Smart Wishlist vs. Top Advanced Wishlist App: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Shopify merchants face a recurring problem: dozens of apps that each promise to boost conversion or retention, but only a few that actually move metrics without adding technical debt. Wishlist tools are an obvious example. Many stores add a wishlist app to capture intent and drive retargeting, but choice paralysis and hidden trade-offs can turn a quick install into a recurring maintenance task.

Short answer: Smart Wishlist is a straightforward, lightweight wishlist built for stores that want a no-friction, one-click saving experience and a low monthly fee. Top Advanced Wishlist App is a low-cost option with a perfect five-star rating from a single review — a viable pick for tiny merchants who prioritize price over proven scale. For merchants seeking a higher-value alternative that replaces multiple single-purpose apps, Growave combines wishlists with loyalty, reviews, referrals, and VIP tiers under one platform, reducing tool sprawl and improving lifetime value.

This post offers a detailed, feature-by-feature comparison of Smart Wishlist (Webmarked) and Top Advanced Wishlist App (Top App Developer). The goal is to help merchants decide which wishlist app fits the store’s needs — and to show how a broader retention strategy can be built without multiplying apps.

Smart Wishlist vs. Top Advanced Wishlist App: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Product Positioning and Credibility

How each app presents itself

Smart Wishlist markets itself as the "next generation wishlist" with a focus on simplicity, speed, and flexibility. The copy highlights one-click saving for guests and logged-in users, shareable lists, and a lightweight payload that "doesn't break your theme upon uninstall." The app pitches itself as easy to set up with no coding, with Javascript and REST APIs available for advanced needs.

Top Advanced Wishlist App positions itself as the "ultimate wishlist app" for Shopify stores that want to let customers save and share items without registration. The pitch emphasizes straightforward installation, REST API access, and fast support, with social sharing capabilities via email, text, and social platforms.

Evidence and social proof

• Smart Wishlist: 81 public reviews and a 3.6 average rating. That volume of feedback represents a meaningful sample size; it suggests consistent use across a range of stores but also indicates mixed user experience.
• Top Advanced Wishlist App: A single 5.0 rating. While a perfect score is attractive, a sample size of one provides limited evidence of stability, support quality, or long-term performance.

Implication for merchants: higher review count with middling average rating often signals a mature product with known trade-offs, whereas a single five-star review is promising but insufficient to judge reliability at scale.

Features and Functionality

Core wishlist capabilities

Smart Wishlist:

• One-click save on product, collection, search result, and cart pages.
• Guest and logged-in user support.
• Unlimited wishlists per store.
• Shareable lists.
• REST and JavaScript APIs for custom integration.
• Lightweight payload and clean uninstall behavior.

Top Advanced Wishlist App:

• One-click wishlist creation without registration.
• Guest wishlist as a default.
• No limits on items or customers.
• REST API.
• Social/email/text sharing of wishlists.
• Stated support for large volume up to 10,000 WL items/month in the BASIC plan.

Assessment:

• Both apps cover the core expectations for a wishlist: one-click saving, sharing, and guest support.
• Smart Wishlist differentiates on placement flexibility (product/collection/search/cart) and explicit focus on theme safety.
• Top Advanced Wishlist App emphasizes item/customer unlimited policies and explicit monthly item caps, relevant for stores tracking usage.

Customization and branding

Smart Wishlist:

• Offers APIs, suggesting integration with custom themes and storefront flows.
• Claims "no coding required" for out-of-the-box use, but JavaScript & REST APIs enable customization.

Top Advanced Wishlist App:

• Also presents REST API access but emphasizes code-free installation.
• Limited public detail on UI customization or widget styling in the description.

Assessment:

• Both apps appear fit for merchants with simple UX needs and limited development resources.
• For stores that require deeper styling alignment or advanced UI behaviors, the availability of APIs in both gives room to customize — subject to developer effort.

Sharing, social, and email

Smart Wishlist:

• Shareable lists for both guests and logged-in users.
• Integrations listed as Sendgrid and ShareThis, indicating built-in sharing and email sending options.

Top Advanced Wishlist App:

• Sharing via email, text, and social networks is a highlighted feature.
• Works With lists "Checkout," which likely implies compatibility but not direct third-party sharing integrations specified.

