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

Introduction

Choosing the right app for wishlist and cart-sharing functionality is a frequent challenge for Shopify merchants. Single-purpose tools can be straightforward, but they can also create long app lists, duplicated features, and fragmented customer data. This comparison looks at two focused apps—Ask to Buy create & share cart and Top Advanced Wishlist App—so merchants can decide which is a better fit for specific goals.

Short answer: Ask to Buy create & share cart is an efficient, targeted tool for merchants who need cart-sharing and assisted-purchase flows (for families, sales reps, or gifting). Top Advanced Wishlist App is suitable for stores that want a lightweight, inexpensive wishlist with guest sharing and API access. For merchants aiming to reduce tool sprawl and build retention across loyalty, referrals, and reviews, an integrated platform like Growave often represents better value for money.

This post provides a feature-by-feature, outcome-focused comparison of Ask to Buy create & share cart and Top Advanced Wishlist App. The goal is to help merchants understand where each app excels and where it falls short, and to highlight a viable alternative for teams that prefer fewer, more integrated tools.

Ask to Buy create & share cart vs. Top Advanced Wishlist App: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

This section compares the two apps across the practical criteria merchants care about: features, pricing and value, integrations and extensibility, support and reliability, metrics and analytics, privacy and compliance, implementation effort, and recommended use cases.

Core Features

Ask to Buy create & share cart — What it does well

Ask to Buy's core proposition is enabling shoppers or sales reps to assemble and share a cart that lands invitees directly in checkout with pre-filled shipping details. That solves concrete friction in scenarios like:

• Teen shoppers sending a completed cart to a parent who will make the payment.
• Gift registries where a shopper pre-selects items and shares the checkout link.
• Store sales teams creating curated carts for clients and sending direct checkout invites.

Notable feature set:

• Pre-fill checkout details so invitees only pay.
• Invitees land in checkout with a custom welcome.
• Built-in AskToBuy buttons or ability to custom-style call-to-action elements.
• Tracking of cart shares, conversions, and revenue generated from shares.
• Group share support so multiple invitees can be included.

These features are focused on moving a prepared cart to payment quickly, reducing friction in assisted or shared purchasing.

Top Advanced Wishlist App — What it does well

Top Advanced Wishlist App focuses on wishlist capture and sharing. Its lightweight approach tries to minimize setup and reduce barriers to use:

• One-click wishlist creation for customers, with guest wishlist option (no account required).
• Sharing via email, text, and social networks.
• REST API for custom integrations or headless storefront usage.
• Code-free installation and claims of responsive support.

The emphasis is on capturing product interest, making it easy for customers to save items and share them with friends. This can help increase return visits and nudge conversions from wishlists.

Features Compared: Specifics and Limitations

• Wishlist vs. Cart share
  • Ask to Buy centers on shared carts and assisted checkout; it is not a traditional wishlist with saved lists for long-term intent capture.
  • Top Advanced Wishlist App centers on saving favorites and sharing them; it lacks assisted cart-to-checkout shortcuts inherent in Ask to Buy.
• Guest experience
  • Ask to Buy's strength is letting invitees reach checkout with pre-filled info — low friction to purchase.
  • Top Advanced Wishlist App allows guest wishlists, lowering the barrier for saving items, which is good for casual browsers.
• Share channels
  • Both apps support sharing via link/email. Top Advanced explicitly advertises social sharing capability for wishlists.
  • Ask to Buy supports group sharing and notifications to inviters when purchases finalize, which is valuable for sales processes and gifting transparency.
• Customization
  • Ask to Buy offers custom button options and a custom welcome experience at checkout.
  • Top Advanced offers REST API, useful for shops that want more control, but built-in UI customization details are less prominent.
• Tracking & analytics
  • Ask to Buy mentions tracking cart shares, conversions, and generated revenue — this aligns with merchants focused on direct attribution.
  • Top Advanced’s analytics are less descriptive in the listing; relying on a REST API suggests analytics may require custom work.

Pricing & Value

Pricing should be assessed in relation to outcomes: conversion uplift, saved operational time, and the cost of tool sprawl.

