Ultimate Wishlist vs. ESC Wishlist + Save for Later: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right wishlist app is a common pain point for Shopify merchants. Wishlists and save-for-later tools increase discoverability, nudge undecided shoppers, and can meaningfully improve conversion when combined with reminders and smart placement. Yet the market is crowded with single-purpose apps that look similar on the surface but differ in support, analytics, and scalability.

Short answer: Ultimate Wishlist is a focused, polished wishlist plugin with a strong user rating and simple pricing tiers that make it a solid choice for merchants who want a customizable wishlist with analytics and email reminders. ESC Wishlist + Save for Later offers a straightforward save-for-later feature at a low monthly cost but currently has very limited social proof and a poor rating. For merchants tired of stitching together point solutions, an integrated retention suite like Growave can provide a more strategic, long-term option by combining wishlist functionality with loyalty, referrals, and reviews in one platform.

Purpose of this article: to provide a detailed, feature-by-feature comparison of Ultimate Wishlist (Config Studio) and ESC Wishlist + Save for Later (Eastside Co®), evaluate pricing and value, test fit-for-purpose scenarios, and then examine a viable alternative for merchants who want fewer apps and higher impact.

Ultimate Wishlist vs. ESC Wishlist + Save for Later: At a Glance

How to Read This Comparison

This analysis focuses on practical outcomes merchants care about: retention, average order value (AOV), conversion lift, ease of setup, integration with marketing tools, analytics quality, and long-term scalability. The aim is impartial evaluation so merchants can decide which tool fits their operational needs and growth stage.

Who Should Read This

• Merchants choosing a wishlist or save-for-later app
• Merchants assessing single-feature apps versus multi-feature retention platforms
• Growth leads looking to reduce tool sprawl and increase customer lifetime value (LTV)

Feature Comparison

Core Wishlist Functionality

Ultimate Wishlist — Features and Usability

Ultimate Wishlist centers on a classic wishlist experience. It supports both guest and registered user wishlists, which means casual visitors can save items without creating accounts while returning customers see their saved items across devices after login. The app emphasizes customization (text, colors, non-English support) and sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and email. A notable differentiator is the email reminder capability and an analytics dashboard with counts for wishlist adds, page views, and added-to-cart events.

Key strengths:

• Multi-device sync for logged-in customers
• Email reminders for wishlist re-engagement (tier-dependent)
• Customizable text and UI to match storefronts
• Analytics for product demand insights

Operational notes:

• Feature caps for wishlist items and reminder emails are enforced per plan: the free plan allows up to 500 wishlists/month while paid tiers raise those limits to 10,000 items/month at the highest plan.
• Facebook Pixel integration is unlocked on the Premium plan, which helps tie wishlist activity to ad audiences and conversions.

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later — Features and Usability

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later emphasizes a save-for-later block under the cart to capture customers who decide not to purchase on the spot. The app also offers unlimited wishlists so customers can categorize items and social sharing to boost organic reach. Customization is available for how the app looks in the store, and the app’s core promise is to reduce friction at checkout by keeping saved items visible near the cart.

Key strengths:

• Save-for-later visibility at checkout, which can shorten the path back to purchase
• Unlimited wishlists for shopper organization
• Basic social sharing to increase reach

Operational notes:

• The app’s public presence shows only a $5/month plan with minimal detail beyond the core Save-for-Later functionality.
• Very limited social proof (2 reviews) and a 1.0 rating on the Shopify App Store raise concerns about reliability, support responsiveness, or feature completeness.

Comparative Takeaways

Ultimate Wishlist provides a fuller wishlist experience with analytics and email-based reactivation built in. If a merchant wants to identify demand trends and run targeted recovery emails, Ultimate Wishlist offers tools designed for that workflow, particularly at paid tiers. ESC focuses narrowly on the cart-adjacent save-for-later experience; this is useful for conversion nudges at checkout but lacks analytics and sophisticated re-engagement tools.

Sharing and Social Features

Both apps allow sharing wishlists, but the implementations and potential outcomes differ.

• Ultimate Wishlist: supports Facebook, Twitter, and email sharing. This facilitates direct product discovery via social channels and allows merchants to combine share data with analytics to see which products are shared most.
• ESC Wishlist: promotes free social sharing as a way to increase brand reach but does not advertise integrated analytics or tracking tied to social shares.

If social amplification and measurable acquisition from shared wishlists is important, Ultimate Wishlist’s combination of sharing and reporting is a clearer fit.

Reminder & Re-engagement Capabilities

A wishlist’s commercial value depends on re-engagement. Items saved but never revisited don’t convert.