Assessment:

• Smart Wishlist seems to have explicit third-party sharing integrations; Top Advanced Wishlist App emphasizes sharing capability without naming the integrations.
• For merchants who plan to drive social virality or email wishlist shares, Smart Wishlist’s explicit integrations may reduce setup time.

APIs and developer tools

Both apps provide REST APIs. Smart Wishlist also mentions JavaScript APIs. That gives Smart Wishlist a slight edge for developers wanting client-side control and dynamic behaviors (e.g., single-page apps, custom save flows).

Data limits and quotas

Top Advanced Wishlist App advertises up to 10,000 wishlist items per month on the BASIC plan and "no limit on number of items in wishlist" overall. Smart Wishlist promotes "unlimited wishlists across all stores" without item cap mentioned in the description.

Assessment:

• For stores that expect very high wishlist activity (e.g., large catalogs with heavy customer engagement), confirm actual quotas in the app dashboard before committing.
• The descriptions imply both apps support high-volume usage, but unambiguous limits are more explicitly stated by Top Advanced Wishlist App.

Pricing and Value for Money

Listed price comparison

• Smart Wishlist: Standard plan at $4.99/month.
• Top Advanced Wishlist App: BASIC plan at $0.99/month (one plan).

Value considerations:

• Both apps are inexpensive relative to most retention tools on Shopify.
• Smart Wishlist is priced at $4.99/month and positions itself as a reliable, theme-safe solution with moderate support expectations.
• Top Advanced Wishlist App is extremely low-cost at $0.99/month, which may be attractive to micro-merchants or stores testing wishlist concepts on a tight budget.

Cost vs. benefit:

• A lower price is compelling, but the total cost of ownership includes hidden elements: time spent resolving theme conflicts, support responsiveness, and whether the app remains stable over time.
• Smart Wishlist’s larger review sample (81 reviews) supports evaluating ongoing costs and support quality. The 3.6 rating indicates room for improvement but also suggests many merchants have used it successfully.
• Top Advanced Wishlist App’s single review means price alone must be weighed against uncertainty about long-term support and compatibility.

Conclusion on pricing:

• Top Advanced Wishlist App offers better nominal value for money if cost is the only concern.
• Smart Wishlist offers better evidence of ongoing reliability despite a higher month-to-month price.

Integrations and Ecosystem Fit

Third-party integrations

Smart Wishlist:

• Works With: Sendgrid, ShareThis.
• These integrations suggest straightforward sharing and email communication possibilities without custom development.

Top Advanced Wishlist App:

• Works With: Checkout (listed).
• No public mentions of broader email or social integrations.

Assessment:

• Smart Wishlist’s explicit compatibility with commonly used sharing and email tools can reduce integration work for merchants who rely on those services.
• Top Advanced Wishlist App may be compatible with checkout and basic sharing features, but confirm with the developer for deeper integrations (e.g., Klaviyo, Omnisend).

Compatibility with larger retention stacks

Wishlist apps by themselves are useful, but they are most powerful when combined with loyalty programs, referral engines, and review collection. Neither Smart Wishlist nor Top Advanced Wishlist App includes loyalty, referrals, or review management as native features. This creates two options for merchants:

• Use a wishlist-only app and integrate it with other retention tools (adding more apps).
• Choose a single retention platform that includes wishlist among other retention tools.

The latter approach reduces maintenance overhead and improves cross-program data cohesion — a key argument for integrated platforms such as Growave.

Implementation, Performance, and Theme Safety

Installation and ease of setup

Both apps tout "easy & code free" or "no coding required" installation. For merchants without developer resources, this is essential.

Smart Wishlist:

• Emphasizes super-easy setup and theme-safe uninstall.

Top Advanced Wishlist App:

• Also emphasizes code-free installation and fast support.

Merchant consideration:

• Even code-free apps can conflict with custom themes. Smart Wishlist’s mention of a "lightweight payload" and clean uninstall is a helpful sign, but merchants should:
  • Backup the theme before installation.
  • Test in a staging environment where possible.
  • Read recent reviews to detect theme or JS conflicts.

Page speed and payload

Smart Wishlist markets a lightweight payload. With increasing concern over page speed and Core Web Vitals, any app that adds minimal client-side weight reduces unnecessary performance risk.

Top Advanced Wishlist App does not emphasize payload size in its public description. Merchants who are performance-sensitive should request benchmarks from the developer or test the app on a staging site.

