Swish (formerly Wishlist King) vs. Ask to Buy create & share cart: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right retention and conversion tools can feel like navigating a crowded marketplace. Shopify merchants often weigh simple, focused apps against specialized utilities that solve one specific problem. The right choice depends on product mix, customer behavior, and long-term retention goals.

Short answer: Swish (formerly Wishlist King) is a full-featured wishlist solution built for brands that want rich wishlist functionality, deep personalization, and enterprise-ready integrations. Ask to Buy create & share cart is a lightweight, purpose-built tool for sharing pre-filled carts and enabling assisted purchases. For merchants who want to avoid stacking multiple single-purpose apps, an integrated platform that combines wishlist, loyalty, reviews, and referrals can offer better value for money and simpler long-term retention management.

This article provides an in-depth, feature-by-feature comparison of Swish (formerly Wishlist King) and Ask to Buy create & share cart. The goal is to help merchants understand each app’s strengths and weaknesses, evaluate fit by use case, and examine an alternative approach that reduces tool sprawl.

Swish (formerly Wishlist King) vs. Ask to Buy create & share cart: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Core Purpose and Product Philosophy

Swish: Wishlist as a growth channel

Swish positions the wishlist as a persistent, multi-touch marketing channel. It treats wishlists not just as “saved items” but as a customer signal that can trigger personalized communications and curation. The product targets merchants that want wishlist-driven segmentation, behavior-based automation, and integration with email/analytics stacks.

Strengths of this approach:

• Wishlists capture explicit intent over time, which is high-value data for reactivation campaigns.
• Integration with Klaviyo and GA4 enables measurable revenue attribution.
• Free setup indicates support for proper UX placement and theme matching.

Potential trade-offs:

• Focused on wishlist functionality—stores that need cart-sharing, referral flows, or loyalty will still need additional tools.

Ask to Buy: Solve one friction point extremely well

Ask to Buy is built around a narrow but common problem: making it easy for one person to prepare a cart and have another complete the purchase. Use cases include teens sending carts to parents, gift lists, or sales reps sending curated carts.

Strengths:

• Direct pathway to checkout with pre-filled details reduces friction at payment time.
• Simple user experience for invitees — land in checkout with minimal steps.
• Small, focused scope reduces complexity for merchants who only need that capability.

Potential trade-offs:

• Limited scope means merchants must rely on additional apps for wishlists, loyalty, reviews, and other retention tools.

Feature Comparison

Wishlist & Saved Items

Swish:

• Core capability is full-featured wishlist management with unlimited wishlists and saved items across plans.
• Supports wishlist curation and advanced analytics to understand which items are most frequently saved and when.
• Integrates with customer accounts, allowing persistent cross-device wishlists for signed-in customers.
• Free setup ensures wishlist placement and UI matches theme aesthetics.

Ask to Buy:

• Not a traditional wishlist product. It can act as a short-term "save and share" mechanism by letting users build a cart to share, but it lacks robust, persistent wishlist features such as saved items tied to customer accounts with long-term analytics.

When to prefer Swish:

• If the goal is to build repeat purchase funnels using saved-item intent signals, Swish is the clear fit.

When to prefer Ask to Buy:

• If the priority is one-off cart sharing or assisted purchases, wishlist permanence is less important.

Cart Sharing & Assisted Purchase

Swish:

• Not designed primarily for cart sharing. Some wishlist items can be shared, but Swish’s feature set focuses on notifications and wishlist re-engagement rather than sending an actionable, pre-filled cart to checkout.

Ask to Buy:

• Purpose-built for creating and sharing carts. Key features:
  • Pre-fills checkout details so invitees only need to pay.
  • Invitees land directly in checkout with a custom welcome experience.
  • Support for group share and tracking conversions & revenue generated by shared carts.

When assisted-purchase conversion is the highest priority, Ask to Buy offers a straightforward solution.

Automation & Notifications

Swish:

• Emphasizes highly personalized automated wishlist notifications. These notifications can be used to:
  • Re-engage customers when a saved item goes on sale.
  • Notify when inventory is restocked or low.
  • Create curated wishlist campaigns for targeted segments.
• Integrations with Klaviyo and Meta enable complex automation and multi-channel reactivation.

Ask to Buy:

• Focuses on notifying inviters about finalized purchases and supporting the invitee flow. It does not advertise advanced personalization or multi-step lifecycle campaigns.

If lifecycle automation that converts saved intent into repeat purchases matters, Swish provides more tools.

