Ask to Buy create & share cart vs. Folio: Wishlist: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right app for customer engagement and conversion is a common challenge for Shopify merchants. Many single-purpose apps promise quick wins, but their real value depends on how they fit into a store’s customer journey, analytics needs, and long-term retention strategy.

Short answer: Ask to Buy create & share cart is a focused tool for sharing pre-filled carts and simplifying payment handoffs (useful for gift registries, parent approvals, and sales reps). Folio: Wishlist targets wishlist collection and basic analytics for saved items, with tiered pricing for higher volume. For merchants who want to combine sharing, wishlists, loyalty, referrals, and reviews into one platform to reduce technical complexity and improve retention, Growave often offers better value for money than patching together multiple single-purpose apps.

Purpose of this post: Provide an in-depth, feature-by-feature comparison of Ask to Buy create & share cart and Folio: Wishlist to help merchants decide which tool fits their immediate goals — and to explain when an all-in-one retention suite becomes the better strategic choice.

Ask to Buy create & share cart vs. Folio: Wishlist: At a Glance

Feature Comparison

Core Functionality

Ask to Buy create & share cart

Ask to Buy centers on creating shareable carts that land invitees directly in checkout with pre-filled shipping information. It’s purpose-built for workflows where the person placing items in a cart is not the one who completes payment: teens sending carts to parents, sales reps composing orders for customers, or shoppers creating a gift registry to share with friends. Key elements include pre-filled checkout details, the option to customize the ask-to-buy button or use the built-in button, group sharing support, and tracking for cart shares and conversions.

Strengths in this area:

• Streamlines the payment handoff by removing the need for invitees to re-enter shipping data.
• Direct checkout landing reduces friction; the invitee sees a welcome message on the checkout page.
• Notifies inviters when purchases are completed, enabling follow-up.

Limitations:

• Functionality is narrowly focused on share-and-pay scenarios; it’s not designed as a full wishlist, loyalty, or review solution.
• Integrations with broader marketing or customer-data platforms are not prominent in the app listing, limiting automated follow-up unless merchants build custom flows.

Folio: Wishlist

Folio: Wishlist is a classical wishlist app: it lets customers save products they’re interested in, supports shareable wishlists, and provides a dashboard for tracking wishlist activity. The app emphasizes email marketing use cases and analytics for wishlist growth.

Strengths in this area:

• Wishlist-focused features such as unlimited items (premium tier), customizable buttons, guest wishlist, and shareable wishlists.
• Dashboard analytics to understand wishlist engagement and prospect lists.

Limitations:

• The app listing shows zero reviews and zero rating, which makes it difficult to judge real-world performance and reliability.
• Wishlist features are useful for capture and remarketing, but they don’t directly drive payment handoffs in the checkout like Ask to Buy.

Sharing & Checkout Flow

Ask to Buy’s primary design goal is to turn a shared list into a completed purchase as quickly as possible. Invite links direct recipients to checkout with pre-filled data — a design that reduces abandonment at the final step. This capability is particularly useful for gift purchases, B2B sales reps who assemble carts for clients, or family purchasing scenarios.

Folio supports sharing wishlist pages, but those links usually open a wishlist view where visitors can convert items to cart manually. This preserves a longer path to conversion and relies on the invitee to add items to cart and proceed to checkout. That makes Folio better at intent capture and later remarketing, while Ask to Buy is suited for immediate closure of an intention to purchase.

Customization & Branding

Ask to Buy allows merchants to use built-in buttons or customize them to match storefront styles. The focus on customizing the invite experience is valuable for stores that want a seamless look across the storefront and the share flow.

Folio emphasizes customizable wishlist buttons and icon placement, including options to show wishlist icons on collection pages (premium tier). Customization is largely visual and centered on the wishlist UI; it does not extend to deeper checkout or transactional email customization.

