Smart Wishlist vs. Swish (formerly Wishlist King): An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right wishlist app is a small decision that can have outsized effects on retention, average order value, and repeat purchase behavior. Shopify merchants face hundreds of single-purpose tools; picking the one that fits product catalog complexity, tech stack, and growth plans is essential.

Short answer: Smart Wishlist is a lightweight, no-friction wishlist built for stores that want one-click saving and a minimal setup burden. Swish (formerly Wishlist King) is a more feature-rich, fully supported wishlist with advanced analytics, integrations, and customization for growing brands. For merchants who want a broader retention strategy without adding multiple single-purpose apps, an integrated platform like Growave often delivers better long-term value.

This post provides an in-depth, feature-by-feature comparison of Smart Wishlist and Swish (formerly Wishlist King) to help merchants choose the tool that matches their needs. The objective is to evaluate features, pricing, integrations, onboarding, analytics, and the practical trade-offs that matter when aiming to increase customer lifetime value and reduce churn.

Smart Wishlist vs. Swish (formerly Wishlist King): At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Feature Set

Core Wishlist Functionality

Smart Wishlist focuses on the essentials that make wishlists useful without overcomplicating the implementation.

• One-click saving from product, collection, search results, and cart pages.
• Guest and logged-in user support so visitors can save items without creating accounts.
• Unlimited wishlists and saved items.
• Lightweight client payload designed to minimize theme performance impact.

Swish positions itself as a complete wishlist experience for brands that want to drive post-save action.

• Wishlist across the entire journey with save buttons everywhere.
• Automated and personalized wishlist notifications to bring shoppers back at conversion-ready moments.
• Wishlist curation and advanced analytics to spot demand signals (e.g., trending saved items).
• Free setup and customization, including matching theme aesthetics.

Practical takeaways:

• If the objective is to capture saves with minimal friction, Smart Wishlist delivers quickly.
• If the goal is to convert saved interest into revenue using automation and analytics, Swish has more built-in tools.

Customization & Theming

Smart Wishlist emphasizes a minimal risk approach: a small script that claims not to break themes and APIs for advanced cases. The trade-off is fewer out-of-the-box visual customizations.

Swish offers deep customization and free setup services to ensure visual and behavioral parity with the store. This matters for merchants that rely heavily on brand fidelity and bespoke UI.

Practical takeaways:

• Stores with custom themes or complex UX flows will find Swish’s free setup service valuable.
• Stores looking to avoid any theme editing and minimal maintenance may prefer Smart Wishlist’s lightweight footprint.

Automation & Notifications

Smart Wishlist provides the basics of wishlist creation and sharing but does not promote advanced automated notification campaigns as a core capability.

Swish highlights personalised and automated Wishlist notifications as a pillar. The platform integrates directly with Klaviyo, Meta, and GA4, enabling tailored remarketing and lifecycle campaigns triggered by wishlist events.

Practical takeaways:

• For reactive reminder emails, Swish’s out-of-the-box integrations and automation reduce time-to-value.
• Smart Wishlist requires merchants to build their own automation flows using external tools if advanced lifecycle messaging is needed.

Analytics & Customer Insights

Smart Wishlist exposes basic activity (saves, shares) and offers JavaScript/REST APIs for custom tracking. It’s sufficient for stores that own their analytics stack and are prepared to instrument events.

Swish includes advanced analytics and wishlist curation features—designed to surface meaningful insights like high-intent saved products, cross-product interest, and aggregated wishlist trends.

Practical takeaways:

• Merchants that need packaged insights and product curation should favor Swish.
• Merchants with an in-house analytics setup who prefer minimal app-driven reporting may be comfortable with Smart Wishlist.

APIs & Extensibility

Both apps provide developer-friendly surfaces, but their emphasis differs.

• Smart Wishlist: Javascript and REST APIs for custom requirements; lightweight design suggests fewer built-in workflows.
• Swish: Integrations with Checkout, Hydrogen, Klaviyo, and more; API & headless support on higher tiers (Plus).