• Ultimate Wishlist: email reminders are available (custom templates on paid tiers) and can be scheduled at scale. Paid plans increase monthly reminder limits and add per-user reminders. These capabilities allow recovery flows without adding a separate email automation app.
• ESC Wishlist: doesn’t prominently advertise automated email reminders. Its focus on on-site visibility (saved-for-later under cart) is a different tactical approach that relies on repeated visits rather than outbound re-engagement.

For merchants who want automated reactivation of saved items, Ultimate Wishlist offers clear advantage.

Customization & Visual Integration

Consistent brand experience matters. Both apps offer customization, but differ in depth.

• Ultimate Wishlist: advertises customizable text and colors, non-English support, and UI elements that can match the store. These features help preserve a native look and feel.
• ESC Wishlist: provides a “broad range of options for customizing how the app looks,” but public documentation is thin. Merchants should test in staging to confirm depth and CSS control.

Merchants running multi-language stores or complex themes will likely find Ultimate Wishlist’s explicit multi-language support preferable.

Analytics & Reporting

Merchants need actionable data to prioritize promotions and inventory decisions.

• Ultimate Wishlist: claims a “powerful dashboard” showing wishlist adds, page views, and add-to-cart conversions. This data can identify high-interest SKUs before they convert and inform promotional strategies.
• ESC Wishlist: does not advertise an analytics dashboard. Without reporting, a merchant would struggle to quantify wishlist impact or identify product-level interest.

Analytics are essential for scaling merchandising decisions; Ultimate Wishlist is stronger here.

Performance & Store Speed Considerations

Any external app can impact page load and checkout performance. The public listings for these apps do not provide in-depth performance benchmarks. General merchant guidance:

• Load only the necessary features from any wishlist app and defer heavy scripts on mobile where possible.
• Test app impact on Google PageSpeed or Lighthouse before and after installation.
• Prefer apps with lazy-loading components and no blocking render resources.

Given the sparse information on ESC’s implementation and low review count, merchants should thoroughly test performance before committing.

Pricing & Value

Ultimate Wishlist Pricing Structure

Ultimate Wishlist offers a tiered approach:

• Free plan: Up to 500 wishlist items/month, guest wishlist, wishlist on collection page, share wishlist, customizable text/color, non-English support, and full reports.
• Basic ($4.99/month): Everything in Free plus up to 1,000 wishlist items/month, custom email template, up to 500 email reminders/month.
• Pro ($9.99/month): Everything in Basic plus send email reminder to individual users, up to 5,000 wishlist items/month, up to 2,000 email reminders/month.
• Premium ($14.99/month): Everything in Pro plus up to 10,000 wishlist items/month, up to 5,000 email reminders/month, and Facebook Pixel integration.

Value notes:

• The free tier is functional for small catalogs or early experimentation.
• Paid tiers scale reasonably for growing stores; email reminders and Facebook Pixel at the top tier provide reactivation and ad targeting capabilities.

ESC Wishlist Pricing Structure

• Monthly plan: $5/month (single tier publicly listed)

Value notes:

• Simple pricing makes cost forecasting easy.
• $5/month can be attractive, but the lack of multiple tiers limits scalability and advanced features like reminders or analytics.

Price-to-Impact Considerations

• Ultimate Wishlist offers higher feature density across plans, especially for mid-market merchants who want email reactivation and analytics. The incremental price to Pro or Premium is modest for the added capabilities.
• ESC offers the lowest entry cost but with unclear long-term value due to limited features and negative review signals.

Recommendation by use case:

• Small stores testing wishlist behavior on a tight budget: Ultimate Wishlist’s free tier is arguably better value than paying $5/month for a limited ESC plan because the free Ultimate tier includes reporting and sharing.
• Stores focused strictly on checkout nudges and that want a lightweight save-for-later under-cart module: ESC may satisfy the narrow need — but buyer beware: limited reviews and a 1.0 rating suggest due diligence.

Integrations & Ecosystem Fit

Third-Party Integrations

• Ultimate Wishlist: Publicly lists Facebook Pixel integration on Premium plan. Other integrations are not prominently documented in the app listing, so merchants should check compatibility with email tools and analytics platforms.
• ESC Wishlist: No publicly documented integrations beyond storefront placement. Merchants should confirm compatibility with marketing stacks before installing.

Integration implications:

• If the wishlist needs to feed into paid advertising audiences, Ultimate Wishlist’s Pixel support is important.
• For merchants who use Klaviyo, Omnisend, or other ESPs for sophisticated lifecycle emails, confirm whether wishlist events can be forwarded to the ESP. If not, email reminders built into the wishlist app may be relied upon, but this duplicates email workflows.

Platform Compatibility

Neither app advertises deep platform extensions (e.g., checkout extension for Shopify Plus) publicly. For merchants on Shopify Plus with headless or custom checkout flows, confirm compatibility before installation.