Integrations & Analytics

Swish:

• Built-in integrations with Klaviyo, GA4, Meta; works with Checkout, Hydrogen, Markets, Customer Accounts, and product search/recommendations.
• Advanced analytics and wishlist curation capabilities give merchants signals to optimize merchandising and marketing.

Ask to Buy:

• Tracking is oriented around cart shares, conversions, and generated revenue. Specific third-party integrations are not highlighted in the data provided, so merchants should verify available integrations for analytics and email platforms.

Recommendation:

• For merchants with mature email/analytics stacks, Swish integrates more deeply into that ecosystem. AskToBuy’s tracking suffices for measuring share-driven conversions but may require extra work to plug into broader analytics workflows.

Customization & Theme Compatibility

Swish:

• Claims seamless integration with all themes and offers free setup and customization across plans. Plus plan includes white-glove onboarding and dedicated account manager for headless/Hydrogen stores.

Ask to Buy:

• Provides built-in AskToBuy buttons and allows merchants to customize them. The flow focuses on pre-filled checkout UX rather than full theme integration.

If brand-consistent UI and polished UX across various storefront designs are important, Swish’s free customization and theme compatibility give it an edge.

Headless / Hydrogen Support

Swish:

• Explicitly supports Hydrogen and headless stacks on the Plus plan, making it more suitable for merchants running modern, customized storefront architectures.

Ask to Buy:

• No explicit Hydrogen/headless claim in available data. Merchants using headless setups should confirm compatibility.

For headless stores, Swish’s Plus offering reduces technical risk.

Pricing & Value

Price tiers and what merchants get

Swish:

• Basic Shopify — $19 / month — all features, free setup, unlimited wishlists & sessions.
• Shopify — $29 / month — same as above.
• Advanced Shopify — $49 / month — same features for Advanced plans.
• Shopify Plus — $99 / month — Plus exclusives: white-glove onboarding, priority support, dedicated account manager, Hydrogen & headless support.

Ask to Buy:

• Basic — $15 / month — single listed plan (details sparse).

Value assessment:

• Swish’s pricing scales by Shopify plan but delivers a complete wishlist product with unlimited usage and free setup. The Plus tier adds enterprise-level support and headless readiness.
• AskToBuy’s $15 price is lower, making it attractive for merchants who need only cart-sharing capability without the overhead of a wishlist product.

How to judge value:

• Consider whether wishlist functionality will be a long-term driver of repeat purchases and LTV. Swish’s analytics, automation, and integrations are designed to generate ongoing value.
• If the immediate problem is to remove friction from assisted purchases, AskToBuy offers better value for money for that single feature.

Avoid saying "cheaper"; instead, assess "better value for money." Swish tends to be better value for brands that will leverage wishlist-driven retention, while AskToBuy offers better value for merchants focused on one-off assisted conversions.

Support, Onboarding, and Reliability

Swish:

• Free setup and customization across all plans ensures stores get a properly implemented solution that matches their theme and UX. Plus plan includes white-glove onboarding and a dedicated account manager, which is important for larger merchants.
• 272 reviews with a perfect 5.0 rating suggests consistent satisfaction from users, though merchants should read reviews for details on specific experiences.

Ask to Buy:

• Support levels are not detailed in provided data. The app’s focused scope implies simpler implementation, but merchants looking for white-glove onboarding or deeper customization should verify support commitments.
• 7 reviews and a 4.4 rating indicate small sample size—make decisions cautiously when using limited review counts.

Recommendation:

• For stores that need assured execution and onboarding support, Swish’s free setup and Plus-level services reduce implementation risk.

Implementation Effort & Developer Considerations

Swish:

• Free setup reduces merchant workload; the app’s theme integration claims should minimize manual theme edits.
• For headless stores, the Plus plan supports Hydrogen and dedicated onboarding to align with complex setups.

Ask to Buy:

• Presumably lightweight and quick to implement if the use case is basic cart sharing and invite flow. Customization of buttons is supported, but deeper theme integration and persistence features are not central to its design.

Developer takeaway:

• Swish requires some upfront integration work for advanced setups but provides onboarding assistance. AskToBuy is likely faster to install when the sole objective is cart sharing.

Analytics & Measuring ROI

Swish:

• Emphasizes advanced analytics and wishlist curation — useful for attributing revenue to saved-item behavior.
• Integrations with GA4 and Klaviyo allow merchants to track wishlist-driven email flows and revenue.

Ask to Buy:

• Tracks cart shares, conversions, and generated revenue specific to shared carts. This addresses the immediate KPI of assisted-purchase conversion but may not feed into long-term retention metrics.

