Growave vs. SWishlist: Loyalty & Wishlist Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right app for wishlists, loyalty, and customer retention is a frequent pain point for Shopify merchants. With hundreds of niche apps and a growing expectation for a seamless customer experience, merchants must balance functionality, cost, and long-term growth impact.

Short answer: Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist is best for merchants who want an integrated retention platform that combines wishlists with loyalty, referrals, and reviews to increase repeat purchases and lifetime value. SWishlist: Simple Wishlist is a focused, lightweight solution for stores that need a straightforward wishlist with fast setup and minimal monthly cost. For brands trying to avoid tool sprawl while scaling retention, an integrated approach often delivers better value for money and clearer growth outcomes.

This post provides a feature-by-feature comparison of Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist and SWishlist: Simple Wishlist to help merchants decide which app fits their priorities. The analysis covers core capabilities, pricing and value, integrations, customization, support, and recommended use cases, followed by a discussion of app fatigue and how a consolidated retention stack changes outcomes.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist vs. SWishlist: Simple Wishlist: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

What each app is trying to solve

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist is built to help merchants increase customer lifetime value (LTV) by combining multiple retention tools in one platform—loyalty programs, referral incentives, automated review collection, and wishlists. The goal is to create consistent customer touchpoints that encourage repeat purchases and build social proof.

SWishlist: Simple Wishlist focuses narrowly on the wishlist experience: letting shoppers save favorites, manage lists, and share them. It addresses the immediate conversion and engagement benefits of wishlists—wishlists reduce friction, encourage return visits, and provide signals for remarketing when stocked-out items return.

Core feature comparison

Wishlist functionality

Growave

• Persistent customer wishlists synced across devices when customers are logged in.
• Back-in-stock wishlist emails included on higher plans.
• Wishlist integrated into loyalty and account profiles, enabling cross-promotion (for example, reward points for adding wishlist items or sharing lists).
• Customizable display and the ability to tailor wishlist experience for headless or Shopify Plus stores.
• Works with checkout and POS flows for in-store loyalty capture.

SWishlist

• Quick setup focused on adding favorites and saving items.
• Shareable lists for social sharing or gifting scenarios.
• Multi-language storefront support on paid plans (up to 20 languages on Premium).
• Usage limits based on plan: Free limited to 300 additions per month; Premium offers unlimited additions.
• Simple UI, designed for frictionless shopper experience.

Analysis: For basic wishlist needs, SWishlist’s focused approach keeps the experience lightweight and cost-effective. For brands that want wishlists to feed loyalty, back-in-stock flows, and broader retention tactics, Growave’s wishlist is more strategic and integrated.

Loyalty and rewards

Growave

• Full loyalty and rewards suite with points, custom actions, VIP tiers, and point expiration.
• Advanced reward actions (custom behaviors) and dedicated loyalty pages on higher plans.
• POS loyalty QR and checkout extensions for omnichannel loyalty capture.
• Integrates loyalty with referrals and reviews so rewards can be earned across behaviors.
• Suitable for merchants planning long-term program complexity and segmentation.

SWishlist

• No native loyalty functionality. Focus remains on wishlist behavior.
• Can be paired with third-party loyalty apps, but that introduces additional cost and integration work.

Analysis: Growave is the clear option for merchants who need loyalty management as part of retention. SWishlist should only be chosen if loyalty is out of scope and a merchant is happy to add a separate loyalty solution.

Referral and advocacy tools

Growave

• Includes referrals and fraud protection (Entry plan onwards).
• Automated workflows that allow merchants to convert referrals into tracked orders.
• Referral incentives can work alongside loyalty programs and VIP tiers.

SWishlist

• No native referral features.

Analysis: Referral marketing is a native strength of Growave. SWishlist is silent on this front, so referral campaigns would require another app—adding to tool sprawl.

Reviews, UGC, and social proof

Growave

• Reviews and UGC tools with automated review-request emails, review attributes, Google Shopping Reviews integration, and Instagram UGC capabilities.
• Review collection can be incentivized through loyalty points and tied to account profiles.
• Review automation and display options are built into the same platform.

