ESC Wishlist + Save for Later vs. CP24 Advanced Wishlist: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right Shopify apps can significantly impact a store's operational efficiency and customer engagement. For merchants aiming to enhance customer retention and drive repeat purchases, a wishlist feature is often considered essential. However, navigating the myriad of available options to find a solution that aligns with specific business needs and long-term growth strategies can be challenging.

Short answer: Both ESC Wishlist + Save for Later and CP24 Advanced Wishlist offer distinct approaches to the wishlist functionality. ESC focuses on a streamlined "save for later" experience within the cart, suitable for simpler needs, while CP24 provides a more feature-rich solution with advanced re-engagement tools like web push notifications. The optimal choice depends on a store's complexity, budget, and appetite for multi-channel engagement, though integrated platforms can reduce the operational overhead associated with managing numerous single-purpose tools.

This article provides an in-depth, feature-by-feature comparison of ESC Wishlist + Save for Later and CP24 Advanced Wishlist. The aim is to equip merchants with the insights needed to make an informed decision, considering each app's strengths, potential limitations, and ideal use cases.

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later vs. CP24 Advanced Wishlist: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Core Features and Workflows

Understanding the fundamental capabilities of each app is crucial for determining alignment with a store's operational needs and customer experience strategy. Both apps provide the core functionality of allowing customers to save products, but their approaches and additional features diverge significantly.

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later: Simplicity and Directness

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later, developed by Eastside Co®, focuses on a straightforward "save for later" mechanism. Its primary strength lies in integrating this functionality directly under the cart, aiming to keep saved items visible and easily accessible during the checkout process.

Key features include:

• Unlimited Wishlists: Customers can create and categorize products into as many wishlists as they need. This supports organized browsing and can be particularly useful for customers planning purchases for different occasions or product types.
• "Save for Later" at Cart: This feature streamlines the path to purchase by keeping saved items directly visible when a customer proceeds to checkout. The intent is to reduce friction and encourage conversion by reminding customers of previously desired items.
• Social Sharing: The app enables customers to share their wishlists with friends and family, potentially increasing brand reach through organic word-of-mouth. This can serve as a free marketing channel, leveraging existing customer networks.

The workflow with ESC is relatively simple: a customer saves an item, it appears below their cart, and they can easily add it to their purchase when ready. This design is geared towards a less complex customer journey, where the primary goal is to retain interest in items not immediately purchased and facilitate their eventual checkout.

CP24 Advanced Wishlist: Engagement and Re-engagement

CP24 Advanced Wishlist, developed by CloudPlug24, offers a more robust and feature-rich solution centered around proactive customer engagement and data-driven decision-making. It goes beyond mere saving by incorporating tools designed to bring customers back to the store.

Key features include:

• Guest Wishlist & Multiple Wishlists: Supports both logged-in and guest users, broadening its applicability. Guests can save items, and their wishlists are synced across devices, ensuring a consistent experience. Multiple wishlists provide categorization similar to ESC.
• Cross-Device Sync: Wishlists remain consistent across all devices, a crucial feature for today's multi-device shopping habits, preventing lost interest due to an interrupted browsing session.
• Price Drop & Low Stock Reminders: This is a significant re-engagement tool. The app can automatically notify customers about changes to wishlisted items, such as a price reduction or an item nearing out-of-stock status. This creates urgency and can drive impulse purchases.
• Web Push Marketing: A powerful marketing channel, allowing stores to collect opt-in tokens from visitors and send targeted notifications directly to their browsers. This enables merchants to send personalized reminders or promotions related to wishlisted items, even if the customer isn't currently on the store's website.
• Wishlisted Count on Product: Displays how many other customers have wishlisted a particular product. This acts as a form of social proof, indicating popularity and potentially influencing other shoppers to add the item to their own lists.
• Multi-Language Support: Full manageability of front-store text ensures the app can be fully translated, making it suitable for international merchants serving diverse customer bases.

The workflow with CP24 is more dynamic. Customers can save items, but the app actively works in the background to re-engage them through automated reminders and push notifications, leveraging psychological triggers like urgency and scarcity.

