Swish (formerly Wishlist King) vs. Mst: Wishlist + Marketing flow: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right wishlist solution is a common decision point for Shopify merchants seeking to boost conversions, recover intent, and extend customer lifetime value. Both Swish (formerly Wishlist King) and Mst: Wishlist + Marketing flow are established wishlist apps on the Shopify App Store, but they target slightly different merchant needs. This article compares the two apps feature-by-feature and then explains when a merchant should consider an integrated retention platform instead.

Short answer: Swish (formerly Wishlist King) is a polished, conversion-focused wishlist tool that emphasizes onboarding support, analytics, and enterprise-ready features for brands that want a fast, reliable wishlist plus personalized notifications. Mst: Wishlist + Marketing flow offers strong basic wishlist functionality at a very low entry price and excels at flexibility, guest wishlists, and multi-channel alerting. Merchants looking to centralize loyalty, reviews, referrals, and wishlist under a single product should consider an integrated retention suite as a better value for money.

Purpose: This post provides an in-depth, objective comparison of Swish (formerly Wishlist King) and Mst: Wishlist + Marketing flow so merchants can choose the right wishlist approach for their store—or evaluate whether a single-vendor retention platform is a smarter investment.

Swish (formerly Wishlist King) vs. Mst: Wishlist + Marketing flow: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Product Positioning and Target Customers

Swish (formerly Wishlist King) positioning

Swish positions itself as a "feature rich" wishlist solution for brands with ambition. The app focuses on conversion-lift through personalized and automated wishlist notifications, advanced analytics, and a fully customizable UI. It offers white-glove onboarding for Plus merchants and aims to serve merchants that need reliable integrations (Klaviyo, GA4, Meta) and headless/Hydrogen capability.

Mst: Wishlist + Marketing flow positioning

Mst is positioned as a practical, affordable wishlist app with wide compatibility. It emphasizes unlimited items and customers, multi-language and currency support, guest wishlists, and built-in alerting for price drops and restocks. Its selling point is accessibility for budget-conscious merchants who still need scalable wishlist behavior.

Which merchants each app attracts

• Swish: Brands that plan to scale, want analytics-driven wishlist curation, and expect a higher-touch onboarding experience. Well-suited for stores with non-linear customer journeys, or those using headless stacks.
• Mst: Small to medium stores that need a functional wishlist on a tight budget, or stores that want guest wishlist functionality and multiple notification channels without an extensive onboarding process.

Core Wishlist Features

Adding and saving products

Swish supports wishlist actions throughout the shopping journey and allows unlimited wishlists and saved items. The UI is built to match store themes and supports multiple display options.

Mst similarly allows unlimited items in wishlists, supports multiple wishlists per customer, and includes a guest wishlist option. Both apps make wishlist creation and retrieval straightforward on desktop and mobile.

Multiple wishlists and sharing

Swish allows curated wishlists and provides analytics for wishlist curation, enabling merchants to observe which products or lists drive intent. Sharing options are available and can be customized.

Mst highlights multiple wishlists per customer and easy sharing. The guest wishlist capability is a clear advantage for stores that do not require customer accounts for wishlist use.

Customization and theme integration

Swish emphasizes out-of-the-box integration with all themes and offers a free setup and customization service across plans. Advanced customization is available for merchants that want wishlist UI to match their store precisely.

Mst exposes template-level customization (Liquid, HTML, CSS) and supports API/headless theme support, multi-language, and multi-currency. That makes Mst attractive for developers and stores that want to control the UI via code.

UX and mobile responsiveness

Both apps explicitly claim responsive designs for mobile. Merchant reviews often highlight the ease of use; Swish's setup service is a differentiator for merchants who prefer a plug-and-play feel.

Notifications and Recovery Workflows

Swish notification capabilities

Swish focuses on highly personalized and automated wishlist notifications. Integrations with Klaviyo enable merchants to build targeted flows that recover wishlist intent, send price-drop alerts, and re-engage shoppers at the right moment. Swish supports back-in-stock and price-drop triggers via native or integrated notification flows.

Mst notification capabilities

Mst includes built-in Price Drop and Back in Stock alerts delivered via email, SMS, and push notifications. Native connections to popular push and SMS tools reduce friction for stores that need multi-channel alerting without building flows in another platform.

