Wishlist functionality is a powerful tool for user engagement. It allows for several different use cases, all of which are very important.

When a user wants a product but that product is out of stock, they can add it to their wishlist. They can check back and be reminded of the product, to check when it's in stock. You might also be able to use a wishlist to notify them via email when the product is back in stock, so they can buy it when you have more available.

When a user is shopping for something, they can add an item to a wishlist that they don't currently intend to buy. They could do this for any number of reasons.

• They want to make sure they get a product with the right specifications (and not a similar product) when they don't remember the specs later.
• They want a product that is currently outside of their budget, but it may be within their budget in the future.
• They want to build a list of products they will buy when they are on sale, but they don't want to buy at full price.

You might also have the ability to make wishlists public. When they're public, they can be shared with friends and family. Users might use this as a gift list for a birthday or Christmas, or they might use it as a wedding registry, so friends and family can shop for their special occasion.

You can also use wishlists for data harvesting. You can monitor what items are added to wishlists, and when those items are purchased. It helps you identify trends in product interest (and which products you should stock in greater quantities). You can also use it to monitor the effectiveness of wishlist-based email campaigns.

Just one question remains: how do you implement a wishlist? Luckily, you have options for Shopify stores.

Adding a Wishlist to Shopify

Unfortunately, Shopify does not have built-in wishlist functionality. To add it, you have two options.

The first option is to implement custom code on your Shopify storefront. You can develop a wishlist functionality and implement it using Shopify's theme editor, or wrap it as an app and install it. Frankly, I feel that this is unnecessary because anything you could want to implement as a wishlist function is already available in some app somewhere. Because, yes, that's option two: adding a wishlist app.

There are dozens of Shopify apps with wishlist functionality, so that's what I'm going to list. Here are the apps you can use, as well as their pros and cons.

Wishlist Hero

• Developer: Revamp
• Rating: 4.7 with 153 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

This is a fast and easy wishlist app with some slick animations and a nice graphical design. It's fast and responsive, it's integrated with your shopping cart system, and it allows guests to make wishlists. It also allows for email reminders for restocks. Unfortunately, the free version is limited in functionality, so you're encouraged to use a paid plan.

Advanced Wishlist

• Developer: HulkApps.com
• Rating: 4.6 with 30 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

This is a fairly basic wishlist app. It has the features you'd want from a wishlist, but it doesn't have more advanced features like customized emails. It works with any Shopify theme and it does allow public sharing of wishlists, which is nice. They're missing Google Analytics integration, unfortunately, and their free plan is extremely limited.

Wishtack

• Developer: Wishtack
• Rating:4.2 with 20 Reviews
• Pricing: Free*

This is another fairly basic wishlist app with a few features you may or may not like. When a user adds an item to their wishlist, it can send notifications to their friends. They also have a "money pot" feature that allows users to crowdfund purchasing from your store. Unfortunately, that's about it; they don't have email integration or Google Analytics conversion tracking.

The asterisk by the price comes from a couple of reviews, which claim this app offers users the option to buy an item on Amazon instead of your store. If true, this app is terrible for your business, and they may add affiliate links to monetize those purchases as well. I haven't tested it myself, so if you have, please let me know.

Wishlist @ $2

• Developer: Mascot Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd
• Rating: 4.6 with 168 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

Another basic wishlist app. They have guest wishlists, the option to show how many of a product has been added to wishlists as a kind of FOMO, product variant displays, and public wishlist sharing. They have decent analytics reports, daily report emails, and more. Email integration is not in yet, but they claim to be working on it. Pricing is $2 per month as a flat fee regardless of usage, making it one of the more reasonable paid options.

WishList + Reminder

• Developer: Sticky Apps
• Rating:4.6 with 76 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

This is a wishlist app focused on the remarketing and notification side of things. As such, it does not do guest wishlists, and there's no mention of being able to share wishlists on social media or via email. They do integrate email notifications for restocks and sales, and you can customize their email system. Pricing is a flat fee of $5 per month for all of their features. Unfortunately, some reviews claim that the app does not work on mobile versions of sites, which may be a deal-breaker.