Analytics & Reporting

Ask to Buy advertises tracking for cart shares, conversions, and generated revenue. The ability to attribute revenue directly to share actions is important for merchants evaluating whether share-enabled checkout paths are profitable.

Folio provides a dashboard for wishlist analytics, which is useful for understanding saved-product volume and potential remarketing lists. However, with no posted reviews and limited public detail on the depth of reporting, merchants should evaluate whether the dashboard provides the metrics needed for lifecycle marketing segmentation.

Key differences:

• Ask to Buy ties share actions directly to checkout revenue.
• Folio tracks saved items and wishlist behavior that support email and marketing segmentation, but does not inherently close the payment loop for invitees.

Integrations & Ecosystem Compatibility

Both apps list minimal or no public integrations. That’s typical for niche apps focused on one interaction type, but it can create friction when a merchant wants to automate workflows (e.g., send wishlist leads to an email provider or push share-conversion data to analytics).

For merchants that depend on platforms like Klaviyo, Omnisend, or Recharge, integration capabilities should be evaluated directly with the app developers. Where integrations are limited, merchants often resort to manual exports or building custom API connections — both of which increase operational overhead.

Mobile Experience & POS

Ask to Buy’s checkout-focused approach implies a mobile flow optimized for quick payments, but merchants should test cart pre-filling across devices and browsers to confirm consistency. If customers commonly shop on mobile or share carts via messaging apps, verifying the invite flow across mobile platforms is essential.

Folio’s wishlist experience must be mobile-responsive and allow guest wishlist behavior without forcing account creation. The app’s ability to display wishlist icons on collection pages (premium) is beneficial for mobile browsing, but merchants should audit mobile layout and button placement to avoid interference with other storefront elements.

Security & Data Privacy

Any app that interacts with checkout or collects customer data needs to respect privacy and Shopify’s checkout constraints. Ask to Buy pre-fills shipping details for invitees; merchants must ensure that personally identifiable information is handled securely and in compliance with data protection obligations.

Folio’s guest wishlist and sharing features mean wishlist data may be associated with email addresses or anonymous sessions. Merchants should verify how the app stores and exports wishlist data and whether it supports data deletion requests.

Pricing & Value

Pricing affects both short-term spend and long-term return on investment. When evaluating value, merchants should consider not just monthly fees but also the revenue uplift, time saved, and cross-tool complexity.

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Basic plan: $15 / month.
• Positioned as a single-feature tool: pre-filled checkout and share tracking.
• Value argument: For merchants who need share-to-pay functionality, $15/month can be a reasonable investment if the app reliably converts shared carts into purchases and delivers measurable revenue per share.

Potential counterpoint:

• Limited scope means merchants may still need additional apps for wishlist capture, loyalty, or reviews — increasing total monthly costs and integration complexity.

Folio: Wishlist

• Basic: $6.99 / month — includes 1,000 items in wishlist, customization, share wishlist, guest wishlist, and public wishlist count.
• Premium: $12.99 / month — adds unlimited wishlist and collection page icons.
• Value argument: Low entry price makes wishlist functionality accessible, especially for stores with modest wishlist volume or tight budgets that need only basic capture and sharing.

Potential counterpoint:

• Pricing is competitive for wishlist features, but if a merchant needs loyalty, referrals, and reviews alongside wishlists, the total spend on multiple specialized apps can exceed value for money compared to integrated suites.

Comparing Total Cost of Ownership

Single-purpose apps can appear inexpensive individually. However, when multiple single-function tools are combined — wishlist, refer-a-friend, loyalty, reviews, VIP tiers — monthly costs, integration time, and maintenance multiply. Merchants should calculate expected revenue per feature (e.g., incremental sales from wishlist remarketing, conversion lift from shared carts) and compare that to consolidated solutions that bundle retention tools.

Integrations & Extensibility

API Access & Third-Party Workflows

Neither Ask to Buy nor Folio lists robust third-party integrations publicly. Merchants with advanced automation needs should confirm API access, webhook support, and compatibility with common marketing automation platforms.

