Your product needs six choices. Shopify holds three.
Width, height, material, edge finish, mount and quantity is an ordinary spec for a made-to-measure product, and Shopify caps a product at three options. Measurements make it worse: there is no list of widths to save, because the customer types the number.
So you need an app that takes the choices out of the variant system. The good ones collect any input, price the configuration as the customer builds it, and carry every choice through to the order. Here is how three apps compare on that, starting with Appify Custom Product Options.
What to check before you pick one
Adding a dropdown is the easy half. These seven are what separate the apps.
- Typed numbers, not a list of sizes you guessed at.
- The calculated price is the price charged, on one normal cart line.
- One choice changes another. The motor only for wide blinds.
- Your rate sheet as written, a grid, not one multiplier.
- The SKU, the weight and the choices still reach the order.
- Cart edits, reorders and recovered carts bring the configuration back.
- The variants you keep still work, priced and selected as they are now.
The last two catch people out. Dropping variants is easy. Keeping the warehouse and the order intact is the part that has to work.
1. Appify Custom Product Options
It replaces the variant list with real input fields and a pricing engine behind them. Add to cart stays native, and no variant is created.
It prices the configuration
This is what decides it. Formulas run on any option and on the final price. Pricing tables read your rate sheet as written, to the row or between rows. Quantity discounts, fixed fees and a floor on the total sit on top.
Whatever the customer saw is what they pay. The calculated total is applied to the cart line, whatever the product's Shopify price is.
It keeps the variant's day job
A SKU per configuration from a template you define. A shipping weight calculated from the selections and saved with the order. A stocked add-on linked to a choice, arriving as a normal Shopify line with its own price and inventory.
It works with the variants you keep
You do not have to delete the variants that earn their place. Keep Color as a real variant, with its own price, photos and inventory, and let the calculator handle the width, the material and the rate sheet.
- Price from the variant. The calculator starts at the selected variant's price and adds to it.
- Swatches from the variant. The values and images come from the variants themselves, so there is no second list to keep. Add a color in Shopify and the swatch has it. Out of stock shows dimmed.
- A swatch selects the variant. Price, cart line and preview update without a reload.
- Rules read the variant. Show a finish only when Color is oak. It still matches when the shopper sees Couleur and Rouge.
Your stock stays where your team already looks for it. The variants that only ever held a price stop being variants.
You do not build it by hand
Describe your pricing to Chat with AI, or attach the price sheet you already use, and it builds the options, the formulas, the rules and the styling. When a price comes out wrong, the Troubleshoot tab shows every part of the formula with the customer's selections loaded.
Every option type and every feature is on every plan: measurements, swatches, uploads, date pickers and the Product Designer canvas.
Who it's for: any custom product where the customer specifies something, from one measurement to a full design. For the pricing side in depth, see how to set up formula-based pricing on Shopify.
2. Easify Custom Product Options
Easify does the job options apps were built for, and does it well: choices on a product page. Fifteen option types on the entry plan, 28 higher up, including dimensions, uploads and swatches. The personalizer and cart editing are on higher plans.
Pricing is where it stops. It does one calculation, an area price from a dimension option: length times width times your rate. No formula you write, no rate table.
Where it fits: choices with add-on prices, plus that one area calculation. Appify Custom Product Options does those on every plan, then prices the grid and the discount ladder on top.
3. Globo Product Options, Variant
Globo takes the same approach: 15 option types on the entry plan, 30 or more at the top, with add-on pricing through Shopify Functions. The personalizer and cart editing are top plan, multi-language a tier above entry.
Its dimension pricing matches Easify's. An area price, and nothing past it.
Where it fits: choice-driven products priced by add-ons. That job lives inside Appify Custom Product Options too, with the pricing engine behind it. Choosing it is choosing fewer features, not different ones.
