Ask to Buy vs. Ultimate Wishlist: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right app for wishlist, cart sharing, or gifting workflows is a frequent pain point for Shopify merchants. App stores are full of focused tools that solve one problem well but can create complexity when combined. This article compares two single-purpose apps—Ask to Buy create & share cart and Ultimate Wishlist—so merchants can decide which is the better fit for a particular need, and whether an integrated retention platform is a smarter long-term bet.

Short answer: Ask to Buy create & share cart is an efficient, focused solution for stores that need a simple way for customers or sales reps to pre-build and share carts that land directly in checkout, while Ultimate Wishlist is a more mature wishlist product with deep customization, shareability, and tiered pricing that scales with usage. For merchants who want to reduce tool sprawl and capture more lifetime value, a combined platform that includes wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews can offer better value for money than stacking multiple single-purpose apps.

The purpose of this comparison is to provide an in-depth, feature-by-feature look at Ask to Buy create & share cart and Ultimate Wishlist—covering functionality, pricing, integrations, analytics, UX, and likely use cases—so merchants can make a practical decision based on outcomes (retain customers, increase LTV, and drive sustainable growth).

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

Deep Dive Comparison

What each app does best

Ask to Buy create & share cart — Core strengths

Ask to Buy is built around the single idea of letting someone assemble a cart and forward it to another person who can complete the checkout. Its core strengths are:

• Pre-fill checkout details so the invitee only completes payment.
• Direct landing into checkout with a custom welcome messaging experience.
• Easy cart sharing via link or email and buttons that can be added to product pages or elsewhere.
• Simple tracking of cart shares, conversions, and revenue generated from shares.
• Group share support (useful for gifting or collaborative purchases).
• A straightforward pricing model: one basic plan at $15/month.

Those features make Ask to Buy a strong choice when the main objective is to remove friction for shoppers who need someone else to finalize payment (parents, gift recipients, B2B sales reps).

Ultimate Wishlist — Core strengths

Ultimate Wishlist is a more fully featured wishlist manager with mature wishlist UX and analytics. Standout capabilities include:

• Guest wishlist + persistent wishlist for logged-in customers across devices.
• Extensive customization (text, color, appearance) and non-English support.
• Social sharing (Facebook, Twitter) and email sharing built-in.
• Email reminders, with higher-tier plans offering more reminder volume and per-customer reminder options.
• A powerful dashboard for wishlist adds, page views, and add-to-cart metrics.
• A freemium model that lets stores start for free and scale by demand.

This makes Ultimate Wishlist attractive for brands that want to use wishlist behavior as a signal for merchandising, promotions, and re-engagement campaigns.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Wishlist vs. Cart Sharing

Ask to Buy

• Focused on cart creation and sharing, not on saved wishlists or long-term lists.
• Best where a completed checkout needs to be triggered by another party.
• Tracks conversion on shared carts.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Built specifically for wishlists: save-for-later, gifting, and intent signals.
• Stores can surface wishlist data in analytics and marketing automation.
• Supports guest lists and account-linked lists, increasing cross-device continuity.

Business implication:

• Choose Ask to Buy to reduce friction around who pays. Choose Ultimate Wishlist to capture purchase intent and feed product promotion and email strategies.

Sharing, Social, and Virality

Ask to Buy

• Share via email or link; designed for directed sharing (parent, friend, sales rep).
• Group share supported; sharing is transactional rather than social.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Built-in sharing via social platforms and email; easily shareable lists encourage viral discovery.
• Better for social-driven wishlist campaigns around holidays or gifting.

Business implication:

• For social growth and broad shareability, Ultimate Wishlist has the advantage; for transactional, one-to-one share flows, Ask to Buy is optimized.

Checkout Experience and Conversion Flow

Ask to Buy

• Invitee lands directly in checkout with pre-filled shipping details.
• Custom welcome messages can reduce abandonment for invitees unfamiliar with store.
• Suited to cases where the inviter has shipping details and the invitee provides payment.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Wishlists translate to add-to-cart; the flow is customer-driven rather than inviter-driven.
• Integration with analytics allows retargeting wishlist owners with reminders and offers.

