Growave vs. WC Wishlist Club: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right app to capture wishlists, boost repeat purchases, and build customer loyalty is a common pain point for Shopify merchants. Many stores default to single-purpose tools that promise quick wins, but those tools can add complexity and hidden costs as a store scales. This comparison looks closely at two apps merchants often evaluate for wishlists and retention: Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist and WC Wishlist Club.

Short answer: Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist is a multi-tool retention platform suited to merchants who want loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlist features combined into a single, scalable system; it offers enterprise-grade features and deeper integrations. WC Wishlist Club is an excellent lightweight wishlist specialist that provides focused wishlist functionality with strong price-drop and restock alerts at a low monthly cost. For merchants prioritizing a compact tech stack and long-term retention, Growave usually offers better value for money; for stores that only need wishlist features and minimal overhead, WC Wishlist Club can be a practical choice.

This post provides an in-depth, feature-by-feature comparison to help merchants decide which app aligns with immediate goals and long-term growth plans.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist vs. WC Wishlist Club: At a Glance

Head-to-Head Deep Dive

The following sections compare the two apps across the criteria most merchants care about: core features, pricing and value, integrations, customization and UX, support, reporting and analytics, scalability and performance, implementation, and recommended use cases.

Features

Wishlist Core Functionality

Growave:

• Offers a native wishlist component that supports guest and logged-in users depending on plan and configuration.
• Includes back-in-stock emails tied into wishlist behavior (prominent on Growth and Plus plans).
• Wishlist UI is integrated with other Growave modules, enabling cohesive reward nudges for wishlist actions.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Focuses intensively on wishlist features: guest wishlists, multiple wishlists per user, sharing options, and wishlist icons on Home, Collection, and Product pages.
• Strong built-in alerts: price-drop, restock, and back-in-stock notifications sent via email.
• Auto reminder emails for wishlist items to encourage AOV increases.
• Designed specifically to maximize wishlist-driven conversions.

Analysis:

• If wishlist capability is the sole requirement, WC Wishlist Club provides more wishlist-focused controls out of the box and at a lower price point.
• If wishlist behavior needs to be tied into loyalty or referral mechanics (e.g., award points for wishlist adds, convert wishlist to purchase via rewards), Growave’s integrated approach delivers additional leverage.

Loyalty & Rewards, VIP Tiers, and Referrals

Growave:

• Full-featured loyalty engine with points, tiers, VIP programs, and custom reward actions.
• Referral campaigns with fraud protection (Entry plan and above) and configurable incentives.
• POS loyalty support and checkout extensions for higher plans.
• Built to support complex loyalty strategies that increase lifetime value and repeat purchase frequency.

WC Wishlist Club:

• No native loyalty or referral features; strictly a wishlist and alert system.
• Merchants wanting loyalty must add a separate app, increasing stack complexity.

Analysis:

• Growave is the clear choice when loyalty programs, VIP tiers, and referrals are strategic priorities. It removes friction of coordinating multiple apps to achieve the same outcome.

Reviews & UGC

Growave:

• Reviews, automated review request sequences, and UGC collection are part of the product suite.
• Integrates review flows into loyalty and referral programs (e.g., reward points for leaving reviews).
• Features include review attributes, Google Shopping Reviews functionality, and Instagram UGC collection on higher plans.

WC Wishlist Club:

• No native reviews or UGC features.

Analysis:

• Merchants focused on building social proof and using reviews to convert visitors will prefer Growave for its integrated review automation.

Email Alerts and Automation

Growave:

• Review request email series and back-in-stock wishlist emails in the Entry and Growth plans.
• Customizable emails and limited integration skews depending on plan (Entry allows +1 integration like Klaviyo).

WC Wishlist Club:

• Offers customizable emails for price-drop, back-in-stock, and wishlist reminders at all tiers.
• Focused email flows tied specifically to wishlist events.

Analysis:

• For quickly turning wishlist events into conversion via straightforward alerts, WC Wishlist Club is efficient and cheaper.
• For more nuanced automation spanning reviews, loyalty, and wishlist events, Growave’s cross-product automations are more effective.

Customization & Theming

Growave:

• High degree of UI customization on higher plans; headless support through API & SDK available on Plus.
• Loyalty page customization and checkout extensions possible for Plus customers.

WC Wishlist Club:

• UI placement options available for icons (Home, Collection, Product pages).
• Enterprise tier offers custom design and feature builds.

Analysis:

• Both apps allow UI customization, but Growave scales better for brands that need bespoke loyalty page design, checkout integrations, or headless storefronts.

