Best Shopify agency in Paris: how to compare two agencies before you sign

Type the query into Google: the top results are mostly agency directories and rankings. They help you draw up a first list. They do not tell you who will design your pages, whether the stores on show were coded by the agency or only restyled, or what your quote will contain.

The brands that find us through search, on Google as on ChatGPT, almost always arrive with a shortlist. One was comparing two agencies; another was waiting for a competitor’s quote by the end of the week. That is when the decision gets made. This guide helps you decide between two or three serious agencies, with the questions founders have asked us on discovery calls.

If you are still torn between an independent and an agency, start with this comparison of Shopify freelancers and agencies. If you are changing provider, get your access back first: the steps are in this guide to leaving your provider without losing your site.

The partner badge is a starting point. Since January 2025, the program has ranked partners in five tiers: Registered, Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum (Shopify’s announcement, Shopify Help Center). Every partner starts on the first tier, Registered.

Moving up depends on the revenue the partner brings to Shopify, a minimum number of deals and credentials, according to the same announcement. Plus is the minimum tier for guaranteed listing in the official Partner Directory, and a specialist Belgian agency points out that these thresholds measure an agency’s size: they say nothing about the quality of its work.

In practice: a high tier signals an agency that has shipped a lot of stores, often for large brands. Its absence says nothing about the care put into a mid-sized store. Look at the badge, then move on to the next questions, which tell you more.

It is one of the first questions we get: how many of you are there? And when you say “we”, who is that? It is a fair question. An agency’s name does not tell you whether the project will be done in-house, handed to freelancers or partly outsourced abroad.

A good answer names people: who designs, who codes, who handles migration and search, and who your day-to-day contact will be. Also ask what happens if that person falls ill in launch week. A small team is not a problem in itself; a team whose make-up you do not know is.

Be wary of the reverse case: a salesperson who is very present before signing, then a project manager who passes your messages to developers you will never meet. Every go-between adds delay and loses information between what you ask for and what gets coded.

A project seen with their own eyes, in a world close to theirs, is still the proof that weighs most for the brands that contact us, often ahead of price. It still has to be real. A prospect once told us an old portfolio looked like mockups rather than stores that actually sell. Another, a partner in a firm, had ChatGPT analyse the site we showed as an example and sent us the list of criticisms. Buyers check: do the same.

Founders have asked us exactly that: do you do what the client says, or do you push back with ideas? The simplest test is to ask, from the first conversation, what the agency would remove from your current store or from your brief.

An agency that advises will tell you that one app duplicates another, that a requested feature will only serve a handful of customers a month, or that a page can wait for the second phase. An agency that executes will quote everything, and the quote will grow accordingly. Apps are a good testing ground: each one adds a subscription and weight to your pages, and some can be coded straight into the theme, as we explain in this guide to Shopify without paid apps.

Also ask the agency, at the end of the first call, to sum up your need in one sentence. If the summary is vague, the quote will be too.

A skincare brand that consulted us had sent a brief with one clear requirement: each agency had to separate what is included, what is optional and what will cost money every month. That requirement makes two quotes comparable. Without it, an agency can show a lower total by leaving migration, training or apps out of the quote.

For each quote, draw three columns. In the first, what is included and delivered: number of page templates, products migrated, languages, redirects, training. In the second, what is offered as an option, with its price. In the third, the monthly costs after launch: Shopify subscription, apps, maintenance. Then ask the awkward question: what happens if a request falls outside the scope mid-project? Why two quotes vary so much for the same project is covered in our guide to the price of a Shopify site.

We also get asked whether we are in Paris. For an online store, distance matters less than availability: most workshops happen on video calls, and sign-offs in writing. A nearby agency becomes useful when meeting saves time: an art direction workshop, a photo shoot, team training, or an urgent meeting before a sales peak.

So the right question is not “are you in Paris?” but “how quickly do you reply, and through which channel, during the project and after launch?”. Ask for the answer to be written into the quote.

The question comes up among brands in the same sector: is it a risk to work with an agency that already counts a competitor among its clients? And what is the difference between their store and yours?

Experience in your sector saves time: the agency already knows the questions about sizes, variants and seasonality. The risk comes down to two things: the confidentiality of your figures and plans, and a store that ends up looking like the one next door. A good answer says so openly, before you ask, and includes a confidentiality clause in the contract. As for the resemblance, look at the two stores side by side: if you mix them up, the agency recycles.

Fill in one column per agency, from their written answers. The questions come from the discovery calls and written exchanges we have had with around forty brands and businesses over a year.

Since we publish the grid, here are our answers. Sonho is a Shopify agency in Paris founded by Simon de Carlan. You talk to the same person from the first call to launch, and design, code and search are done together.

If two agencies are still tied, pick the one whose summary of your need spoke to you most, and whose coder you have actually met. The rest gets settled in the quote.

If you want to put us in your comparison, the e-commerce offer describes what we do on Shopify, and you can book a call to ask us these questions directly.