Which is better for ROI measurement:

• For measuring marketing-driven revenue and LTV uplift from saved-item campaigns, Swish is superior because of its analytics focus and integration options.
• For assessing how many assisted purchases convert from shares, AskToBuy provides focused metrics.

Data, Privacy, and Compliance Considerations

Both apps operate within Shopify’s ecosystem and must respect data privacy and checkout flows. Merchants should verify:

• How saved customer data (wishlists, pre-filled shipping details) is stored and tied to customer accounts.
• Whether integrations transmit PII to third-party platforms and how consent is managed.
• How GDPR/CCPA or other local laws are addressed.

Because Swish ties wishlists to customer accounts and integrates with major analytics/email platforms, merchants should confirm data-handling practices during onboarding. AskToBuy’s pre-fill checkout approach touches sensitive checkout data; merchants should validate that any pre-filled details are handled securely and that the invite flow complies with legal requirements.

Performance & Front-End Impact

Any app that injects front-end scripts affects page performance. Recommended checks:

• Measure page load and Core Web Vitals before and after installing either app.
• Use lazy-loading for wishlist components or load scripts conditionally to minimize render-blocking resources.
• For headless/Hydrogen stores, ensure the implementation follows best practices to avoid hydration or runtime penalties.

Swish’s explicit mention of theme compatibility and onboarding suggests the vendor is aware of performance considerations; AskToBuy’s focused footprint may be lighter by design but still requires testing.

Use Cases: Which App Fits Which Merchant?

Swish is best for:

• Merchants that want to capture long-term purchase intent and activate customers through personalized wishlist notifications.
• Brands investing in lifecycle marketing and integrating wishlists with Klaviyo or GA4.
• Stores running headless/Hydrogen storefronts where custom wishlist behavior and dedicated onboarding matter.
• Merchants who value analytics and unlimited wishlist usage across plans.

Ask to Buy is best for:

• Stores that need a quick, simple way to let customers build and share carts (gift lists, parent approvals, sales-rep assisted carts).
• Merchants with limited budgets who need the single cart-sharing feature without wishlist complexity.
• Teams that want a low-friction assisted-payment flow that lands invitees directly in checkout.

Pros and Cons — Quick Reference

Swish (formerly Wishlist King)

• Pros:
  • Full-featured wishlist with unlimited saved items.
  • Strong integrations for marketing and analytics.
  • Free setup with theme customization; white-glove Plus support.
  • Headless/Hydrogen support.
  • High review count and perfect rating (272 reviews, 5.0).
• Cons:
  • Focused on wishlist; merchants need additional apps for referrals, loyalty, or review programs.
  • Slightly higher cost at enterprise Plus tier.

Ask to Buy create & share cart

• Pros:
  • Purpose-built for cart sharing and assisted purchases.
  • Low monthly price point ($15).
  • Simplifies checkout for invitees with pre-filled details.
  • Tracks share-driven conversions and revenue.
• Cons:
  • Limited feature scope—no deep wishlist analytics or lifecycle automation.
  • Small review base (7 reviews), which means fewer public data points on reliability.
  • Need additional apps to cover loyalty, reviews, referrals, and other retention tools.

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

The problem: App fatigue and tool sprawl

Merchants commonly reach a point where a single purpose app solves one problem, but growth requires many such solutions. Adding more apps produces a set of predictable frictions:

• Increased monthly costs and overlapping fees.
• Fragmented data across multiple platforms, complicating segmentation and attribution.
• More scripts and integrations that potentially degrade site performance.
• Disjointed customer experience when programs (wishlist, loyalty, reviews, referrals) are not coordinated.

This phenomenon, sometimes called app fatigue, can slow growth because time and budget go to managing the stack rather than optimizing customer retention strategies.

The solution: Consolidate retention features

An alternative approach is to reduce the number of single-function tools and adopt an integrated retention platform that combines wishlist, loyalty, referrals, reviews, and VIP tiers. This approach centralizes data, simplifies onboarding, and makes cross-channel campaigns easier to orchestrate.

Growave’s "More Growth, Less Stack" proposition is built on that model: consolidate the core retention channels into a unified experience to increase LTV while reducing the operational overhead of maintaining many apps.

How an integrated approach addresses common gaps

• Unified customer profiles: Reward points, wishlist items, referral data, and review history are accessible in one place, allowing more accurate segmentation and personalized outreach.
• Cross-functional campaigns: Combine wishlist triggers with loyalty incentives and review requests to create multi-step customer journeys without stitching together multiple platforms.
• Reduced technical debt: Fewer scripts and integrations mean simpler maintenance and a potentially faster storefront.
• Easier measurement: Consolidated reporting allows attribution across retention activities, making it simpler to calculate ROI on programs.