Customization and Control

The ability to customize the look and feel of a wishlist app is vital for maintaining brand consistency and providing a seamless user experience. Merchants often seek control over how these features appear on their storefront.

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later: Visual Integration

ESC emphasizes visual customization, stating it offers a "broad range of options for customizing how the app looks on your store." While specific details about the extent of these options (e.g., color pickers, CSS editing, layout adjustments) are not specified in the provided data, the focus is clearly on aesthetic integration. For stores with simpler branding guidelines, this level of control may be sufficient to ensure the wishlist element feels native to the storefront.

CP24 Advanced Wishlist: Comprehensive Configurability

CP24 takes a more comprehensive approach to customization and control. It boasts "fully customizable configuration," implying a deeper level of control over both functionality and appearance. More importantly, its "full manageable front-store text to support the non-English languages" feature indicates granular control over all user-facing text strings. This is a significant advantage for stores operating in multiple linguistic markets or those with very specific branding voice requirements. Merchants looking for robust control over every textual element of the wishlist experience would find CP24 more accommodating.

Pricing Structure and Value for Money

The cost of an app is always a significant factor, but it must be evaluated in terms of the value it delivers. This includes considering not just the monthly fee but also the features unlocked and potential for scaling.

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later: Simple, Fixed Cost

ESC offers a single pricing tier:

• Monthly plan: $5 / month.

This simple, fixed-cost model is attractive for merchants who prefer predictability and do not want to worry about usage-based billing. For $5 per month, stores receive unlimited wishlists, save-for-later functionality, and social sharing. This can be seen as good value for money for basic wishlist needs without additional re-engagement features. There are no specified limitations on wishlist items or user numbers, suggesting it’s a straightforward, all-inclusive package for its defined feature set.

CP24 Advanced Wishlist: Tiered, Usage-Based Pricing

CP24 utilizes a tiered pricing model that scales with usage, particularly for wishlist items and push impressions. This structure can offer flexibility, but also requires merchants to monitor their usage to avoid unexpected cost increases.

• FREE Plan: Free
  • Share Wishlist
  • Metrics Dashboard
  • Visitor/Guest wishlist
  • Welcome & Push Campaign
  • Up to 100 Wishlist items/mo
  • Up to 100 Push Impression/mo This free plan is a compelling starting point for new or very small stores to test the waters with advanced features like web push, albeit with strict usage limits.
• BASIC Plan: $2.99 / month
  • All in Free plan
  • Detailed Reports
  • Multiple Wishlist
  • Price Drop & Low Stock Reminder
  • Up to 2K wishlist item/mo
  • Up to 10K Push Impression/mo This tier unlocks key re-engagement features and more substantial usage limits, offering strong value for growing small businesses.
• PROFESSIONAL Plan: $9.99 / month
  • All in Free & Basic plan
  • 10K wishlist items/mo
  • 50K Push Impression/mo
  • Up to Unlimited sessions/mo Targeted at more established stores with higher traffic and more active wishlists, this plan further expands the reach of re-engagement campaigns.
• ENTERPRISE Plan: $19.99 / month
  • All in Free, Basic & Professional
  • 25K wishlist items/mo
  • 100K Push Impression/mo
  • Up to Unlimited sessions/mo Designed for larger, high-volume stores requiring extensive use of the app's advanced capabilities.

When comparing plan fit against retention goals, CP24 offers greater flexibility as a store scales, allowing merchants to only pay for what they use. However, merchants must carefully consider the usage limits for wishlist items and push impressions to ensure the chosen plan aligns with their expected growth without incurring overage charges or necessitating frequent plan upgrades. The higher tiers of CP24, while more expensive than ESC's single plan, offer a significantly broader feature set, potentially delivering better value for money through enhanced re-engagement and analytics.

Integrations and "Works With" Fit

The ability of a Shopify app to integrate seamlessly with other tools in a merchant's tech stack is crucial for a unified customer experience and efficient operations.

