SWishlist: Simple Wishlist vs. WA Wishlist: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right wishlist app for a Shopify store is more than a checkbox—it affects conversion flow, email capture, social sharing, and long-term customer retention. With hundreds of wishlist apps available, merchants must weigh features, support, pricing, and how a wishlist fits into a broader retention stack.

Short answer: SWishlist: Simple Wishlist is an attractive pick for merchants who want a polished, lightweight wishlist with proven user satisfaction and modest pricing. WA Wishlist offers useful features such as guest wishlists and multiple lists per customer, but lacks social proof and published ratings, which increases uncertainty for prospective users. For merchants evaluating long-term retention and growth, a multi-tool platform like Growave can deliver better value by combining wishlists with loyalty, referrals, and reviews—reducing app sprawl and increasing lifetime value.

This post provides an in-depth, feature-by-feature comparison of SWishlist: Simple Wishlist (SoluCommerce) and WA Wishlist (WevAgency). It aims to give merchants the clarity needed to choose the right tool for specific needs, and then outlines how a consolidated retention platform addresses common limitations of single-purpose apps.

SWishlist: Simple Wishlist vs. WA Wishlist: At a Glance

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Core Functionality

SWishlist: Simple Wishlist focuses on a simple, reliable wishlist experience: allow customers to save favorites, share lists, and keep a consistent experience across storefronts. The app’s high rating (4.9 from 106 reviews) indicates strong merchant satisfaction with the core functionality and reliability.

WA Wishlist advertises several capabilities that expand beyond a basic wishlist: guest wishlist support, multiple wishlists for logged-in users, and tracking of most-added products. Those features are useful but the app has no public reviews or rating, which makes its real-world stability and support responsiveness harder to verify.

What to expect in practice:

• SWishlist: A polished, proven wishlist that’s likely easy to adopt and maintain.
• WA Wishlist: Feature-rich on paper, but risks around support and long-term maintenance due to zero review history.

Wishlist Behavior: Guests, Multiple Lists, and Sharing

Wishlist behavior can dramatically affect conversion funnels and data capture.

SWishlist:

• Emphasizes one persistent wishlist per customer, with sharing options.
• Sharing can support viral discovery and gift-giver purchases.
• Language support scales by plan, which helps international stores.

WA Wishlist:

• Explicitly supports guest wishlists, enabling unregistered visitors to save items. This can boost immediate engagement but may require merchants to map or convert guest activity later for marketing.
• Allows logged-in users to create multiple wishlists. That’s valuable for customers who shop by occasion or project.
• Includes tracking of "most added" products, which can inform merchandising decisions.

Merchant trade-offs:

• Guest wishlists remove friction for first-time browsers but may reduce opportunities for email capture unless paired with an upsell to create an account.
• Multiple lists improve user experience for repeat buyers but increase complexity for analytics and email nudges.

Customization and Theming

Both apps promise customization. The degree and technical overhead differ.

SWishlist:

• Claims full customization to match store styles, with free setup for up to two themes. The app’s API support suggests developers can extend or integrate behavior.
• Language support ramps up across tiers—2 languages on Free, 7 on Basic, 20 on Premium—helpful for multi-lingual stores.

WA Wishlist:

• Markets itself as "fully customizable theme" friendly. If customization covers button placement, CSS, and template overrides, merchants can achieve visual parity with their storefront.
• The app listing lacks detail about developer-level API or theme injection approach.

Points to verify during trial:

• Does customization require code edits or is there a no-code settings panel?
• How do theme updates and app upgrades interact—do customizations persist safely?
• Are localization strings editable in the admin?

Analytics and Reporting

Understanding what customers save helps merchandising, email campaigns, and inventory planning.

SWishlist:

• Premium plan notes "unlimited access to all statistics" which implies the app offers analytics on wishlist activity. Merchants on free tiers face limits (300 additions/month) that could restrict insight generation.

WA Wishlist:

• Explicitly mentions keeping track of most-added products to wishlists. However, the depth of reporting (e.g., trend over time, cross-referencing with purchases) isn’t described.

Merchant considerations:

• Advanced reporting should allow exports, product-level insights, and timestamped activity to align with email nudges.
• If analytics are basic, merchants will need to combine wishlist data with their analytics stack—adding complexity.

Integrations & Compatibility

Integrations determine how wishlist data becomes actionable (email campaigns, abandoned wishlist flows, CRM segmentation).

SWishlist:

• Works with API (listed). API access enables integration with tools like Klaviyo, Omnisend, or a CRM, but merchants should verify documentation quality and available webhook events.

WA Wishlist:

• The app listing does not specify integrations or API support. If integrations are missing, merchants will need developer resources to extract data or rely on manual exports.

Why integrations matter:

• To increase LTV, wishlist events should trigger targeted emails (reminders, price drops, low-stock alerts) and feed into loyalty segmentation.
• Without integrations, wishlist data will sit isolated and its impact will be limited.

