Swish vs. First Wish ‑ Wishlist Apps: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right wishlist app is a common challenge for Shopify merchants. Wishlists may look simple on the surface, but small differences in features, integrations, analytics, and support can meaningfully affect conversion rates, average order value, and customer lifetime value. This article compares two wishlist-focused apps—Swish (formerly Wishlist King) and First Wish ‑ Wishlist & Boards—so merchants can decide which solution fits their needs.

Short answer: Swish (formerly Wishlist King) is a polished, feature-rich wishlist solution with strong onboarding, built-in integrations, and a high satisfaction signal (272 reviews, 5.0 rating), making it a solid choice for brands that want a reliable, customizable wishlist with analytics and automation. First Wish ‑ Wishlist & Boards is a lightweight, low-cost option that works for stores that only need basic wishlist and board-sharing capability, though its public review footprint (1 review, 1.0 rating) and feature limits suggest greater risk for mission-critical use. For merchants seeking broader retention and engagement tools without adding more single-purpose apps, a consolidated suite like Growave can deliver better value and reduce tool sprawl.

Purpose: This post provides a feature-by-feature, objective comparison of Swish and First Wish across functionality, pricing, integrations, implementation, analytics, and support. After a balanced evaluation, an integrated alternative is presented for merchants who want loyalty, reviews, referrals, and a wishlist combined into one platform.

Swish (formerly Wishlist King) vs. First Wish ‑ Wishlist & Boards: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Feature Set

Wishlist Basics

Swish focuses on the classic wishlist experience but enhances it with enterprise-friendly features. Customers can save items throughout the shopping journey, create multiple lists, and receive personalized notifications. The app supports unlimited wishlists and saved items across its plans, which is attractive for stores with repeat visitors and high product counts.

First Wish delivers core wishlist functionality that supports both logged-in customers and anonymous visitors. It allows wishlist synchronization for logged-in users and supports curated boards that customers can share with family or on social media. The free tier limits the number of wishlist adds per month, which is an important constraint for high-traffic sites.

Highlights:

• Swish: unlimited wishlists, personalized automated notifications, and free setup/customization.
• First Wish: supports visitor wishlists, curated boards, and shareable lists.

Implication for merchants: If a store expects lots of wishlist activity or wants to use wishlist behavior in automated marketing, Swish’s unlimited-capacity approach is safer. First Wish is viable for stores with predictable, modest wishlist traffic or for merchants running a pilot.

List Management & Sharing

Both apps have list-sharing capabilities, but they take different approaches.

Swish emphasizes curated wishlist curation and analytics (e.g., identify popular products inside wishlists). The app highlights integrations that enable triggered messages when items are restocked or go on sale—important for recapture and conversion.

First Wish has a straightforward board feature that lets customers assemble and share curated lists easily through social platforms or direct messaging. The sharing UX appears lightweight and user-friendly, which suits social- or gift-focused brands.

Implication for merchants: For social shopping and gift lists, First Wish’s boards are clear and simple to use. For brands that want those lists to feed into lifecycle campaigns and inventory alerts, Swish’s deeper automation provides more strategic ROI.

Notifications & Automation

Swish explicitly offers highly personalized and automated wishlist notifications. Its marketing integrations (Klaviyo, Meta) and GA4 support make it possible to trigger messages based on wishlist events, such as price drops, low stock, or abandoned wishlist behavior.

First Wish includes admin activity reports and dashboards, but public material does not emphasize automated notification flows or deep marketing platform integrations. That suggests First Wish is more manual and less tied into lifecycle automation by default.

Implication for merchants: If turning wishlist signals into automated revenue-driving flows is a priority (e.g., price-drop emails to wishlist owners), Swish is designed for that purpose. If a merchant only needs basic alerts or manual outreach, First Wish may be sufficient.

Personalization & Customization

Swish pitches itself as “fully customisable” with free setup and customization across all plans. It also claims theme-agnostic integration so that the look and feel match the store. This is valuable for brands that prioritize consistent UI and on-brand experience.

First Wish allows customization of labels and translations, and the UX appears to be simple to install. However, fewer onboarding and white-glove options are mentioned, which could make deeper styling or bespoke behavior require developer effort.

Implication for merchants: Merchants without development bandwidth who want a polished, on-brand wishlist should value Swish’s free setup offer. Stores with basic design needs or internal dev resources might accept First Wish’s lighter-touch implementation.

