Introduction
Choosing the right merchandising app is one of the more consequential decisions for Shopify merchants trying to increase conversion, reduce returns, and improve lifetime value without ballooning operational complexity. Two popular choices for wishlist and registry functionality are Gift Reggie: Gift Registry by Modd Apps Inc. and SE Wishlist Engine by Script Engine. Both target wishlist-driven purchase behavior but approach the problem differently—one with registry-first features and POS support, the other with a heavier focus on wishlist automation and alerts.
Short answer: Gift Reggie: Gift Registry is a strong fit for brands that need a registry-first solution (wedding, baby, and event registries) with POS compatibility and robust registry management. SE Wishlist Engine is better for merchants who prioritize flexible wishlists, automated reminders (price-drop, restock), and a low-cost entry point. For merchants looking to reduce tool sprawl and gain loyalty, referral, reviews, and wishlist capabilities in a single system, a unified platform like Growave often delivers better value for money and simplifies long-term retention strategy.
Purpose of this article: Provide a detailed, feature-by-feature comparison of Gift Reggie: Gift Registry and SE Wishlist Engine, examine pricing and integration trade-offs, assess real-world merchant outcomes, and explain when one tool makes more sense than the other. After the direct comparison, this article explains an alternative approach—consolidating retention features into a single platform to avoid app fatigue and improve retention metrics.
Gift Reggie: Gift Registry vs. SE Wishlist Engine: At a Glance
| Aspect | Gift Reggie: Gift Registry | SE Wishlist Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Modd Apps Inc. | Script Engine |
| Core Function | Gift registry + wishlist (registry-first) | Wishlist + alerts & reminders (automation-first) |
| Best For | Stores that need wedding/baby/event registries with POS support | Stores that want lightweight, automated wishlist features and alerts |
| Rating (Shopify) | 4.8 (172 reviews) | 4.9 (249 reviews) |
| Key Features | Registry creation, POS support, email notifications, stock tracking (paid tiers), theme styling | Wishlist save, guest wishlist, price-drop & restock alerts, email automation, product recommendations |
| Free / Entry Price | No truly free plan — Basic plan $9/month (7-day trial) | Free plan available (up to 100 wishlist items) |
| Typical Use Cases | Bridal and baby registries, event registries, in-store gift registry management | General ecommerce stores wanting to nudge wishlist-to-purchase with automated emails and alerts |
Deep Dive Comparison
Product Positioning and Target Use Cases
Gift Reggie: Gift Registry — Registry-First, POS-Aware
Gift Reggie positions itself as a specialized registry app that supports wedding registries, baby registries, and general gift lists while also providing wishlist functionality. Its selling points are registry workflows—registry creation, guest access, customizable email notifications, and Shopify POS compatibility. Merchants running brick-and-mortar showrooms, bridal boutiques, or event-focused businesses will find registry limits, POS support, and custom line item tracking especially valuable.
Strengths in positioning:
- Registry workflows are baked into the product rather than bolted on.
- POS support caters to stores that need in-person gift purchase tracking.
- Messaging and password-protected registries fit event privacy needs.
SE Wishlist Engine — Automation-Focused Wishlist
SE Wishlist Engine markets a feature-rich wishlist focused on conversion nudges: price-drop notifications, restock alerts, and wishlist reminders. It has a strong freemium angle: a free plan with up to 100 wishlist items lowers the barrier to testing. Visibility into saved products and automated emails helps merchants identify demand and re-engage interested buyers.
Strengths in positioning:
- Freemium plan encourages trial without immediate spend.
- Price-drop and restock alerts directly tackle customers’ hesitancy to buy at full price.
- App integrations (Klaviyo, Facebook Pixel) support targeted remarketing.
Features Comparison
Wishlist Functionality
- Gift Reggie: Offers wishlist features but prioritizes registry workflows. Unlimited wishlists on the Basic plan, and these inherit theme styling for consistent UX.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Built around wishlist behavior. Free plan supports up to 100 items; paid plans provide unlimited wishlists, guest wishlist capability, and a customizable UI including hide-branding options.