Pricing & Value

Pricing is a practical decision that balances feature needs against monthly costs and scalability.

SWishlist Pricing Snapshot:

• Free: 300 wishlist additions/month, 2 languages, free setup up to 2 themes, support within 24–48 hours.
• Basic ($5/month): 7,000 additions/month, 7 storefront languages, faster support (12–24 hours), plus all Free features.
• Premium ($12/month): Unlimited additions, 20 languages, unlimited statistics, top-priority support.

WA Wishlist Pricing Snapshot:

• Free: free tier (details not specified beyond price).
• Basic ($5.95/month), Advanced ($9.95/month), Professional ($19.95/month). Feature mapping per tier is not clearly documented on the app listing.

Value considerations:

• SWishlist presents clear usage limits and a reasonable escalation path for growing stores; the price points are predictable and inexpensive.
• WA Wishlist’s tiered pricing resembles a freemium model but lacks transparent feature breakdowns, which complicates purchase decisions.

Which offers better value for money:

• For merchants focused solely on wishlist functionality, SWishlist’s explicit usage metrics and support SLAs offer clearer value.
• WA Wishlist could be competitive on a feature-to-price basis if the higher tiers unlock the advertised guest and multi-list capabilities—test is required.

Support & Reliability

Support responsiveness and product stability are critical for customer-facing features.

SWishlist:

• Published support SLAs: 24–48 hours on Free, 12–24 hours on Basic, and top priority on Premium. Combined with the app’s 106 reviews and 4.9 rating, this suggests a dependable support experience.

WA Wishlist:

• The app has no reviews and no visible support SLA on the listing. That creates uncertainty about response time and issue resolution.

Risk profile:

• Deploying a wishlist app can affect cart behavior and storefront load. A developer-friendly API and responsive support reduce downtime and friction.
• Merchants should verify staging installation options and rollback support before installing a less-proven app.

Performance, Scalability, & Limits

Performance considerations include client-side load, script weight, and per-month limits on actions.

SWishlist:

• Enforces monthly addition limits on Free and Basic tiers which will affect stores with high traffic or large catalogs. Premium removes limits.
• API support hints at enterprise scalability for stores that need heavy event throughput.

WA Wishlist:

• Pricing tiers likely map to feature/access levels but the listing lacks explicit addition limits or rate caps. Merchants should test performance under load.

Best practice:

• Load-test pages with the app enabled and monitor core vitals like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Time to Interactive (TTI).
• If the wishlist inserts scripts on every product page, evaluate asynchronous loading and caching strategies.

Security & Data Handling

Wishlist data often includes user IDs, emails (if captured), and product selections. Handling must be secure and privacy-compliant.

SWishlist:

• Works with API. Merchants should confirm data retention policies, encryption in transit, and how personal data (for shared lists) is handled.

WA Wishlist:

• No explicit security, API, or data governance details shown on the app listing. Merchants should request documentation before adoption.

Checklist for merchants:

• Confirm whether wishlist data is stored on the provider’s servers and whether it’s accessible via API or export.
• Verify GDPR and CCPA compliance if operating in those regions.
• Check how shared wishlists are handled—are share links public or tokenized?

Setup, UX, and Merchant Experience

Time to value matters. A wishlist should install cleanly and require minimal merchant time.

SWishlist:

• Offers free setup for up to two themes, suggesting a lower setup burden for common themes and fewer manual adjustments.
• Positive review count supports a smooth merchant experience.

WA Wishlist:

• Lacks setup details. If it requires manual theme edits, installation may take longer and require developer resources.

Questions to ask during trial:

• Can the wishlist be toggled on specific collections or product types?
• Does the app provide a preview for desktop and mobile?
• Are communication templates (share emails, reminder emails) editable?

Strengths and Weaknesses

SWishlist: Simple Wishlist

• Strengths:
  • Proven merchant satisfaction (4.9 from 106 reviews).
  • Clear pricing tiers with defined limits.
  • Fast support escalation on paid plans.
  • Theme setup support and API access.
• Weaknesses:
  • Free tier limitations (300 additions).
  • Not explicitly positioned as part of a larger retention strategy (no loyalty or referrals built-in).

WA Wishlist

• Strengths:
  • Guest wishlist support and multiple wishlists for logged-in users.
  • Product popularity tracking.
  • Multiple pricing tiers that could suit scaling needs.
• Weaknesses:
  • No reviews or rating—limited social proof.
  • Sparse details on integrations, API, or support SLA.
  • Unclear limits and reporting depth per plan.

Which App Is Best For

SWishlist: Simple Wishlist is best for:

• Small to mid-size stores that want a reliable, easy-to-support wishlist that is already validated by other merchants.
• Teams that prefer clear limits and predictable costs.
• Merchants who plan to integrate wishlist events into an existing marketing automation via API.