Practical takeaways:

• Technical teams that want a light starting point plus the ability to extend can work with Smart Wishlist’s API.
• Teams building headless or customized checkout flows should consider Swish, especially on plans that support Hydrogen and headless stacks.

Pricing & Value

Base Pricing Comparison

• Smart Wishlist: Standard plan at $4.99/month. Focus is on low-cost entry for basic wishlist needs.
• Swish: Tiers start at $19/month (Basic Shopify), $29/month, $49/month, and $99/month for Shopify Plus with white-glove onboarding and dedicated account support.

Pricing analysis:

• Smart Wishlist offers strong upfront value for merchants that need only wishlist saves and basic sharing for a minimal monthly fee.
• Swish’s pricing positions it as a premium wishlist platform with included setup and ecosystem integrations that justify higher monthly costs for stores that will use those features.

Value-for-money considerations:

• For stores that monetize wishlists through direct, integrated automation and use analytics, Swish may offer better value-for-money because it reduces the need for additional third-party services and development.
• For stores that simply want wishlist UX without automation or analytics, Smart Wishlist provides better immediate value.

Cost of Ownership & Hidden Costs

Consider the following non-subscription costs when comparing:

• Implementation time (theme edits, QA).
• Cost of connecting wishlist events to marketing automation (Klaviyo or email provider fees).
• Need for additional apps to replace missing features (notifications, analytics).
• Developer hours for custom integrations.

Practical takeaways:

• Smart Wishlist minimizes subscription cost but may incur developer time or require separate marketing tools.
• Swish includes onboarding and integrations, which can lower operational overhead and reduce the need for a developer.

Integrations & Technical Ecosystem

Native Integrations

• Smart Wishlist lists basic integrations like Sendgrid and ShareThis.
• Swish lists broader native integrations including Klaviyo, GA4, Meta, Checkout, Hydrogen, and Customer Accounts.

Practical takeaways:

• Merchants that use Klaviyo or rely on GA4 for behavior-based campaigns will find Swish’s native integrations faster to implement.
• If integrations with specific marketing tools are critical, double-check each app’s native list and assess the engineering work required for custom setups.

Headless & Plus Support

• Swish explicitly supports Hydrogen and headless approaches on advanced tiers and offers a Plus-tier with dedicated onboarding and support.
• Smart Wishlist advertises API access but does not emphasize headless or Plus-level services.

Practical takeaways:

• Headless or Shopify Plus merchants typically prefer platforms that have built-in support for those architectures—Swish is positioned for that audience.

Data Flow & CRM Sync

Swish’s integrations and automation make it easier to route wishlist events into segmentation and lifecycle flows without custom engineering. Smart Wishlist provides APIs, which is flexible, but requires developer resources to sync events into CRM or email platforms.

User Experience, Setup & Ongoing Support

Onboarding

• Smart Wishlist: Super-easy setup and no coding required; suitable for merchants wanting a quick install.
• Swish: Free setup and customization service across all plans, with additional white-glove onboarding and an account manager for Plus customers.

Practical takeaways:

• Small merchants or non-technical teams will appreciate Smart Wishlist’s rapid install.
• Merchants that expect guidance, bespoke theme work, or dedicated onboarding should prefer Swish.

Support Quality

Review counts and ratings provide a proxy for satisfaction:

• Smart Wishlist: 81 reviews, 3.6 rating — indicates a mixed set of experiences; merchants should evaluate recent reviews for support responsiveness and product stability.
• Swish: 272 reviews, 5.0 rating — denotes strong customer satisfaction and likely consistent support quality.

Practical takeaways:

• High review volume and near-perfect ratings for Swish suggest that onboarding and ongoing support are strong selling points.
• Smart Wishlist’s lower rating indicates merchants should validate support SLAs and test help responsiveness before committing.