For both ESC Wishlist + Save for Later and CP24 Advanced Wishlist, the provided data does not specify any direct integrations or "Works With" partners. This means merchants considering either of these apps should assume they are primarily standalone solutions unless explicitly stated otherwise by the developers on their respective Shopify App Store listings.

The lack of specified integrations could mean:

• Simplicity: The apps are designed to perform their core wishlist function without complex dependencies, reducing potential integration conflicts.
• Limited Data Exchange: Data collected by the wishlist app (e.g., wishlisted items, customer preferences) might not automatically flow into other marketing automation platforms (like email marketing, CRM) without custom development or manual export/import processes. This could create data silos, making it harder to execute highly personalized, cross-channel campaigns.

Merchants relying heavily on other platforms for email marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), or analytics might find this a limitation. Without direct integrations, leveraging wishlist data for advanced segmentation or automated flows in external tools becomes more challenging. This aspect often highlights the benefits of a broader platform approach for managing various retention initiatives, helping to avoid fragmented data or inconsistent customer experiences.

Analytics and Reporting

Data-driven insights are invaluable for optimizing customer engagement strategies. The availability and depth of analytics can significantly influence a merchant's ability to refine their approach.

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later: Not Specified

The description for ESC Wishlist + Save for Later does not mention any analytics or reporting capabilities. Merchants using this app would likely need to rely on their general Shopify analytics or third-party tools to infer the impact of wishlists on sales. This suggests a simpler, more hands-off approach to performance tracking for this particular feature.

CP24 Advanced Wishlist: Comprehensive Insights

CP24 Advanced Wishlist offers robust analytics and reporting. The Free plan includes a "Metrics Dashboard," and the Basic plan upgrades this to "Detailed Reports." The description also highlights "comprehensive reports & analytics to make better decisions."

These capabilities are critical for merchants who want to:

• Understand Customer Intent: Identify popular products, trends in wishlisted items, and potential demand for new products.
• Measure Effectiveness: Track the conversion rate of wishlisted items, the impact of price drop/low stock reminders, and the engagement generated by web push campaigns.
• Optimize Strategies: Use data to refine product offerings, pricing strategies, and re-engagement tactics.

The analytical depth provided by CP24 is a clear differentiator, enabling merchants to move beyond simply offering a wishlist to actively using wishlist data as a strategic tool for growth.

Customer Support Expectations and Reliability Cues

The quality of customer support and the overall reliability of an app are often gauged by user reviews and ratings. These serve as important trust signals for potential users.

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later: Limited Trust Signals

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later has a very limited number of reviews (2 reviews) and a low rating (1 star). This is a significant red flag for potential users. While a small sample size can be skewed, such a low rating from any number of reviews typically suggests severe issues for at least some users or a lack of developer engagement. Merchants considering this app would need to proceed with caution, perhaps by thoroughly testing it during a free trial period if available, and directly reaching out to the developer with any pre-sales questions. The low review volume also makes it difficult to ascertain typical support response times or the overall stability of the app.

CP24 Advanced Wishlist: Positive, but Limited, Feedback

CP24 Advanced Wishlist has a small but positive set of reviews (6 reviews) with a perfect 5-star rating. This indicates that the customers who have reviewed the app have had positive experiences. A 5-star rating from even a few users suggests a stable app that delivers on its promises and potentially responsive support. However, similar to ESC, the overall review count is still low compared to more established apps on the Shopify App Store. This means the feedback, while positive, may not represent a broad user base. Merchants should still verify recent reviews and perhaps test the free plan to assess support responsiveness and app performance for their specific store environment. Checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals is always a prudent step.

Performance, Compatibility, and Operational Overhead

The technical aspects of an app, including its impact on store speed, compatibility with various devices and themes, and the ongoing maintenance it requires, contribute to the overall operational overhead.

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later: Focus on Seamless User Experience

ESC's description highlights its integration "under the cart," suggesting a focus on a seamless user experience within the checkout flow. While specific performance metrics are not detailed, a simpler feature set often correlates with a lighter load on store performance. The app's design to "save items for later" within the cart structure implies a standard compatibility with Shopify's default checkout process. For merchants seeking to minimize operational overhead and prefer a less complex addition to their tech stack, this app's focused functionality could be an advantage.