SWishlist

• Not a review collection tool; no native UGC features.

Analysis: Growave provides an end-to-end solution for collecting and showcasing reviews and UGC. For merchants who rely on social proof, Growave reduces the number of discrete tools required.

Customization and storefront experience

Growave

• Extensive customization, including loyalty pages, checkout and account extensions, and headless API/SDK on Plus.
• Merchants can tailor branding, layouts, and integrations to match store design and UX flows.
• Offers design support and enterprise-level customization on higher plans.

SWishlist

• Customizable widget to match store design.
• Free setup for up to two themes, paid plans expand language options.
• Simpler customization model aimed at fast implementation without heavy developer resources.

Analysis: SWishlist is easier and faster to theme-match for basic wishlist needs. Growave provides deeper customizability for merchants that need loyalty pages, checkout-level experiences, or headless implementations.

Integrations and technical compatibility

Growave

• Broad out-of-the-box integrations with email, customer support, payments and subscription tools (e.g., Klaviyo, Omnisend, Gorgias, Recharge).
• Works with Shopify Flow, Shopify POS, checkout extensions, and many page builders.
• Designed to fit into a larger martech stack while replacing several retention-focused point solutions.

SWishlist

• API available for integrations.
• Simpler integration surface; less emphasis on third-party marketing and support tools.

Analysis: Growave aims to be a central retention hub that plugs into the rest of the stack. SWishlist offers lighter integration, suitable for merchants with straightforward needs or teams that prefer to keep wishlist functionality isolated.

Pricing & Value

A pricing comparison must consider not just sticker price but what features and outcomes are being purchased.

Growave

• Free plan: Basic loyalty, wishlist, reviews; 100 orders/month cap (500 total orders).
• Entry: $49/month — advanced rewards, referral program, nudges, review email series, +1 integration, 24/7 email support.
• Growth: $199/month — VIP tiers, dedicated loyalty pages, POS loyalty QR, points expiration, Google Shopping Reviews, back-in-stock wishlist emails.
• Plus: $499/month — checkout extensions, API & SDK for headless, unlimited integrations, customer success manager and launch plan.

SWishlist

• Free: 300 wishlist additions/month, 2 languages, setup for up to 2 themes, 24–48 hour support.
• Basic: $5/month — 7,000 wishlist additions, 7 storefront languages, faster support.
• Premium: $12/month — unlimited wishlist additions, 20 languages, full statistics, priority support.

Value perspective

• SWishlist offers low-cost access to wishlist functionality, and Premium’s $12/month for unlimited additions is excellent value for pure wishlist needs.
• Growave’s pricing reflects the combined value of multiple retention features. For merchants that would otherwise buy separate apps for loyalty, referrals, and reviews, Growave can represent better value for money by consolidating those capabilities into one subscription and reducing integration overhead.
• The Free plan differences are notable: SWishlist’s free tier is generous for wishlist activity, while Growave’s free tier is constrained by order limits but includes loyalty and review basics.

Recommendation by budget:

• Tight budgets that only need wishlists: SWishlist is compelling.
• Merchants wanting a retention suite and long-term growth: Growave typically delivers better value for money.

Integrations and ecosystem fit

Growave

• Native integrations with major email, support, and subscription tools help align retention programs with broader marketing workflows.
• Designed to play well with Shopify Plus, checkout/pos flows, and headless storefronts.
• The breadth of integrations reduces the need for glue code and manual syncing.

SWishlist

• API-first approach allows custom integrations, but fewer out-of-the-box connectors.
• Ideal for merchants who want a wishlist-only solution and are comfortable building custom connections if needed.

Integration takeaways

• If a merchant uses Klaviyo, Omnisend, Recharge, or Gorgias and wants wishlist and loyalty data to flow into those systems, Growave has a clear advantage.
• If a merchant’s stack is minimal and the wishlist is a single, isolated feature, SWishlist keeps the technical footprint small.