Practical differences

• Swish is stronger at delivering analytics-driven, personalized notifications through integrations like Klaviyo and GA4.
• Mst provides an affordable, multi-channel alert system out of the box, which may be sufficient for stores that require straightforward alerts rather than full personalization.

Integrations and Developer Support

Integrations: breadth and depth

Swish ships with built-in integrations for Klaviyo, GA4, and Meta, and lists compatibility with Checkout, Hydrogen, Markets, Customer Accounts, and Recommendations. The app explicitly supports headless stacks and headless checkout variants used by enterprise brands.

Mst lists integrations for Klaviyo, Postscript/Brevo, PushOwl, and mobile app builders such as Apploy. API support and headless theme compatibility are also present, along with multi-language and currency support.

Developer features and headless support

Swish's Plus plan explicitly calls out Hydrogen and headless stacks, and the developer-level support (including dedicated account managers at higher tiers) helps larger merchants integrate wishlist functions into complex setups.

Mst provides API and headless theme support; developers can directly modify Liquid and templates. This is a strong point for technical teams that want code-level control.

Data flow and analytics

Swish highlights advanced analytics and wishlist curation. The value proposition centers on converting wishlist interest into purchases by tracking which items appear most frequently and factoring that into remarketing flows.

Mst focuses less on analytics and more on functionality and alerts. Developers can still instrument events into GA4 or Klaviyo for analytics, but out-of-the-box analytics appear less central to the product pitch.

Pricing and Value for Money

Swish pricing overview

Swish pricing is tiered by the store's Shopify plan:

• Basic Shopify: $19/month — all features included, free setup, unlimited wishlists & saved items.
• Shopify: $29/month — same features for stores on Shopify.
• Advanced Shopify: $49/month — same feature set geared to that plan.
• Shopify Plus: $99/month — includes white-glove onboarding, priority support, dedicated account manager, Hydrogen & headless support.

Swish's pricing ties higher-touch onboarding and account-level support to the Shopify plan level. That is attractive for brands that want a single vendor to handle setup and customization.

Mst pricing overview

Mst offers a single flat Monthly plan at $2/month that includes all features, with no limits on wishlist items or customers. The low cost is compelling for merchants testing wishlist impact or those with constrained budgets.

Comparing value for money

• Swish represents better value for merchants who need high-touch onboarding, analytics, and enterprise integrations. The cost is higher, but the included services (customisation, dedicated support at Plus) reduce setup overhead and make the app closer to a managed solution.
• Mst is an excellent low-friction option with an unbeatable price. For merchants who are comfortable configuring alerts and templates themselves, Mst can deliver wishlist capability at a tiny fraction of the cost.

Avoiding the word "cheaper," it is accurate to say Mst offers better value for money for straightforward wishlist needs while Swish offers better value for money for merchants who rely on onboarding, integrations, and managed support to drive outcomes.

Support, Onboarding, and Reliability

Swish support & onboarding

Swish offers free setup and customisation across plans and provides white-glove onboarding on the Plus tier, plus priority support and dedicated account management. This approach reduces time-to-value and lowers the technical burden on merchant teams.

Mst support & onboarding

Mst emphasizes easy setup but does not highlight managed onboarding or dedicated account management. Support is available through standard channels, and the app documentation and template support make it suitable for merchants with some technical resources.

Uptime, performance, and merchant feedback

Both apps are widely used and generally stable in merchant reports. Swish's higher review count (272 reviews) and perfect 5.0 rating on Shopify suggests consistent merchant satisfaction, particularly around support and functionality. Mst has a solid 4.7 rating from 150 reviews, indicating strong performance for its target audience.

Internationalization and Compliance

Language, currency, and localization

Mst explicitly supports multi-language and multi-currency, which is beneficial for international stores and cross-border merchants.

Swish supports theme integration and suggests enterprise-level support for headless and multi-region architectures. Language and currency support are typically achievable through theme customization and its integration stack.

Data ownership and privacy

Both apps integrate with external marketing platforms, so merchant control over data depends on integrations and the chosen workflows. Merchants should validate data export options and confirm compliance with privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) based on where customer data resides.

Practical Implementation Considerations

Time to deploy

• Swish: Short for merchants that opt for the free setup; onboarding timelines depend on customization complexity. For Plus merchants with white-glove onboarding, deployment can be faster because the app team handles much of the configuration.
• Mst: Quick to deploy for standard use-cases because of minimal configuration needs and a simple pricing model.