CP24 Advanced Wishlist: Responsive and Multi-Language Ready

CP24 explicitly states "responsive design and synced across all devices" and "all devices compatible." This indicates a strong focus on mobile-first and cross-device performance, which is critical for modern e-commerce. Its "full manageable front-store text to support the non-English languages" also implies robust compatibility with international store setups and themes. However, the inclusion of features like web push notifications and comprehensive analytics, while powerful, can potentially introduce slightly more operational overhead compared to a simpler wishlist app. This could involve configuring push notification messages, monitoring campaign performance, and managing data from detailed reports. Merchants must consider if the benefits of these advanced features outweigh the marginal increase in management tasks.

For both apps, as standalone solutions, the integration overhead is likely confined to the initial setup and configuration. However, managing multiple single-purpose apps, each with its own update schedule and potential for conflicts, contributes to what is often termed "app fatigue" or "tool sprawl." This is a broader consideration that goes beyond the individual app's performance.

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

For many growing e-commerce businesses, the challenge isn't just selecting a single app, but rather managing an expanding tech stack. As stores scale, they often accumulate numerous single-function apps for loyalty, reviews, wishlists, referrals, and more. This "app fatigue" leads to several operational inefficiencies:

• Tool Sprawl and Management Overhead: Juggling multiple interfaces, login credentials, and billing cycles for various apps consumes valuable time and resources.
• Fragmented Data and Silos: Each app collects its own data, often stored in isolated silos. This makes it challenging to get a unified view of customer behavior, hindering personalized marketing efforts and data-driven decision-making.
• Inconsistent Customer Experience: Different apps may have varying user interfaces or design languages, leading to a disjointed brand experience for customers as they interact with different features on the storefront.
• Integration Complexity and Conflicts: Ensuring that all apps work together seamlessly, without conflicts or performance degradation, can be a constant battle. Updates to one app might break another.
• Stacked Costs: While individual apps may seem inexpensive, their cumulative cost can quickly add up, often exceeding the cost of a comprehensive, integrated solution that offers better value for money.

This is where the "More Growth, Less Stack" philosophy, championed by all-in-one platforms, becomes highly relevant. Instead of piecing together disparate tools, an integrated solution provides a unified suite of features designed to work together harmoniously.

Growave, for instance, is built as a flexible retention platform, combining essential tools like Loyalty and Rewards, Referrals, Reviews & UGC, Wishlist, and VIP Tiers into a single, cohesive suite. This integrated approach allows merchants to manage customer lifetime value strategies from one dashboard, reducing the complexities associated with tool sprawl. When evaluating feature coverage across plans, the comprehensive nature of such a platform provides a significant advantage. For brands that need to manage not just wishlists but also build strong customer relationships through loyalty programs that keep customers coming back, an all-in-one platform provides comprehensive tools.

By choosing a solution like Growave, merchants can streamline operations and ensure a consistent customer journey. For example, the wishlist feature within an integrated platform can seamlessly connect with loyalty points and rewards designed to lift repeat purchases. This means a customer adding an item to their wishlist might also be accumulating loyalty points or progressing through VIP tiers, creating a more holistic and engaging experience. Merchants can also leverage social proof that supports conversion and AOV by integrating reviews directly with other retention mechanisms.

Integrated platforms like Growave are especially beneficial for stores with capabilities designed for Shopify Plus scaling needs. They offer features aligned with enterprise retention requirements, providing a robust foundation for high-growth operational complexity. For instance, collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews becomes part of a broader customer engagement strategy, rather than a standalone function. Growave offers a pricing structure that scales as order volume grows, providing transparency and helping businesses manage their retention spend without app sprawl surprises. Merchants can find practical retention playbooks from growing storefronts and real examples from brands improving retention through a unified strategy.