Growave’s suite: What merchants gain

Growave packages multiple retention tools into one platform—Loyalty & Rewards, Referrals, Reviews & UGC, Wishlist, and VIP Tiers—so merchants get an integrated toolkit rather than piecemeal capabilities.

• Loyalty & Rewards: Merchants can design point-based programs, custom reward actions, and VIP tiers that increase repeat purchases. See how to create loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases.
• Reviews & UGC: Merchants can collect and showcase customer reviews on product pages and use review content in marketing. Learn how to collect and showcase authentic reviews.

These components are designed to work together. For example, wishlist signals can trigger loyalty point offers or automated review requests after purchase—closing the loop between intent and retention.

Integrations and enterprise readiness

Growave supports a broad set of integrations and enterprise features:

• Works with Checkout, Shopify POS, Customer Accounts, and headless frameworks.
• Built for Shopify Plus use cases and larger merchants; see solutions for high-growth Plus brands.
• Native connections to marketing and support platforms like Klaviyo, Omnisend, Recharge, and Gorgias help keep data synchronized across systems.

For merchants ready to evaluate pricing and plans, Growave presents tiered options that scale with order volume and feature needs. Merchants can review pricing and select plans that match their growth stage, or install the app directly from the Shopify App Store to test the integration and baseline performance: install from the Shopify App Store.

How Growave resolves wishlist vs cart-sharing tradeoffs

The most common tension merchants face when choosing between tools like Swish and AskToBuy is whether to prioritize persistent intent capture (wishlists) or immediate assisted conversion (cart sharing). Growave addresses both by offering a robust wishlist plus complementary loyalty and referral mechanics.

• Wishlist: Built-in wishlist functionality captures long-term intent and feeds into loyalty and email campaigns.
• Assisted purchase alternatives: While Growave doesn’t replace a dedicated cart-sharing tool for very specific assisted checkout flows, the combined loyalty and wishlist hooks can reduce the need for separate cart-share apps by promoting direct conversions through points, targeted offers, and streamlined buy-now incentives.

Merchants that need a true cart-sharing feature for sales reps or specific parent/teen flows may still pair a narrow tool with Growave—but the integrated approach reduces overall stack bloat for most retention strategies.

Proof points and scale considerations

Growave is used by many merchants and shows social proof that supports long-term reliability:

• Over 1,000 reviews with a strong average rating indicate widespread adoption and satisfaction (1,197 reviews, 4.8 rating).
• Feature breadth reduces the need to manage multiple vendors and simplifies data-driven retention.

Merchants evaluating Growave can review case studies and customer examples to see how combined loyalty, wishlist, and reviews increased retention and revenue in real deployments: browse customer stories from brands scaling retention.

Practical steps for merchants considering consolidation

• Audit current app usage: Identify duplicate functionality (e.g., multiple loyalty or wishlist apps).
• Map key retention flows: Determine which flows are mission-critical (wishlist-to-email, referral discounts, VIP tiers).
• Run a cost-benefit analysis: Compare monthly fees and expected LTV uplift from a consolidated solution versus multiple point apps.
• Pilot in a controlled manner: Use a trial or a single plan to migrate one function (e.g., move wishlist into an integrated platform) and measure impact.
• Measure performance: Monitor Core Web Vitals and conversion rates during migration to ensure frontend performance remains stable.

For merchants exploring an integrated option, detailed plan and pricing information is available to evaluate fit and scale. Merchants can review available plans and start a trial to test the fit: compare plans on the pricing page.

Where Growave complements or replaces Swish and AskToBuy

• Replace Swish: If the wishlist is the primary goal and loyalty/reviews/referrals are also needed, Growave can replace a single-purpose wishlist app and provide additional retention drivers.
• Complement AskToBuy: If cart-sharing is mission-critical (sales reps, gift registries with pre-filled checkouts), AskToBuy may still be used alongside Growave. Growave provides the broader retention framework, while AskToBuy handles the specific assisted checkout flow.
• Enterprise fit: For Shopify Plus merchants seeking consolidated retention tooling plus headless compatibility, Growave provides dedicated support and custom options; explore solutions for high-growth Plus brands.

Merchants evaluating switching should review integration details and migration pathways. For a guided walkthrough, merchant teams can book a personalized demo.