Support and Documentation

Smart Wishlist:

• 81 reviews provide numerous user experiences; look for recent reviews mentioning support responsiveness, bug fixes, and feature requests.
• Developer: Webmarked — reputation can be gauged via review content.

Top Advanced Wishlist App:

• Promises fast and responsive customer support in the app description.
• With only one public review, it is harder to verify support quality.

Best practice:

• Contact both developers with a test question before installing (e.g., ask about theme compatibility or a specific API use). Support response time and clarity can be an early signal of ongoing support quality.

Analytics, Reporting, and Business Impact

Neither app advertises built-in, sophisticated analytics in the given descriptions. Wishlist value derives from conversion lift, abandoned intent recovery, and cross-sell/referral behavior. Merchants should evaluate:

• Does the app expose wishlist data to analytics platforms or email tools (e.g., via REST API, webhooks, or integrations with Klaviyo)?
• Can wishlist events be used to trigger emails or loyalty actions?

Smart Wishlist:

• With REST and JS APIs, merchants can likely export wishlist events to analytics or email platforms if they build the connectors.

Top Advanced Wishlist App:

• REST API availability suggests similar possibilities, but the app description does not claim specific analytics integrations.

Recommendation:

• For merchants who require wishlist events to drive automated follow-ups or segmented loyalty campaigns, confirm capability to forward events to a CRM or ESP before committing.

Compliance, Data Ownership & Privacy

Both app descriptions do not explicitly discuss data retention, ownership, or privacy compliance. Merchants should verify:

• Where wishlist data is stored (third-party servers, Shopify metafields, etc.).
• How data is exported or deleted on uninstall.
• Whether the app supports compliance needs (GDPR, CCPA).

Smart Wishlist’s claim that it "doesn't break your theme upon uninstall" is helpful for technical cleanup but does not replace explicit data handling policies. Request documentation from the developer to ensure compliance with store policies.

Use Cases: Which App is Right for Which Merchant?

Below are practical recommendations based on common merchant profiles.

• Merchant testing wishlist functionality on a micro budget:
  • Top Advanced Wishlist App is attractive due to its $0.99/month price. It supports guest lists, sharing, and REST API access, enough to validate whether wishlists drive repeat traffic.
• Merchant running a small store that needs a simple, reliable wishlist without heavy customization:
  • Smart Wishlist is a solid choice because of its broader review base and emphasis on theme safety and flexible placement.
• Merchant needing deep integration with email, loyalty, or analytics tools:
  • Both apps provide APIs, but neither includes native loyalty or review features. For a merchant who wants cross-program behavior (e.g., reward points when wishlist items are purchased), pairing either wishlist with separate tools can increase complexity. At that point, evaluating integrated platforms makes sense.
• High-growth store or Shopify Plus:
  • Single-purpose wishlist apps can create tool sprawl. Stores that expect scale should consider platforms that combine wishlist with loyalty, reviews, and referrals to preserve data cohesion and operational simplicity.

Pros and Cons Summary

Smart Wishlist — Pros:

• One-click saving across multiple page types.
• Guest and logged-in user support.
• Shareable lists and APIs for customization.
• Lightweight payload and theme-safe uninstall.
• Moderate price ($4.99/month) with substantial review volume (81 reviews).

Smart Wishlist — Cons:

• 3.6 average rating indicates mixed user experiences.
• Limited native integrations (beyond Sendgrid and ShareThis) in public description.
• No built-in loyalty or review features.

Top Advanced Wishlist App — Pros:

• Extremely low price ($0.99/month).
• No limits on items/customers; up to 10,000 wishlist items per month.
• REST API and sharing via email/text/social.
• One-click wishlist creation without registration.

Top Advanced Wishlist App — Cons:

• Only one public review (1 review, 5.0 rating), which limits social proof.
• Scarce public detail on integrations and payload size.
• No built-in loyalty, referral, or review features.

Migration, Exit Strategy, and App Maintenance

A realistic concern: what happens when the wishlist app is deactivated or replaced? App uninstall behavior and data portability matter.

Smart Wishlist:

• Explicitly claims clean uninstall that doesn't break the theme.
• REST APIs might allow exporting wishlist data prior to uninstall.

Top Advanced Wishlist App:

• No explicit uninstall claims in the public description. Confirm with the developer how wishlist data can be exported or moved.