Required internal resources

• Swish: Minimal if merchants use the setup service. Some resources needed for analytics integration (e.g., Klaviyo) if flows are to be customized.
• Mst: Requires more in-house technical or marketing effort to build advanced flows in external systems, but basic alerting is built-in.

Updating and scaling

Both apps scale to unlimited wishlist items and customers, but Swish’s Plus plan offers more hands-on support for scaling issues tied to headless architectures or high-volume traffic.

Measurable Outcomes and KPIs

Merchants should track specific signals to evaluate wishlist success regardless of the app:

• Wishlist-to-order conversion rate (how many saved items later convert into purchases)
• Rate of recovery from wishlist notifications (open, click, and conversion after alerts)
• Average order value (AOV) uplift from bundles or wishlist-driven purchases
• Repeat purchase rate among users who used wishlist features
• Email/SMS/channel performance for price-drop/back-in-stock triggers
• Time to first purchase for users who added items to wishlist

Swish's analytics focus helps merchants track many of these KPIs more natively. Mst relies on external analytics or manual instrumentation.

Migration and Exit Considerations

Moving between wishlist vendors or consolidating features later should be part of the evaluation. Questions merchants should clarify before install:

• Is wishlist data exportable as a CSV or via API?
• Are wishlist events pushed to analytics platforms or email providers (Klaviyo) for continuity?
• How are guest wishlists handled during migration?
• What are the retention policies for stored wishlist data?

Swish emphasizes integrations that make event continuity easier; Mst offers API access and template-level exports that can also support migrations. Confirm export options upfront.

Strengths and Weaknesses Summary

Swish Strengths

• Strong merchant satisfaction (5.0 from 272 reviews).
• Free setup and more managed onboarding options, plus white-glove for Plus customers.
• Deeper analytics, Klaviyo/GA4/Meta integrations, and headless/Hydrogen support.
• Designed for scaling and non-linear customer journeys.

Swish Weaknesses

• Pricing tied to Shopify plan — may be higher than very-low-cost alternatives.
• Merchants that don’t need managed onboarding or advanced analytics may not fully use the feature set.

Mst Strengths

• Extremely low entry cost ($2/month) with full feature set included.
• Guest wishlists, multi-wishlist support, multi-language and currency support.
• Price-drop and back-in-stock alerts across email, SMS, and push.

Mst Weaknesses

• Fewer merchant support promises for high-touch onboarding.
• Analytics and personalization may require additional integration and technical work.
• Rating is slightly lower (4.7 from 150 reviews), which can reflect variability in setup support.

Use-Case Recommendations

• For brands that want a managed wishlist solution, actionable analytics, and enterprise-grade support: Swish is a strong fit.
• For budget-conscious stores that need core wishlist features, guest wishlist options, and built-in multi-channel alerts: Mst is a practical choice.
• For merchants that require more than a wishlist (loyalty, reviews, referrals, VIP tiers) or want to reduce tool sprawl, a consolidated retention platform can deliver better long-term outcomes.

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

Why app fatigue matters

Many merchants accumulate multiple single-purpose apps to cover loyalty, reviews, referrals, wishlist, VIP tiers, and more. That approach creates friction:

• Increased maintenance and support windows across multiple vendors.
• Fragmented customer data and duplication of events.
• Higher cumulative monthly costs and integration complexity.
• Longer implementation cycles when coordinating multiple teams.

This collection of single-point solutions often delivers isolated improvements but misses cross-channel optimization. For example, wishlist behavior is more valuable when combined with loyalty or referral incentives, or when wishlist signals feed a unified customer profile for personalized retention campaigns.

The case for consolidating retention tools

Consolidation reduces administrative overhead and accelerates outcomes. When wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and product reviews live in the same platform, merchants can:

• Reinforce a single customer identity across interactions.
• Use wishlist events to trigger reward points or VIP actions without cross-app flows.
• Surface user-generated content and reviews for wishlisted products to increase trust.
• Reduce dependency on multiple APIs and lower integration fragility.

An integrated platform also simplifies analytics. Rather than stitching data from five vendors, merchants get a coherent view of engagement and retention metrics.