Onboarding, support & documentation

Growave

• 24/7 technical support available on many plans; dedicated customer success and account managers for Plus.
• Onboarding and documentation geared toward merchants building multi-feature retention programs.
• Offerings include live chat, email, phone (on Plus), and a dedicated launch plan for enterprise customers.

SWishlist

• Support windows vary by plan: Free 24–48 hours; Basic 12–24 hours; Premium top priority.
• Setup assistance for up to two themes included in free plan, which speeds implementation for common stores.

Support takeaways

• Growave’s higher-tier support and CSM options are important for merchants launching complex loyalty or cross-channel programs.
• SWishlist’s support is fast and sufficient for wishlist setup but not aimed at orchestrating multi-app retention strategies.

Reporting, analytics & measurement

Growave

• Reporting spans loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlist behaviors—allowing merchants to correlate points-earning behaviors with revenue.
• Priority plans include enhanced analytics and custom reporting surfaces.
• Ability to push event-level data into analytics tools and email platforms using integrations and APIs.

SWishlist

• Premium plan includes unrestricted access to wishlist statistics and exportable data.
• Useful for tracking wishlist additions, shares, and conversion lift from wishlist-originated traffic.

Measurement takeaways

• Growave’s cross-product analytics helps tie retention tactics directly to revenue and LTV.
• SWishlist provides clear wishlist metrics; merchants will need separate analytics to stitch wishlist actions to purchase behavior if they want a full growth picture.

Performance, stability & scale

Growave

• Built for Shopify Plus and high-growth merchants; includes performance considerations for headless and checkout-level extensions.
• Plus plan provides API and SDK access for more complex implementations.

SWishlist

• Lightweight footprint designed to work reliably for stores of varying sizes.
• Limits on events in lower plans may be a constraint for very high-traffic stores—Premium removes those limits.

Stability takeaways

• Both apps are rated highly by users; Growave’s architecture and Plus features aim at enterprises and scaling merchants, while SWishlist’s simplicity reduces surface area for performance issues.

Security, privacy & compliance

Growave

• Works with checkout, POS, and customer accounts; built to handle customer data responsibly and to integrate into compliant stacks.
• Enterprise plans offer more control for merchants with strict data policies.

SWishlist

• API connectivity and data export capabilities let merchants control data flows.
• Simpler scope reduces risk surface, but merchants must consider data residency and export if combining with other apps.

Security takeaways

• Both present reasonable security postures for their scope. Merchants with specific compliance needs should verify data handling and contractual terms with either vendor.

Ideal use cases

Growave is best for merchants that:

• Want a single platform to manage loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlists.
• Plan to grow LTV and want integrated multi-channel retention.
• Use advanced integrations (Klaviyo, Recharge) and need checkout/POS loyalty capture.
• Want enterprise-level support and customization down the road.

SWishlist is best for merchants that:

• Only need wishlist functionality and prefer a lightweight, low-cost solution.
• Want fast setup with basic customization and multilingual storefronts on a small budget.
• Prefer to add other retention tools later or use different vendors for loyalty and reviews.

Pros and cons (summary bullets)

Growave — Pros

• Multi-feature retention platform that reduces tool stacking.
• Strong integrations for marketing and subscriptions.
• Scales to Shopify Plus with checkout and headless support.
• Robust reporting tying actions to revenue.

Growave — Cons

• Higher-priced tiers are an investment; not ideal if wishlist is the only need.
• Free plan has order limits that may not suit larger stores.

SWishlist — Pros

• Very affordable, especially for brands wanting wishlist-only capability.
• Straightforward setup and theme matching.
• Multi-language support and shareable lists.

SWishlist — Cons

• Lacks loyalty, referrals, and reviews—requires additional apps for full retention.
• Less integrated reporting across customer behaviors and revenue.