What matters to merchants:
- If the main goal is a traditional wishlist with guest support and automation, SE Wishlist Engine offers more focused capabilities out of the box.
- If registries (events, showers, weddings) are core to the business, Gift Reggie’s registry interface—guest lists, password protection, POS purchases—offers richer event-specific functionality.
Registry Capabilities
- Gift Reggie: Registry creation, configurable limits on registries per plan (5–100 depending on tier), password-protected registries, registry messaging, registry-specific email notifications, stock tracking and warnings on higher tiers.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Does not advertise registry-specific flows and is better suited for persistent wishlists rather than event-centric registries.
Practical implication: For brands that run many registries or rely on registries to drive full-price purchases and lower returns, Gift Reggie is purpose-built.
Alerts, Reminders, and Email Automation
- Gift Reggie: Email notifications for registry activity and basic customer/staff notifications; more advanced messaging in higher plans.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Advanced automated emails for wishlist reminders, price drops, restock and low-stock alerts, and multi-language email templates in premium tiers.
Practical implication: For driving wishlist-to-purchase conversion through automated notifications, SE Wishlist Engine provides a more developed toolkit.
Reporting and Analytics
- Gift Reggie: Reporting centers on registry activity and management. Higher tiers include stock tracking and potentially more management data.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Offers basic and advanced insights depending on the plan, plus analytics about which products are saved and who saved them—information useful for merchandising decisions and targeted follow-ups.
Merchants who rely on saved-item analytics to guide promotions or inventory planning may find SE Wishlist Engine's insights more actionable.
Integrations and Marketing Pipeline
- Gift Reggie: Works with Shopify POS, customer accounts, Shopify Flow, Shopify POS Langify. Good for in-person and Shopify-native flows.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Lists integrations with Klaviyo and PageFly, and supports Facebook Pixel—these are useful for email remarketing and page builders.
Choice depends on the marketing stack:
- Merchants heavily using Klaviyo for email should appreciate SE Wishlist Engine’s direct Klaviyo integration for wishlist triggers.
- Stores needing smooth in-store registry redemption and Shopify-native flows should favor Gift Reggie.
POS and In-Store Use
- Gift Reggie: Explicit POS support on higher tiers, including integration with Shopify POS and options for staff-managed registry actions.
- SE Wishlist Engine: No explicit POS support listed; functionality is web-first.
If the store expects frequent in-person purchases from registries (e.g., boutique bridal shop), Gift Reggie’s POS compatibility is a major advantage.
Customization and Theming
- Gift Reggie: Promises to adopt the look of the store theme, with customizable styling and content on higher plans.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Customizable buttons, icons, and UI elements; paid tiers allow branding removal and custom icons.
Both apps support brand cohesion; choose based on the specific UI elements that matter most to the storefront experience.
Stock Management and Product Lifecycle
- Gift Reggie: Stock tracking and warning features on Professional and Expert plans—useful to prevent overselling against registries.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Offers low-stock and restock alerts that can notify customers, which can convert interest into purchases when stock returns.
Both approaches help reduce disappointment: Gift Reggie reduces registry-side overselling risk; SE Wishlist Engine proactively re-engages saved-item customers when stock status changes.
Pricing & Value
Pricing is a crucial factor when picking a tool. Beyond sticker price, evaluate business impact: conversion uplift, average order value (AOV) impact, return rate reduction, and support responsiveness.
Gift Reggie Pricing Snapshot
- Basic — $9/month: 7-day free trial, 5 free registries, unlimited wishlists, customizable styling, social sharing, email notifications.
- Essentials — $15/month: 7-day trial, 25 free registries, password-protected registries, email sharing, registry messaging.
- Professional — $30/month: 30-day trial, 50 free registries, customizable content, stock tracking and warnings.
- Expert — $40/month: 30-day trial, 100 free registries, POS support, custom line item property tracking, API access.