WA Wishlist is best for:

• Merchants who prioritize guest wishlist capability and multiple wishlists per user and are willing to test a less-established app.
• Stores that want built-in product popularity insights without building custom tracking.
• Teams that have developer resources to assess and extend the app due to limited public support info.

Avoid blanket declarations—both tools can fit specific needs. The deciding factors are support transparency, integrations, and long-term alignment with retention strategy.

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

Merchants often add single-purpose apps incrementally—wishlist here, reviews there, loyalty elsewhere. Over time that creates "app fatigue": higher monthly fees, overlapping features, multiple integrations to maintain, and fragmented customer data. App fatigue leads to lost efficiency and slower growth because insights are siloed and cross-app workflows require custom engineering.

An alternative approach is to consolidate retention features into a single, integrated platform that reduces technical overhead while increasing strategic impact. Growave's "More Growth, Less Stack" proposition directly addresses these problems by combining wishlist functionality with loyalty, referrals, reviews, and VIP tiers.

How consolidation improves outcomes:

• A single system centralizes customer behavior, making it easier to trigger loyalty actions from wishlist activity and to include wishlisted items in targeted campaigns.
• One vendor reduces integration and maintenance work while improving support accountability.
• Bundling features often delivers better unit economics than subscribing to several single-purpose apps.

Growave bundles wishlist with complementary tools that extend the value of saved items:

• Integrate wishlist events into loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases to convert saved items into points-eligible actions and targeted reward nudges.
• Use wishlist signals when sending review or repurchase prompts alongside the ability to collect and showcase authentic reviews that increase trust and conversion.
• Because Growave is available for merchants to install, stores can install directly from the Shopify App Store and combine tools quickly.

Practical advantages of a unified retention stack:

• Wishlist + Loyalty: When a customer adds an item to a wishlist, that event can trigger targeted reward offers or a time-limited incentive, increasing conversion probability.
• Wishlist + Reviews: Showing UGC or recent reviews on wishlisted products reassures gift shoppers and accelerates buying decisions.
• Wishlist + Referrals: Wishlists shared socially become referral opportunities; tracked shares can feed into referral rewards.

Growave’s product coverage and positioning:

• Wishlist is one module within an integrated platform that includes loyalty, referrals, reviews & UGC, and VIP tiers.
• For stores needing enterprise capabilities, Growave has offerings tailored to solutions for high-growth Plus brands and supports checkout extensions and headless setups.
• Multiple plans are available to match growth stage, with a transparent pricing ladder that helps merchants forecast costs and benefits—merchants can also consolidate retention features under a single subscription rather than paying multiple vendors.

Concrete examples of how Growave avoids app fatigue:

• Instead of installing a wishlist app, a loyalty app, a referral app, and a reviews app, a merchant activates modules within one platform—reducing per-month fees and technical complexity.
• Wishlist events are native to the same data model used for points allocation and referral tracking, enabling complex campaigns without custom middleware.
• Support and onboarding are centralized, so merchants have one place to troubleshoot issues that span multiple retention tactics.

Demand validation and trust:

• Growave’s user base is larger and more established, with a significant review presence (1,197 reviews and a 4.8 rating), which can reassure merchants evaluating long-term reliability and roadmap commitment.
• Case studies and customer stories from brands scaling retention illustrate real-world outcomes tied to a consolidated approach.

Reduce duplication and get better ROI:

• A single vendor can optimize cross-feature promotions—for example, bundling a wishlist reminder with a small loyalty point incentive to capture a conversion that a standalone wishlist reminder might miss.
• This kind of orchestration is harder when data sits in separate apps and triggers are managed across multiple dashboards.

Growave integration and installation notes:

• Many merchants will prefer installing via the Shopify App Store and then enabling needed modules, an approach supported by Growave—merchants can install directly from the Shopify App Store and review plan details on the pricing page.
• For stores on Shopify Plus, Growave provides an advanced set of capabilities and support options tailored to enterprise needs.

Comparative value proposition:

• If a wishlist is the only feature required, a small, focused app might be the lowest up-front cost. However, if increasing repeat purchase rates, referrals, and review volume matter, a consolidated platform reduces friction and unlocks compound returns over time.
• For merchants who plan to scale retention programs, converting wishlist signals into loyalty rewards or review campaigns without custom integrations is a major time and cost saver.

Growave resources to evaluate:

• Merchants interested in how loyalty can be used strategically should review examples of loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases.
• Stores that want to combine wishlist signals with social proof can explore features to collect and showcase authentic reviews.
• For hands-on evaluation and pricing details, merchants can consolidate retention features and compare cost to running several single-point apps.

How to Decide: A Practical Decision Framework

Evaluating wishlist options should be methodical. The following framework helps prioritize what matters without requiring a long RFP process.