Merchant checklist for migration:

• Export wishlist data before uninstall (via provided API, admin export, or developer support).
• Confirm widget code and theme changes will be removed on uninstall.
• Test data continuity when switching apps to prevent lost customer intent data.

The Cost of Tool Sprawl

Installing several single-purpose apps (wishlist + loyalty + reviews + referrals) can create:

• Multiple billing lines.
• Increased page weight from several scripts.
• Fragmented customer data across vendors.
• More manual workflows to sync events between tools.

For many merchants, the cumulative cost of separate apps — both financial and operational — exceeds the nominal monthly fees of each app. This is where unified platforms can provide value by consolidating features and data.

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

App fatigue is a common problem for merchants who add tools piecemeal. The symptoms are clear: rising monthly costs, more integrations to maintain, inconsistent customer experiences, and difficulty attributing performance across disjointed systems. Single-purpose wishlist apps like Smart Wishlist and Top Advanced Wishlist App solve a narrow problem well, but they leave gaps that require more apps to fill.

An alternative approach is to use a single platform that natively includes wishlists as part of a broader retention stack. That approach reduces maintenance overhead, centralizes customer data, and allows cross-program campaigns that are harder to orchestrate across separate apps.

Growave’s philosophy, summarized as "More Growth, Less Stack," aims to tackle app fatigue by combining wishlist functionality with loyalty, referrals, reviews, and VIP tiers. This unified approach reduces the number of installed apps while making retention strategies easier to execute.

Below are specific areas where a combined solution changes the calculus for merchants evaluating wishlist apps:

Consolidated Retention Features

• A single platform can turn wishlist events into immediate loyalty triggers (e.g., awarding points when a wishlist item is purchased) without custom middleware.
• Combine wishlist behavior with referral campaigns to reward customers who share their lists and bring traffic.
• Use wishlist data to segment customers for review requests, VIP invites, or targeted promotions.

Merchants evaluating consolidation can learn more about how to build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases.

Unified Data and Better Campaigns

• Native data cohesion avoids ETL between apps. Wishlist saves, review activity, and referral conversions live in one dataset, enabling richer segmentation.
• Cross-program reporting helps answer business questions like "Do wishlist users have higher LTV?" without stitching logs from multiple vendors.

For merchants focused on social proof, integrated platforms make it easier to collect and showcase authentic reviews.

Reduced Page Weight and Fewer Scripts

• Many single-purpose apps add their own script, which accumulates with each install. An all-in-one approach typically injects a single, optimized payload.
• This improves page speed and the shopping experience while reducing maintenance.

Support and Roadmap Advantages

• With an integrated vendor, feature requests that span multiple retention domains (e.g., wishlist + loyalty) can be prioritized holistically.
• Dedicated support for end-to-end campaigns avoids finger-pointing between multiple app vendors.

How Growave Matches Up

Growave combines wishlist capabilities with loyalty, referrals, reviews, and VIP tiers in one platform. Some relevant points to evaluate:

• Reviews & Users: Growave’s app listing shows 1,197 reviews with a 4.8 average rating — a substantial sample indicating widespread use and satisfaction across many merchants.
• Feature breadth: Native loyalty programs, referral campaigns, social reviews collection, wishlist functionality, and VIP tiers reduce the need for multiple installations.
• Integrations: Designed to work with common Shopify ecosystem tools (multiple email providers, Recharge, Gorgias, Klaviyo, Omnisend, etc.), which eases data flow across systems.

Merchants interested in a single source for retention tools can compare plans and consolidate retention features to see whether the cost saves time and increases LTV compared with a set of single-purpose apps.

Practical Examples of Consolidation Benefits

• Turn wishlist saves into earned points automatically. That reward nudges customers toward conversion while reinforcing brand loyalty.
• Trigger a review request when a wishlist item is purchased, increasing post-purchase engagement without additional integration work.
• Combine referrals and wishlists in a single campaign where shared wishlists include referral links, and both the referrer and referee earn rewards.

For merchants looking for case studies and peer examples, viewing customer stories from brands scaling retention can help evaluate real-world outcomes.

Pricing Perspective: Comparing Consolidation vs. Multiple Apps

Running a quick mental calculation:

• Two dedicated apps at $4.99 and $0.99 per month is an obvious low monthly spend. But add a loyalty app, a reviews app, and a referral solution — the monthly fees add up, often exceeding the price of an integrated platform.
• Consolidation reduces transactional friction and can improve the ROI of retention programs because rewards and data are coordinated.