Value assessment:
- Best value for small stores with modest registry volume and a need for good presentation at a low monthly cost.
- Cost-effective compared to building custom registry functionality, especially for POS-enabled merchants.
SE Wishlist Engine Pricing Snapshot
- Free Plan — Free: Up to 100 wishlist items, basic customization, wishlist page and popup, basic insights.
- Basic — $7.99/month: Unlimited wishlist items, custom icons, hide branding, basic insights.
- Advanced — $14.99/month: Wishlist reminders, low-stock alerts, price-drop/restock alerts, product recommendations, unlimited emails, pixel & Klaviyo integration, advanced insights.
- Premium — $21.99/month: Adds multi-language & multi-currency, advanced insights, and additional email localization.
Value assessment:
- Freemium model allows low-risk testing; higher tiers unlock critical conversion-driving automation.
- Generally lower starting prices than Gift Reggie for wishlist-first features and stronger email automation at similar price points.
Which Offers Better Value for Money?
- For stores needing registry-specific workflows, Gift Reggie offers better value for the registry use case even if entry price is slightly higher.
- For stores seeking wishlist automation and a low-cost entry, SE Wishlist Engine provides stronger ROI on re-engagement and less upfront investment.
Reviews, Reliability, and Developer Reputation
User ratings are not the only truth, but they are strong indicators of stability, support, and product quality.
- Gift Reggie: 172 reviews, 4.8 rating. A strong rating that suggests reliable performance and satisfied users for the registry use case.
- SE Wishlist Engine: 249 reviews, 4.9 rating. Slightly more reviews and a marginally higher rating, indicating a broad base of happy merchants—particularly those that value wishlist automation features.
Practical takeaways:
- Both apps have high ratings; choose based on feature fit rather than rating alone.
- Review counts suggest SE Wishlist Engine has wider adoption among wishlist-first merchants.
Implementation, Onboarding, and Developer Support
Gift Reggie
- Provides a dedicated support team and promises to match the store’s theme appearance.
- Higher-tier plans include API access and more advanced support capabilities.
Strengths:
- Dedicated support is valuable for registry configuration and POS workflows.
- API accessibility on Expert plan supports advanced customization.
SE Wishlist Engine
- Positioning emphasizes automation and integrations; support quality is reflected in high rating and frequency of updates.
- Integrations with email platforms suggest a marketing-oriented support focus.
Strengths:
- Smooth integration with Klaviyo and third-party pixels simplifies setup for marketing teams.
- Freemium level allows merchants to validate fit before committing.
Technical Considerations and Limitations
- Theme compatibility: Both apps claim theme styling options, but merchants should test across desktop and mobile. Theme variations and custom storefronts may require extra styling work.
- Liquid editing and customizations: Gift Reggie’s registry workflows and POS features may require Liquid edits or developer support for highly customized experiences.
- Data portability: SE Wishlist Engine offers import/export on paid plans, which helps if migrating wishlists to another system later.
- API access: Gift Reggie exposes API access on the Expert plan—useful for integration into proprietary systems. SE Wishlist Engine’s advanced integrations are mainly focused on marketing platforms.
Merchants with headless storefronts or non-standard checkout customizations should evaluate API capabilities and integration support before committing.
Conversion Impact and Merchandising Strategy
Both apps aim to reduce friction between product interest and purchase, but their levers differ.
- Gift Reggie improves conversion through curated registries that reduce returns and increase full-price purchases at events. It also helps track which items are truly desired, reducing speculative purchases.
- SE Wishlist Engine leverages behavioral triggers—price-drop alerts, restock notices, and reminder emails—to move intent into action. Its notifications can convert passive interest into sales without discounting.
Strategic advice:
- Use registry features to capture high-intent, planned purchases (events). Emphasize full-price conversion and reduced returns.
- Use wishlist automation to recover demand, particularly for price-sensitive shoppers or for stores with frequent inventory fluctuations.