Implementation and migration considerations

Installing and testing

• For both apps, test wishlists on desktop and mobile. Ensure persistent sessions and cross-device sync are configured correctly for logged-in users (Growave) or cookie-based persistence (SWishlist).
• Confirm design consistency: test with multiple product templates and collection pages.

Data migration and customer accounts

• Growave ties wishlists to customer accounts, making migration from older wishlist apps easier if customers are tracked via email. It also supports data imports/exports.
• SWishlist provides data export and API tools; migrating large datasets will require mapping and possibly developer support.

Combining apps vs consolidating

• Adding SWishlist plus a separate loyalty app increases overhead: integration mapping, billing, and potential duplication of notifications.
• Consolidating into Growave can reduce maintenance friction and centralize customer behavior tracking, but requires alignment on program rules and content.

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

App fatigue is real. Many merchants start with single-purpose apps—wishlists here, loyalty there, and a review tool somewhere else. Over time, multiple billing cycles, inconsistent user experiences, and fractured data make it harder to measure true growth impact. The consequence is increased operational complexity, slower experiments, and lower marginal returns from retention programs.

An all-in-one retention platform reduces those pain points by centralizing customer touchpoints. A single provider maintains consistent branding, consolidated analytics, and unified workflows for incentives and messages. This approach saves time and aligns retention programs around measurable outcomes like repeat purchase rate and average order value.

Growave’s philosophy—More Growth, Less Stack—aims to address app fatigue by combining essential retention tools into one platform. Merchants can build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases while keeping wishlist, referrals, and reviews under the same roof. That consolidation reduces friction for both technical teams and marketers.

Contextual advantages of consolidation

• Single source of truth: points, reviews, wishlist behavior, and referral attributions live in one dataset.
• Cross-product incentives: reward customers for leaving a review, referring friends, or sharing a wishlist without integrating separate apps.
• Faster testing: launch incremental loyalty rules or referral campaigns without coordinating multiple vendors or redundant QA cycles.

Examples of integrated value (how features interact)

• Reward points for writing product reviews and then showcase those reviews with your social gallery—this ties collect and showcase authentic reviews directly to retention incentives.
• Use wishlist back-in-stock triggers that are already connected to loyalty profiles for targeted re-engagement messages.
• For Shopify Plus merchants, checkout extensions and account pages allow loyalty interactions at the moment of purchase—reducing friction and improving conversion rates on reward redemptions. See why consolidating retention features can matter for enterprise needs and learn about solutions for high-growth Plus brands.

How consolidation affects technical and business workflows

• Marketing automation: send loyalty point notifications and review requests from a single integration with your ESP, avoiding duplicate triggers.
• Customer support: agents can view a user’s loyalty status, wishlist, and referral history in one interface—speeding resolution and eligibility checks.
• Reporting and LTV: unify attribution so that tests measure increases in repeat purchase behavior rather than incremental clicks across disparate tools.

Growave integrates with common tools used by merchants, which reduces custom development and streamlines campaign orchestration. These integrations make it straightforward to push loyalty and wishlist events into email sequences or CRM systems, enabling more personalized and revenue-focused follow-ups.

For merchants evaluating consolidation, compare ongoing costs and operational overhead. Add up subscriptions, engineering time to maintain integrations, and the opportunity cost of delayed experiments. In many scenarios, a single vendor that supports loyalty, reviews, referrals, and wishlists can offer better value for money than multiple best-of-breed apps—especially when those apps overlap in features or require frequent coordination.

For more details on how consolidation translates into pricing and implementation choices, merchants can compare plans and limits and see where consolidation yields faster value by visiting Growave’s pricing page or installing directly from the Shopify ecosystem. Explore how to consolidate retention features and where to install from the Shopify App Store.

How Growave’s feature set addresses app fatigue

Growave bundles critical retention capabilities into a single suite:

• Loyalty & rewards programs with VIP tiers and custom reward actions that work across website, checkout, and POS.
• Referral tracking and fraud protection, reducing the need for a separate referral app.
• Review automation and UGC tools to collect and display social proof without a third-party review provider.
• Wishlist functionality that directly ties into loyalty and back-in-stock flows.

