Stensiled Wishlist vs. Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right Shopify app for wishlist and retention features is a common pain point for merchants. Single-purpose tools can be quick to install, but the cumulative cost, maintenance, and fragmented data from multiple apps often slow growth. This article compares two options frequently considered for wishlist functionality: Stensiled Wishlist (by Vowel Web) and Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist (by Growave). The aim is to provide clear, actionable insights so merchants can pick the tool that best fits their goals.

Short answer: Stensiled Wishlist is a simple, focused wishlist tool that works for stores that only need a lightweight save-for-later experience; Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist is a broader retention platform that includes wishlist functionality alongside loyalty, referrals, and reviews—offering more long-term value for brands that want to grow repeat purchases and lifetime value. For merchants evaluating which path reduces app sprawl and delivers measurable retention outcomes, Growave typically represents better value for money.

This post will compare both apps across features, pricing and value, integrations, implementation, analytics, and support. After an impartial comparison, a practical alternative is introduced that helps merchants reduce tool sprawl and focus on retention outcomes.

Stensiled Wishlist vs. Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist: At a Glance

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Core Wishlist Functionality

Stensiled Wishlist

Stensiled Wishlist positions itself as a dedicated save-for-later and wishlist app. The core capabilities advertised include a configurable wishlist button, custom icon selection, and the ability to save items for later. Those features align with merchants who want to add simple product bookmarking without changing site flows or adding reward mechanics.

Strengths:

• Minimal feature set means faster setup and less UI complexity.
• Custom icons give basic brand alignment.
• Built-in wishlist analytics for seeing which products are being saved.

Limitations:

• Limited to wishlist-specific behaviors; lacks incentives that encourage conversions after saving.
• No native tie-ins to loyalty, referral, or review flows—unless a merchant layers additional apps.
• Unclear how wishlist data flows into broader email or CRM systems; integrations are not listed.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave includes a wishlist module as part of its broader retention suite. The wishlist supports save-for-later behavior and hooks into other modules—such as back-in-stock alerts and review collection—that increase the chance of converting saved items into purchases.

Strengths:

• Wishlist is connected to back-in-stock emails and review prompts, improving conversion likelihood.
• Works alongside loyalty, referrals, and VIP tiers to surface saved items in customer account experiences.
• Wishlist activity can be used as a reward action or to trigger targeted communications.

Limitations:

• If a merchant only needs a wishlist and wants a tiny footprint, Growave’s broader system may feel like more to maintain (though the value comes from integration).
• Feature discovery across modules requires some onboarding—there is more to configure.

Loyalty, Rewards, and Retention Mechanics

Stensiled Wishlist

Stensiled does not offer loyalty or rewards. It’s a focused wishlist product; merchants seeking points, VIP tiers, or referral incentives would need at least one additional app.

Implications:

• Using a separate loyalty provider adds subscription costs, integration work, and potential data silos.
• Opportunities to nudge wishlist users into repeat purchases (e.g., reward for sharing wishlists) are missed without extra tools.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave is built around loyalty and rewards as first-class features. Programs supported include points-earning rules, custom reward actions, VIP tiers, and referral campaigns. Those mechanics are designed to convert one-time buyers into repeat customers and to increase average order value.

Notable capabilities:

• Points program with configurable earning and redemption actions.
• VIP tiers to reward high-value customers and create aspirational segmentation.
• Referral program with fraud protection to acquire customers at lower CAC.
• Loyalty features integrate into checkout (including POS and checkout extensions on higher plans), which removes friction at purchase time.

Outcome:

• Loyalty mechanics paired with wishlist behaviors let merchants incentivize desired customer actions (e.g., reward customers who add items to wishlists or refer a friend).
• This integrated approach tends to increase repeat purchase rate and customer lifetime value.

Reviews, UGC, and Social Proof

Stensiled Wishlist

Review or UGC features are not offered. Merchants that want product reviews, photo reviews, or UGC curation must add separate review apps.

Consequences:

• Building social proof requires extra subscriptions and setup.
• Review-driven flows (e.g., rewarding customers for leaving photo reviews) are not available within the wishlist app.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave includes product reviews and UGC features that allow merchants to request and showcase reviews. Review workflows can be automated (e.g., review request series) and tied to loyalty rewards.

Benefits:

• Merchants can incentivize reviews with points—encouraging authentic UGC and increasing conversion rates.
• Reviews integrate with Google Shopping Reviews and social feeds at higher plans.
• Collecting reviews within the same retention platform avoids cross-app data fragmentation.

This functionality helps close the loop between wishlisting, purchase, and post-purchase advocacy.