Compliance, Security, and Store Performance
- Both apps operate within the Shopify ecosystem and are subject to Shopify’s platform rules. Data handling and customer information should comply with standard ecommerce privacy practices.
- Performance: Every additional app can impact page load. Both apps claim lightweight integration, but merchants should audit load times, particularly if using multiple third-party scripts.
Optimization tip: Load wishlist/registry scripts only where needed (product pages, registry pages) and lazy-load banner elements to reduce initial page time.
Migration and Exit Strategies
- SE Wishlist Engine’s import/export features on paid tiers facilitate moving wishlist data out of the app, which eases vendor exit.
- Gift Reggie’s API access on Expert plan suggests paths for data extraction but may require developer effort for complete migration.
Merchants should plan data export processes in advance: wishlist items, registry lists, purchaser metadata, and transactional logs are commonly needed for continuity.
Usability and Merchant Experience
Merchant Dashboard and Admin Controls
- Gift Reggie: Admin panels oriented to registry creation, guest management, and staff actions (POS). The dashboard is tailored for event management.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Admin focuses on saved-product analytics and campaign triggers, with controls for email templates and alerts.
Choose based on day-to-day workflows:
- Inventory managers and store staff who need to manage registries often will prefer Gift Reggie’s admin model.
- Marketing teams that run automated campaigns and need granular saved-product insights will appreciate SE Wishlist Engine’s admin.
Customer Experience and UX
- Gift Reggie: Customers expect a registry-first interface—guest-facing lists, password protection, and clear instructions for gifting. Native theme styling helps reduce friction.
- SE Wishlist Engine: Customers can save items, receive alerts, and share lists. Guest wishlist supports users who prefer not to create accounts.
Both apps support social sharing, which aids discovery and increases purchase likelihood when friends and family can easily access a person’s list.
When to Choose Which App
- Gift Reggie is recommended when:
- Registries are a primary revenue driver (weddings, baby, events).
- The store requires POS support for registry redemption.
- The merchant expects in-store purchases and needs staff workflows.
- Registry management and privacy (password-protected registries) are necessary.
- SE Wishlist Engine is recommended when:
- The primary goal is to convert saved-product interest to sales with automated notifications.
- The store wants a free or low-cost entry point to test wishlist functionality.
- Direct integrations with Klaviyo and Facebook Pixel are part of the growth stack.
- The focus is on maximizing conversions from web traffic through timely alerts.
The Alternative: Solving App Fatigue with an All-in-One Platform
What Is App Fatigue and Why It Matters
App fatigue occurs when merchants layer many single-purpose apps to achieve multiple retention and conversion goals. Each app can introduce maintenance overhead, script bloat, duplicate feature overlap, rising subscription costs, and fractured customer experiences. The cumulative complexity can also hide gaps in reporting and weaken long-term retention strategies because customer activity is siloed across tools.
The limitations of single-point solutions include:
- Increased monthly subscriptions and unpredictable hidden costs as needs grow.
- Integration gaps between loyalty programs, referral campaigns, reviews, and wishlists.
- Fragmented customer data that makes it harder to measure true customer lifetime value (LTV).
- Slower troubleshooting and inconsistent UX when features are stitched together from different vendors.
Consolidation Benefits: A Single Retention Stack
Consolidating multiple retention features into one platform reduces technical overhead and aligns customer incentives across loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlists. This approach improves the merchant's ability to increase repeat purchases, streamline reporting, and implement coherent customer journeys—from discovery to advocacy.
One illustration of that approach is Growave’s "More Growth, Less Stack" philosophy. By combining loyalty, reviews, referrals, and wishlist features under a single hood, merchants can:
- Consolidate billing and lower per-feature costs by avoiding redundant subscriptions.
- Ensure consistent UX across loyalty widgets, wishlist actions, and review requests.
- Centralize customer data for smarter segmentation and more effective re-engagement campaigns.