Analytics & Insights

Swish highlights advanced analytics with wishlist curation and integration with GA4 to capture wishlist events in analytics. These signals enable merchants to measure wishlist-driven interest, conversion rates from wishlists, and the products most often saved.

First Wish provides an admin dashboard with usage metrics and activity reports, which is suitable for basic monitoring. Yet the depth of analytics and integration with broader analytics platforms appears limited compared to Swish.

Implication for merchants: For data-driven merchandising and marketing, Swish offers stronger telemetry. For a small store wanting simple reports about which items are being saved, First Wish’s dashboard can be adequate.

Pricing & Value

Pricing Models

Swish’s pricing is tied to the merchant’s Shopify plan rather than usage volume, with four tiers:

• Basic Shopify — $19 / month
• Shopify — $29 / month
• Advanced Shopify — $49 / month
• Shopify Plus — $99 / month (adds white-glove onboarding, priority support, dedicated account manager, Hydrogen & headless support)

Each Swish plan claims to include the full feature set and free setup/onboarding as standard.

First Wish uses a usage-tiered model with a free entry-level plan and progressively higher caps:

• Free — 1,000 wishlist adds/month
• Beginner — $9.90 / month — 5,000 adds/month, unlimited boards, sharing
• Advanced — $19.90 / month — 20,000 adds/month
• Pro — $29.90 / month — 50,000 adds/month

The First Wish plan selection is primarily driven by volume of wishlist adds rather than Shopify plan level.

Value Considerations

Swish commits to unlimited wishlists and sessions across plans and includes a free customization service. That structure is predictable: merchants on higher Shopify plans pay more but receive the same feature set plus enhanced support for Plus customers.

First Wish’s lower price points are attractive for early-stage stores or experiments. However, the per-month cap on wishlist adds can create unpredictable upgrade costs for viral products or seasonal spikes. The free tier is usable for constrained trials but will be limited once campaigns scale.

Relative value:

• Better value for money where long-term scalability, automation, and support matter: Swish. Unlimited usage and onboarding make total cost more predictable.
• Better value for money when starting small and testing wishlist features: First Wish, provided the merchant monitors add volumes.

Merchants should consider the full cost of ownership: the app subscription plus the operational cost of managing single-purpose tools and any developer effort required for customization.

Integrations & Technical Compatibility

Marketing & Analytics Integrations

Swish lists native integrations with Klaviyo and GA4, and mentions Meta integrations out of the box. These integrations make it straightforward to feed wishlist events into email flows, ad audiences, and analytics pipelines. For merchants using advanced marketing stacks, direct support reduces time-to-revenue from wishlist signals.

First Wish does not list the same breadth of marketing integrations in its public description. It emphasizes an admin dashboard but not native Klaviyo or GA4 hooks. If a merchant relies on automated email flows or audience syncing, additional work or middleware may be needed.

Platform & Theme Compatibility

Swish claims compatibility with all themes and with headless or Hydrogen setups—important for stores using modern front-end stacks and Shopify Plus architecture. The Plus tier includes dedicated support for Hydrogen and headless stacks.

First Wish focuses on Shopify stores but does not emphasize headless or Hydrogen support. That makes it better suited to traditional, theme-based setups.

Implication for merchants: For newer front-end architectures or planned headless deployments, Swish offers clearer compatibility and Plus-level support.

Checkout & Customer Accounts

Swish lists compatibility with Checkout, Hydrogen, Customer Accounts, Search Recommendations, and more. That suggests wishlist behavior can be tightly linked with checkout flows and customer accounts—useful when leveraging wishlists to prompt conversion.

First Wish supports wishlist synchronization for logged-in customers, which is a basic but important capability. However, the lack of explicit checkout-level integrations limits advanced flows like incentivized checkout experiences or wishlist-based rewards.

Implementation & Onboarding

Swish promotes free setup and customization across all plans and free white-glove onboarding for Shopify Plus customers. This reduces the technical barrier for merchants that lack in-house developers or that need a consistent experience fast.

First Wish emphasizes easy installation but does not advertise dedicated setup services. Lightweight install works well for smaller stores with simple needs, but merchants expecting enterprise-level rollout may require developer time.

Implication for merchants: Swish is likely to be faster to launch with a polished UI and fewer custom dev hours, while First Wish requires less initial spend but may cost more internal time if deep customization is needed.