Performance & Theme Impact

Smart Wishlist emphasizes a lightweight payload and claims it won’t break themes on uninstall. That is a critical selling point for stores prioritizing page load times and avoiding theme remnants after removal.

Swish, with deeper theme integrations and visual customizations, may introduce more elements to the storefront but offsets that with professional setup to ensure clean integration.

Practical takeaways:

• If site performance and minimal script footprint are non-negotiable, Smart Wishlist is built around those constraints.
• If visual polish and tight theme integration are more important, Swish offers a setup service to ensure performance isn’t compromised.

Reporting, Measurement & Attribution

Swish’s advanced analytics, integration with GA4, and wishlist curation tools support attribution of wishlist-driven revenue more directly. Smart Wishlist provides APIs for event capture but leaves the reporting stack to the merchant.

Practical takeaways:

• Merchants that rely on built-in reporting to measure wishlist impact will find Swish’s analytics useful.
• Merchants with established analytics teams who want to import raw events may prefer Smart Wishlist’s openness.

Privacy, Security & Compliance

Both apps operate within Shopify’s ecosystem and are subject to Shopify store-level compliance. Merchants should verify:

• How wishlist data is stored and exported.
• Whether guest wishlists contain personally identifiable information and how that is handled.
• GDPR and CCPA considerations for sharing saved lists.

Practical takeaways:

• Confirm the app’s data residency and retention policies before passing PII through guest wishlist flows.
• Both apps provide APIs and integrations; merchants must ensure compliance in connected tools.

Pros & Cons — Quick Reference

Smart Wishlist (Pros)

• Very low monthly cost ($4.99 standard).
• Minimal setup, one-click saving, guest wishlist support.
• Lightweight payload and claims safe uninstall behavior.
• Developer API available for custom integrations.

Smart Wishlist (Cons)

• Limited built-in automation and analytics.
• Lower review rating (3.6) and fewer reviews (81) suggests variable experiences.
• Fewer native integrations with major lifecycle marketing tools.

Swish (Pros)

• Rich feature set with personalization and automated wishlist notifications.
• Strong review profile (272 reviews, 5.0 rating).
• Free setup and customization; Plus plan includes white-glove onboarding and dedicated account manager.
• Native integrations (Klaviyo, GA4, Meta) and headless support.

Swish (Cons)

• Higher starting price than Smart Wishlist ($19/month vs $4.99/month).
• Deeper theme integration may require more oversight post-install (countered by free setup).
• More comprehensive features could be overkill for very small shops that only need basic wishlist functionality.

Use Cases — Which App Fits Which Merchant

• Merchants with tight budgets and a desire for a fast, no-friction wishlist (small catalog or early-stage stores): Smart Wishlist is a solid fit due to low cost and quick deployment.
• Merchants who rely on lifecycle marketing and want wishlist events to trigger automated campaigns, or who need advanced analytics: Swish delivers more out-of-the-box value.
• Shopify Plus or headless merchants: Swish’s Plus-tier support for Hydrogen and headless architectures is better aligned with enterprise needs.
• Brands that need white-label, on-brand widgets and prefer vendor-led setup: Swish’s free customization service reduces manual theme work.
• Merchants with an existing retention stack and developer resources who just want a lightweight wishlist: Smart Wishlist integrates via APIs without imposing a large footprint.

Migration & Uninstall Considerations

• Smart Wishlist advertises that it doesn’t break themes on uninstall. That lowers migration risk if the app needs to be removed.
• Swish offers managed setup and likely assists with uninstall or migration planning—especially for Plus customers with account management. However, deeper theme customization can sometimes need careful rollback steps, which Swish’s support should handle.

Practical takeaways:

• For experiments with minimal risk, Smart Wishlist’s light footprint is attractive.
• For long-term, integrated wishlist use, Swish’s managed services smooth migration and setup complexities.