For merchants evaluating consolidation, it’s helpful to explore options that make it simple to consolidate retention features and manage them from one admin console. Another way to become comfortable with a unified platform is to install Growave from the Shopify App Store and test its combined toolset against specialized apps.
How a Unified Platform Handles Registry and Wishlist Needs
A unified platform approaches registry and wishlist needs as two parts of a single retention lifecycle. Wishlist saves can automatically feed into loyalty programs (rewarding saves or shares), and review prompts can be triggered after purchases that originate from wishlist conversions. This reduces friction for merchants trying to make wishlist data actionable.
Growave’s product suite illustrates how that integration looks in practice:
- Merchants can build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and tie actions like wishlist saves or purchases to point-earning behavior.
- The reviews module allows merchants to collect and showcase authentic reviews that increase trust for wishlist items and registries.
- Centralized data enables better segmentation: identifying VIPs who frequently use wishlists, then enrolling those customers in targeted referral campaigns to boost acquisition.
For merchants evaluating consolidation, book a personalized demo to see how an integrated retention stack accelerates growth. This direct walkthrough helps merchants confirm how loyalty, wishlist, and reviews integrate with existing marketing flows and POS systems via real merchant examples. Book a personalized demo to see how an integrated retention stack accelerates growth.
Practical Benefits Over Multiple Single-Point Apps
- Reduced Script Overhead: Fewer scripts improve page load times and reduce friction for mobile shoppers.
- Unified Reporting: One dashboard measuring loyalty-driven repeat purchases, wishlist conversions, and review impact on conversion rates.
- Improved Customer Journeys: Consistent messaging and reward triggers across touchpoints create clearer value exchange with customers.
- Better Support and Fewer Vendor Relationships: One point of contact for retention-related issues reduces coordination costs.
To evaluate costs and feature parity, merchants can compare bundled pricing and features to the sum of specialized apps. Growave’s pricing page shows plan tiers that combine loyalty, wishlist, reviews, and referral features—useful when comparing total cost vs. multiple single-function apps. Explore how to consolidate retention features and assess if the platform aligns with expected ROI.
Technical and Strategic Fit for Large Merchants
For enterprise or Shopify Plus merchants, consolidated platforms often provide additional benefits: advanced customization, headless API and SDK support, custom loyalty rules, and dedicated launch services. Merchants on higher-growth trajectories can evaluate enterprise offerings and case studies to confirm fit.
- Solutions for high-growth Plus brands are available with enterprise-grade integrations and dedicated onboarding paths. Reviewing customer examples helps evaluate implementation complexity and outcomes; merchants can learn from customer stories from brands scaling retention.
How Growave Integrates with Marketing and Commerce Tools
A unified retention platform must play well with the rest of the tech stack. Growave integrates with common tools such as Klaviyo, Omnisend, Gorgias, Recharge, and many storefront builders—enabling merchants to use retained customer signals in existing marketing workflows. To see in-app integration details and installation, merchants can install Growave from the Shopify App Store.
Growave’s modular design is built to centralize retention while leaving core commerce and fulfillment flows untouched. That means:
- Loyalty activity can trigger Klaviyo sequences via integration.
- Review requests and UGC collection can feed into product pages and social proof channels.
- Wishlist activity can be used as a signal for personalized campaigns and paid retargeting.
Merchants who want to learn how these integrations work in practice can schedule a detailed walk-through. Book a personalized demo to see how an integrated retention stack accelerates growth.
Feature Highlights That Reduce Stack Size
- Loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases: customizable reward rules, VIP tiers, point expiration, and an integrated rewards modal.
- Collect and showcase authentic reviews: review solicitation, visual UGC capture, and moderation tools.
- Wishlist and referral capabilities in the same product suite, tying together customer intent and advocacy.
- Multi-language and Plus-grade support for brands growing internationally and on Shopify Plus; explore solutions for high-growth Plus brands.
How to Evaluate Consolidation vs. Best-of-Breed
- Define Key Outcomes: Increased repeat purchases, higher LTV, lower return rates, and streamlined support.