Pricing & Value

Price Tiers and Compare-Against-Value

Growave:

• Free plan: entry-level with Growave branding and limits (100 orders/month).
• Entry: $49/month — unlocks advanced rewards, referrals, nudges, review series, Shopify POS support, +1 integration, and 24/7 email support.
• Growth: $199/month — adds VIP tiers, dedicated loyalty page, points expiration, review attributes, Google Shopping Reviews, back-in-stock wishlist emails, higher order limits.
• Plus: $499/month — designed for enterprise/Plus merchants with checkout extensions, headless APIs/SDKs, custom reward actions, unlimited integrations, and CSM support.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Basic: $4.99/month — unlimited wishlists, back-in-stock, price-drop, import/export, guest/share, customizable emails.
• Pro: $9.99/month — same core wishlist features.
• Advance: $14.99/month — same core wishlist features with incremental support.
• Enterprise: $24.99/month — headless integration, Klaviyo/Mailchimp integration, custom design and feature builds.

Analysis:

• WC Wishlist Club is far less expensive for wishlist-only use cases. For stores that merely want wishlist and alerting features without loyalty or review needs, WC Wishlist Club is a lower monthly commitment.
• Growave’s pricing is higher but bundles multiple retention levers that would otherwise require several apps. For merchants planning to implement loyalty, referrals, and review automation, Growave tends to offer better value for money because it reduces app sprawl and integration overhead.

Free Plan and Trials

• Growave provides a Free plan suitable for evaluation or very small stores (limits apply and branding is present). Free trial availability reduces friction to test deeper features.
• WC Wishlist Club does not advertise a free plan; it offers low-cost tiers that functionally act as inexpensive trials.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Considerations

When calculating TCO, merchants should consider:

• Number of apps required to replicate Growave’s combined functionality (loyalty + reviews + referrals + wishlist).
• Integration and maintenance time for multiple single-purpose apps.
• Marginal revenue gains from integrated campaigns (e.g., awarding points for reviews).
• Support and SLA needs (Growave offers CSM and 24/7 support at higher tiers).

A store that starts with WC Wishlist Club and later adds separate loyalty and review apps may incur higher combined monthly fees and increased technical complexity.

Integrations & Ecosystem Compatibility

Growave:

• Integrates with a wide set of partners: Klaviyo, Omnisend, Gorgias, Recharge, Shopify POS, Page builders (Pagefly, GemPages), PushOwl, Postscript, and more.
• Built-in compatibility with Shopify Plus features and Shopify Flow.
• Headless and API/SDK support on Plus plan for custom storefronts.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Integrates with Klaviyo and Mailchimp for email automation.
• Works with Shopify customer accounts and standard Shopify storefront setups.

Analysis:

• Growave’s broader integration list appeals to stores with larger stacks or advanced marketing automation needs. If Klaviyo or other ESPs are central, both apps integrate, but Growave connects to more downstream tools and workflows.
• For stores wanting a plug-and-play wishlist with Klaviyo support, WC Wishlist Club is sufficient.

User Experience & Customization

Merchant Admin Experience

Growave:

• Designed to manage multiple programs from one control panel: loyalty, referral, reviews, and wishlist.
• Setup complexity rises with features, but onboarding and higher-tier support are available.
• Templates and prebuilt automations speed up setup for common use cases.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Simpler admin focused on wishlist settings, email templates, and alert configuration.
• Lower learning curve and quicker time-to-live for wishlist functionality.

Analysis:

• Merchants that prefer a single control surface for multiple retention tactics will appreciate Growave.
• Merchants with minimal tech resources and only wishlist needs will appreciate WC Wishlist Club’s simplicity.

Customer-Facing Widgets

Growave:

• Widgets are integrated across product pages and can be tied to loyalty/profile features.
• Advanced customization available on Growth and Plus plans.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Clear, visible wishlist icons across product, collection, and home pages with straightforward share and guest features.
• Effective callouts for price-drop and back-in-stock alerts.

Analysis:

• WC Wishlist Club can provide a more immediately polished wishlist widget with minimal setup.
• Growave’s widgets become more powerful when combined with loyalty prompts and referral nudges.

Support & Documentation

Growave:

• 48-hour email support on Free plan, 24/7 email support on Entry and above, and live chat/phone on Plus.
• Dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) on Plus plan.
• World-class documentation and onboarding options, including 5-star onboarding on Growth.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Email support and what appears to be responsive developer support.
• Enterprise tier includes custom feature builds and design services.

Analysis:

• For merchants who expect high-touch onboarding, SLAs, and a partner-oriented relationship, Growave’s higher-tier support options are attractive.
• Smaller merchants who only need occasional help will find WC Wishlist Club’s support adequate.

Reporting & Analytics

Growave:

• Reporting spans loyalty program ROI, referral conversions, review-driven conversion uplift, and wishlist behaviors when combined with other modules.
• Integrations with analytics stacks and ESPs enable deeper segmentation and conversion tracking.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Offers analytics focused on wishlist trends, product-level wishlist counts, and user wishlist lists to inform merchandising and remarketing.
• Sufficient for tracking wishlist-driven engagement but not designed to calculate multi-channel LTV uplift.