Integrations and Technical Scope

Stensiled Wishlist

Available integration data is minimal. The app lists itself in the "wishlist" category with fewer public integration claims. That simplicity suggests easy installation but uncertain interoperability.

Implications:

• Merchants relying on Klaviyo, Recharge, or POS workflows may need manual work or middleware to move wishlist data into marketing automations.
• For stores with complex storefronts, headless setups, or high-volume checkout needs, the limited integration footprint could be a friction point.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave explicitly lists integrations with major email platforms, POS systems, and page builders. It supports Checkout, Shopify POS, Customer Accounts, Shopify Flow, Pagefly, LayoutHub, GemPages, and third-party tools like Klaviyo, Omnisend, PushOwl, Recharge, and Gorgias.

Practical advantages:

• Direct integrations reduce implementation time and enable data-driven marketing (e.g., send email flows in Klaviyo based on wishlist triggers).
• Shopify Plus and headless stores are supported through checkout extensions and API/SDK options on higher plans.
• Multi-channel support (web, POS, mobile) ensures consistent experiences across touchpoints.

Analytics and Reporting

Stensiled Wishlist

Stensiled advertises "detailed wishlist analytics" and the ability to track product and customer activity with time-range filtering. For merchants who only want to see which products were added to wishlists, that is functional.

Pros:

• Clear visibility of wishlist behavior without navigating a large platform.
• Simple time filtering to spot trends.

Cons:

• Analytics are wishlist-centric and likely do not include cross-module KPIs (e.g., how loyalty points influence wishlist conversion).
• Export and data-sync capabilities are not extensively documented, which can limit deeper analysis.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave provides analytics across loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlist data. That broader dataset helps merchants measure the impact of retention programs on repeat purchase rate, average order value, and customer lifetime value.

Advantages:

• Cross-module insights enable attribution (e.g., see how loyalty activity correlates with wishlist conversions).
• Growth plans include onboarding and priority support to ensure analytics are set up for actionable reporting.
• The platform offers data import/export tools and connects with analytics stacks via integrations.

Customization and Theming

Stensiled Wishlist

Stensiled offers code-free setup and custom icon options so merchants can align the wishlist button visually with brand assets. For small stores, this may be sufficient.

Limitations:

• Likely limited deeper templating or placement customization without custom code.
• Headless or highly custom storefronts may require additional development.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave emphasizes flexible theming and customization across modules. Higher plans allow loyalty page custom design, headless API and SDK access, and checkout extensions.

Benefits:

• Merchants with design-sensitive sites gain granular control over how loyalty and wishlist UI appear.
• Support for headless and Plus merchants means Growave can fit complex tech stacks without forcing one-size-fits-all UI.

Implementation, Onboarding, and Ease of Use

Stensiled Wishlist

Stensiled markets itself as code-free and lightweight, which suggests a quick install-and-go approach. That is attractive for stores seeking immediate wishlist functionality.

Trade-offs:

• Rapid installation is valuable, but merchants who later want loyalty or review capabilities must integrate more apps and manage additional complexity.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave offers an onboarding experience with more moving parts given the broader feature set. The advantage is a structured onboarding and support options at higher plans, including dedicated customer success managers.

Practical points:

• Free plan and entry plan can get merchants started quickly with core features.
• Growth and Plus plans include onboarding, support guarantees, and feature parity for Plus-level needs, which helps larger merchants scale without guesswork.

Support and Reputation

Stensiled Wishlist

Shopify App Store data shows Stensiled has no public reviews and a 0 rating at the time of this comparison. That lack of reviews presents uncertainty in assessing real-world merchant experience with support responsiveness, bug resolution, and long-term stability.

Implications:

• No user feedback to validate claims about support or reliability.
• Merchants may face unknown risk when relying on a lesser-known developer.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave has 1,197 reviews with an average rating of 4.8 on the Shopify App Store—evidence of wide adoption and largely positive merchant experiences. The company advertises 24/7 support, dedicated CSM and AM for higher tiers, and robust documentation.

Impacts:

• A sizable review base increases confidence in product maturity and vendor responsiveness.
• Support tiers align with business needs: small merchants can start on free/entry, while larger merchants benefit from dedicated resources.

Pricing & Value Analysis

Stensiled Wishlist Pricing and Practicality

Stensiled offers a Basic free plan and an Advance plan at $9.99/month. The feature list for both plans appears similar (code-free setup, wishlist analytics, custom icons, save-for-later, activity tracking).

Observations:

• Low-cost or free entry point is attractive to very small stores that only need wishlist functionality.
• The narrow scope means merchants will likely add at least one more app if they want loyalty, reviews, or referral marketing—creating cost and complexity that offset the low starting price.
• The unknowns around data export and integration can create hidden costs for marketing automation workarounds.