Growave’s "More Growth, Less Stack" proposition

Growave positions itself as a flexible retention platform that combines Loyalty & Rewards, Referrals, Reviews & UGC, Wishlist, and VIP Tiers into a single suite. The platform targets merchants who prefer to reduce tool sprawl and get cross-functional growth levers from one vendor.

Key claims of value:

• Unified customer profiles that connect wishlist actions with rewards and referrals.
• Built-in integrations with major marketing tools and platforms to preserve existing flows.
• Tiers and custom reward actions that enable advanced retention strategies without assembling a separate stack.

Merchants can evaluate Growave’s plans and features to compare costs and benefits and decide whether consolidating tools reduces total cost of ownership while improving lifetime value and repeat purchases. See how merchants can consolidate retention features when assessing monthly plans and expected ROI.

How an integrated approach changes execution

• Wishlist-driven campaigns become directly monetizable: a merchant can automatically credit reward points when a wishlisted item is purchased, or create VIP access for high-value wishlisters.
• Reviews and UGC amplify wishlist trust signals: displaying social proof on wishlisted products increases the likelihood of conversion when price drops or restocks occur.
• Referrals turn wishlists into acquisition channels: shared wishlists can include referral incentives that reward both referrer and new customer.

These combined actions remove friction and compress the time between wishlist intent and revenue.

Feature mapping: Wishlist + Retention in a single product

Growave bundles features that typically require multiple apps:

• Wishlist UI and guest wishlist support tied to loyalty point triggers.
• Loyalty and rewards with custom actions, including redeemable rewards triggered by wishlist behavior or first purchase.
• Reviews and UGC collection to promote trust for wishlisted items.
• Referral campaigns to encourage shared wishlists and expand reach. Merchants can explore specific retention products like loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and collect and showcase authentic reviews to see how combined features work together.

Integrations and platform compatibility

Growave integrates with common Shopify tools and marketing platforms, aiming to preserve existing workflows while offering a consolidated backend. For stores on Plus or complex setups, there are dedicated Plus solutions and launch support available. Check solutions for high-growth Plus brands to confirm compatibility with headless or enterprise stacks.

Cost comparison in realistic terms

Merchants should evaluate the total monthly cost across multiple single-point apps versus one integrated platform. The break-even point depends on:

• The number of retention features needed (wishlist, loyalty, reviews, referrals).
• The cumulative monthly fees of separate apps.
• The internal cost of integrating and maintaining cross-app flows.

Growave’s pricing offers plans that can consolidate many functions into one bill. Reviewing plan features can help merchants decide whether consolidation yields better value for money; merchants can compare pricing tiers and start a trial to estimate ROI.

Real merchant signals and case studies

Seeing how other merchants applied a consolidated retention strategy can clarify expectations. Growave publishes customer stories and inspiration for brands that used unified retention tactics to increase LTV and repeat purchases. Merchants can review customer stories from brands scaling retention to identify use cases similar to their own.

When to prefer specialized apps

A single integrated solution is not a universal requirement. Specialized wishlist apps may still be best when:

• A store only needs wishlist functionality and does not plan to invest in loyalty or referral programs.
• Budget constraints make a $2/month app like Mst an attractive test instrument.
• The team prefers to manage separate best-of-breed solutions and has the technical resources to maintain integrations.

However, for brands focused on retention and lifetime value as strategic KPIs, consolidating several capabilities into one platform often shortens time-to-impact and reduces engineering overhead.

Implementation checklist for consolidation

Use this checklist when evaluating a move to a consolidated retention platform:

• Map every retention use-case currently supported (wishlist, loyalty, reviews, referrals).
• Identify cross-feature triggers needed (e.g., wishlist -> reward points).
• Inventory current integrations and data flows (Klaviyo, GA4, push, SMS).
• Verify migration/export capabilities for wishlist and review data.
• Estimate total monthly spend for existing apps vs. consolidated plans.
• Run a pilot on a representative set of customers or a product category to measure LTV impact.

Merchants seeking a guided evaluation can book a demo to see how an integrated stack improves retention.

Migration Scenarios and Practical Advice

Evaluating wishlist ROI before switching

Before switching or adding features, merchants should quantify the current wishlist’s contribution:

• Track the percentage of wishlisted items that convert within a set window.
• Measure uplifts in AOV for orders that include previously wishlisted items.
• Calculate incremental revenue from notification-driven conversions.