Analysis:

• Growave provides broader retention analytics; WC Wishlist Club offers targeted wishlist insights. Choice depends on whether reporting should tie into broader LTV metrics.

Performance, Scalability & Reliability

Growave:

• Built to support stores that scale to Shopify Plus and require checkout extensions and headless architecture.
• Higher plans include API/SDK access designed for performance-critical integrations.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Lightweight and fast for standard Shopify stores.
• Enterprise plan includes headless support for more advanced storefronts.

Analysis:

• Both apps can scale, but Growave’s Plus tier has explicit enterprise features and support for complex storefronts and checkout-level integrations.

Security & Privacy

Both apps operate within Shopify’s ecosystem and adhere to Shopify app store policies regarding data access. Merchants considering either app should review:

• Data retention policies
• How customer emails and wishlist data are stored and exported
• Any third-party integrations that receive customer data (e.g., Klaviyo)

Growave’s higher-tier enterprise options typically include more formal support for compliance and security needs for larger merchants.

Implementation & Migration

Growave:

• Implementation time varies with chosen feature depth; basic wishlist and loyalty setup can be quick, while headless or checkout integrations require more time.
• Migration documentation and onboarding support available for Growth and Plus customers.

WC Wishlist Club:

• Fast to implement for wishlist features; minimal configuration needed to enable guest and share wishlists and alerts.
• Export/import features facilitate migrating wishlist data from other apps.

Analysis:

• For a fast wishlist-only rollout, WC Wishlist Club is likely quicker.
• For consolidating multiple retention features into one platform, initial implementation time for Growave may be higher but reduces long-term overhead.

Pros and Cons Summary

Growave: Pros

• Integrated retention stack (loyalty, referrals, reviews, wishlist).
• Strong integrations with marketing and customer support tools.
• Scales to Shopify Plus and headless storefronts.
• Robust support options and enterprise features.

Growave: Cons

• Higher monthly cost compared with wishlist-only apps.
• Setup can be more involved if only wishlist features are required.

WC Wishlist Club: Pros

• Extremely affordable and focused on wishlist features.
• Strong price-drop and restock alerts with customizable emails.
• Easy setup and lightweight footprint.

WC Wishlist Club: Cons

• No native loyalty, referral, or review features.
• Limited to wishlist-focused analytics and integrations.

Use Cases and Recommendations

• Brands that only need wishlist features and minimal complexity:
  • Small merchants, pop-up shops, and stores with simple promotional needs will get excellent value from WC Wishlist Club at $4.99–$14.99/month.
• Brands that want to build loyalty and reduce tech stack complexity:
  • Merchants planning to implement loyalty programs, referral campaigns, and review automation should evaluate Growave for its combined capabilities and deeper integrations.
• Merchants preparing to scale to Shopify Plus or adopting headless architectures:
  • Growave’s Plus tier and headless APIs make it a better match for technical, growth-oriented stores.
• Stores trying to maximize immediate conversions from wishlist events:
  • WC Wishlist Club’s reminders, price-drop alerts, and shareable lists are designed to produce fast wins on average order value and return visits.

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

Many merchants reach a crossroads after installing multiple single-purpose apps: wishlist, loyalty, reviews, referral, and email automation tools each add monthly cost, overlapping functionality, and integration work. This condition — often called “app fatigue” — increases engineering and operational overhead, causes fragmented data, and makes it harder to measure the true impact of retention programs.

An alternative is to consolidate retention features onto a single platform that manages loyalty, referrals, reviews, UGC, and wishlist behavior together. This reduces the number of vendors to manage, eliminates duplicate data flows, and makes experimentation faster.

Growave follows the "More Growth, Less Stack" principle to address app fatigue by combining multiple retention levers into one product suite. Merchants can consolidate retention features into a single billing and integration surface, reducing headaches from multiple apps. For merchants evaluating consolidation, these aspects are especially relevant:

• Cross-function automation: Growave enables workflows that reward wishlist actions with points, trigger review requests after purchases, and link referrals to VIP tiers.
• Single customer profile: Wishlist activity, review submissions, and loyalty status can be seen together, allowing richer segmentation in ESPs and CRM systems.
• Centralized integrations: Rather than wiring each tool separately to Klaviyo, Gorgias, or Recharge, Growave connects once and pushes unified events downstream.

Merchants looking to evaluate consolidation can explore pricing plans and see how tightly features are bundled by visiting a page that explains how to consolidate retention features into one plan (consolidate retention features). This helps estimate comparative cost versus maintaining multiple apps.

Growave also emphasizes specific, outcome-driven capabilities that matter for retention:

• Loyalty & rewards that drive repeat purchases: Growave’s loyalty engine supports points, tiers, and custom reward actions to meaningfully increase customer lifetime value (loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases).
• Collect and showcase authentic reviews: Automated review requests, review attributes, and Google Shopping Reviews make it simpler to gather and display the social proof that converts shoppers (collect and showcase authentic reviews).