An integrated platform facilitates a holistic view of the customer journey, enabling merchants to analyze how various retention efforts — from wishlist saves to loyalty program participation and review submissions — interact. This unified data approach simplifies the process of mapping costs to retention outcomes over time, allowing for more strategic and impactful marketing decisions. By opting for a solution that combines multiple functionalities, businesses can ensure that post-purchase review requests that feel consistent also contribute to a larger loyalty framework, thereby strengthening customer relationships across every touchpoint.

To reduce app fatigue and run retention from one place, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

FAQ

What are the main differences between ESC Wishlist and CP24 Advanced Wishlist?

The primary difference lies in their feature sets and strategic focus. ESC Wishlist + Save for Later provides a basic "save for later" function integrated with the cart and offers social sharing. It's a simple, fixed-cost solution. CP24 Advanced Wishlist, on the other hand, is much more feature-rich, including guest wishlists, cross-device sync, price drop and low stock reminders, web push notifications for re-engagement, comprehensive analytics, and multi-language support. It operates on a tiered, usage-based pricing model.

Which wishlist app is better for new Shopify stores?

For new Shopify stores on a tight budget or those prioritizing extreme simplicity, ESC Wishlist + Save for Later's $5/month fixed plan might be appealing for its basic functionality. However, CP24 Advanced Wishlist offers a robust free plan with advanced features like web push, albeit with usage limits. This allows new stores to experiment with powerful re-engagement tools at no initial cost, making it a strong contender for those willing to invest a little more time in setup for potentially higher engagement.

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

An all-in-one platform, such as Growave, consolidates multiple customer retention functionalities (like wishlists, loyalty programs, reviews, referrals) into a single integrated suite. This contrasts with specialized apps, which each perform a single function. All-in-one platforms typically offer advantages such as unified data, a consistent customer experience across features, reduced integration conflicts, and potentially lower total cost of ownership by avoiding stacked subscription fees from numerous individual apps. They simplify management by providing a central dashboard for all retention efforts.

What factors should merchants consider when choosing a wishlist app?

Merchants should consider several factors:

• Budget: Determine if a fixed low cost (ESC) or a scalable, usage-based model (CP24) is preferable.
• Feature Needs: Assess if basic "save for later" functionality is sufficient, or if advanced re-engagement tools, analytics, and multi-language support are required.
• Store Size and Growth Stage: New or small stores might opt for simpler solutions, while growing or enterprise stores might need more robust features.
• Integration with Existing Stack: Evaluate if the app needs to communicate with other marketing or CRM tools, keeping in mind that neither ESC nor CP24 specify direct integrations.
• Customer Support and Reliability: Consider the app's review count and rating as indicators of stability and developer support.
• Operational Overhead: Factor in the time and effort required to set up, configure, and manage the app's features, especially for solutions with advanced re-engagement capabilities.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between ESC Wishlist + Save for Later and CP24 Advanced Wishlist, the decision comes down to the depth of functionality required and the strategic priority placed on proactive customer re-engagement. ESC Wishlist + Save for Later is an excellent choice for businesses seeking a simple, low-cost "save for later" option that integrates directly with the cart, focusing on straightforward conversion. Its strengths lie in simplicity and ease of use, making it suitable for new or smaller stores with basic wishlist needs and a desire for a straightforward pricing structure.

Conversely, CP24 Advanced Wishlist caters to merchants who prioritize advanced re-engagement tools, data analytics, and multi-channel marketing through features like web push notifications, price drop reminders, and guest wishlists. Its tiered pricing model offers scalability, aligning costs with usage, and its comprehensive reporting enables data-driven optimization. This app is better suited for growing stores looking to actively nurture customer interest and leverage insights to drive repeat purchases and increase customer lifetime value.

However, as businesses mature, they often encounter the limitations of single-purpose apps, leading to fragmented data, inconsistent customer experiences, and escalating costs. An integrated retention platform like Growave presents a compelling alternative, offering a unified solution that encompasses not only wishlists but also loyalty programs, referrals, and reviews. This approach ensures a clearer view of total retention-stack costs and fosters seamless synergy across various engagement touchpoints, helping to streamline operations and enhance the overall customer journey. To reduce app fatigue and run retention from one place, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.