These features are not just stitched together; they are designed to share identities, event data, and reward logic. For merchants who want to see how combined features accelerate growth, there are customer stories and examples available that show how integrated programs led to measurable increases in repeat purchase rate and average order value. For inspiration, brands can explore customer stories from brands scaling retention.

Practical steps to move from multiple apps to a consolidated approach

• Audit existing tools: list what each app provides and where features overlap.
• Prioritize high-impact outcomes: focus first on loyalty behaviors tied to revenue.
• Map customer journeys: identify where wishlist, referral, and review interactions occur.
• Pilot consolidation on a single customer segment: test unified rules for a VIP group.
• Measure before-and-after: compare repeat purchase rate and redemption behavior over a defined period.

If a merchant wants a guided walkthrough of how consolidation reduces complexity and improves KPIs, a demo can be scheduled to show integrated flows and return projections. Request a tailored session to see how a unified stack improves retention and reduces operational overhead by booking a demo.

Important contextual links for planning and next steps

• To evaluate pricing and plan fit for consolidation, review options to consolidate retention features.
• To see how loyalty mechanics work in practice and how they drive repeat purchases, examine loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases.
• To understand how review automation and UGC can be centrally managed, read about how to collect and showcase authentic reviews.
• For merchants on Shopify Plus, consider specific implementation options and checkout-level extensions described in solutions for high-growth Plus brands.

Migration and operational checklist

• Back up customer, wishlist, and loyalty data before changes.
• Coordinate email and review request schedules to avoid sending duplicate messages during migration.
• Test edge cases (guest checkout wishlists, multiple store languages, subscription product wishlists).
• Review GDPR and privacy implications when consolidating event streams and customer data.
• Communicate changes to customers—introduce new loyalty benefits or wishlist capabilities early to drive adoption.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist and SWishlist: Simple Wishlist, the decision comes down to scope and long-term growth priorities. SWishlist is an excellent, low-cost choice for brands that only need a straightforward wishlist with quick setup and multi-language support. Growave is better suited to merchants that want a unified retention strategy—combining loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlists—to drive repeat purchases and improve lifetime value.

For merchants dealing with tool sprawl, an integrated platform reduces operational overhead, improves measurement, and aligns incentives across marketing and customer experience. Compare plans to determine which consolidation option fits the store’s scale and growth plan by reviewing how to consolidate retention features. Merchants building loyalty and review programs that tie directly to revenue can learn how to collect and showcase authentic reviews and design loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases. Learn about specialized Shopify Plus capabilities and enterprise onboarding at solutions for high-growth Plus brands.

Start a 14-day free trial to see whether consolidating retention into one platform reduces complexity and accelerates growth.

FAQ

Q: Which app is better for a store that only needs wishlist functionality?

• A: SWishlist is a strong, cost-effective choice for stores that only need wishlists. Its low monthly price and Premium unlimited additions option make it ideal when wishlist is the only priority. If long-term loyalty, referrals, or reviews are in scope, a consolidated platform like Growave offers better long-term value.

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

• A: An all-in-one platform centralizes customer data and retention rules, reducing integration work and improving cross-channel measurement. Specialized apps can offer depth and potentially lower costs for a single feature, but they increase maintenance and complicate attribution when multiple systems must be coordinated for a single campaign.

Q: Is Growave more expensive than SWishlist?

• A: Growave’s pricing rises with feature breadth and scale, while SWishlist’s pricing is lower for wishlist-only needs. Comparing total cost of ownership is essential—if a merchant would need separate loyalty, referral, and review apps in addition to a wishlist, Growave may deliver better value for money by consolidating those functions.

Q: What should merchants test before deciding?

• A: Test wishlist behavior across devices, measure wishlist-to-purchase conversion, and model the value of loyalty-driven repeat purchases. If possible, run a short pilot that measures repeat purchase lift when wishlists are tied to loyalty or automated review incentives.