K Wish List‑Advanced Wishlist vs. SE Wishlist Engine: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right wishlist app is a small decision that can have an outsized impact on conversion rates, repeat visits, and customer lifetime value. Many Shopify merchants face the same question: use a lightweight wishlist focused on saves and sharing, or adopt a more feature-rich wishlist with reminders and automation? This comparison breaks down the differences so merchants can decide based on business needs, not marketing claims.

Short answer: K Wish List‑Advanced Wishlist is an excellent choice for merchants who need a simple, fast wishlist with clean UI and basic sharing and customization features; SE Wishlist Engine is better suited for merchants who want built-in reminders, price and restock alerts, and deeper email automation. For merchants who want to reduce tool sprawl and manage retention holistically, a consolidated platform can deliver better value — Growave combines wishlist functionality with loyalty, referrals, and reviews to improve long-term retention and lifetime value.

Purpose: This post provides a feature-by-feature, practical comparison of K Wish List‑Advanced Wishlist (Kaktus) and SE Wishlist Engine (Script Engine). It covers features, pricing, integrations, implementation, and use cases, and then explains how an integrated retention suite addresses the limits of single-purpose wishlist apps.

K Wish List‑Advanced Wishlist vs. SE Wishlist Engine: At a Glance

Feature Comparison

Wishlist Creation & Display

K Wish List‑Advanced Wishlist

K Wish List focuses on straightforward customer experience. The app provides multiple UI entry points — floating button, header icon, and add-to-wishlist buttons on product pages. Wishlists can be shown as a dedicated page, popup, or embedded component. Customizable labels, icons, and colors let merchants match the look with limited effort. The setup is promoted as “minutes with no coding required,” which aligns with the lightweight nature of the app.

Strengths:

• Fast setup and minimal customization friction.
• Multiple display options (floating button, page, popup).
• Social sharing built-in for gift and event use cases.

Limitations:

• Core feature set centers on save/share UX; fewer native automations or alerts.
• No native price-drop or restock notification features in the free plan.

SE Wishlist Engine

SE Wishlist Engine offers both the UI controls expected of wishlist apps and a stronger set of actionable features. It supports wishlist items across variants, a wishlist page/popup, and social sharing. The real differentiator is the built-in event-driven functionality: price drop alerts, restock notifications, low-stock reminders, product recommendations based on wishlist behavior, and import/export capabilities.

Strengths:

• Alerts and reminders turn intent into conversions.
• Guest wishlist option removes friction for non-logged users.
• Variant detection and product recommendations tie saved items to behavior.

Limitations:

• Slightly more configuration required to tune alerts and email templates.
• Merchants relying only on saves without intent follow-up may underuse the app’s power.

Customer Experience (UX) & Accessibility

K Wish List emphasizes a clean, brandable experience. The float button and header icon are familiar to shoppers and minimize cognitive load during browsing. Customization options for labels and icons are good for matching theme aesthetics. For stores where visual continuity and low friction are priorities (gift centers, seasonal catalogs), K Wish List’s UX works well.

SE Wishlist Engine adds UX depth by supporting guest wishlists and variant-level saves. The app also supports multi-language on higher plans, which improves accessibility for global audiences. The presence of reminder emails and alerts can improve perceived helpfulness for customers tracking desired items.

Accessibility considerations:

• Both apps provide UI elements that are standard and recognizable.
• SE Wishlist Engine’s multi-language and multi-currency options (Premium plan) are better for international storefronts.
• K Wish List’s simplicity reduces risk of broken UI when merchants use complex themes or page builders.

Notifications, Automation & Email

K Wish List delivers basic notifications (add-to-wishlist confirmations) and social sharing. It tracks wishlist usage to offer merchant insights, but lacks native price-drop or restock email automations in its publicly described feature set.

SE Wishlist Engine emphasizes converting wishlist behavior into sales. On Advanced and Premium plans, the app offers:

• Price drop and restock alerts.
• Low-stock reminders and wishlist reminders.
• Unlimited customizable emails (Advanced plan).
• Integrations with Klaviyo and Facebook Pixel to feed wishlist events into broader automation flows.

For merchants prioritizing revenue from saved items, SE Wishlist Engine affords powerful native options for turning intent into purchase without building custom flows.

Integrations & Ecosystem Compatibility

K Wish List lists "Checkout" in the Works With field and focuses on minimal integration complexity. The app works alongside typical Shopify themes and uses native page or popup display options. It’s likely to be compatible with many page builders, but merchants relying on advanced automation will need to pair it with email platforms and analytics tools through additional apps.