Support & Trust Signals

Reviews & Ratings

Public review data is a meaningful proxy for user satisfaction and risk.

• Swish has 272 reviews and a perfect 5.0 rating on the Shopify App Store. That volume of reviews and consistent score is a strong trust signal for merchants evaluating reliability and support.
• First Wish shows 1 review and a 1.0 rating. A single, low-scoring review is a weak public data point; it makes it hard to assess long-term satisfaction and support responsiveness.

Interpretation: Swish’s review footprint suggests mature usage and consistent merchant satisfaction. First Wish’s very small review sample makes public trust harder to gauge; merchants should be cautious and seek direct references or a trial.

Support Options

Swish advertises priority support and dedicated account managers for Plus customers and free onboarding on all plans. Such service-level options matter for time-sensitive launches and mid-market merchants.

First Wish does not list a dedicated support framework in public material; it likely relies on standard app store support channels and developer contact.

Implication: For stores where support and vendor responsiveness are business-critical, Swish’s offerings reduce operational risk.

Security, Privacy & Data Ownership

Both apps operate on Shopify stores, so basic compliance with Shopify policies is assumed. Swish’s enterprise positioning and integration claims suggest attention to analytics routing and data integrity, but merchants should confirm specifics about data retention, event tracking, and PII handling during onboarding.

First Wish’s public data does not highlight security posture or enterprise-grade compliance details. Merchants should request information on data handling and privacy practices before installing, particularly if storing wishlist data tied to account emails.

Performance & UX Considerations

A wishlist app must be fast and unobtrusive. Swish emphasizes theme integration and design parity, which helps avoid jarring UX shifts and reduces front-end performance surprises. Swish’s free setup likely includes ensuring performance-optimized integrations.

First Wish’s simplicity is an advantage for performance: fewer bells and whistles usually mean less frontend overhead. However, lack of dedicated setup could mean defaults aren’t optimized for a specific theme.

Testing recommendations:

• Evaluate lighthouse scores before and after install.
• Review how wishlist assets are loaded (defer vs. synchronous).
• Confirm that wishlist events are recorded without blocking page rendering.

Use Cases & Ideal Merchants

When Swish Is the Better Fit

• Merchants that want a wishlist tied into marketing automation (e.g., price-drop or back-in-stock flows).
• Stores that need unlimited wishlist capacity and predictable billing.
• Brands that require professional onboarding and theme-level customization without developer overhead.
• Shopify Plus or headless stores that need Hydrogen compatibility and account management.

When First Wish Is the Better Fit

• Small stores that want a low-cost or free wishlist to test social sharing or gift list functionality.
• Merchants that prioritize simple board creation and shareability over advanced automation.
• Teams comfortable with handling customization or that have limited wishlist traffic under the free/cheap tiers.

Pros and Cons Summary

Swish — Pros:

• Large review base (272) and 5.0 rating indicate high customer satisfaction.
• Free setup and customization across plans reduce technical overhead.
• Unlimited wishlists and sessions make scaling predictable.
• Native marketing and analytics integrations (Klaviyo, GA4, Meta).
• Plus-level support for headless/Hydrogen stores.

Swish — Cons:

• Single-purpose app: merchants still need other retention tools for reviews, referrals, loyalty.
• Pricing tied to Shopify plan can be more expensive for smaller stores on low volumes.

First Wish — Pros:

• Low entry cost and a free tier for testing.
• Board sharing and support for anonymous visitors make it good for social/gift use.
• Simple to install and use.

First Wish — Cons:

• Very small public review footprint (1 review, 1.0 rating) raises trust questions.
• Monthly caps on wishlist adds can lead to upgrade surprises if wishlist usage spikes.
• Limited listed integrations and onboarding support.

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

Merchants often reach a point where adding single-purpose apps for each retention tactic creates complexity: overlapping features, multiple billing lines, duplicated analytics, and fragmented customer experiences. This phenomenon—commonly called app fatigue—drains developer resources, complicates data flows, and slows growth initiatives.

Growave’s “More Growth, Less Stack” approach addresses app fatigue by combining wishlist functionality with complementary retention tools. Instead of installing separate apps for wishlists, loyalty, referrals, and reviews, a merchant can consolidate those features in a single platform designed to work together.

What App Fatigue Looks Like

App fatigue presents practical problems:

• Multiple apps create multiple event schemas, making it hard to run unified analytics.
• Each app often requires theme tweaks and injects frontend assets, increasing page weight and maintenance.
• Separate vendor relationships and support channels slow down problem resolution.
• Redundant features (e.g., referral and loyalty overlapping) produce confusion and extra cost.