Email & CRM Sync

Wishlist data and share-conversion events are most valuable when they feed email flows and customer segmentation. Without native integrations, merchants must export data or use middleware to sync with platforms like Klaviyo or Omnisend. This adds operational overhead and delays in actioning leads.

Checkout Limitations

Shopify’s checkout is a sensitive area for third-party extensions. Ask to Buy’s pre-fill and checkout redirection should be tested thoroughly, especially where merchants use Shopify Plus, checkout extensions, or third-party checkout flows like Recharge.

Support & Reliability

Ratings & Reviews

• Ask to Buy: 7 reviews, 4.4 rating. The score indicates decent satisfaction among a small sample.
• Folio: 0 reviews, 0 rating. A lack of reviews signals limited public validation; merchants should proceed cautiously and request a demo or references.

Why reviews matter:

• Reviews provide social proof about stability, support responsiveness, and real-world edge cases. A low review count does not imply poor quality by itself, but it does increase due diligence for merchants planning to rely on the app.

Developer Responsiveness

Both apps are from small developers (AskToBuy and Folio3 Software Inc.). Merchants should evaluate support hours, response times, and demo availability. For mission-critical features (checkout pre-filling, cart sharing), responsive support is essential to resolve edge cases and maintain conversion rates.

Measuring ROI: Metrics to Track

For either app, a disciplined measurement plan will determine whether it should remain in the tech stack.

Key metrics to track for Ask to Buy:

• Shares per week/month
• Share-to-purchase conversion rate
• Average order value of purchases completed via shared carts
• Revenue generated from shared carts
• Time between share and purchase

Key metrics to track for Folio:

• Wishlist adds per visitor
• Wishlist-to-purchase conversion within 7/30/90 days
• Open and click rates on wishlist-driven emails
• Number of guest wishlist users vs. account-linked
• Share virality (how often wishlists are shared and lead to conversion)

A clean attribution model is crucial: Ask to Buy’s strength is immediate attribution of shared-cart conversions; Folio’s ROI often depends on downstream email or ad campaigns.

Use Cases: Which App Fits Which Merchant

• Merchants who need immediate payment handoffs (gift purchases, teen-to-parent checkout, sales-rep assisted sales): Ask to Buy is a strong, focused choice. Its direct checkout landing and pre-filled details shorten the path to purchase and can convert high-intent scenarios quickly.
• Merchants who want to capture shopping intent and build remarketing lists for future purchases: Folio: Wishlist provides wishlist capture and basic analytics, which is useful for lifecycle campaigns that nudge customers back to the store.
• Merchants prioritizing a single consolidated retention strategy (loyalty, reviews, wishlists, referrals): Consider an integrated solution to avoid stacking niche tools and the integration overhead that comes with them.

Pros and Cons Summary

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Pros:
  • Direct checkout pre-filling reduces conversion friction.
  • Built-in notification for inviters when purchases finalize.
  • Tracks share-based conversions and revenue attribution.
• Cons:
  • Narrow focus; not a wishlist or loyalty platform.
  • Limited public integrations; small review base (7 reviews only).

Folio: Wishlist

• Pros:
  • Low-cost entry to wishlist functionality.
  • Customizable wishlist UI and analytics dashboard for saved items.
  • Guest wishlist and sharing features for social discovery.
• Cons:
  • No public reviews to validate performance.
  • Wishlist-to-checkout path remains manual unless integrated with email flows.

The Alternative: Solving App Fatigue with an All-in-One Platform

App fatigue is a real operational problem. Many stores begin by installing a single-purpose app to solve a near-term problem, then add another to address a different need. Over time, the merchant ends up with multiple billing lines, duplicated features, inconsistent customer data, and complex integrations that create fragile workflows. App fatigue increases maintenance time and can dilute the merchant’s ability to act on unified insights.