SE Wishlist Engine integrates with key systems merchants commonly rely on:

• Klaviyo integration for advanced email sequencing and segmentation.
• Facebook Pixel to capture save events for ads and retargeting.
• PageFly compatibility and explicit support for customer accounts.

If the wishlist must be a signal in a broader personalization or retention program, SE Wishlist Engine is the more integration-ready option.

Analytics & Reporting

K Wish List includes tracking of wishlist usage to help merchants understand product interest. The level of actionable analytics appears basic — counts of saves, shares, and customer wishlist lists.

SE Wishlist Engine differentiates with "basic" and "advanced" insight tiers depending on the plan. Advanced analytics cover which products are most saved, who saved them, and actionable metrics that inform targeted outreach. For merchants running frequent promos or wanting to align inventory planning with intent signals, SE’s reporting has more to offer.

Pricing & Value

Both apps provide free tiers, but the limits and value propositions differ.

K Wish List Pricing Snapshot:

• Free: Saves, float button, header icon, add-to-wishlist notifications, social sharing, popup/embedded wishlist, customer wishlists, support.
• Growth: $6.70/month — identical feature list in provided data (likely removes some branding or adds higher limits).
• Growth 2: $19.99/month — same core features at a higher price point (merchant should clarify incremental benefits in the app listing).

SE Wishlist Engine Pricing Snapshot:

• Free Plan: Free up to 100 wishlist items, button/icon customization, variant detection, wishlist page/popup, social sharing, language support, basic insights.
• Basic Plan: $7.99/month — unlimited wishlists, hide branding, improved customization.
• Advanced Plan: $14.99/month — price drop/restock alerts, low-stock alerts, product recommendations, import/export, unlimited emails, Klaviyo/Facebook Pixel integration, advanced insights.
• Premium Plan: $21.99/month — adds multi-language/currency, multi-language email templates, and product recommendations.

Practical value assessment:

• K Wish List is cost-effective for merchants who only need UI-level wishlist functionality and want a very low-cost option. The free plan already covers many storefront basics.
• SE Wishlist Engine delivers better value for merchants who want automation and event-driven conversions tied to wishlists. The Advanced plan ($14.99) provides features that would otherwise require a separate email automation tool or custom development.

Avoid saying "cheaper"; instead consider "better value for money." For stores where wishlist events should trigger measurable revenue like price drop emails, SE Wishlist Engine offers better value for money than a UI-only solution combined with third-party automation (because it bundles the functionality). Conversely, for stores focused on aesthetic and simple saves, K Wish List provides strong value for money.

Integrations with Marketing & Email Platforms

SE Wishlist Engine’s built-in integrations with Klaviyo and Facebook Pixel let wishlist events feed into segmentation and ad targeting. That reduces friction for merchants who already run email and paid media campaigns and want wishlist signals routed into those flows.

K Wish List can work alongside email platforms, but merchants will need to build custom triggers or rely on the app’s export/insight features to pass wishlist data into automation tools. That means extra setup work and potential third-party connectors.

For merchants who use Klaviyo or Facebook Ads heavily, SE Wishlist Engine offers a cleaner path to tie wishlist behavior into marketing execution.

Guest Wishlist & Account Handling

K Wish List supports customer wishlists but the data model and guest wishlist behavior are not highlighted as prominently. SE Wishlist Engine explicitly supports guest wishlists, which can significantly lower friction for shoppers who don’t want to create an account. Guest wishlist support often increases saves and can reduce abandonment for one-time buyers or gift shoppers.

If a store has significant first-time traffic or gift-season demand, guest wishlist is a useful feature to consider.

Multi-language & Internationalization

SE Wishlist Engine includes multi-language and multi-currency capabilities on the Premium tier, along with multi-language email templates. That makes it more immediately suitable for international storefronts or merchants selling in multiple regions.

K Wish List offers customization of labels and icons, which can handle some language tweaks, but it does not advertise multi-currency or multi-language email templates as a native premium feature in the provided data.

Security, Data Ownership & Privacy

Both apps operate within Shopify’s app model. Key considerations for merchants:

• Confirm data export options (SE offers import/export on advanced plans).
• Confirm how wishlist data is stored and whether it’s accessible to the merchant for segmentation.
• If using email reminders, ensure GDPR and consent flows are respected; SE’s email automation requires merchants to manage consent when sending alerts.

Merchants should evaluate each app’s privacy policy and data portability features before relying on wishlist data for long-term CRM efforts.