Reducing the number of apps while preserving capability helps merchants retain customers, increase LTV, and run campaigns faster.

Growave’s Value Proposition

Growave is a retention platform that bundles Loyalty & Rewards, Referrals, Reviews & UGC, Wishlist, and VIP Tiers. It aims to turn engagement signals into repeat purchases without forcing merchants to stitch different vendors together.

Key advantages:

• Consolidated data flows across wishlist, loyalty, and reviews for clearer attribution and smarter campaigns.
• Integrated workflows: wishlist events can feed into loyalty triggers, review requests, or referral prompts without middleware.
• Enterprise-ready features and Shopify Plus support for larger merchants.

Merchants can explore Growave pricing and plan details to evaluate total cost versus a multi-app stack via the section that helps merchants compare plans and features. For pricing specifics, see the dedicated plans page for straightforward comparisons and to understand which tier maps best to a merchant’s order volume and growth stage: consolidate retention features.

How Growave Replaces Multiple Single-Purpose Apps

An integrated approach solves typical gaps:

• Wishlist + Email Automation: Wishlist events trigger review requests or price-drop notifications without pushing data between apps.
• Loyalty + Wishlist: Reward actions can be based on wishlist behavior (e.g., reward points for saving or purchasing from a wishlist).
• Reviews + Social Proof: Collected UGC can live alongside wishlist interactions to increase conversion confidence.

To see how this works for rewards and retention specifically, merchants can review how Growave enables loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases. For social proof and product content, merchants should review how to collect and showcase authentic reviews.

Practical Benefits Compared to Installing Swish + Another App

Swish is an excellent wishlist product. However, a merchant that installs Swish for wishlists will likely still need apps for loyalty, reviews, and referrals. Each additional app adds integration work and introduces new billing and vendor surfaces.

Growave consolidates those needs:

• Replace a wishlist app plus a loyalty app and a reviews app with a single subscription and single integration surface.
• Avoid redundant code injection and reduce front-end performance risks by using one vetted suite.
• Use fewer admin dashboards—one place to manage customer incentives, wishlist behavior, and social proof.

Merchants evaluating consolidation can compare the bundled pricing and feature map on the Growave plans page to weigh the single-platform tradeoffs versus multiple subscriptions: consolidate retention features.

Feature Parity and Gaps

Growave’s wishlist is one component of a broader retention suite, and its wishlist supports the common behaviors merchants expect—saving items, syncing across devices (for logged-in users), and feeding wishlist events into lifecycle campaigns. Because wishlist sits next to loyalty and reviews in the same product, it’s easier to create cross-channel incentives and automated flows.

For merchants that require enterprise-grade wishlist customization or dedicated white-glove onboarding tied to headless stacks, Growave offers higher-tier plans for those needs, including custom implementations and dedicated support staff. To check which plan matches a scalable store, merchants should review the plan features and enterprise support options on the pricing page: consolidate retention features.

Evidence and Social Proof

Growave has accumulated marketplace traction: a large number of merchant reviews and a high average rating indicate broad usage and trust. For direct shop floor examples and case studies, merchants can browse the customer stories and ideas for how other brands use an integrated retention stack: customer stories from brands scaling retention.

Technical and Platform Coverage

Growave is built to integrate with common e-commerce tools and channels:

• Integrates with email and automation platforms (Klaviyo, Omnisend).
• Works with popular page builders and headless setups.
• Supports Shopify Plus capabilities for merchants who need checkout-level extensions.

Growave’s Shopify App Store listing provides a concise view of integration details and marketplace reviews: browse the app store listing.

How to Evaluate Whether to Consolidate

Merchants should consider consolidating when:

• Multiple single-purpose apps are causing duplicated costs and admin overhead.
• Data is fragmented across systems and attribution for retention marketing is unclear.
• A desire exists to build cross-feature campaigns (e.g., reward points for wishlist purchases, referral bonuses tied to review submission).

If those apply, reviewing consolidated plans and feature lists is a logical next step: consolidate retention features.