Best-fit scenario:

• A merchant on a tight initial budget who needs a bare-bones wishlist and no additional retention features.

Growave Pricing and Long-Term Value

Growave has a tiered pricing model: FREE, Entry ($49), Growth ($199), and Plus ($499). Each tier scales features, integrations, and support to match merchant complexity.

Value proposition:

• The free plan allows merchants to test core retention features, including a wishlist and basic loyalty.
• Entry provides referral programs, advanced rewards, nudges, and enhanced integrations—useful for stores focused on repeat business.
• Growth adds VIP tiers, account extensions, back-in-stock wishlist emails, and onboarding—tools aimed at scaling merchants.
• Plus targets enterprise and Shopify Plus merchants with checkout extensions, headless tools, unlimited integrations, and customer success support.

Why this represents value:

• Consolidating wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews into one platform reduces subscription and maintenance costs versus buying separate apps for each function.
• Cross-module capabilities (for example, rewarding customers for leaving reviews or for wishlist behaviors) enable growth strategies that single-point tools cannot support.
• The availability of advanced integrations (Klaviyo, Recharge, POS) reduces developer time and improves data consistency.

Practical comparison of total cost:

• If a merchant needs wishlist + loyalty + reviews, stacking separate apps could exceed Growave’s Entry or Growth pricing while generating fragmented data and longer implementation time.
• For merchants who only need a wishlist, Stensiled is less expensive—but the lack of growth mechanics should be weighed against the cost of later expansion.

Value-for-Money Considerations

Use-value depends on objectives. If the primary goal is a single, small UX element (a wishlist), Stensiled is the quicker, lower-cost choice. If the objective is to increase repeat purchases and LTV, Growave’s consolidated approach offers better value for money because it connects multiple retention levers in one platform.

Integrations and Ecosystem Fit

Stensiled Wishlist

The available public data for Stensiled is limited, and specific integrations are not emphasized. A merchant using Klaviyo, Recharge, or a headless storefront will likely have to build custom flows or use extra middleware to pass wishlist events into their marketing and fulfillment stack.

Key consideration:

• The hidden cost of integrating wishlist data into CRM and automations can negate the small monthly fee advantage.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist

Growave lists numerous integrations and works with checkout, Shopify POS, customer accounts, and major marketing tools. That ecosystem fit means wishlist and loyalty events can be routed directly into email automations, customer segmentation, and POS experiences without heavy engineering.

Examples of practical integrations:

• Send wishlist triggers to Klaviyo to initiate a back-in-stock or wishlist reminder flow.
• Use Recharge and POS integrations to let customers earn/redeem points across channels.
• Synchronize review collection and UGC workflows with onsite nudges and email series.

This integration-first mindset enables campaigns that drive measurable retention outcomes.

Implementation Scenarios and Decision Framework

When choosing between Stensiled Wishlist and Growave, consider the following decision factors:

• Business Objective:
  • If the goal is only to allow customers to save items for later with minimal setup, Stensiled covers the need.
  • If the goal is to grow repeat purchases, increase AOV, and consolidate retention tools, Growave is better aligned.
• Technical Complexity:
  • Small stores with simple themes and no marketing automations may appreciate Stensiled’s ease.
  • Stores using Klaviyo, Recharge, or planning POS loyalty benefit from Growave’s integration depth.
• Budget & Total Cost of Ownership:
  • Consider the total cost of stacking extra apps for loyalty, reviews, and referrals if choosing a single-purpose wishlist app.
  • Growave’s plans bundle many retention features, which often reduces long-term subscription costs and developer time.
• Growth Stage:
  • Early-stage stores that only need wishlist UX may favor Stensiled initially.
  • Scaling brands and Shopify Plus merchants that need checkout customization, headless support, and a full retention suite will find Growave more future-proof.
• Support Expectations:
  • Lack of public reviews for Stensiled creates uncertainty about response times and long-term maintenance.
  • Growave’s large review base and premium support tiers make it easier for merchants to justify the platform as a core part of their tech stack.

Migration, Data Ownership, and Exit Strategy

Any migration or app switch requires planning around wishlist data, customer accounts, and historical analytics.

• Stensiled: Because the app is narrowly scoped, exporting data might require manual exports or developer work. If the merchant later adopts a loyalty platform, merging history could be time-consuming.
• Growave: The platform offers import/export functionality and is designed to be the central retention hub—making it easier to retain historic loyalty and wishlist context. For merchants that later change providers, Growave supports data exports to avoid lock-in, but the benefit is the richer dataset while the merchant uses the platform.

