How to find a Shopware agency: where to search, how to cut 200+ partners down to a shortlist of three, and twelve questions for the first call that show whether an agency fits your project.
Start with Shopware’s partner directory. It lists more than 200 agencies, and you can filter by project budget, industry, integrations, hosting model, and partner tier. Turn that list into five candidates, and the five into three conversations.
The partner tier tells you how many certifications an agency holds, not how well your project will go. Platinum requires 20 certifications, Gold 10, Silver and Bronze 4 each. What matters more are reference stores that look like your project, and the people who will actually work on your store.
Twelve questions in the first call are enough to separate agencies. They cover experience, team, technology, and life after launch. Agencies that answer them concretely move on to the proposal stage.
Search for a Shopware agency and you get ads, directories, and agency sites that all promise the same thing. This guide is for business owners, e-commerce managers, and IT leads who are planning a new Shopware store, a relaunch, or a move from another platform, and who are choosing an agency for the first time.
By the end, you’ll know where to look, how to cut the list down to three agencies, and what to ask in the first call. What agencies charge after that, and how to compare proposals, is covered in our guide to Shopware agency pricing.
There are four ways to build a shortlist. They differ in how well the results are pre-filtered and how much legwork they take.
| Source | What you’ll find | Strength | Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopware partner directory | More than 200 agencies with partner tier, number of certifications, office locations, services, and project budget (as of November 2026) | The only source Shopware itself vets; filters for budget, industry, integrations, and hosting model | Sorted by relevance, no customer reviews, profiles are written by the agencies themselves |
| Reference stores | Stores in your industry running on Shopware 6; the agency is often credited in the footer | You see the result before you talk to the agency | Time-consuming, and not every store names its provider |
| Referrals from your network | Other merchants, hosting providers, accountants, trade associations, Shopware events | Honest feedback on collaboration and problems | The referral fits the other person’s project, not necessarily yours |
| Google and third-party directories | Ads, comparison sites, review platforms | Quick overview of agencies in your region | Rankings are paid or based on reviews that can be bought |
Our recommendation: start in the partner directory and cross-check the results against two or three reference stores you like. Agencies that show up on both lists make the shortlist.
A note for US merchants: Shopware’s roots are in Germany, and most partner agencies are based in Europe. You can filter the directory by office location to find partners in North America. A European agency can still be the right choice. Just make sure its working hours overlap with yours and that it has built stores for the US market before: sales tax calculation, US payment and shipping providers, accessibility, and state privacy laws such as the CCPA.
Shopware awards four partner tiers. The tier depends mainly on how many certifications the agency’s employees have earned at the Shopware Academy. The Academy tests online, and the annual pass for all exams costs $999 per person.
| Partner tier | Certifications | Support from Shopware | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 4 | Self-service portal, demo environments | Entry level of the partnership, often small teams or agencies with Shopware as a side focus |
| Silver | 4 | Partner manager from the Integration Partner team | Same minimum as Bronze, plus a dedicated contact at Shopware. Shopware is a fixed part of the business |
| Gold | at least 10 | Partner manager from the Integration Partner team | Several certified developers and project managers, experience with larger projects |
| Platinum | at least 20 | Dedicated Shopware partner manager, strategic collaboration | Direct line to Shopware, teams with backup for every role, enterprise and B2B projects |
Certifications show that the team knows the platform. They don’t show that the agency finishes projects your size cleanly, delivers on time, or picks up the phone after launch. A Gold agency with three matching reference stores is usually a better pick than a Platinum agency whose references are all ten times bigger than your store.
So use the tier as a minimum filter, not a ranking. For a store with an ERP integration and several languages, look at Gold or Platinum. For a small store with standard processes, Silver is enough if the references and the team are right.
Without a requirements list, no agency can tell whether it’s a fit, and you can’t judge their answers. One page is enough. Include these points:
Use this list to filter the directory and send every agency the same brief. In the call, you’ll see right away who actually read it.
To find the right Shopware agency, narrow the directory down in four steps. Plan two to three hours for it.
Leave location and partner tier for last. Most Shopware projects today run remotely, with scheduled on-site meetings. An agency in your city is convenient, but it’s not a sign of quality.
These questions are chosen so they can’t be answered with a sales pitch. For each one, you’ll find what to listen for. Questions about the proposal itself, such as hours per line item and change requests, come in the next phase and are covered in our guide to Shopware agency pricing.
1. How many Shopware 6 stores have you launched in the last twelve months, and which three can I look at?
A good answer includes store URLs. Check them yourself: load time on your phone, checkout through to the last step, search with a typo. Agencies that only show logos or cite confidentiality have either delivered little or can’t show it. Both count against them.
2. Which of your projects was most similar to mine, and what went wrong?
Every project has rough spots: data import, an integration, the timeline. An agency that tells a concrete story and explains what it learned is being honest. One that can’t think of anything either has no comparable project or isn’t being open.
3. Which ERP, PIM, or payment provider from my list have you already connected to Shopware, and how?
The answer should distinguish between a ready-made plugin from the Shopware Store, the agency’s own plugin, and custom development. All three are fine, but they differ in cost and in how long they last. We cover Shopware ERP integration in a separate guide.
4. Who will work on my project, and how many projects does that person handle at the same time?
You want names and roles: project management, development, design, QA. A project manager running eight projects in parallel has about two hours a week for yours. Also ask which part of the team works nearshore or offshore and who leads communication with you. Distributed teams are fine as long as project management speaks your language and overlaps with your business hours.
5. What does your project process look like, and what happens in the first four weeks?
Serious agencies start with a discovery phase: workshop, requirements, prototype or clickable mockup, and only then a proposal and development. An agency that wants to start coding in week one hasn’t understood your project yet. Our Shopware process shows what this can look like.
6. How will you involve me during the build, and where can I see progress?
Expect concrete tools: a staging environment you can access, a ticket system, and fixed reviews every one to two weeks. Status updates by email on request aren’t enough.
7. Do you work with Shopware’s standard, or do you modify the core?
The right answer: standard features first, extensions as plugins or apps, never changes to the Shopware core. Core changes turn every update into a risk and tie you to the agency. Ask for an example where the agency turned down a client request because it would have broken the standard.
8. What happens if we part ways?
Code, theme, repository, access credentials, and documentation must belong to you and be handed over at any time. A good agency describes the handover before you ask. Have it put in writing in the proposal later.
9. Which Shopware version are your existing clients running today?
This question tests how they handle maintenance. If most clients run a current version, the agency updates regularly through staging. If many stores are two major versions behind, the same will happen to yours. Our overview of Shopware updates and versions shows which versions are current.
10. How do you protect performance and search visibility at launch?
What you want to hear: load testing before launch, a Core Web Vitals check, redirects for all old URLs in a relaunch or migration, and a review of search engine settings before going live. Without an SEO migration, stores regularly lose a large part of their organic revenue after a relaunch. Our guide to Shopware SEO covers what’s involved.
11. What does support after launch cost, and how fast do you respond when checkout is down?
You need a monthly figure, a response time for incidents, and a clear answer on who is reachable outside business hours in your time zone. For reference, retainers at German agencies typically run €400 to €2,500 per month, depending on scope and response times.
12. Which projects do you turn down?
Possibly the most important question. An agency with a clear profile names industries, budgets, or requirements it isn’t the right fit for. An agency that takes everything has no profile, and you’ll only find out during the project whether yours fits.
Some answers are clear enough that you can politely end the call.
After the three calls, don’t decide on gut feeling. Use a simple scorecard. Give each criterion 1 to 5 points, multiply by the weight, and compare the totals. Score price only once the proposals are in.
| Criterion | Weight | What to score |
|---|---|---|
| Comparable references | 25% | Live stores of similar size, industry, and integrations (questions 1 to 3) |
| Team and availability | 20% | Names, roles, parallel projects, communication in your language and time zone (questions 4 to 6) |
| Technical quality | 20% | Sticking to the standard, plugin architecture, version status of existing clients, code ownership (questions 7 to 9) |
| Operations and reliability | 15% | Launch safeguards, response times, availability (questions 10 to 11) |
| Fit | 20% | Clear profile, follow-up questions on your requirements, pace and tone of communication (question 12) |
If two agencies are close, a paid one-day workshop settles it. You see how the team thinks before you commit five figures.
In Shopware’s partner directory, filter by office location and country. Most agencies now work remotely with occasional on-site meetings, so location shouldn’t be your first criterion. References, team, and availability matter more.
Not necessarily, but partner status shows that the agency invests in Shopware and has a direct line to Shopware. For projects with integrations, B2B features, or several languages, we recommend Gold or Platinum. For small stores, Silver is enough if the references fit.
Specialized agencies in Germany charge €100 to €180 per hour. For a small store, agency work runs €20,000 to €35,000, for mid-sized businesses €40,000 to €120,000, and for B2B from €120,000. All figures and pricing models are in our guide to Shopware agency pricing.
Plan four to six weeks: one week for requirements and shortlist, two weeks for calls, two to three weeks for proposals and the decision. If you decide faster, you usually pay for the time saved during the project.
Freelancers work well for plugins, customizations, and small stores if you manage the project yourself. Once integrations, design, testing, and operations come together, you need a team with backup. Our agency pricing guide also compares the provider types.
Ask us the twelve questions. solution25 is a Shopware Platinum Partner based in Bremen, Germany, has delivered Shopware projects since 2017, and runs stores for more than 200 brands. Book an intro call, send your requirements list along, and you’ll get an honest assessment, even if it’s that another agency is a better fit.
Already running a store? Our free shop audit shows within 48 hours where your technology, performance, and conversion stand today.
Read more about how we work, our certifications, and references on our Shopware agency page.
Besar Bilalli is co-founder and Co-CEO of solution25, the Shopware agency based in Bremen. Before founding the agency in 2017, he and Besnik Bilalli built their own online store without any startup capital and grew it to more than 500 orders a day. Since then, he has guided merchants through Shopware projects, from platform selection to day-to-day operations. He’s happy to answer questions about this article personally: get in touch.
Responsible for content and updates: Besar Bilalli. Last updated: November 2026. Next content review: February 2027.