Merchants can compare plans and pricing to evaluate whether consolidating with a platform provides better value for money compared with separate apps.

Enterprise and High-Growth Fit

For brands on Shopify Plus or stores with multi-language and high-order volumes, a consolidated platform offers enterprise-grade support and features like checkout extensions, headless capabilities, and a customer success manager. Explore solutions tailored to high-growth merchants and solutions for high-growth Plus brands to assess fit.

How to Evaluate Migration Risk

Before moving from single-purpose wishlist apps to an integrated platform:

• Validate data export and import paths (e.g., wishlist lists and customer identifiers).
• Confirm map of reward currencies, referral codes, and review histories.
• Run a pilot program on a subset of customers to measure lift before full migration.

If a demo helps, merchants can book a personalized demo to see how cross-functional campaigns work in practice.

Recommendations and Decision Framework

Use this practical framework to choose between Smart Wishlist, Top Advanced Wishlist App, or an integrated platform like Growave:

• If the primary constraint is absolute monthly spend and the wishlist is an experiment: Top Advanced Wishlist App (BASIC at $0.99/month) provides the cheapest entry point.
• If the merchant wants a proven wishlist with multiple placements, theme-safety messaging, and a modest monthly fee: Smart Wishlist ($4.99/month) is a sensible choice that balances cost and credibility.
• If the merchant wants to build aRetention engine — converting wishlist intent into repeat purchases, combining with referrals and reviews, and simplifying tech maintenance — Evaluate integrated platforms and consider consolidating retention tools. Merchants can check how to consolidate retention features and how those integrations work in practice by visiting the Shopify App Store listing for more details.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Smart Wishlist and Top Advanced Wishlist App, the decision comes down to trade-offs between price, proven reliability, and long-term retention goals. Smart Wishlist is better suited for merchants who want a low-cost, reliable wishlist with broader social proof and developer APIs. Top Advanced Wishlist App offers the lowest monthly price, making it a reasonable choice for micro-merchants testing wishlist concepts.

For merchants who want to move beyond a single-purpose wishlist and reduce tool sprawl, an integrated retention platform offers a stronger long-term value proposition. Growave combines wishlist functionality with loyalty, referrals, reviews, and VIP tiers — designed to increase repeat purchases and simplify growth operations. Merchants can examine how Growave enables loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and how to collect and showcase authentic reviews. To evaluate cost savings and feature fit, merchants can compare plans and pricing and review examples from existing customers to see how retention programs perform in practice via customer stories from brands scaling retention.

Start a 14-day free trial to test whether a unified retention stack reduces app maintenance and increases customer lifetime value. Compare plans and pricing

FAQ

Which wishlist app is better for a store on a strict budget?

For bare-minimum spend and a lightweight proof-of-concept, Top Advanced Wishlist App’s $0.99/month BASIC plan is the cheapest option. However, merchants should note the limited public reviews (1 review) and verify support responsiveness before relying on it for a long-term strategy.

Does Smart Wishlist offer better long-term reliability than Top Advanced Wishlist App?

Smart Wishlist has 81 reviews and a 3.6 rating, which provides more observable user feedback than Top Advanced Wishlist App’s single review. That larger sample gives a clearer picture of reliability and support trade-offs, even if opinions are mixed.

Can wishlist apps trigger loyalty rewards or automated emails without additional apps?

Both Smart Wishlist and Top Advanced Wishlist App provide APIs that can be used to send wishlist events to email platforms or loyalty engines, but this usually requires custom setup or middleware. An integrated platform can do this natively, turning wishlist behavior into rewards, referral actions, or review requests without additional apps.

How does an all-in-one platform compare to specialized apps like Smart Wishlist or Top Advanced Wishlist App?

An all-in-one platform reduces the number of installed apps, centralizes customer data, and enables unified campaigns across loyalty, reviews, referrals, and wishlists. While single-purpose apps can be cheaper initially, the operational cost of maintaining multiple vendors and connecting data streams often outweighs the nominal savings. Merchants can explore integrated options to decide if consolidation provides better value for money. For details on pricing and plan trade-offs, compare options to consolidate retention features.