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Listed plan: Basic at $15 / month.
• Value proposition: Straightforward fixed monthly fee for cart-sharing and conversion tracking.
• Good value for merchants that regularly need assisted payment flows and who can attribute revenue to shared carts.

Top Advanced Wishlist App

• Listed plan: BASIC at $0.99 / month (no limit on items/customers, guest wishlist, REST API, up to 10,000 wishlist items/month).
• Value proposition: Extremely low entry cost, making it attractive to new or cash-constrained stores that need basic wishlist functionality.
• Good value for stores prioritizing cost and basic wishlist capture without additional retention features.

Pricing assessment

• For a merchant with a narrow need (e.g., cart sharing for sales reps or gift purchases), Ask to Buy’s $15/month can be reasonable, especially if shared carts reliably convert and the merchant can track attributed revenue.
• For stores that only need wishlist capture and sharing and are highly price-sensitive, Top Advanced’s $0.99/month plan is very low-cost and low-risk.
• Neither app addresses broader retention features like loyalty, referral rewards, VIP tiers, or review collection. For merchants who seek to grow lifetime value beyond isolated features, managing multiple single-purpose apps can become more expensive and operationally complex.

Integrations & Extensibility

Integration capabilities dictate whether an app will fit inside existing workflows.

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Works with checkout-level flows (pre-filling checkout).
• Tracks shares and conversions, suggesting some data capture and reporting.
• Limited public information on e-commerce platform integrations beyond checkout; likely best suited for stores that operate within standard Shopify checkout flows.

Top Advanced Wishlist App

• Offers REST API, which is useful for headless storefronts or custom integrations with marketing stacks (e.g., pulling wishlist data into email automation).
• Advertises compatibility with checkout.
• The REST API increases flexibility, but requires development resources to unlock advanced use cases.

Integration assessment

• For merchants seeking simple, out-of-the-box behavior with minimal development, Ask to Buy’s checkout-focused approach may be easier to implement.
• For merchants with development resources or headless setups, Top Advanced’s REST API provides future-proofing and custom integration potential.
• Neither app lists broad native integrations with CRM, ESPs, helpdesk, or loyalty systems — integration will likely need to be custom or rely on Shopify data flows.

Support, Reviews & Reliability

User reviews and available support channels indicate maturity and user satisfaction.

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Reviews: 7
• Rating: 4.4
• Interpretation: The app has a handful of reviews indicating some merchant experience; 4.4 is solid but the small review count limits statistical confidence. Merchants should evaluate support responsiveness and test flows on a staging site before wide deployment.

Top Advanced Wishlist App

• Reviews: 1
• Rating: 5.0
• Interpretation: A single review at 5.0 is too thin to generalize. While promising, it does not substitute for broader evidence of reliability or long-term support.

Support considerations

• Documentation clarity, response time, and support channels (email, chat, phone) are core. Both listings mention support but do not provide detailed SLAs or examples of case resolution.
• Merchants should run quick pilot tests, ask targeted questions to support about edge cases (e.g., multi-currency, international checkout flows, GDPR compliance), and validate how updates are handled.

Data, Reporting & Attribution

For growth-focused merchants, knowing which interactions lead to purchases matters.

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Explicitly mentions tracking cart shares, conversions, and revenue generated by shares. That direct attribution is useful for assessing ROI from shared-cart campaigns or sales rep efforts.

Top Advanced Wishlist App

• Does not advertise built-in conversion attribution in the listing. The REST API could enable custom attribution if a merchant or developer maps wishlist events to analytics platforms.

Assessment

• If attribution of shared activity to revenue is a priority, Ask to Buy has an advantage because tracking is built into the product messaging.
• For wishlist-driven retargeting and campaigns, Top Advanced can be suitable but will likely require development effort to feed events into marketing tools.

Security, Compliance & Checkout Implications

Checkout interaction introduces additional liability and complexity.

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Pre-filling checkout details requires careful handling of PII and must respect Shopify checkout security patterns.
• Merchants should confirm how the app stores or transmits personal data, and whether it adheres to Shopify’s checkout app requirements and any regional privacy laws.