Implementation & Merchant Experience

Installation and Setup

• Ultimate Wishlist: Setup is straightforward with configuration panels for text, colors, and checkbox placements. The presence of granular plan options allows a merchant to start on Free and upgrade.
• ESC Wishlist: Installation appears simple, but documentation and onboarding clarity are limited based on public listings. Merchants may experience slower support if issues arise given the poor rating.

Suggested onboarding checklist for either app:

• Install on a staging theme and verify UI matches brand
• Test guest vs. registered user behavior
• Test social sharing (including tracking referral sources)
• Validate email reminder flow (if available)
• Check mobile display for wishlist and save-for-later sections

Support and Documentation

• Ultimate Wishlist: 34 reviews and a 4.9 rating indicate positive merchant experiences and a likely responsive developer. Higher review counts usually correlate with more mature documentation and support workflows.
• ESC Wishlist: Only 2 reviews and a 1.0 rating suggest potential issues in either app stability or developer support availability. This should be a red flag for merchants who rely on vendor responsiveness.

Recommendation: Prioritize apps with strong review counts and consistently high ratings if operational uptime and support matter.

Security, Privacy & Compliance

Both apps handle user-generated wishlist data and, in some cases, email addresses for reminders. Key considerations:

• Data handling: Verify whether wishlists are stored in the merchant’s store data or external servers. Understand retention policies.
• GDPR & CCPA: Check whether the app offers consent controls for email reminders and proper handling of personal data.
• Pixel usage: If Facebook Pixel integration is enabled, merchants must ensure they disclose tracking in privacy policies.

Ultimate Wishlist’s Facebook Pixel option requires careful configuration to avoid duplicate events; ESC’s lack of documented integrations reduces immediate tracking complexity but also limits data portability.

Real-World Use Cases & Recommendations

Use Case: Small Catalog, Testing Demand Signals

Merchant profile: single-product or small catalog store, limited budget, evaluating customer interest.

Recommendation: Start with Ultimate Wishlist free plan. The free reporting and share features provide early demand signals without monthly cost. The free plan supports guest wishlists and basic reporting, which are essential for early testing.

Use Case: Mid-Market Brand, Focused on Re-Engagement

Merchant profile: several hundred SKUs, uses email marketing, wants recovery flows for saved items.

Recommendation: Ultimate Wishlist Pro or Premium. The email reminder capabilities and analytics are important for identifying and reactivating interest. Facebook Pixel on Premium improves ad targeting for high-interest SKUs.

Use Case: Merchant Who Wants Minimal UI Change, Cart-Level Interventions

Merchant profile: wants a save-for-later area near checkout to catch abandoned carts without changing product pages.

Recommendation: ESC Wishlist + Save for Later could satisfy this narrow need at $5/month, but proceed with caution: test the app extensively and verify support responsiveness given the low rating.

Use Case: Scaling Brand Seeking Consolidation

Merchant profile: growing brand with multiple programs (loyalty, referrals, reviews), targeting higher LTV.

Recommendation: Evaluate an integrated retention suite that consolidates wishlist, loyalty, referrals, and reviews to reduce app sprawl and increase cross-feature synergies.

Strengths and Weaknesses — Side-by-Side

Ultimate Wishlist — Strengths:

• High average rating (4.9) across 34 reviews
• Rich wishlist features including guest and registered sync
• Email reminders and customizable templates
• Analytics dashboard for demand insights
• Reasonable tiered pricing with a functional free plan

Ultimate Wishlist — Weaknesses:

• Feature caps by plan may require careful monitoring
• Limited publicly documented third-party integrations beyond Facebook Pixel
• For merchants who want loyalty or reviews, additional apps are required

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later — Strengths:

• Simple pricing ($5/month)
• Save-for-later positioned under cart to nudge checkout conversions
• Unlimited wishlists for customer organization

ESC Wishlist + Save for Later — Weaknesses:

• Very low number of reviews and a 1.0 rating raise reliability concerns
• Limited feature transparency and lack of analytics/automated reminders
• Potentially limited or slow support based on rating

Pricing Sensitivity and Total Cost of Ownership

When assessing TCO, include subscription fees, potential app stacking, and the operational time to maintain multiple tools. A $5/month app that lacks automation may force merchants to buy a separate email tool or write custom flows, raising overall costs. Conversely, a $14.99/month app with built-in reminders and analytics may reduce operational overhead and yield higher ROI through recovered sales.

Merchants should run a simple break-even exercise: estimate the monthly recovered AOV needed to justify each app. For example, recovering a single $100 order per month more than offsets a $9.99/month subscription.

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

Many merchants face “app fatigue” — an accumulation of single-purpose apps that each add maintenance, small recurring fees, possible theme conflicts, and duplicated event tracking. Wishlists are often part of a larger retention puzzle that includes loyalty programs, referrals, and reviews. Adding a dedicated wishlist app may solve one problem but creates more tools to monitor.