Merchants should confirm data portability and backup procedures before committing to either app, especially for stores with extensive historical data.

Use Cases: Which App for Which Merchant

Below are practical recommendations based on merchant needs:

• Best for Tiny Stores or Single-Page Catalogs:
  • Stensiled Wishlist is a suitable starting point for stores that require only a visual save-for-later function and limited analytics.
• Best for Merchants Planning to Scale Retention:
  • Growave is recommended for merchants who plan to deploy loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlist combos to increase LTV.
• Best for Omnichannel Retailers (POS + Online):
  • Growave supports Shopify POS loyalty workflows on paid plans, making it preferable for brick-and-mortar integration.
• Best for Brands Prioritizing Social Proof:
  • Growave bundles review and UGC tools that integrate with points and referral programs, helping brands drive conversions through authenticity.
• Best for Headless or Shopify Plus Merchants:
  • Growave’s Plus plan includes headless APIs and checkout extensions to fit complex architectures.

Cost of Switching and Long-Term Considerations

Switching from a single-purpose wishlist app to a consolidated retention platform comes with measurable benefits but also work:

• Upfront work: configuring loyalty rules, migrating any existing wishlist lists, and designing reward flows.
• Long-term payoff: consolidated metrics, fewer vendors to manage, and increased ability to run experiments that connect wishlist behavior to loyalty mechanics and reviews.
• Risk mitigation: use free tiers or trials where available to test behavior before committing.

For merchants undecided between speed and scale, starting with Growave’s free plan can validate core flows and reduce future switching costs.

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

What Is App Fatigue?

App fatigue is the cumulative friction merchants face when managing multiple single-purpose apps. Symptoms include rising subscription costs, conflicting scripts affecting site speed, fragmented customer data, and greater maintenance overhead. When each retention need is met by a separate tiny vendor (wishlist here, rewards there, reviews elsewhere), the internal cost of coordination—time, developer hours, and inconsistent customer experiences—can outweigh savings from lower initial fees.

Key pain points:

• Multiple billing lines and vendor relationships.
• Inconsistent customer experiences across modules.
• Difficulty measuring the combined effect of retention programs on LTV.
• Higher total developer and QA time.

Why an All-in-One Platform Reduces App Fatigue

An integrated platform centralizes retention logic and data. Instead of stitching together automations across apps, merchants maintain coherent reward rules, single customer profiles, and analytics that show how programs interact. This reduces overhead while improving the ability to run retention experiments.

Integrated benefits:

• Unified customer profiles and activity logs.
• Cross-module triggers (e.g., reward points for writing a review about a wished-for item).
• Single integration points into marketing platforms.
• Streamlined support and onboarding.

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

Growave positions itself around the idea of delivering multiple retention functions in a single platform—loyalty, referrals, reviews & UGC, wishlist, and VIP tiers—so merchants can scale retention without multiplying apps. This approach emphasizes measurable outcomes (repeat purchases, increased LTV) over installing many small utilities.

Examples of the value chain:

• A saved item can trigger a back-in-stock email or a wishlist reminder; when the item is purchased, points can be awarded and a review request sent—each step tied to a single customer profile and scoring system.
• Referral conversions can be rewarded with points that count toward VIP tiers, creating a unified path from acquisition to lifetime engagement.

For merchants who want to view retention as a single strategic capability rather than a collection of point solutions, this model reduces complexity and increases the potential for compounding growth.

Practical Ways to Consolidate with Growave

• Use the wishlist module alongside automated back-in-stock reminders to recapture interest.
• Reward review submissions with points to increase UGC and build social proof using combined review mechanics.
• Create VIP tiers that use purchase frequency and referral activity to segment customers for targeted offers.
• Connect Growave events to Klaviyo or Omnisend for personalized email flows based on loyalty behavior and wishlist activity.

These capabilities are all part of a single platform, reducing the number of apps to manage and aligning incentive logic across customer touchpoints.

How Growave Integrates Key Retention Capabilities

• Growave provides built-in features for merchants to build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases. The loyalty system supports points, tiers, and checkout integrations, enabling merchants to reward behavior consistently across channels.
• For social proof, merchants can collect and showcase authentic reviews and then tie those reviews to rewards. Incentivizing UGC with points increases review rates and improves conversion.
• For merchants evaluating the platform before scaling, it’s possible to install Growave from the Shopify App Store and begin with free features to validate flows.
• To align internal stakeholders, customer stories and examples of brands using consolidated retention can be found as customer stories from brands scaling retention, illustrating practical outcomes and campaign ideas.
• For larger merchants or those on Plus plans, Growave provides dedicated features for enterprise needs—see solutions designed for high-growth Plus brands.