Top Advanced Wishlist App

• Guest wishlist removes the need for customer accounts, which reduces some PII complexity. The REST API, depending on implementation, could require secure tokens and proper handling of user identifiers.

Assessment

• Both apps touch sensitive customer flows. Merchants should request privacy documentation and ensure apps are reviewed against policies like GDPR, CCPA, and Shopify’s terms.

Implementation & Merchant Experience

Ease of installation and ongoing management matters for small teams.

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Installation likely involves adding buttons and ensuring checkout pre-fill functions with the store’s theme. Slight theme or checkout customizations may be required.
• Ongoing: Merchants should monitor share metrics and ensure the welcome messaging at checkout aligns with branding.

Top Advanced Wishlist App

• Advertises code-free installation and a REST API for advanced users. The low monthly price suggests a simple onboarding flow for basic use.
• Ongoing: Less admin overhead if the wishlist suits the store, though custom reporting likely requires additional work.

Implementation assessment

• Stores without development resources will favor apps with simple, well-documented installs. Test the UI/UX for both mobile and desktop, as wishlist and sharing patterns differ by device.

Use Cases and Merchant Recommendations

This section helps merchants match each app to their business situation.

Ask to Buy create & share cart — Best for:

• Stores with recurring use cases for assisted buying (e.g., sales reps, B2B orders finalized by other parties, family gifting).
• Merchants needing direct attribution for shared carts and conversion revenue tracking.
• Brands that need invite workflows that land customers directly in checkout with pre-filled details.

Why choose it:

• Designed to remove friction when one person prepares an order and another pays.
• Converts social or assisted intent into checkout completions quickly.

Top Advanced Wishlist App — Best for:

• Small stores or experimental shops that need a basic wishlist at very low cost.
• Merchants that want guest wishlists and simple social sharing without building a full retention stack.
• Shops with development resources that plan to use the REST API for custom integrations into marketing or analytics.

Why choose it:

• Extremely low monthly cost keeps operational expense minimal.
• Guest wishlist removes friction for users not willing to create accounts.

When not to choose either:

• Merchants focused on broad retention strategies (loyalty programs, referral rewards, review management, VIP tiers) will find both apps narrow in scope. Scaling retention across channels typically requires multiple apps, increasing costs and data fragmentation.

Pros & Cons Summary

Ask to Buy create & share cart — Pros

• Smooth assisted checkout flow with pre-filled details.
• Built-in tracking of shares and conversions.
• Useful for sales rep workflows and gift registries.

Ask to Buy create & share cart — Cons

• Narrow focus; no wishlist, loyalty, referral, or review features.
• Limited public review volume; merchants should test before full rollout.
• Potential complexity around PII and checkout integration.

Top Advanced Wishlist App — Pros

• Very low monthly price; minimal financial commitment.
• Guest wishlist and social sharing reduce friction for users.
• REST API allows custom integrations and headless support.

Top Advanced Wishlist App — Cons

• Extremely small review base; limited evidence of long-term reliability.
• Lacks built-in attribution and broader retention tools.
• May require developer resources to use API effectively.

Which App Is Best For Which Merchant?

Ask to Buy create & share cart is best if:

• The store regularly needs shared-cart workflows (assisted purchases, sales rep checkouts).
• Quick conversions from curated carts are a measurable part of the business.
• The merchant wants built-in tracking for revenue generated by shared carts.

Top Advanced Wishlist App is best if:

• Budget is a primary concern and the merchant only needs wishlist functionality.
• The store wants a guest wishlist with social sharing and plans to integrate wishlist events into its own analytics.
• Development resources are available to leverage the REST API for custom flows.

Neither app is ideal if:

• The merchant wants to centralize retention (loyalty, reviews, referrals, wishlists) in a single tool to maximize lifetime value and reduce app management overhead.

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

The accumulation of single-purpose apps creates "app fatigue": too many logins, fragmented customer data, duplicated features, inconsistent UX, and increasing monthly bills. Many merchants reach a point where the operational cost of maintaining a long app list outweighs the immediate benefit of add-on functionality.

The "More Growth, Less Stack" approach aims to reduce tool sprawl by consolidating retention features—loyalty, referrals, reviews, wishlist, and VIP programs—into one integrated platform. That reduces the technical and administrative burden while improving customer lifetime value through consistent, connected experiences.