Business implication:

• Ask to Buy shortens the path from intent to purchase for invitee-led payments; Ultimate Wishlist lengthens the time-to-purchase but captures intent data useful for follow-up.

Personalization & Customization

Ask to Buy

• Customizable AskToBuy button and checkout welcome experience.
• Limited scope of personalization tied to the share/checkout flow.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Extensive UI text and color customization, non-English support.
• Email template customization, including reminder templates on paid plans.

Business implication:

• Ultimate Wishlist is built for brand alignment and localized stores; Ask to Buy focuses on functional customization for checkout experience.

Analytics & Reporting

Ask to Buy

• Tracks cart shares, conversions, and revenue generated by shares.
• Useful for understanding direct revenue from shared carts.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Dashboard tracks wishlist adds, page views, and conversion events tied to wishlist behavior.
• These metrics are actionable for merchandising and targeted campaigns.

Business implication:

• Ultimate Wishlist offers richer signals for merchandising and lifetime value optimization. Ask to Buy provides straightforward attribution for share-driven purchases.

Email Reminders & CRM Triggers

Ask to Buy

• Notification to inviter on finalized purchases.
• Not primarily an email marketing tool.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Sends email reminders on paid plans, with limits per plan.
• Can send reminders at scale and per user on higher tiers.

Business implication:

• Ultimate Wishlist complements automated re-engagement flows; Ask to Buy is centered on the single transaction triggered by an invite.

Multi-device Support & Persistence

Ask to Buy

• Inviter creates cart; invitee lands in checkout. Persistence is transactional rather than account-based.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Guest lists available, plus account-linked wishlists that persist across devices when users log in.
• Better for capturing return traffic and long-term intent.

Business implication:

• For multi-device continuity and tracking long-term product interest, Ultimate Wishlist is stronger.

Pricing and value-for-money

Ask to Buy create & share cart pricing

• Basic plan: $15 / month.

This single-tier pricing simplifies decision-making but also implies limited scaling options. For small merchants who only need a single cart-sharing function, $15 per month is a predictable cost. However, if the store requires wishlists, analytics, email reminders, or loyalty, additional apps will be necessary, increasing overall monthly spend and maintenance.

Ultimate Wishlist pricing

• Free plan: Free (up to 500 wishlists/month; guest wishlist; share wishlist; basic customization; full reports).
• Basic: $4.99 / month (up to 1,000 items/month; custom email templates; up to 500 email reminders/month).
• Pro: $9.99 / month (up to 5,000 items/month; send email reminder to individual user; up to 2,000 reminders/month).
• Premium: $14.99 / month (up to 10,000 items/month; up to 5,000 reminders/month; Facebook Pixel integration).

Ultimate Wishlist offers a clear scale path from free to paid tiers. For stores with modest wishlist traffic, the free tier can be a low-risk way to test wishlist-driven strategies. Paid tiers unlock email reminders and pixel integrations that are useful for marketing automation.

Value-for-money considerations

• Ultimate Wishlist provides better entry economics: a free tier plus low-cost paid options lets merchants test and expand gradually. The app's rating (4.9 from 34 reviews) indicates strong user satisfaction and perceived value.
• Ask to Buy’s single $15 tier is simple and may be a good fit when the only required capability is cart sharing. But for merchants that want more retained value (wishlists, reminders, reviews, loyalty), the incremental cost of additional apps should be considered—this increases total cost of ownership compared to a multi-feature platform.

Integrations and ecosystem fit

Ask to Buy

• Primary interaction model centers on checkout and generated share links. It’s focused, so integration needs are limited to checkout and notification workflows.
• The app category is wishlist, but its functionality overlaps with checkout and sales workflows more than traditional wishlists.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Offers integrations like Facebook Pixel on higher tiers for tracking and retargeting wishlist behavior.
• Works well as a source of intent data for marketing automation platforms and ad platforms.