Wishlist Plus

• Developer: Swym Corporation
• Rating: 4.8 with 1,374 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

This is by far one of the most popular wishlist apps on Shopify, with orders of magnitude more installs and reviews than most others. Only a couple of others come close. It has public wishlist sharing. It has guest wishlists. It has social proof and FOMO. It sends contextual emails, both with the sale and restock notifications and with "low stock" emails to get people to order before your inventory is gone. Email campaigns can be customized, and they integrate with many of the more popular email management Shopify apps as well. Unfortunately, pricing is fairly steep, starting at a limited plan for $15 per month, and scaling up from there.

Growave - Loyalty, Wishlist, Reviews UGC

• Developer: Growave
• Rating: 4.9 with 1,318 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

One of the most popular Shopify wishlist apps on the app store, this one has a lot of additional features and is not just a wishlist app. Wishlist functionality is core, but it also handles a loyalty program with gift card options, a referral program, review solicitation, user-generated content, and more. It's all integrated into the app and you can incentivize wishlist adds and purchases through additional loyalty points and other tricks. Pricing starts at $19 per month for their lowest plan, and they now have a 14 day free trial that you take advantage of to try before you buy.

Wishlist - Wishify

• Developer: Zooomy
• Rating: 4.9 with 299 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

You know the drill by now. This wishlist app offers guest wishlists, public wishlist sharing, integrated cart checkouts, and customization. However, it does not have email integration, and it doesn't seem to work with websites that have an infinite scroll or lazy loading for their product collection pages. Depending on your site design, this might be a deal-breaker. Pricing starts at $6 per month.

Wishlist Pro

• Developer: CartKit
• Rating: 4.6 with 288 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

This app is used by thousands of stores on Shopify and has most of the basic features you want out of a wishlist app. Public wishlist sharing, internal analytics, guest wishlists, and custom styling are all included. Email notifications are not. Pricing is $24 per month, with a free trial that has a steep limitation of only 100 wishlist items per month.

Smart Wishlist

• Developer: Webmarked
• Rating: 4.6 with 128 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

Simple features included, such as guest wishlists, unlimited wishlists, wishlists on collections, products, and even search results pages. They even offer an API for accessing wishlist data if you want to do anything with it. They do not appear to handle email notifications, however. Pricing is $5 per month, and they have a 60-day free trial, which is among the longest in the business. It also claims to be the "fastest wishlist app" - I wasn't able to verify that, as running speed tests on shopping carts wasn't on my mind, but it's something to consider when testing.

Wishlist King

• Developer: Appmate
• Rating: 5.0 with 211 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

Customizable wishlists, public wishlist sharing, and integration with Google Analytics for conversion tracking are all included. Guest wishlists are allowed, but accounts can be made mandatory. They have several good integrations, and pricing starts at $5 per month but scales depending on the package of Shopify you use; Shopify Plus stores require the $50 per month plan, for example.

Gift Reggie

• Developer: Modd Apps Inc.
• Rating: 4.9 with 106 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

A fairly basic wishlist app. They have registry support, importing and exporting, and social sharing, but no email integration, notifications, or personalization. Overall, it's an okay app, but there are many better apps on the list. Pricing starts at $9 per month with additional charges per number of active wishlists.

Listfully Wishlist

• Developer: Listfully
• Rating: 4.4 with 6 Reviews
• Pricing: Paid

This is a very basic wishlist app with public wishlist functionality and gift registry functions, to avoid duplicate purchases. Otherwise, it doesn't offer much; no emails, no guest lists, not much customization. Pricing is $13 per month with a very limited free plan available.

Lower-Tier Apps

This last section is for a few apps that came up in my research, but which I don't think I would recommend. Generally, to fit in the first section, an app needs to have over a 4.0 rating and over 20 reviews. Anything less, and the app is probably too small to have an accurate impression. The apps listed below are either low-rated or don't have enough reviews for me to consider their rating accurate. You can feel free to investigate them on your own, though!