Support, Documentation & Onboarding

K Wish List highlights “knowledgeable support” with the plans. The simplicity of the app reduces onboarding complexity, and merchants often find setup straightforward.

SE Wishlist Engine, given its larger feature set and integrations, will typically require more initial configuration. Script Engine’s user reviews and higher rating (4.9 across 249 reviews) suggest good support quality, but merchants should test documentation and support responsiveness during trial.

Implementation & Theme Compatibility

Both apps are designed to integrate with common Shopify themes and checkout flows. Still, real-world compatibility depends on theme complexity, custom page builders, or headless setups.

K Wish List’s minimal footprint is less likely to conflict with custom theme code. SE Wishlist Engine’s broader feature set requires more theme hooks (for variant detection and email triggers) and may need additional testing if the store has heavily customized product templates.

Merchants with heavily modified themes should:

• Use the free tier or trial to test on a staging environment.
• Confirm support for page builders like PageFly (SE lists PageFly compatibility explicitly).
• Check for custom CSS or layout overrides required to match brand design.

Migration & Data Portability

If switching apps or consolidating to an all-in-one retention platform, data portability matters. SE Wishlist Engine supports import/export in Advanced/Premium plans, which eases migration of wishlist data to another system. K Wish List’s export options aren’t highlighted in the data provided, so merchants should confirm export capabilities before committing if they expect to migrate later.

Pros & Cons Summary

K Wish List‑Advanced Wishlist (Kaktus)

• Pros:
  • Simple, fast setup.
  • Clean UI with floating button and header icon.
  • Social sharing and basic wishlist tracking.
  • Free plan covers many display functions.
• Cons:
  • Limited native automation for converting saves to sales.
  • Paid tiers don’t clearly add advanced automation.
  • Less emphasis on integrations for email and ads.

SE Wishlist Engine (Script Engine)

• Pros:
  • Rich feature set with price-drop, restock, and low-stock alerts.
  • Email automation and Klaviyo integration for conversion workflows.
  • Guest wishlist and variant detection.
  • Advanced insights and import/export options.
  • Strong rating and larger review count (4.9 from 249 reviews).
• Cons:
  • More configuration required to unlock full benefits.
  • Slightly higher monthly cost for advanced automation.
  • Merchants using only UI-level features may not need the entire feature set.

Which App Is Best For Which Merchant?

• Best for merchants prioritizing simplicity and brand-aligned UI: K Wish List is a solid pick for stores that want a polished wishlist interface with social sharing and minimal setup. It serves gift-oriented stores, seasonal catalogs, and merchants who prefer a lightweight tool.
• Best for merchants prioritizing conversions and automation: SE Wishlist Engine is the stronger option for stores that want wishlist behavior to actively trigger emails, price and restock alerts, and ad retargeting. It’s suited for merchants who want to capture intent and immediately act on it.
• Best for international or fast-scaling merchants: SE Wishlist Engine’s multi-language and multi-currency support (Premium plan) and integrations make it easier to scale globally.

Realistic ROI Expectations

Wishlist apps create value in two primary ways:

• Increase top-of-funnel engagement: Saves indicate interest and can increase repeat visits.
• Convert intent into purchase: Alerts and emails turn saved items into transactions.

If a merchant relies purely on saves without follow-up, conversion uplift will be modest. A wishlist paired with automated reminders or targeted ads can deliver measurable revenue. SE Wishlist Engine bundles these conversion tools; with reasonable CTRs on price-drop emails and low-stock alerts, merchants can often recover the cost of the Advanced plan quickly for products with strong demand elasticity.

K Wish List reduces friction for saving and sharing but requires merchants to build conversion flows externally to capture the same revenue potential.

Implementation Checklist (Actionable Steps Before Installing Either App)

• Identify primary goal: increase saves vs. convert saved items to sales.
• Determine integration needs: Klaviyo, Facebook Pixel, Page Builders.
• Test theme compatibility on a staging site or duplicate theme.
• Confirm data export/import options for future migration.
• Review email consent and privacy requirements for automated alerts.
• Estimate expected monthly revenue uplift and compare against plan costs.
• Use the free tiers to validate UX with real shoppers before upgrading.

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

Merchants who add a separate app for wishlist functionality, another for loyalty, another for reviews, and more for referrals often run into "app fatigue." App fatigue describes the operational drag from managing many single-purpose apps: friction in maintenance, overlapping or conflicting features, multiple billing lines, and scattered data that prevents unified customer profiles.