Business implication:

• If the store relies heavily on marketing stacks (Klaviyo, Omnisend, Facebook Ads), Ultimate Wishlist’s pixel and email capabilities may yield better ROI.
• Ask to Buy is less about long-term integrations and more about transactional coherence between inviter and invitee.

User support, reliability, and reviews

Ask to Buy

• Shopify listing: 7 reviews, rating 4.4.
• Lower review count suggests a smaller user base. Rating is decent but fewer reviews make it harder to generalize reliability and support responsiveness.
• Support expectations: likely smaller team; merchants should evaluate response times and compatibility with their theme or custom checkout flows.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Shopify listing: 34 reviews, rating 4.9.
• Higher review count and near-perfect rating indicate strong customer satisfaction and maturity.
• The freemium model and multiple pricing tiers typically reflect active maintenance and responsiveness.

Business implication:

• Higher ratings and more reviews point to greater confidence in Ultimate Wishlist for mission-critical wishlist functions. Ask to Buy may be functionally solid but has a smaller footprint.

Installation, setup, and maintenance

Ask to Buy

• Setup focuses on placing the AskToBuy button and configuring share behaviors.
• Expect theme edits or simple script insertion depending on store’s theme.
• Maintenance is light if the store only needs the share button.

Ultimate Wishlist

• Setup includes widget placement on product and collection pages, and configuration of email templates and sharing options.
• More configuration options mean slightly more setup time but also greater control.

Business implication:

• Ask to Buy is quicker to install for a single-purpose need. Ultimate Wishlist requires more initial configuration but returns greater capability.

Security, privacy, and data ownership

Both apps operate within Shopify stores, so core transaction data remains on the merchant’s store. Merchants should review each app’s privacy policy and data handling practices, particularly around:

• Storage of user emails for reminders (Ultimate Wishlist).
• Pre-filling of shipping data and how inviter-entered details are stored/transmitted (Ask to Buy).

Business implication:

• Merchants operating in regulated markets should confirm data retention and deletion policies before enabling either app.

Use cases: Which app is right for which merchant?

Ask to Buy is a solid fit when:

• The store frequently needs another person to pay for an order (young shoppers, parents, gift purchases).
• Sales reps build carts for customers and send them a link to complete checkout.
• The priority is lowering friction for a single transactional flow.

Ultimate Wishlist is a solid fit when:

• The business wants to collect product interest signals and turn them into marketing campaigns.
• Social sharing of wishlists is a part of gifting or seasonal campaigns.
• The merchant wants a low-cost entry point with the ability to scale email reminders and pixel tracking.

Business nuance:

• For merchants on a tight budget who only need a share-to-checkout workflow, Ask to Buy provides a predictable single monthly fee. For brands seeking cross-device persistence, analytics, and marketing hooks, Ultimate Wishlist delivers better value for money.

Pros and cons

Ask to Buy — Pros

• Simple, purpose-built flow for cart sharing and invite-to-pay.
• Pre-filled checkout reduces friction for invitees.
• Tracks revenue generated from shares.
• Predictable single tier pricing.

Ask to Buy — Cons

• Limited to cart share flows; not a substitute for wishlists, email reminders, or intent analytics.
• Small review base (7 reviews) means less public proof for large-scale shops.
• May require additional apps to cover wishlist, reviews, or loyalty needs.

Ultimate Wishlist — Pros

• Mature wishlist features and strong customization.
• Freemium option reduces upfront risk.
• Robust analytics and email reminders on paid plans.
• High user rating (4.9) and more reviews (34) suggest solid support and reliability.

Ultimate Wishlist — Cons

• Wishlist-focused; does not offer cart-to-checkout invite flow that Ask to Buy provides.
• Email reminder quotas on each tier may be limiting for very high-volume stores.

Implementation Considerations

Theme compatibility and custom checkout flows

Both apps will require testing across theme customizations and any checkout customizations (Shopify Plus checkout.liquid folks should test thoroughly). Ask to Buy’s pre-fill functionality needs verification that shipping and checkout flows accept pre-populated values without conflict.