For merchants considering a platform designed for scaling, Growave provides targeted solutions for larger merchants, such as checkout extensions and account-level integrations built for enterprise needs (solutions for high-growth Plus brands).

Practical considerations when choosing consolidation:

• Short-term needs vs. long-term strategy: If the immediate objective is only wishlist alerts with minimal cost, WC Wishlist Club is efficient. If the goal includes increasing repeat purchase rate and lifetime value, consolidation becomes more compelling.
• Data portability and exports: Both approaches should support clean exports. Growave includes data import/export features and centralized reporting to assist analytics teams.
• Onboarding and technical support: Consolidation requires upfront planning; merchants that prefer a partner relationship should evaluate vendor support tiers and success plans.

Because consolidation can feel like a commitment, merchants often test consolidation via a staged approach: start with wishlist + reviews, then layer in loyalty and referrals as ROI becomes measurable. For more merchant stories and examples of how consolidation helped brands scale retention, see real customer examples that highlight outcomes from an integrated retention stack (customer stories from brands scaling retention).

Merchants who want to evaluate Growave further can:

• Review plan comparisons and estimate consolidation costs on the pricing page (consolidate retention features).
• Install directly from the Shopify App Store for a quick test drive (install Growave from the Shopify App Store).
• Learn how loyalty mechanics and automated reviews work together by exploring product pages for specific features: loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and collect and showcase authentic reviews.

Note: These contextual links let merchants compare consolidation scenarios side-by-side with the current costs of using multiple single-purpose apps.

Final Comparison: Which App Is Best For Which Merchant?

• Best for wishlist-only needs and tight budgets:
  • WC Wishlist Club. It provides reliable wishlist widgets, shareable lists, and price-drop/restock alerts at a very low monthly cost. Ideal for smaller merchants or those who only want wishlist-driven email reminders.
• Best for merchants focused on retention, LTV, and long-term growth:
  • Growave. When loyalty programs, reviews, referrals, and wishlist features need to work together, Growave offers an integrated toolkit that reduces app sprawl and improves cross-functional automation.
• Best for enterprise or Plus merchants:
  • Growave Plus. Checkout extensions, headless support, dedicated CSMs, and unlimited integrations suit high-growth brands with complex needs.
• Best for fast setup and minimal maintenance:
  • WC Wishlist Club. Setup is typically faster for just wishlist functionality.

For merchants choosing between Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist and WC Wishlist Club, the decision comes down to whether wishlist functionality alone satisfies the business need (WC Wishlist Club) or whether a consolidated retention strategy that ties loyalty, reviews, and referrals together offers longer-term upside (Growave).

For those who want to reduce tool sprawl and make retention easier to manage, Growave provides a clear path to combine loyalty, wishlist, review, and referral features in one platform. Merchants can compare plans and estimate consolidation costs by reviewing how to consolidate retention features. Install and test directly from the Shopify App Store to evaluate fit (install Growave from the Shopify App Store).

Start a 14-day free trial to see how a unified retention stack reduces tech overhead and improves repeat purchase metrics. (consolidate retention features)

FAQ

Q: How do Growave and WC Wishlist Club compare on pricing and value for money?

• WC Wishlist Club is significantly cheaper for wishlist-only use cases, with plans starting at $4.99/month. Growave's pricing starts at $0 (limited free plan) and scales to enterprise pricing for combined loyalty, reviews, referrals, and wishlist features. When accounting for the cost of multiple single-purpose apps required to replicate Growave’s functionality, Growave often represents better value for money for merchants focused on retention and LTV.

Q: Which app offers better wishlist alerting (back-in-stock, price-drop) and reminder emails?

• WC Wishlist Club specializes in wishlist alerts and automated emails and provides robust out-of-the-box price-drop and restock notifications. Growave supports back-in-stock wishlist emails and integrates those alerts into broader automations; for highly targeted wishlist emails on a tight budget, WC Wishlist Club is efficient, but for cross-channel automation, Growave is stronger.

Q: 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 simplifies measurement of retention programs. Specialized apps can be cheaper and faster to implement for narrow use cases, but they add technical overhead when multiple tools are needed. An integrated platform like Growave is designed to coordinate loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlist signals to improve lifetime value more predictably.

Q: What should a merchant consider when deciding between immediate cost savings and long-term retention strategy?

• Consider immediate needs (single feature vs. multiple retention levers), expected growth trajectory, the complexity of the tech stack, available developer resources, and the ability to measure ROI across combined programs. If the store expects to scale its retention efforts beyond simple wishlist reminders, consolidating onto a platform with loyalty and review automation will likely save time and money in the long run.