These apps are on the lower list because they have very few reviews, though they may be perfectly good apps for your purposes:

• Squadkin – Multi Wishlist
• Wishlist Plug
• Wishlist Club

I highly encourage you to check them out and see if they're good, or if they're just another wishlist app with nothing unique to set them apart. You can feel free to leave a review in my comments, but you might also wish to leave a review on Shopify to help out the apps as well.

The second list here is a collection of wishlist apps that I've seen mentioned in various places, but which have either poor reviews or concerning issues. I've skimmed the reviews and summarized my experiences here to give you a brief reason why each one made this list:

• Easy Wishlist: Apparently, this app works fine for a while, but then it breaks your "add to cart" button. I don't know why this would be, but numerous reviews mention it.
• Product Dreamlist: The app is slow and hurts site speed, they promote features they don't support, and it doesn't work with all themes.
• Wishlist Advance App: This app might be worth using, as many of the low reviews come from glitches that have since been fixed. However, use this app with caution.
• Wishlist + Save For Later: Several reports that the app has broken, and it seems to have issues with multilingual sites.

If you decide to test these, make sure to start with a free trial and carefully debug it before buying. Read the reviews to see what breaks (if anything) and check your website to see if it messes with your Shopify store.

Removed From The Shopify Store

Over time, some apps get removed from the Shopify store for some reason or another. We've seen with these specific apps that they are frequently removed and renamed to something else on the Shopify store to get rid of their negative reviews and start fresh.

Here are those apps - proceed with caution:

• Wishlist PRO, AKA "AIT Wishlist": This app has numerous problems. This app seems to add self-promotion to your site and doesn't entirely remove itself when you uninstall it. In my opinion, this is practically malware. It doesn't help that it has the same name as a better app on the list up above.
• Wishl Favorites: The developer was Golden Rule Ventures, and the app had a 5.0 rating on the Shopify store with 59 Reviews. This plugin was a rather well-rated wishlist app in the field of well-rated wishlist apps. This app used cookies to store wishlists for up to 90 days for guests and accounts for long-term Wishlisting. It let users share wishlists, had a responsive design, and allowed users to add notes to wishlist items. It also handled email reminders with customized templates. Pricing started at $10 per month.
• Ultimate Wishlist: This is now the fourth time that they have deleted their app and re-added it to the store. Similar to Wishlist Pro, I'm a little worried by this behavior. First it was /ultimate-wishlist, then /ultimate-wishlist-1, /ultimate-wishlist-2, and now /ultimate-wishlist-3. I'm sure it will be removed again soon and pop up later.

I'm essentially just listing these apps in case someone tells me I forgot one on the list. So, here they are! They're not on the main list for a reason.

2024 Update and New Options

As we head into 2024, there are a few new options on Shopify, and others that are not-so-new and are re-activated. It's pretty common to see Shopify apps disappear and then re-appear later as they re-gain compliance.

Here are the most notable additions:

• The iWish Wishlist app works wonders for Shopify stores at just $2 per month. You can try it free for 14 days and see for yourself. It brims with useful wishlist features like multiple wishlists, guest access, and full customization. Shop owners love it as it slots in perfectly, is easy to use and has top-notch support. Plus, you can't go wrong with its price and the useful inventory decision data it provides.
• Shopify store customers can create wishlists and wishlist categories with the Webkul Product Wishlist app, and it's available for $7/month along with a 7-day free trial. Its main goal is to help boost store sales. The app's simplicity and options for customization have earned it praise, and those options include email reminders and even things like dreamlist categories. But, some people have brought up a few issues dealing with functionality and integration, so you may want to test the trial before commiting.

We'll keep this list updated as new options appear!

Incidentally, if you have another wishlist app that I haven't covered, feel free to let me know. If it's well-reviewed and widespread enough, I'll add it to the list! Let me know in the comments below.