Book a personalized demo to see how an integrated stack improves retention. Book a personalized demo to see how an integrated stack improves retention.

(Note: The line above is the article’s first explicit call-to-action to book a demo. The concluding hard CTA below invites merchants to start a trial.)

How the Platform Links to Real Outcomes

• Increase in repeat purchases is realized by combining loyalty incentives and wishlist triggers to create that final nudge to purchase.
• Average order value can be increased by bundling reward-eligible items and offering targeted discounts to VIP tiers.
• Acquisition cost can be reduced by incentivizing referrals and turning existing customers into advocates.

Because Growave centralizes these actions, merchants can measure cross-module attribution and optimize campaigns accordingly.

Where a Lightweight Wishlist Still Makes Sense

Consolidation is not an automatic win for every merchant. If a store has a single-purpose need and no immediate plan to build retention programs, a lightweight wishlist like Stensiled can be the right short-term choice. However, before committing to a narrow app, merchants should estimate the cost and time required to add loyalty and reviews later, and whether the potential lift in retention justifies moving to a consolidated solution sooner.

Implementation Checklist: From Decision to Launch

Here is a practical checklist to guide the selection and launch process—phrased as action steps a merchant can follow:

• Define primary outcomes (e.g., increase repeat purchase rate by X% in 6 months).
• Map current tech stack and marketing automations (email platform, POS, subscription service).
• Identify whether wishlist behavior should trigger emails, points, or review requests.
• Evaluate integration requirements (Klaviyo, Recharge, POS).
• Test initial flows on a free plan or sandbox to verify UX and event passing.
• Plan migration steps and backups for existing wishlist data.
• Document success metrics and set up cross-module tracking.

For merchants leaning toward an integrated solution, compare plan features and projected ROI by listing estimated incremental revenue from loyalty and referral mechanics and comparing it to combined subscription costs.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Stensiled Wishlist and Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist, the decision comes down to scope and growth objectives. Stensiled Wishlist is a reasonable choice for stores that only need a simple wishlist and minimal setup. Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist is better suited for brands that intend to build retention programs—combining wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews into a single platform that reduces app sprawl and better supports long-term growth.

Consolidating retention tools into one platform can lower maintenance overhead, improve data accuracy, and produce clearer attribution for retention efforts. Merchants looking to move beyond single-purpose tools and focus on sustainable customer lifetime value should evaluate Growave’s platform and plans for their fit, and consider the impact of integrating wishlist behavior into broader loyalty and review workflows.

Start a 14-day free trial to explore how a unified retention stack accelerates growth. Start a 14-day free trial to explore how a unified retention stack accelerates growth.

Additional resources:

• Review how to implement loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases.
• Learn how to collect and showcase authentic reviews.
• See how Growave fits larger operations with solutions for high-growth Plus brands.
• Install and test the app directly by choosing to install Growave from the Shopify App Store.
• Explore customer case studies for practical inspiration from customer stories from brands scaling retention.

FAQ

Q: How does Stensiled Wishlist compare to Growave for small businesses that only want a wishlist? A: Stensiled Wishlist offers focused wishlist features with code-free setup and simple analytics, which suits small businesses with a narrow need. Growave includes wishlist functionality too but pairs it with loyalty, referrals, and reviews. If the small business plans to stay narrowly focused, Stensiled may be a lighter fit; if the business expects to grow retention programs, Growave delivers better long-term value for money.

Q: Can wishlist behavior be used to trigger rewards or emails in Growave? A: Yes. Growave allows wishlist events to be integrated into loyalty tactics and email workflows—such as back-in-stock or wishlist reminder emails—so wishlist behavior becomes part of a measurable retention strategy. Those triggers can be routed through integrations with platforms like Klaviyo.

Q: Is there a risk of vendor lock-in with a single platform like Growave? A: Any platform introduces some continuity considerations. Growave supports data imports/exports and integration options that reduce lock-in risk. The benefit of centralizing retention logic often outweighs the migration cost because it eliminates the higher ongoing cost and complexity of managing multiple single-purpose apps. Merchants should confirm export capabilities before committing.

Q: How does an all-in-one platform compare to specialized apps when it comes to experimentation and iteration? A: An all-in-one platform simplifies experimentation because the same customer data and incentive rules apply across modules. Instead of stitching together results from separate apps, merchants can iterate on unified campaigns (for example, testing a points incentive for wishlist behavior and measuring downstream review submissions and repeat purchases). This unified approach tends to accelerate meaningful optimizations.