The Limits of Single-Function Wishlist Apps

• Fragmented data: Wishlist saves live in one app, loyalty points in another, and reviews in a third — making it harder to build consolidated segments.
• Integration overhead: Each app requires configuration with email and analytics platforms; mapping events consistently is time-consuming.
• Increased theme and performance risk: Multiple app scripts can slow page load and create conflicts with custom themes.
• Higher long-term cost: Individual apps may appear inexpensive initially, but cumulative monthly fees and the cost of stitching data together add up.

Growave’s “More Growth, Less Stack” Proposition

Growave positions itself as a unified retention platform that brings together wishlist, loyalty, referrals, reviews, and VIP tiers in one suite. The goal is to reduce app sprawl while letting merchants focus on growth metrics — retention, LTV, and repeat purchase rate — rather than integration plumbing.

Core benefits of consolidating:

• Unified customer data for consistent segmentation and personalization.
• Fewer scripts and more predictable theme compatibility.
• Centralized reporting on how wishlist activity influences loyalty and purchase behavior.
• Simplified billing and one place to manage support and upgrades.

For merchants evaluating consolidation, reviewing plan features and pricing tiers is a necessary step to understand ROI and migration path. To assess pricing and decide which plan fits business scale, merchants can review options and compare how a consolidated stack changes total cost of ownership and expected retention uplift by checking how to consolidate retention features across plans.

Growave’s suite includes multiple modules that directly address core retention levers:

• Loyalty and Rewards: Merchants can build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases, including points programs, redeemable rewards, and VIP tiers. Loyalty programs help convert wishlist intent into repeat purchases by offering redemption incentives that align with saved items.
• Reviews & UGC: The platform enables merchants to collect and showcase authentic reviews across the store and product pages. Pairing reviews with wishlist activity helps validate items shoppers saved and increases conversion when they return.
• Wishlist: Growave’s wishlist functionality is integrated directly into the retention suite. This means wishlist saves feed into loyalty, email triggers, and customer segments without separate connectors.
• Referrals & VIPs: Referral campaigns and VIP programs let wishlist-driven customers be rewarded for sharing and returning, which amplifies organic growth.

Multiple case studies across industries show the benefit of combining features. For examples of stores that consolidated retention features and grew repeat purchase rates while simplifying their tech stack, merchants can review customer success stories and inspiration.

How Consolidation Improves Outcomes (Practical Effects)

• Higher LTV: Loyalty programs increase frequency of purchase; when wishlist saves are tied to rewards, conversion pathways become more visible.
• Better personalization: Unified data enables more accurate product recommendations and targeted outreach.
• Faster experimentation: A single admin interface speeds up A/B tests across rewards, emails, and wishlist incentives.
• Reduced engineering overhead: Fewer integrations mean fewer breakages with theme updates or third-party changes.

Integrations and Enterprise Readiness

For larger merchants or Shopify Plus stores, the platform supports enterprise needs including custom rewards, checkout extensions, and advanced integrations. For specific enterprise features and tailored onboarding, merchants can explore solutions for high-growth brands and enterprise deployments.

Practical Migration Steps to an Integrated Platform

• Export wishlist data from the existing app (confirm import/export support).
• Map wishlist events to customer records in the new platform.
• Recreate or replace email automation using the integrated tools (or continue using Klaviyo with unified data feed).
• Consolidate loyalty rules and import reward history where possible.
• Monitor performance and validate that key metrics (saves, open rates, conversion rates) match or improve post-migration.

For an initial evaluation, merchants can install the app listing to validate compatibility. For pricing clarity and plan comparisons that show how consolidation affects monthly costs and ROI, merchants can compare Growave plans and pricing and see how plan features stack up against current monthly spend across multiple single-purpose apps. Merchants can also install Growave from the Shopify App Store to test the suite directly on their store.

Why Merge Wishlist, Loyalty, and Reviews

Wishlist saves are explicit expressions of intent. Without downstream actions, they remain signals with unrealized value. Pairing wishlist signals with loyalty incentives and social proof creates stronger conversion pathways:

• Send a loyalty points offer when a saved product drops in price.
• Use reviews to reduce friction for returning shoppers who revisit saved items.
• Offer referral incentives for wishlists shared during gift-giving seasons.

Growave’s integrated approach is designed to let merchants combine these tactics without stitching multiple apps together. Merchants interested in specific modules can explore how the platform supports each retention lever: learn how to build custom reward actions or view how review widgets can be placed sitewide.

For merchants who want to compare plan features directly and see actual pricing tiers in context, checking Growave’s pricing is a useful next step and can help build a migration cost model. Alternatively, merchants can validate the app by installing it from the Shopify listing and testing wishlist behavior in a real storefront environment.