Multi-language stores

Ultimate Wishlist explicitly lists non-English support. For stores with multiple locales, Ultimate Wishlist is likely to require less work to localize. Ask to Buy’s localization capabilities should be confirmed during trial.

Resource costs and long-term maintenance

Adding single-purpose apps increases maintenance tasks: updates, conflict resolution, and subscription management. A merchant should estimate staff time for app management as part of cost comparisons.

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

The problem: app fatigue and rising Total Cost of Ownership

As stores grow, adding single-purpose apps for wishlist, reviews, referrals, or loyalty creates an accumulation of subscriptions and integration points that complicate maintenance, degrade site speed, and fragment customer data. This “app fatigue” undermines the objective outcomes merchants care about—retaining customers, increasing lifetime value (LTV), and driving sustainable growth.

Pitfalls of single-purpose stacks:

• Fragmented customer data across multiple dashboards.
• Repeated UI/UX inconsistencies for customers (different widgets and copy).
• More third-party scripts affecting site performance.
• Higher combined subscription costs and overlapping features.

The value proposition: More Growth, Less Stack

An integrated retention platform consolidates wishlist, loyalty, reviews, referrals, and VIP tiers into one system. That approach reduces tool sprawl and better aligns tooling around retention and LTV outcomes.

Growave’s positioning emphasizes consolidation and retention. Merchants can evaluate the platform to see if combining wishlist with loyalty, referrals, and reviews reduces overhead and increases measurable outcomes.

• To understand pricing and how consolidation changes TCO, merchants can choose to consolidate retention features.
• For merchants running on Shopify Plus or scaling rapidly, there are specialized solutions for high-growth Plus brands.

Growave: what it brings to the table

Growave combines key retention tools under a single roof: Loyalty & Rewards, Referrals, Reviews & UGC, Wishlist, and VIP Tiers. The platform is designed to drive repeat purchases and increase customer lifetime value through coordinated programs.

Key benefits of a unified approach:

• Single point of configuration for loyalty and wishlist rules, avoiding duplicated logic.
• Unified customer profiles that combine wishlist activity, referral behavior, and review history for more intelligent segmentation.
• Reduced theme and performance overhead versus several independent apps.
• Integrated analytics that make the impact of retention tactics clearer.

Merchants interested in the loyalty component can review how to build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases. For stores focused on social proof and user-generated content, Growave supports tools to collect and showcase authentic reviews. Those who want to see how other brands use an integrated approach can browse customer stories from brands scaling retention.

How Growave compares to the two single-purpose apps

• Function consolidation: Growave’s wishlist covers the features provided by Ultimate Wishlist while integrating wishlist data directly into loyalty and email triggers.
• Cart sharing vs. shared carts: While Ask to Buy focuses on invite-to-pay flows, a unified platform can approximate similar flows by using wishlist-based gifting, gift cards, and referral incentives tied to shared lists. The trade-off is between a highly optimized single interaction (Ask to Buy) and an ecosystem that converts intent into repeat customers.
• Analytics and customer journey: Growave aggregates signals—wishlist adds, review submissions, referral conversions—into one view, making it easier to measure LTV impact.
• Cost: Although Growave’s plans start higher than a single app, the consolidated value means fewer separate subscriptions. For merchants running multiple apps (wishlist + loyalty + reviews + referrals), Growave often provides better value for money.

Pricing and trial options

Growave offers multiple plans to match merchant scale, including a free plan and paid tiers. Merchants evaluating consolidation should compare per-feature costs and staff time saved.

• Entry Plan – $49/month (Loyalty & Rewards, Reviews & UGC, Referrals, Wishlist, support).
• Growth Plan – $199/month (advanced customization and integrations).
• Plus Plan – $499/month (enterprise features and dedicated support).

Merchants can choose to consolidate retention features and assess whether a unified approach reduces the overall cost and complexity compared to running Ask to Buy plus Ultimate Wishlist plus other retention tools.

Integrations and technical fit

Growave lists integration support for many common platforms and apps used by Shopify merchants, reducing the need for bespoke connections. That makes it easier to hook retention programs into existing email and customer service stacks. To explore integration fit and onboarding, consider exploring how Growave supports solutions for high-growth Plus brands.