Growave positions itself as such an integrated solution. It combines loyalty, referrals, wishlists, and reviews into a single suite, which helps merchants centralize retention efforts and reduce the risks of multiple disconnected vendors.

• For loyalty-driven retention, merchants can build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and tailor point-earning actions to operational needs.
• To build social proof and use customer content across channels, merchants can collect and showcase authentic reviews.
• To validate real-world merchant outcomes, shops can explore customer stories from brands scaling retention.

How consolidation improves outcomes

• Unified customer profiles: Rewards, wishlist activity, and referral behavior live in one place, enabling more precise targeting and segmentation.
• Reduced duplication: A single subscription covers multiple retention levers instead of paying separately for wishlist, loyalty, and review apps.
• Faster time to value: Pre-built integrations with ESPs, help desks, and store builders mean fewer custom projects and quicker rollouts.

Why the integration matters for wishlist and cart experience

• A wishlist that ties to a loyalty program can offer members bonus points for saving or purchasing wishlisted items, which increases lifetime value.
• Reviews and UGC that are linked to loyalty and referral programs encourage social sharing and acquisition at lower cost.
• Combining wishlist data with referral mechanics provides clearer pathways for turning saved intent into referred purchases.

Growave's practical strengths relative to the two apps compared

• Wishlist plus retention: Unlike single-purpose wishlist apps, Growave provides wishlist features alongside loyalty and referrals, making it possible to reward saved-item actions and create lifecycle campaigns around wishlist behavior.
• Reviews & UGC: Built-in review collection reduces the need for a separate review tool and helps convert social proof into repeat purchases.
• Enterprise capabilities: For high-growth stores, Growave offers features and integrations tailored for larger merchants and Shopify Plus stores.

For merchants considering consolidation, compare specific benefits:

• Operational savings from canceling multiple micro-subscriptions.
• Stronger cross-channel automation when wishlist, loyalty, and review data flow into email and SMS workflows.
• Single vendor relationship for support and roadmap coordination.

Install and trial considerations

• Merchants who prefer an app-based approach can install Growave from the Shopify App Store to evaluate wishlist and retention features within their store environment.
• For procurement or budget review, merchants can view options to consolidate retention features and compare pricing tiers based on order volume and support needs.

Book a personalized demo to see how an integrated retention stack improves retention. (Book a personalized demo)

How Growave Addresses Common Gaps Left by Single-Purpose Apps

• Attribution and analytics: Growave aggregates metrics across loyalty, wishlist, referrals, and reviews so merchants can see how each program contributes to repeat purchases and LTV.
• Integrations: Built-in connectors with ESPs such as Klaviyo and Omnisend, helpdesk tools like Gorgias, and subscription platforms like Recharge reduce the friction of connecting data.
• Multi-channel campaigns: With UGC and wishlist triggers, merchants can create campaigns that re-engage customers via email, SMS, and on-site notifications.
• Support for scale: For Shopify Plus merchants, Growave provides advanced features and service levels tailored to enterprise needs; merchants can evaluate solutions for scale by reviewing Growave’s solutions for high-growth Plus brands.

Practical Examples of Consolidation Benefits (Actionable)

• Convert wishlist intent into purchases: Automatically send loyalty-point offers to customers who saved items for a week but haven’t purchased.
• Boost repeat purchases: Use reward tiers and exclusive offers for VIPs identified by wishlist and purchase behavior.
• Amplify social proof: Offer points or referral bonuses when customers submit reviews or photos, increasing content volume for product pages.

Pricing & Trial Options

Growave’s pricing plans are structured to support growth while consolidating multiple retention features:

• Free plan and trial options can reduce friction for evaluation.
• Entry and Growth tiers increase capacity and integration maturity.
• For merchants comparing monthly spend across multiple single-purpose apps, reviewing Growave pricing helps quantify the total cost of ownership and identify potential savings.