Cost comparison in practice

Swish provides wishlist-specific pricing at $19–$99 depending on plan level. AskToBuy lists a single $15/month plan. Growave’s entry-level pricing starts higher than a single $15 app but provides multiple modules in one product, which can reduce long-term costs by eliminating redundant apps and the overhead of managing multiple vendors. View detailed tier comparisons and the plan that matches expected order volume: check the pricing options.

Two practical examples of consolidated workflows

• Wishlist to Loyalty Flow:
  • A customer saves an item to wishlist (Growave Wishlist).
  • After 30 days without purchase, an automated email is sent with a small loyalty points incentive to nudge purchase (Growave Loyalty + Wishlist).
  • Post-purchase, the customer receives a review request and earns points for leaving feedback (Growave Reviews + Loyalty).
• Referral-Fueled Wishlist Campaign:
  • A customer creates a shared wishlist for a birthday.
  • Friends receive a link and make purchases that trigger referral credits for the sender.
  • Referral credits convert into VIP tier progression, unlocking a personalized discount for future purchases.

Both flows use unified customer data so rewards, wishlist activity, and referrals contribute to accurate segmentation and LTV forecasts.

Implementation Checklist: Choosing Between Adding a Single-Function App or an Integrated Platform

• Define the primary business problem:
  • If it’s long-term retention from saved intent → prioritize wishlist functionality (Swish or integrated wishlist).
  • If it’s immediate frictionless assisted purchases → consider AskToBuy.
  • If multiple retention levers are important (loyalty, referrals, reviews) → prefer an integrated platform.
• Evaluate integrations:
  • Confirm compatibility with Klaviyo, GA4, and essential marketing tools.
  • Verify headless/Hydrogen support if using modern storefronts.
• Validate onboarding support:
  • Free setup and white-glove onboarding reduce execution risk for complex implementations.
• Estimate total cost of ownership:
  • Account for monthly fees across apps, development time for integration, and potential UX impact.
• Pilot and measure:
  • Use a controlled test to measure conversion lift, average order value, and repeat purchase rates.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Swish (formerly Wishlist King) and Ask to Buy create & share cart, the decision comes down to intended outcomes. Swish is the stronger option when the goal is to convert saved intent into repeat purchases through advanced wishlist features, personalized notifications, and deep integrations with analytics and email platforms. Ask to Buy is the better fit for merchants that need a simple, focused way to create and share pre-filled carts to remove friction from assisted purchases.

Both apps solve clear problems, but both also represent single-point solutions that can increase tool sprawl if other retention functions are needed.

For merchants looking to reduce stack size while retaining (and extending) functionality across wishlists, loyalty, referrals, and reviews, an integrated retention platform can be a higher-value choice. Growave follows a "More Growth, Less Stack" philosophy and packages wishlist, loyalty rewards, referrals, and reviews into one platform. Merchants can compare plans and get pricing details to evaluate cost and scale on the pricing page. For a quick route to install and test, the app is available to add directly from the Shopify App Store. Explore how Growave’s loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and tools to collect and showcase authentic reviews work together to increase lifetime value, or review customer examples to see real outcomes from consolidated retention programs: discover customer stories from brands scaling retention.

Start a 14-day free trial to evaluate how a unified retention stack reduces tool sprawl and accelerates growth. For merchants who prefer a guided walkthrough, it’s possible to book a personalized demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do Swish and AskToBuy differ in long-term retention impact?
  • Swish focuses on capturing and activating saved intent through persistent wishlists and automated notifications, which supports long-term retention. AskToBuy optimizes immediate assisted purchases and reduces friction in the checkout flow, which can boost one-time conversion but does not provide the same lifecycle tools.
• Which app is better value for a merchant who needs both wishlist and loyalty features?
  • If both wishlist and loyalty are needed, an integrated platform that bundles both will often be better value for money than subscribing to separate single-function apps. Consolidation reduces monthly fees, centralizes data, and simplifies campaign orchestration.
• Can AskToBuy replace wishlist functionality?
  • AskToBuy is primarily a cart-sharing solution and lacks the persistent wishlist analytics and lifecycle automation that wishlist-focused apps provide. It can complement wishlist features, but for merchants that need long-term saved-item strategies, a dedicated wishlist or integrated platform is preferable.
• How does an all-in-one platform compare to specialized apps?
  • An all-in-one platform reduces vendor overhead and unifies customer data, enabling coordinated retention programs and simpler measurement. Specialized apps can offer deeper functionality in their niche, so the right choice depends on whether depth in one area or breadth of retention capabilities is the priority.