Implementation Checklist: Choosing Between a Single-Purpose App and an Integrated Suite

When deciding between Swish, First Wish, or an integrated platform like Growave, evaluate the following operational questions:

• Business Objectives:
  • Is the wishlist primarily a conversion tool (recovering wishlist abandoners), a social gifting tool, or a data capture point for personalization?
• Expected Volume:
  • How many wishlist adds per month are expected? (First Wish’s tiers are usage-based; Swish is unlimited.)
• Stack Complexity:
  • How many retention tools are already in place? Will adding another vendor increase complexity?
• Integrations Needed:
  • Are Klaviyo, GA4, or headless/Hydrogen compatibility required out of the box?
• Support Expectations:
  • Is free onboarding and white-glove support needed to reduce internal dev time?
• Long-Term Roadmap:
  • Will the business want loyalty programs, referral campaigns, or review collection later? If yes, an integrated platform reduces future friction.

Migration Considerations

For merchants migrating from another wishlist app, consider:

• Data Export: Ensure product and wishlist export/import processes are supported to avoid losing customer data.
• Event Mapping: Map wishlist events into analytics and email flows during the migration to preserve marketing continuity.
• Theming & UX: Test the visual rendering across devices during off-peak hours to avoid UX regressions.
• Customer Communication: If wishlist URLs or share links change, communicate with customers to avoid broken links in saved boards.

Swish’s free setup can help reduce migration friction. Growave’s consolidated approach reduces the number of migrations needed when adopting other retention features.

Cost-Benefit Scenarios (Non-Fictional, Practical Guidance)

• If the core goal is simple social sharing of wishlists and minimizing monthly spend during experimentation, use First Wish’s free or Beginner plan while monitoring wishlist adds. Upgrade only when volume demands it.
• If the core goal is automating wishlist-driven reactivation (price-drop, back-in-stock) and collecting robust analytics, Swish’s unlimited model and integrations present better long-term value for brands that prioritize conversion uplift and lower developer overhead.
• If the long-term roadmap includes loyalty programs, referral campaigns, and product reviews, an integrated suite like Growave can be a better value for money because it reduces the number of vendors and consolidates data for smarter lifecycle campaigns. For a detailed look at how consolidated plans compare, merchants can review options and pricing to determine which tier fits the store’s monthly order volume and growth stage: consolidate retention features.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Swish (formerly Wishlist King) and First Wish ‑ Wishlist & Boards, the decision comes down to scale, integrations, and risk tolerance. Swish offers a mature wishlist solution with robust onboarding, unlimited usage, and deep marketing integrations—an attractive option for brands that want wishlist behavior to fuel automated revenue flows (e.g., price-drop or back-in-stock campaigns). First Wish is a low-cost, easy-to-install choice suitable for small stores that primarily need simple wishlist and board-sharing features and are willing to monitor usage caps.

For merchants looking to reduce tool sprawl and centralize retention efforts, an integrated platform can deliver better long-term value. Growave’s unified approach — combining wishlist, loyalty, referrals, reviews, and VIP tiers — eliminates redundant apps and consolidates data so marketing can be faster and more efficient. Merchants who want to see how consolidating retention features affects time-to-value and long-term cost should start a 14-day free trial to evaluate the platform in the context of their store’s needs: start a trial to see consolidated retention in action.

FAQ

What are the main differences in support and onboarding between Swish and First Wish?

• Swish advertises free setup and onboarding across plans, with white-glove onboarding and a dedicated account manager at the Shopify Plus tier. First Wish emphasizes easy installation but does not publicly list white-glove or dedicated onboarding, so merchants should plan for more in-house implementation effort if choosing First Wish.

How does pricing compare when wishlist usage scales?

• Swish uses a Shopify-plan-based pricing model with unlimited wishlists and sessions, which makes costs predictable as usage grows. First Wish uses usage-based tiers that cap monthly wishlist adds; spikes in wishlist activity can force rapid upgrades. Merchants should forecast expected adds and seasonality before choosing First Wish.

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

• An all-in-one platform reduces maintenance overhead, consolidates analytics, and enables cross-feature automation (for example, using wishlist behavior to influence loyalty rewards or review requests). Specialized apps can offer deep, focused features but increase integration complexity and vendor management. Merchants should compare total cost of ownership and the operational burden of stitching multiple apps together.

Is Swish or First Wish better for Shopify Plus or headless stores?

• Swish explicitly supports Hydrogen and headless stacks and offers Plus-specific onboarding and priority support, making it better aligned with enterprise or headless needs. First Wish does not emphasize headless compatibility publicly, making Swish a safer choice for complex front-end architectures.