These metrics help compare the cost of a new app or consolidated plan to expected revenue gains.

Data portability and backups

Confirm that wishlist data can be exported. Practical steps:

• Export wishlists as CSV via app dashboard or API.
• Ensure customer identifiers (email, customer ID) are preserved for seamless mapping to loyalty profiles.
• Test import into the new system with a sample dataset.

Phased approach for consolidation

Merchants with low tolerance for risk can phase consolidation:

• Start by migrating wishlist to the integrated platform while maintaining existing loyalty or review systems.
• Validate event flows into marketing platforms (Klaviyo/Omnisend).
• Switch referrals and rewards next after confirming synchronized customer profiles.

Monitoring and testing post-migration

After migration, monitor KPIs closely:

• Compare wishlist conversion rate before and after migration.
• Track uptake of loyalty incentives tied to wishlist actions.
• Test A/B variants of notification cadence and message copy.

Use analytics to continuously improve flows and demonstrate ROI.

Pricing and Plan Recommendations

When Swish makes sense

• If a merchant needs fast setup with minimal internal effort and wants the reassurance of a dedicated onboarding team.
• If a merchant requires enterprise integrations (Hydrogen/headless) and dedicated account management for scaling.

When Mst is appropriate

• If the primary objective is to add wishlist capability at the smallest possible monthly cost.
• If the merchant has technical capacity to self-manage integrations or only needs basic alerting and multi-language support.

When to choose a consolidated platform

• If retention objectives extend beyond wishlist alone—particularly loyalty programs, referrals, and review-driven optimization.
• If reducing monthly app fees, engineering overhead, and data fragmentation is a priority. Merchants can compare pricing tiers and plan features to determine if a consolidated plan reduces overall cost and improves growth outcomes.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Swish (formerly Wishlist King) and Mst: Wishlist + Marketing flow, the decision comes down to priorities. Swish is the better choice for brands that value managed onboarding, enterprise integrations, and analytics-led wishlist curation. Mst offers excellent value for money for stores that need straightforward wishlist functionality, guest wishlists, and built-in multi-channel alerts at a minimal monthly cost. Neither approach is universally superior—each fits a distinct merchant profile.

For merchants whose retention strategy spans loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlist—especially stores that aim to reduce tool sprawl and centralize customer data—an integrated retention platform may deliver more growth per dollar spent. Consolidation can reduce integration overhead, improve personalization, and turn wishlist signals into measurable increases in lifetime value. Growave positions itself to solve these needs with a unified suite that includes wishlist plus loyalty, referrals, and reviews. Merchants can evaluate how this consolidation reduces stack complexity and accelerates retention by reviewing how to consolidate retention features or installing the solution directly from the Shopify App Store.

Start a 14-day free trial to see how consolidating wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews into one platform can reduce tool sprawl and drive repeat purchases. Start a free trial and compare plans.

FAQ

How do Swish and Mst differ in terms of merchant support and onboarding?

Swish offers free setup and customisation across plans with white-glove onboarding and dedicated account managers for Shopify Plus merchants. This reduces internal resource needs during implementation. Mst emphasizes ease of setup and low-cost access but does not highlight managed onboarding or dedicated enterprise support, so merchants may need to allocate internal resources for more complex configurations.

Which app provides better analytics and personalization for wishlist-driven marketing?

Swish is stronger in analytics and integrations (Klaviyo, GA4), enabling merchants to run personalized, data-driven wishlist recovery flows. Mst supports integrations and API access but places more emphasis on built-in alerting and template-level customization than on native analytics dashboards.

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

An all-in-one platform consolidates wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews under one vendor. This reduces integration complexity, centralizes customer data, and enables cross-feature triggers (for example, awarding points for wishlist activity). Specialized apps can be more cost-effective for single-purpose needs but can introduce data fragmentation and higher cumulative costs as features multiply. Merchants can learn more about combining loyalty and wishlist strategies with loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and collect and showcase authentic reviews.

If a store is on Shopify Plus with headless requirements, which option is better?

For headless or Hydrogen architectures, Swish advertises specific support and a Plus-level offering that includes white-glove onboarding and dedicated account management. An integrated retention platform that provides enterprise capabilities and Plus support is also viable; review enterprise feature sets and Plus-level services for compatibility and migration assistance. Merchants can evaluate enterprise options and compatibility for high-growth Plus brands.