Use-case alignment

Growave is particularly attractive when:

• A merchant needs wishlist functionality but also wants to leverage wishlist signals for loyalty campaigns, referrals, or VIP segmentation.
• The merchant plans to run multi-channel retention strategies (email, on-site rewards, referrals) and prefers a unified metrics view.
• The business is experiencing app fatigue and seeks to reduce third-party scripts and subscription counts.

Next step for merchants considering consolidation

If the comparison shows that Ask to Buy or Ultimate Wishlist alone won’t cover future retention needs, evaluating an integrated platform makes sense. For merchants who want a walk-through tailored to their store, Book a personalized demo to see how an integrated retention stack accelerates growth.

(That sentence above is a direct call-to-action for merchants who want a deeper walkthrough.)

Merchants can also try Growave directly to measure fit and outcomes. To analyze pricing and features in the context of consolidation, review how to consolidate retention features.

Final recommendations: which app is best for which merchant?

• Ask to Buy create & share cart is best for merchants who:
  • Frequently need a one-person to invite another person to complete payment.
  • Want a simple, predictable $15/month solution to enable invite-to-pay or sales-rep cart creation.
  • Prefer a minimal-install, task-specific tool and do not need broader retention features.
• Ultimate Wishlist is best for merchants who:
  • Want a fully featured wishlist with social sharing, email reminders, analytics, and localization.
  • Prefer a low barrier to entry (free tier) and inexpensive scale options ($4.99–$14.99/month).
  • Need wishlist data to inform merchandising and targeted marketing.
• Growave is best for merchants who:
  • Want to minimize the number of apps and consolidate wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews.
  • Are focused on increasing retention, average order value (AOV), and customer lifetime value.
  • Want enterprise features, richer integrations, and a long-term partner for retention programs.

For merchants who are ready to overcome the limitations of single-purpose apps and test the benefits of consolidation, starting a trial helps quantify the impact on cost, site performance, and retention metrics. Start a 14-day free trial to evaluate Growave’s impact on LTV and reduction of tool sprawl.

FAQ

How do Ask to Buy and Ultimate Wishlist differ in terms of business outcomes?

Ask to Buy directly optimizes conversion for invite-to-pay scenarios by pre-filling checkout and sending invitees into checkout. Ultimate Wishlist optimizes intent capture, enabling better merchandising and follow-up marketing that can lift conversion over time. The former is a short-term conversion play; the latter is a long-term retention and CRM signal play.

Can a merchant use both apps together?

Yes. A merchant can run Ask to Buy for transactional invite flows and Ultimate Wishlist for persistent intent capture. However, combining both increases subscription costs, potential theme conflicts, and maintenance tasks. A merchant should weigh the operational overhead against the incremental revenue and consider whether a consolidated solution is more efficient.

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

An all-in-one platform reduces the number of integrations, centralizes customer data, and makes it easier to coordinate retention programs (e.g., using wishlist behavior to trigger loyalty rewards or referral campaigns). While specialized apps may perform one function slightly better in isolation, a unified platform typically yields better long-term value for merchants focused on retention and lifetime value.

What should merchants test before choosing one of these apps?

Merchants should test:

• Theme compatibility and mobile behavior for widgets and buttons.
• The real conversion lift for share-to-checkout (Ask to Buy) versus wishlist-driven campaigns (Ultimate Wishlist).
• Email reminder deliverability and the marketing automation downstream use of wishlist data.
• Total cost of ownership if additional features are needed (e.g., loyalty or reviews) and whether consolidation gives better value.

For merchants ready to measure the difference between stacking single-purpose apps and running a single retention suite, evaluating consolidated pricing and onboarding options is the practical next step. To compare plan details and pricing in the context of consolidation, review the options to consolidate retention features. For merchants who want to see integrated workflows in action, consider an attempt to install Growave on Shopify or explore how to collect and showcase authentic reviews and how to create loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases.