Frequently Asked Questions

What is Champ?

Champ is an out-of-the-box forum Shopify app to add to your existing Shopify online store. Champ is designed to be the easiest and most user-friendly forum software there is for Shopify. 

Included are features such as:

• Restrict which users have access to individual forums (through tags)
• Assign moderators
• No extra subdomain installation required – Champ is served right in your store’s subdirectory
• Customizable sidebar and headers
• Customizable colours

How much does Champ cost?

Champ costs $29 USD per month, and is billed with your regular Shopify invoice. The application comes with a 14 day free trial, which begins the moment you install the app.

For more information, please refer to our pricing page.

Our billing explanation page also provides information as to our app’s billing cycle.

What are some uses for this Shopify app?

Champ makes a great addition if you want to do any of the following:

• Form part of an online community around your product or brand
• Create an online support forum
• Move your online community from elsewhere (such as Facebook Groups) to under your domain – this is great for search engine optimization

Note: Champ’s focus is to function as a forum software. For membership management functionality, you will need to use another application from the Shopify app store.

Where will my forum be hosted?

Champ hosts your forum under https://yourstore.myshopify.com/community/champ. If you’re using a custom domain with Shopify, it will be at https://yourdomain.com/community/champ.

What can I customize?

Out of the box, you can customize specific colours of your forum. 

Other areas of the forum can also be customized, including:

• Header
• Footer
• Sidebar
• Before the content
• After the content
• Custom JavaScript at the footer – great for adding tracking pixels!

Note: We don’t offer help for customizations as this is beyond our small team’s capacity. Customizations are done in regular Shopify Liquid snippets. Many Shopify Experts are available to help you with this from the Shopify Expert directory.

What does Champ not do?

Champ is ideal for shops that want to add a forum to their existing Shopify store without the hassle of installing your own forum software on a separate server.

That being said, there are a lot of things that Champ cannot do:

• Become a Facebook group replacement or look like Facebook group
• Be a social media plugin
• Look or behave like another app 

But if you’re looking for a forum app to add to your store, Champ is for you.

Does Champ have (insert feature request)?

Champ is a basic forum software, but basic doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. (In the hands of a master chef, a simple frying pan can produce the greatest meals.)

Champ aims to be a simple, out of the box forum software without all the clutter that you may find in other forum applications. 

Features not included:

• File storage (Customers can still embed images using URL links.)
• Downvotes (We just don’t like them. The internet can be quite a negative place already.)
• Too many built in customization options (I tried once to get my car to look like a Porsche. Couldn’t make it happen.)
• Super artificial intelligence to monitor and moderate your forums

Where is my data stored?

Your data is stored on our cloud servers, which are located in New York. The data is backed up frequently on a regular schedule. 

We take privacy very seriously. None of your or customers’ data is shared with any third party except for the provisioning of Champ’s services (ie. to run the software that runs your forum). If you have any questions about privacy, our privacy policy is below.

Can I export my data?

Yes! Data is exportable from the application’s dashboard in JSON format. Note: We don’t help with importing your data into other software, so you may need to get (ie. hire) a developer to help.

How often do you update Champ?

Champ is actively being developed and maintained. A monthly topic is created and pinned to the top to inform our users what we’re working on. You can take a look at our long history of commitment in making Champ a better forum application for your Shopify store.

Are you GDPR compliant?

For our EU customers (and for non-EU customers as well), we’re very aware of the evolving online privacy regulations that’s happening all over the world right now. 

Champ allows you to search and delete customer associated information in order to help you be GDPR compliant. 

For those of you who aren’t aware of what GDPR is, please refer to the official GDPR website: https://www.eugdpr.org/.

What support do you provide?

Support is through email only. We do not provide any other forms of support, including telephone or screen sharing. 

We’re very good at writing comprehensive email responses and providing step-by-step instructions. We have a “No B.S.” policy when it comes to communication.

In other words, if we feel Champ can’t do it — we’ll tell you right away so that you can move onto another app to serve your needs.

Can I write a good review for you for a favour?

No. We don’t exchange good reviews for discounts on Champ or other favours.  In fact, that’s against Shopify’s policy governing apps.

Can I hire you guys?

We’re flattered, but we’re not currently available for hire. Champ is a side project that we built to help some of our previous clients. We thought we would share it with the rest of the Shopify ecosystem.

How secure is Champ?

Champ is very secure. We (the developers behind Champ) have worked in IT security, web development, penetration testing, and other security sensitive projects.

Some of you may have noticed that we do not comment on who are customers are. We take privacy and security very seriously and do not divulge any data to third parties without prior consent.