Growave’s value proposition is summarized by the phrase "More Growth, Less Stack" — a design philosophy that aims to reduce the number of apps required to run common retention programs. Instead of managing separate tools for wishlist capture, loyalty, referrals, and reviews, merchants can use a single platform that centralizes customer activity, automations, and reporting.

Why consolidation matters:

• Unified customer profiles: When wishlist saves, reward points, referral activity, and reviews all live in one system, segmentation and automation become simpler and more powerful.
• Reduced integration overhead: Fewer apps means fewer connection points that can break, fewer API limits, and lower combined monthly costs.
• Consistent UX: A single vendor can provide a cohesive experience across wishlist widgets, loyalty pages, and referral flows.

Growave specifically bundles loyalty, referrals, wishlist, and review capabilities into one platform, making it easier to run combined retention strategies. Merchants can build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases while also administering wishlists and referral incentives from the same account. For merchants prioritizing social proof, Growave helps collect and showcase authentic reviews across the storefront and marketing channels.

For proof that consolidation works in practice, merchants can review customer stories from brands scaling retention to see how combining features increases lifetime value and reduces tool sprawl.

Growave links and resources

• To evaluate costs and plan comparisons, merchants can consolidate retention features and see how a unified monthly fee compares to multiple single-purpose subscriptions.
• To install a single solution without juggling multiple billing and integration points, merchants can install a single retention platform via the Shopify App Store.

Book a personalized demo Book a personalized demo to see how an integrated retention stack improves retention and simplifies operations: Request a demo.

How Growave Replaces Multiple Apps

• Wishlist: Built into the platform so wishlist data is immediately available for loyalty or referral triggers.
• Loyalty & Rewards: Merchants can run point-based programs, custom reward actions, and VIP tiers that work with wishlist and referral events.
• Referrals: Referral campaigns can be linked to reward programs so new customers and advocates both earn meaningful incentives.
• Reviews & UGC: Automate review collection and showcase reviews with the same identity graph that tracks loyalty and wishlist behavior.

Growave makes it possible to create scenarios such as rewarding customers for adding items to a wishlist, issuing points when wishlists convert, or providing VIP benefits to top referrers — all without wiring together multiple apps. Merchants can collect and showcase authentic reviews while those reviews feed into reward and VIP logic to encourage UGC.

Practical Benefits for Merchants

• Faster time to value: Instead of coordinating feature releases across multiple vendors, a single provider implements cross-feature logic in one place.
• Lower administrative cost: Less time reconciling data exports, fewer support tickets across vendors, and a single contract reduce overhead.
• Better analytics: Consolidated dashboards let merchants measure combined effects (e.g., how loyalty increases wishlist conversion rates) rather than evaluating features in isolation.

Examples of integrated outcomes:

• Reward customers with points when they create a wishlist, which can increase future order frequency.
• Send targeted review requests to customers who purchased via shared carts, improving review velocity and authenticity.
• Surface wishlist items in email flows tied to loyalty segmentation, boosting conversion with personalized messaging.

Growave resources for evaluation

• Merchants interested in the bundled approach can compare costs and features on the pricing page to determine whether consolidation delivers better value than assembling multiple apps: consolidate retention features.
• For merchants on Shopify Plus or with enterprise needs, Growave offers tailored solutions and support for advanced use cases; learn more about solutions for high-growth Plus brands.

Feature Integration Examples (using Growave)

• Use a single campaign to give loyalty points for a wishlist add, a successful referral, and a submitted review; track the incremental revenue from customers who engage across multiple touchpoints.
• Automatically send a follow-up email to wishlist owners and include a time-limited discount via the same loyalty engine, ensuring consistent rewards logic and measurement.
• Provide VIP tiers that unlock special checkout experiences or priority shipping for customers who both refer friends and maintain highly active wishlists.

