Marketplace modules are ready-made solutions for everyone. Sometimes, though, you need something for your store specifically: a different header, your own homepage block, a custom product card template, separate translations. That is what a development order is for.
It works like this: you write a brief, the chosen developer gets a copy of your actual site as a working repository, makes the changes and hands them back. The platform builds an update from them and delivers it to your live site, exactly like a regular update.
The core guarantee: updates will not wipe your custom work
Custom code must live outside the platform core — that is a technical constraint, not a verbal promise. The developer may only touch certain zones, and the build rejects a change entirely if any part of it falls outside them.
| May be changed | Forbidden |
|---|---|
| Configuration, public site files, templates, custom folders and module translations | Platform core, service folders, the installer, global routing, the bootstrap |
The consequence for you is simple: when the platform ships an update, that update and your custom work are different files. They do not collide, and your work survives the upgrade.
How this differs from buying a module
A module is a finished product you simply install. A development order is individual work on your store, driven by a brief, with its own agreement and payment to a specific developer through escrow.
Step 1. Write the brief
Account → Orders → «Order development». The brief covers:
| Field | What to put in |
|---|---|
| Store | Required — which of your connected sites the work is for |
| Developer | A choice is always required, but one of the options is an open brief: then every contractor sees the order |
| Title and description | Briefly, what the work is about |
| Scope | The detailed description, in an editor |
| Goals, pages, references | What the result should be, which pages, examples |
| Constraints, deadline, budget | Your limits. The budget is a guide; the contractor names the actual price |
Naming a store in the brief does not grant access to it. You are only saying which site the work concerns. Access appears later and automatically — when you accept a specific developer's offer. Nobody gets blind access.
Step 2. The offer and escrow
The developer sends an offer with a price. You see it on the order page and can accept or decline it.
On acceptance the amount is held in escrow: debited from your wallet and held by the platform. The order moves to «in progress» and that specific contractor is locked to it.
Escrow in plain words: the money does not go to the developer straight away. It is frozen and released in their favour only once you accept the work. That protects both sides — you from a contractor vanishing, them from a client vanishing.
The accepted offer with its hold is exactly what authorises access: until the order is in progress, a working copy of your site cannot be created at all.
Step 3. While the work is running
An order is not a black box. Inside it you have:
- Messaging with the contractor right in the order — questions do not have to move to a messenger.
- Milestones: the work can be split into parts, and you approve each separately. A milestone moves through «pending → submitted → released», so you can see what has been handed over and sign off piece by piece rather than all at the end.
Step 4. Acceptance
When the work is done you accept it — the escrow is released to the contractor, the order closes, and the working copy is closed automatically too.
If the result is not acceptable there is a dispute: the order moves to that state and the funds stay frozen until it is resolved. Do not accept work just to avoid friction — acceptance is irreversible, because acceptance is what releases the money.
Worth planning for
- The budget in the brief is a guide, not a price. The exact amount comes in the offer, and you are free not to accept it.
- An open brief attracts more offers but requires you to choose. If you already know the contractor, name them upfront.
- The more specific the scope, the more precise the price. A vague brief is either padded or ignored.