Merchants can view detailed plans to evaluate whether consolidating tools reduces total monthly spend and simplifies operations by visiting the pricing and plan overview. (consolidate retention features)

Integrations & Technical Fit

Growave emphasizes interoperability with common store and marketing tools:

• Native or supported connections with email platforms, customer service tools, and subscription services reduces integration lift.
• The platform supports checkout extensions and headless setups with API and SDK options on higher tiers, which helps merchants who require advanced customization.

Merchants can confirm technical fit and integration capabilities by installing the app via the marketplace. (install from the Shopify App Store)

When consolidation may not be right

• Extremely niche needs: If a merchant’s requirement is narrowly defined (e.g., a very specific assisted-cart workflow used once a month), a single-purpose app like Ask to Buy could still make sense.
• Budget constraints during experimentation: A $0.99/month wishlist can be a reasonable way to test product-market fit before investing in broader retention.
• Heavy customization with existing in-house systems: If a merchant already has a heavy in-house solution and needs only a tiny wishlist feature, a focused app might be sufficient.

Even when a single-purpose app makes sense, it is useful to plan a roadmap for when consolidation is needed so the merchant is ready to unify retention later without loss of data.

Implementation Checklist: Choosing and Deploying the Right Option

Below is a practical checklist for merchants evaluating these options. Use this to ensure the chosen approach fits business objectives and resource constraints.

• Define the primary outcome desired (increase conversions from group gifts, capture wishlist intent, grow LTV).
• Map the flow: How will customers interact with the feature on mobile and desktop?
• Confirm the required integrations (ESP, helpdesk, subscription billing).
• Validate data export and attribution capabilities.
• Run a short pilot: install on a staging environment, complete end-to-end tests, and monitor conversion impact.
• Evaluate total cost of ownership: monthly fees, development time, and potential cancellation costs.
• Plan for consolidation: if using single-purpose apps, create a timeline for re-evaluation to limit long-term tool sprawl.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Ask to Buy create & share cart and Top Advanced Wishlist App, the decision comes down to the specific business need. Ask to Buy is better for merchants who need friction-free, assisted checkout flows and straightforward attribution of shared-cart revenue. Top Advanced Wishlist App is better for price-sensitive merchants who need a minimalist wishlist with guest sharing and a REST API for customization.

For merchants looking to reduce tool sprawl and build sustainable retention across channels, an integrated platform that combines loyalty, wishlist, referrals, and reviews often delivers better long-term value. Growave’s approach aims to consolidate retention tools so merchants can focus on increasing customer lifetime value instead of managing an expanding app stack. Merchants can explore how consolidation affects costs and capabilities by reviewing plan options and comparing features. (consolidate retention features)

Merchants who want hands-on guidance can also view the app in the store and start an installation to test features directly. (install from the Shopify App Store)

Start a 14-day free trial to see how a unified retention stack accelerates growth. (Start a 14-day free trial)

FAQ

Q: How do Ask to Buy create & share cart and Top Advanced Wishlist App differ in tracking conversions?

• Ask to Buy explicitly mentions tracking cart shares, conversions, and revenue generated by shares, which helps with direct attribution of assisted purchases. Top Advanced Wishlist App focuses on wishlist capture and sharing; conversion tracking is not emphasized and usually requires API-based integration to feed wishlist events into analytics.

Q: Which app is more reliable based on reviews?

• Ask to Buy has 7 reviews at a 4.4 rating, offering slightly more evidence of merchant use than Top Advanced Wishlist App, which has one review at 5.0. Both sample sizes are small; merchants should run pilots and evaluate support responsiveness.

Q: Can either app replace a loyalty or review program?

• No. Both Ask to Buy and Top Advanced are single-purpose tools (cart sharing and wishlist respectively). Merchants seeking loyalty, referrals, and review management should consider an integrated platform that combines these features to reduce operational complexity and improve lifetime value.

Q: How does an all-in-one platform compare to specialized apps?

• An all-in-one platform consolidates retention features into one place, reducing monthly subscriptions, centralizing customer data, and enabling cross-program automation. This often leads to faster implementation of integrated campaigns and clearer attribution for retention initiatives. For merchants aiming to scale retention holistically, consolidation is usually better value for money than a stack of single-purpose apps. For exploratory or extremely narrow use cases, a specialized app may still be appropriate.