Side by side
Full support Partial, basic, or on a higher plan Not offered
| Capability | Appify Custom Product Options | Easify Custom Product Options | Globo Product Options, Variant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing the configuration | |||
| Formulas on every option and the final price | Yes, every plan | Area price only, higher plan | Area price only, higher plan |
| If/then logic inside the price formula | Yes | No | No |
| Math and rounding functions | Yes: MIN, MAX, CLAMP, ROUND, CEILING and more | No | No |
| Pricing variables | Yes | No | No |
| Pricing tables and rate-sheet lookups | Yes, exact, nearest or interpolated | No | No |
| Pricing rules | |||
| Quantity discounts tied to the configuration | Yes, 1D and 2D | Tiered pricing | No |
| Fixed fees on the order | Yes | One-time option price | No |
| Minimum and maximum price on the total | Yes, number or formula | No | No |
| Price adjustments | Yes | No | No |
| One option sets another's minimum, maximum or step | Yes | No | No |
| Trace and fix a wrong price in the app | Yes, Troubleshoot tab | No | No |
| What the variant used to carry | |||
| A SKU generated per configuration | Yes | No | No |
| Shipping weight from the selections | Yes, by formula | No | No |
| Option values on the cart line in the shopper's language | Yes | No | No |
| Shopify Markets currency on calculated prices | Yes, automatic | No | No |
| Option translation | Yes, every plan | Yes | Higher plan |
| Working with the variants you keep | |||
| Calculated price starts from the selected variant's price | Yes | No, it replaces it | No, add-ons only |
| Swatch values and images come from your Shopify variants | Yes, kept in sync | No | No, kept separate |
| Picking an option selects the matching Shopify variant | Yes, price and cart line follow | No | No |
| Rules can read the selected variant's Color or Size | Yes, picked from a list | Typed name, higher plan | Typed name, higher plan |
| Beyond the options themselves | |||
| Product Designer design canvas | Yes, every plan | No | No |
| Print-ready files, cut lines and proofs | Yes, every plan | No | No |
| Edit options from the cart | Yes, every plan | Higher plan | Higher plan |
| Reorder and cart recovery that keep the options | Yes, every plan | No | No |
| AI builds and maintains the setup | Yes, every plan | No | No |
| AI writes and explains formulas | Yes | No | No |
| Every feature on every plan | Yes | No | No |
Compared September 2026. Apps change, so features may have moved since.
Appify Custom Product Options is a full Yes on every row in the table. Neither of the others is a full Yes on more than one. That is the whole pricing engine, the jobs the variant used to carry, the design and print side, and the order after checkout, in one app with every feature on every plan.
How to decide
If the customer specifies the product, Appify Custom Product Options is the one to install. Measurements, rate sheets, uploads and design sit in one place, and what you will need later is already there.
If today you only need a few choices with add-on prices, it still does that on every plan, and prices the measurement and the rate sheet the day you need them. Easify and Globo cover that side well, and stop where the pricing starts.
Also worth reading: top Shopify pricing calculator apps in 2026, and, if you sell in more than one country, the options apps that handle Shopify Markets and multi-language. For the groundwork behind any of them, start with how to price complex custom products on Shopify.
FAQ
What is the best Shopify app to replace variants for custom products?
Appify Custom Product Options. It takes the choices out of the variant system, prices the configuration with formulas and rate tables, and keeps the SKU, the weight and the order details the variant carried.
Why replace variants at all?
Shopify caps a product at three options, and a measurement is not a list you can save. Most made-to-measure products need more inputs than that, and at least one the customer types.
Will an options app add more variants to my catalog?
Not this one. The options and their prices live outside the variant system, and the product reaches the cart through your theme's normal add to cart.
Do I lose my SKUs?
No. A SKU is generated per configuration from a template you define, and you can show it in the cart.
How does shipping get calculated?
A weight formula works out the shipping weight from the selections and saves it with the order, so your carrier rates use the real number.
Can I still keep some variants?
Yes, and it is a normal setup. Keep Color as a variant with its own photos and inventory, let the calculator price the rest, and a swatch can pull those variants in and select one when it is picked.
Do I have to write the formulas myself?
No. Describe your pricing in plain English, or attach your price sheet, and Chat with AI builds it. You can edit anything it writes.
What if I only need a dropdown and a fixed extra charge?
Any of these will do that, on every plan here. The difference shows up the first time a price has to come from a measurement or a rate sheet.
Sell every combination without building a variant list.
Whatever you sell, however you price it · The last options app you'll shop for