Building Snapshot — Automated Backups for Online Stores
Daniel Rivera
Building Snapshot — Automated Backups for Online Stores
1. The Problem
In the fast-moving world of e-commerce, many store owners face a major vulnerability: losing critical data such as products, inventory, or collections without any reliable backup system.
Mistakes, app synchronization errors, or accidental deletions can break store operations and cause lost sales.
The challenge was to create a simple, automatic, and secure way to protect store data something store owners could easily set and forget.
2. The Solution — Snapshot
To solve this, I built Snapshot, an automated backup and restore solution for merchants.
Snapshot continuously monitors store data and creates secure backups of products, variants and inventory allowing users to restore a product to any previous version instantly.
Key highlights:
Full integration with Shopify’s Admin API and OAuth.
Automatic daily backups and manual “on-demand” backups.
Fast data restoration directly from the application.
Scalable architecture ready for new e-commerce and POS connections.
Built with Ruby on Rails, Remix (React), PostgreSQL, and deployed via Fly.io.
3. The Impact
Since launch, Snapshot has helped store owners prevent data loss and restore deleted products in minutes.
Agencies and partners have also started using it to protect client stores, making it a simple yet powerful reliability tool for their workflows.
Results so far:
Dozens of Shopify stores protected.
Thousands of products automatically backed up.
Growing network of agency partners through our Partnership Program.
4. My Role
I led the full product development from backend architecture to UI integration and deployment strategy.
This included:
Designing the API and database structure for backup versioning.
Building the embedded Shopify app using Shopify App Remix and Polaris.
Managing OAuth flows, billing, and app distribution.
Designing the landing site (snapshot.company) with a focus on clarity and trust using Webflow.
5. Tech Stack
Backend: Ruby on Rails
Frontend: Remix + React
Database: PostgreSQL
Infrastructure: Fly.io, Redis, and Sidekiq
Integrations: Shopify, Square
6. What I Learned
Building Snapshot reinforced the importance of data resilience.
It also taught me how to combine Shopify’s ecosystem with a modern app architecture to deliver continuous protection and reliability without requiring merchants to think about it.
7. Live Project
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Posted Nov 12, 2025
Developed Snapshot, an automated backup solution for Shopify stores.