To see how these combined features perform for merchants, review real-world case studies and patterns: customer stories from brands scaling retention. For merchants who want hands-on guidance, consider requesting a demo to observe integrations and roadmap alignment: Request a demo.

Cost Comparison Snapshot

When weighing monthly spend, a merchant might compare:

• Ask to Buy ($15) + a wishlist app (e.g., Folio $6.99–$12.99) + a reviews app + a loyalty app = multiple subscriptions.
• Versus a single Growave plan that includes loyalty, wishlist, referrals, and reviews and reduces the number of monthly subscriptions.

Merchants are encouraged to calculate the total monthly cost of necessary single-function apps and compare that to the consolidated pricing that includes multiple retention tools under one billing arrangement.

Implementation Checklist: Choosing Between a Single-Feature App and an All-in-One

Before installing any app, run through this checklist to determine the right approach:

• Define primary business goal: immediate conversions, wishlist capture, repeat purchase, UGC? The most important goal should guide the choice.
• Map the customer flow: Where does the app intervene? Is it at product browse, wishlist save, share, checkout, or post-purchase?
• Estimate incremental revenue: How much additional revenue is expected from the feature per month?
• Assess integration needs: Will the app need to feed data to email, CRM, or analytics platforms?
• Audit existing stack: Are there overlapping features with current apps? Could a consolidated solution reduce redundancy?
• Check support SLAs and review counts: Apps with limited public reviews require direct validation through a trial or demo.

For merchants who prioritize a single transactional shortcut like share-to-pay, Ask to Buy is an efficient install. For those seeking to improve intent capture through wishlists, Folio’s low-cost entry may be adequate. For merchants who value consolidated data, automation, and fewer vendors, consider an integrated platform that rolls wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews into one solution — merchants can evaluate consolidated options by reviewing the consolidated pricing page.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Ask to Buy create & share cart and Folio: Wishlist, the decision comes down to primary objectives and operational tolerance for multiple tools. Ask to Buy is the stronger choice when the immediate need is share-to-pay workflows and direct checkout conversions. Folio: Wishlist is a practical, low-cost option for stores focused on capturing saved items and building remarketing lists. Neither app alone addresses broader retention programs encompassing loyalty, referrals, and user-generated reviews.

For stores that want to reduce tool sprawl and centralize retention features into a single platform, Growave offers a compelling alternative. By combining wishlist capabilities with loyalty and rewards, referral programs, and review collection, Growave reduces integration work and concentrates customer activity into a single data model. Merchants can compare bundled costs and expected ROI by reviewing how to consolidate retention features. Install a single solution directly from the Shopify App Store to simplify onboarding and billing: install a single retention platform.

Start a 14-day free trial to evaluate whether a unified retention suite improves customer lifetime value and reduces operational complexity: Start a free trial.

FAQ

Q: Which app is better for immediate checkout conversion? A: Ask to Buy create & share cart is built for immediate conversion by sending invitees directly to a pre-filled checkout. Folio captures intent via wishlists and supports remarketing, which may convert later but not necessarily immediately.

Q: Which app is better for building email lists and remarketing audiences? A: Folio: Wishlist focuses on wishlist captures and provides dashboard analytics that support email segmentation and remarketing. However, without robust integrations, merchants should ensure they can export or sync wishlist leads to their email provider.

Q: How does an all-in-one platform compare to specialized apps? A: An all-in-one platform consolidates wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews into one system. This reduces monthly costs, simplifies integrations, and enables cross-feature automations. For merchants who need multiple retention features, a consolidated approach can provide better value for money and simpler operations than stitching together several specialized apps.

Q: If a merchant only needs wishlist features, is a single-purpose wishlist app still appropriate? A: Yes. For merchants with narrow needs and tight budgets, a standalone wishlist app like Folio can be sufficient. The trade-off is the potential need for additional apps later if the merchant decides to add loyalty or referral programs; this should be weighed against the benefits of an integrated platform.