(Repeated contextual links to help merchants evaluate fit)

• To evaluate consolidation benefits and see plan features, merchants can compare Growave plans and pricing.
• To test the platform in a live store, merchants can install Growave from the Shopify App Store.
• For loyalty-specific use cases and program design ideas, review the information on how merchants can build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases.
• To see how combined social proof and wishlist signals increase conversions, merchants can read about how to collect and showcase authentic reviews.

Migration Considerations and Practical Advice

• Validate export: Ensure the current wishlist app allows export of wishlist items and customer identifiers.
• Map identifiers: Match wishlist items to customer emails or anonymous tokens to avoid losing data.
• Preserve event history: If possible, import historical wishlist events to preserve segmentation fidelity.
• Test automations: Before disabling old apps, test email sequences and reward redemptions in a sandboxed environment.
• Monitor KPIs: Track saves, wishlist-driven conversion rate, and average order value for several weeks post-migration.

Merchants who prefer guided onboarding or need help designing custom programs can schedule a demo or review enterprise-level support options to understand the migration plan and dedicated assistance.

Cost of Ownership Comparison (High-Level)

Consider the total monthly cost of running a wishlist plus the cost of any additional apps required to achieve the same automation and retention outcomes.

• If a merchant uses K Wish List (free or $6.70/mo) and a separate email automation provider or Klaviyo (paid plan), the combined cost and complexity can exceed SE Wishlist Engine’s all-in-one approach for alerts and reminders.
• SE Wishlist Engine’s Advanced plan (~$14.99/mo) bundles alerts and exports that might replace intermediate connectors.
• Growave’s pricing tiers start higher than single wishlist apps but replace multiple apps (wishlist, loyalty, referrals, reviews) and reduce integration maintenance — for many merchants this results in better value for money when measured by monthly recurring cost plus staff time and engineering overhead.

Merchants should list current monthly app spend and expected uplift in retention to determine payback timeframe.

Support & Reliability: What to Expect

• K Wish List: Simpler feature set means common support queries focus on theme integration and icon customization. Quick setup reduces need for advanced support.
• SE Wishlist Engine: With automation and integrations, expect more configuration questions; however, the higher volume of positive reviews indicates reliable support.
• Growave: As a consolidated platform, support covers multiple modules; higher-tier plans include priority support and can include dedicated assistance for launches.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between K Wish List‑Advanced Wishlist and SE Wishlist Engine, the decision comes down to goals and execution needs. K Wish List is a strong option for merchants who need a fast, brandable wishlist UI with social sharing and minimal setup. SE Wishlist Engine is better for merchants who want built-in reminders, price-drop and restock alerts, and native integrations that turn saved intent into sales.

For stores that want to reduce tool sprawl and create consistent retention strategies, a unified retention platform is a more strategic option. Growave brings wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews into a single suite that reduces integration overhead and centralizes customer data. To compare how consolidation affects costs and capabilities, merchants can compare Growave plans and pricing or install Growave from the Shopify App Store. For merchants focused on loyalty-driven repeat purchases, see how to implement loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and how to collect and showcase authentic reviews to influence saved-item conversions.

Start a 14-day free trial to see how consolidating wishlist, rewards, and reviews into one platform reduces admin overhead and increases retention by aligning intent signals with rewards and social proof: Start a 14-day free trial.

FAQ

• How do K Wish List‑Advanced Wishlist and SE Wishlist Engine differ when it comes to converting saves into sales? K Wish List centers on capture and sharing — it improves product saves and social distribution. SE Wishlist Engine includes price-drop, restock, and low-stock alerts plus email automation, so it converts saves into sales more directly without requiring separate automation tools.
• Which app is easier to install and maintain on a custom theme? K Wish List is simpler and tends to install with less configuration, making it easier on custom themes. SE Wishlist Engine requires more configuration for variants, reminders, and integrations but provides more capabilities once set up.
• If a merchant already uses Klaviyo, which wishlist app integrates more cleanly? SE Wishlist Engine has an explicit Klaviyo integration, enabling direct event forwarding and richer segmentation. K Wish List requires additional steps to feed wishlist events into Klaviyo.
• How does an all-in-one platform compare to specialized apps? An all-in-one platform removes the need to stitch together separate tools. It centralizes data, reduces script bloat, and simplifies billing and support. For merchants who want unified reporting and fewer integration points, the consolidated approach typically yields better long-term value than managing several single-purpose apps.