- Tally Total Cost of Ownership: Sum the monthly subscriptions of single-purpose apps plus development/maintenance time.
- Audit Data Flow: Ensure that customer events (wishlist saves, referral conversions, review submissions) are tracked and accessible.
- Pilot Before Full Migration: Use trials and demos to validate functionality and measure short-term conversion lifts.
If the primary objective is retention and lifetime value, consolidating into one platform can shorten the path to measurable gains because behavior triggers and rewards are orchestrated centrally.
To compare pricing and see whether consolidation fits the budget, merchants can view bundled options and plan details on the pricing page. Consolidate retention features and assess whether swapping multiple subscriptions for a single platform makes strategic and financial sense.
Migration Scenarios and Implementation Checklist
When moving from specialized apps to a unified platform, follow a checklist to limit business disruption:
- Export current wishlist/registry data (items, customer associations).
- Map loyalty and reward actions: identify which wishlist or registry behaviors should translate to points or rewards.
- Set up email and automation integrations to replace specialized alert flows (price-drop, restock).
- Configure UGC and review flows to continue capturing post-purchase feedback.
- Staging test: Implement on a staging theme and validate UX across devices.
- Monitor KPIs post-launch: wishlist-to-order rate, repeat purchase rate, and support ticket volume.
Growave’s enterprise and Growth plans include migration support and advanced onboarding, which can reduce migration friction. Merchants can explore plan options and onboarding services to plan the migration timeline. Consolidate retention features and compare plan capabilities.
Conclusion
For merchants choosing between Gift Reggie: Gift Registry and SE Wishlist Engine, the decision comes down to use case and desired outcomes. Gift Reggie is best for stores that need a registry-first experience—where event workflows, in-store redemption, and registry privacy matter most. SE Wishlist Engine is best for stores that want a low-friction wishlist with strong automation and email-driven reminders to convert saved items into sales.
If the goal is to reduce tool sprawl and build predictable repeat revenue via loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlists, a unified retention platform is worth considering. Consolidating features into a single stack reduces administrative overhead, improves cross-feature orchestration, and centralizes customer signals that drive lifetime value. Merchants ready to evaluate a consolidated approach can compare bundled options and pricing to the total cost of multiple single-purpose apps by reviewing plan details and trade-offs. Consolidate retention features and see how an integrated toolset performs compared to a stitched-together stack. For merchants who want to move from concept to implementation, install Growave from the Shopify App Store to test the combined feature set.
Start a 14-day free trial to test a unified retention stack that combines loyalty, wishlist, reviews, and referrals into one admin experience. Start a 14-day free trial
FAQ
Which app is better for wedding or baby registries?
For wedding and baby registries, Gift Reggie: Gift Registry is tailored specifically for those use cases. It includes registry creation, password protection, registry messaging, and POS support—features commonly required for event-driven gift purchasing. SE Wishlist Engine focuses on wishlist automation and lacks registry-first flows.
Can SE Wishlist Engine replace a registry for events?
SE Wishlist Engine can handle saved items and sharing, but it does not provide event-specific registry controls (guest management, password protection, POS registry redemption) that many event-based retailers require. For event registries, Gift Reggie is a more appropriate fit.
How does an all-in-one platform compare to specialized apps?
An all-in-one platform consolidates loyalty, wishlist, referrals, and reviews under one roof, reducing billing complexity, improving data cohesion, and enabling cross-feature automation (for example, rewarding wishlist saves). For merchants prioritizing lifetime value and simplified operations, a unified platform can deliver better long-term ROI than maintaining multiple single-purpose apps.
If a merchant already uses Klaviyo and has limited budget, which app should they try first?
Merchants on a limited budget who rely on Klaviyo should consider SE Wishlist Engine because of its freemium plan and direct Klaviyo integration, which enables wishlist-triggered email flows with minimal spend. If registries are not a core revenue driver, SE Wishlist Engine provides an affordable entry into wishlist-driven re-engagement.







