
- App embeds need a theme that supports them. Shopify documents them for Online Store 2.0 themes such as Dawn; whether older themes work is not stated: verify.
What we have not confirmed#
Shopify documents embeds that load a script file shipped inside the app. It does not document an embed that loads a script from another address with data-* attributes. Our theme extension has to build the tag from the embed's settings. Whether the finished tag keeps its attributes in a live store has not been tested: OPEN.
Shopify's older Script Tag interface is a legacy interface since 2024-10-01. It takes only an address, so it cannot carry our attributes. We do not use it. If you cannot use the app embed, paste the script tag into the theme's layout file only if you accept that a theme update can remove it.
Billing#
Shopify stores pay through Shopify, monthly only (no yearly option on Shopify). There are four tiers by number of languages: LgTranslate S (1 language), M (up to 3), L (up to 6) and XL (all languages your store can enable). Prices are on the Shopify tab of the pricing page. You approve the charge on Shopify's own page; you can change tier or cancel inside the app, without contacting support. A launch price may reduce the first payment; the pricing page states it exactly. Cancelling never removes translations already written to your store.
The tiers and the billing flow are tested against a simulated Shopify. How Shopify's approval page shows a reduced first payment is confirmed only on a real store: verify.
Machine or reviewed#
By default the sync sends machine translations. The owner can switch it to reviewed translations only. The owner approved the machine default on 2026-10-28 (decision D49).