Consider business priorities:

• Short-term conversion lift: Choose a wishlist that’s quick to install and unlikely to break pages. Look for known reliability and positive user feedback.
• Email capture and remarketing: Ensure the app integrates with the merchant’s email provider or exposes wishlist events via API/webhooks.
• Internationalization: Check language support per tier and whether sharing/localization is included.
• Long-term retention: If the wishlist is intended to be part of loyalty/referral flows, evaluate multi-feature platforms that reduce integration overhead.

During trial, validate the following:

• Installation and theme compatibility: Does the app auto-detect themes and provide preview?
• Mobile experience: Is the wishlist UI responsive and accessible on small screens?
• Data flow: Are wishlist events available via API or export to marketing tools?
• Support responsiveness: Submit a test ticket and measure response time and quality.

Financial assessment:

• Short-term cost: Compare monthly fees and any transaction or usage caps that may cause surprise bills.
• Total cost of ownership: Account for developer time for custom integrations and maintenance of multiple apps.
• Expected ROI: Estimate how wishlist-driven campaigns (reminders, price-drop alerts, reward offers) will increase conversion and average order value. Multiply conservative uplifts by current traffic and cart values to estimate payback.

Decision shortcuts:

• If wishlist is the only required capability and the budget is constrained, a small, well-rated app like SWishlist offers low friction and proven reliability.
• If the goal is to build a retention stack and capture long-term value—loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlists—an integrated platform such as Growave reduces friction and often delivers better value for money at scale. Merchants can review consolidated pricing and compare it to the sum of standalone apps on the pricing page.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between SWishlist: Simple Wishlist and WA Wishlist, the decision comes down to reliability and clarity versus feature set and uncertainty. SWishlist: Simple Wishlist stands out for its strong user ratings (4.9 from 106 reviews), transparent tiered pricing, and predictable support SLAs—making it well-suited for stores that want a battle-tested wishlist with minimal risk. WA Wishlist offers useful features like guest lists and multiple wishlists per user but carries higher uncertainty because it lacks review history and detailed integration or support information.

Beyond this direct comparison, many merchants face the broader problem of app fatigue—paying for multiple single-purpose tools that don’t communicate and require ongoing maintenance. For stores that plan to grow retention, reduce technical overhead, and align wishlist behavior with loyalty and reviews, a unified platform provides greater strategic leverage.

Start a 14-day free trial to see how a unified retention stack reduces app sprawl and increases customer lifetime value. Start a free trial

To explore implementation options, merchants can also install directly from the Shopify App Store and evaluate how consolidating features affects cost and workflows. For more hands-on examples, review Growave’s customer stories from brands scaling retention.

Frequently, the best choice depends on whether wishlist functionality is an isolated need or part of a broader retention strategy. If wishlist behavior will feed loyalty, referrals, and reviews, the benefits of integration usually outweigh the lower upfront cost of adding a single-purpose app.

FAQ

How do SWishlist and WA Wishlist differ in real merchant experience?

SWishlist demonstrates real-world adoption backed by 106 reviews and a 4.9 rating, suggesting stable performance and positive merchant experiences. It offers predictable usage limits and transparent support timelines. WA Wishlist publishes attractive functional claims—guest wishlists and multiple lists per user—but the absence of reviews and detailed documentation increases installation risk. Merchants should trial WA Wishlist in a staging environment and validate support responsiveness before committing.

Which app is better for stores that require guest wishlists?

WA Wishlist explicitly supports guest wishlists, which can improve immediate engagement for unregistered browsers. However, guest wishlist behavior requires strategy—how will guest-saved items convert to captured emails or customer accounts? SWishlist may be preferable if merchant priorities focus on reliability and clear support, but if guest wishlists are mission-critical, WA Wishlist’s feature set warrants testing.

How does pricing compare when considering scalability and value for money?

SWishlist’s tiers are straightforward: Free with limits, Basic at $5/month with expanded usage, and Premium at $12/month for unlimited additions and priority support. WA Wishlist lists multiple tiers up to $19.95/month but lacks clear feature mapping on the listing. For long-term value, calculate total cost of ownership including integration and maintenance. Often a consolidated platform offers better value for money as store needs grow.

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

An all-in-one platform reduces the friction of connecting multiple tools, centralizes customer data, and enables cross-feature campaigns (e.g., converting wishlist activity into loyalty rewards). While a specialized app can be cheaper initially and faster to install for a single need, the overhead of multiple vendors—billing, integrations, and support—adds up. For merchants aiming to increase retention and LTV, consolidating wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews into a single platform improves operational efficiency and campaign effectiveness. Learn how loyalty programs can convert wishlist signals into repeat purchases by reviewing examples of loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases, and see how integrating social proof works when merchants collect and showcase authentic reviews.