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

The Problem: App Fatigue and Tool Sprawl

Growing merchants frequently layer multiple single-purpose apps to get every desired feature: a wishlist app here, a reviews app there, a separate loyalty program, a referrals tool, and more. This creates several problems:

• Increased monthly costs and overlapping features.
• Fragmented data across multiple vendors making cohesive lifecycle marketing harder.
• Higher maintenance overhead: updates, theme conflicts, multiple support tickets.
• Slower time to insight when wishlist events must be stitched into loyalty or review workflows.

This phenomenon is commonly called app fatigue: the operational drag from managing too many specialist tools.

The Solution: Consolidate Functionality to Accelerate Retention

An integrated retention platform reduces tool sprawl and centralizes events, customer identities, and incentives. Instead of stitching wishlists into separate loyalty or email systems, a single platform can link wishlist saves to rewards, referral campaigns, VIP tiers, and review prompts.

Growing retailers often see better outcomes when wishlist behavior drives loyalty incentives and lifecycle messaging from one place, rather than being siloed.

Growave’s “More Growth, Less Stack” Value Proposition

Growave positions itself as a unified retention suite combining Loyalty & Rewards, Referrals, Reviews & UGC, Wishlist, and VIP tiers. The approach focuses on reducing the number of apps required to run an effective retention strategy.

A few practical advantages of consolidation:

• Single customer graph for loyalty points, wishlist saves, referrals, and reviews.
• Built-in funnels: wishlist save -> automated reminder -> reward or VIP action.
• Centralized reporting that measures lifetime value uplift across programs.

Merchants considering consolidation can review detailed plan options and pricing to evaluate cost against the combined cost of single-purpose apps and their integration overhead. For a quick plan view, merchants can evaluate how to consolidate retention features and costs by reviewing Growave’s pricing and plan structure.

How Growave Replaces App Stack Components

• Wishlist: native wishlist that connects directly to rewards and referral actions, removing the need for a standalone wishlist app.
• Loyalty & Rewards: customizable programs and VIP tiers that drive repeat purchases and increase LTV; merchants can build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases.
• Reviews & UGC: automated review collection and display tools to collect and showcase authentic reviews across channels.
• Referrals: incentivized sharing that ties into loyalty balances and VIP segmentation.

For merchants evaluating the trade-off between specialized wishlist apps and an integrated platform, Growave’s suite reduces friction and aligns incentives across the customer lifecycle.

Evidence & Social Proof

• Growave has a large install base and reviews (1,197 reviews with a 4.8 rating), indicating broad merchant adoption and satisfaction.
• The platform targets Shopify Plus and growing merchants with feature parity for headless and multi-language stores, including API and SDK access for advanced use.

For merchants who want to see real-world store examples, customer stories and inspiration can be useful to evaluate how the platform performs across verticals.

Integrations & Platform Compatibility

Growave integrates with a wide range of commerce and marketing tools:

• Email & Automation: Klaviyo, Omnisend.
• Support & Subscriptions: Gorgias, Recharge.
• Messaging & Push: PushOwl, Postscript.
• Page builders & mobile storefronts: Pagefly, LayoutHub, GemPages, Shopney.

This connectivity ensures wishlist events, review data, and loyalty actions can flow into existing systems without custom connectors, simplifying setup and maintenance.

Merchants can also find Growave on the Shopify App Store and install directly, or choose to compare plans and start a trial to evaluate consolidation benefits.

Pricing & Cost Comparison (Consolidated View)

Growave offers plan tiers to match growth stages:

• Free plan and trial options available.
• Entry Plan ($49/month): includes Loyalty & Rewards, Reviews & UGC, Referrals, Wishlist — suitable for merchants starting to consolidate.
• Growth Plan ($199/month): increased orders, advanced customizations, and enhanced integrations.
• Plus Plan ($499/month): supports heavy traffic, headless setups, checkout extensions, dedicated launch plans, and 24/7 support.

From a cost perspective:

• For merchants paying separately for wishlist, loyalty, reviews, and referrals, Growave can be a better value-for-money alternative because it combines those features into a single platform and consolidates data flows.

For merchants comparing subscription totals, it’s useful to weigh the combined monthly costs of several single-purpose apps, implementation time, and the opportunity cost of siloed data.

Why Consolidation Improves Outcomes

• Faster iteration: with cross-feature workflows in the same product, testing a wishlist-to-loyalty flow is quicker.
• Clearer attribution: centralized reporting attributes lifetime value to specific programs and touchpoints.
• Reduced engineering burden: fewer third-party integrations to maintain.
• Unified customer experience: consistent look-and-feel and consistent incentive logic across touchpoints.

If deeper discussions are needed, merchants can book a personalized demo to see how an integrated retention stack accelerates growth.

How to Think About Transitioning

• Audit current apps and feature overlap to identify duplication costs.
• Map key customer journeys (wishlist save -> reminder -> purchase -> review -> reward).
• Pilot a consolidation on non-critical segments or storefront locale to validate impact.
• Use the platform’s onboarding resources and case studies to reduce migration friction.

Merchants can start by comparing Growave’s plans to the combined cost of their current stack to determine expected ROI.

Final Comparison Summary (No Single “Winner”)

For merchants choosing between Smart Wishlist and Swish (formerly Wishlist King), the decision comes down to needs and scale:

• Choose Smart Wishlist if:
  • The priority is minimal cost and a fast, no-friction wishlist.
  • The store has limited technical resources and wants a lightweight script.
  • There is no immediate need for automated lifecycle messaging or advanced analytics.
• Choose Swish if:
  • The store requires robust automation, analytics, and native integrations with Klaviyo and GA4.
  • The brand values professional customization and vendor-led onboarding.
  • The store is on a growth path where wishlist-driven automation and headless support matter.

Both apps serve the wishlist use case effectively within their respective value propositions. For merchants deliberately aiming to grow retention, increase LTV, and reduce tool sprawl, an integrated platform that bundles wishlist, loyalty, reviews, and referrals may deliver higher long-term returns.

For merchants ready to explore consolidation, starting with a plan comparison to quantify the potential savings and streamlined workflows is an actionable next step. To evaluate consolidation potential and pricing, review Growave’s plan options and how to consolidate retention features.

Start a 14-day free trial to test an integrated retention strategy and see how combining wishlist, loyalty, reviews, and referrals affects repeat purchase rates.

FAQ

How do Smart Wishlist and Swish compare on support and onboarding?

Smart Wishlist emphasizes fast, no-code installation and a lightweight footprint; support tends to be more self-serve. Swish provides free setup and customization across all plans and escalates to white-glove onboarding and a dedicated account manager on Shopify Plus—this hands-on approach shows up in Swish’s larger and higher-rated review base.

Which app is better for triggering lifecycle marketing like abandoned wishlist reminders?

Swish is built with automation and integrations (Klaviyo, GA4, Meta) in mind, making it easier to trigger lifecycle messages natively. Smart Wishlist provides APIs and event hooks, but merchants will need to build the automation flows in their email/marketing tool.

Can Smart Wishlist or Swish handle headless or Shopify Plus setups?

Swish explicitly supports Hydrogen and headless setups on higher tiers and has Plus-specific services. Smart Wishlist offers APIs and a lightweight payload, but headless/Plus merchants will usually find Swish’s dedicated support and feature set better aligned to enterprise architectures.

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

An integrated platform reduces tool sprawl, centralizes customer data, and simplifies the workflows that convert wishlist interest into revenue (e.g., wishlist save -> reward -> reminder -> VIP). For merchants using multiple single-purpose apps, consolidation often reduces monthly costs, data fragmentation, and maintenance overhead while improving attribution and execution speed.

(If evaluation help is needed, merchants can view Growave’s app listing to compare installation options or consolidate retention features by reviewing plan options.)