App fatigue consequences:

• Increased monthly SaaS costs and unpredictable TCO
• Compounded performance overhead from multiple scripts
• Fragmented customer data across tools, making it hard to measure true LTV impact
• More vendor relationships to manage and more integration points to test

Growave’s proposition positions the wishlist not as a stand-alone feature but as one component of a unified retention stack. The “More Growth, Less Stack” principle emphasizes the value of reducing the number of installed apps while increasing the total retention uplift across channels.

Growave bundles wishlist functionality with loyalty, referrals, reviews & UGC, and VIP tiers. That integrated approach can deliver strategic advantages:

• Single source of customer engagement data for segmentation and lifecycle automation
• Unified rewards and wishlist incentives (e.g., points for wishlist actions or referrals)
• Streamlined analytics that show how wishlist activity correlates with purchases, loyalty, and referral conversions

Merchants interested in assessing the platform can compare Growave plans and pricing to see which tier fits their order volume and feature needs. For merchants preferring the Shopify App Store vetting and quick install flow, Growave is also available to install from the Shopify App Store.

How Growave Solves Common Wishlist Limitations

• Wishlist + Loyalty: Points or rewards can be tied to wishlist behavior to incentivize meaningful actions, increasing long-term engagement.
• Wishlist + Reviews: Wishlist insights can prioritize review requests for high-interest items, aiding UGC collection.
• Wishlist + Referrals: Sharing wishlists can be linked to referral incentives, turning product sharing into a measurable acquisition channel.

Merchants can learn how to set up interconnected campaigns by exploring how loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases integrate with wishlist actions and by reviewing documentation on how to collect and showcase authentic reviews.

For those considering Growave's fit for an enterprise or high-growth Plus brand, there are solutions tailored for scale and custom workflows; merchants may want to review examples of customer stories from brands scaling retention and the enterprise-focused offerings for Shopify Plus merchants.

If a tailored walkthrough is desirable, merchants can book a personalized demo to explore integrations and migration paths. This is useful for teams that want to quantify consolidation benefits across loyalty, wishlist, and reviews.

Practical Benefits of Consolidation

• Reduced maintenance: One integration to test across themes and checkout rather than multiple.
• Fewer conflicts: One vendor pushing coordinated updates instead of independent scripts that may collide.
• Better attribution: Unified reporting connects wishlist to loyalty rewards redemptions, referral conversions, and review-driven trust signals.
• Predictable pricing: Consolidate multiple fees into a single subscription tailored to order volume.

Merchants evaluating Growave should also review the available plans and pricing to ensure alignment with monthly order volumes and desired features. Merchants can compare Growave plans and pricing to determine which tier suits their growth stage, or install the full retention stack from the Shopify App Store to begin testing.

Hard CTA (early): Book a personalized demo to see how an integrated retention stack improves performance and reduces tool sprawl.

Migration, Data Portability & Operational Considerations

If migrating from Ultimate Wishlist or ESC Wishlist to a consolidated platform, merchants should plan:

• Export wishlist data: check whether the existing app offers CSV export of wishlists and user associations.
• Recreate automation: map any reminder schedules to the new platform’s campaign engine or loyalty triggers.
• Theme integration: install the new app on a staging theme, replicate UI customizations, and test mobile/responsive behavior.
• Tracking consistency: ensure events (wishlist_add, wishlist_view, wishlist_share) are captured by analytics and forwarded to ESPs/ad platforms.

Growave supports integrations with popular tools such as Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Recharge, which eases migration for merchants relying on these platforms. For quick reference, merchants can compare Growave plans and pricing to select a plan that supports the necessary integrations and order volume.

FAQs

How do Ultimate Wishlist and ESC Wishlist + Save for Later differ in practical merchant outcomes?

Ultimate Wishlist delivers measurable outcomes through analytics and email reminders, enabling merchants to identify high-interest SKUs and reactivate shoppers. ESC Wishlist emphasizes checkout visibility with save-for-later placement, which nudges shoppers who return to the cart. For measurable recovery and product discovery data, Ultimate Wishlist is stronger; for a simple cart-level nudge, ESC may suffice but comes with reliability and support concerns.

Which app offers better value for money?

Value depends on desired outcomes. Ultimate Wishlist’s tiered pricing gives merchants a free entry point and scalable features such as analytics and email reminders that increase commercial impact. ESC offers a flat low price but lacks advanced features and has limited user feedback, which raises operational risk. For most merchants seeking measurable ROI from wishlists, Ultimate Wishlist provides better value for money; for merchants looking to minimize monthly costs and only need a cart save-for-later area, ESC could be considered only after validating support and stability.

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

An all-in-one platform reduces tool sprawl and centralizes customer engagement data. This consolidation improves attribution, lowers script and integration overhead, and makes it simpler to design cross-program incentives (for example, awarding loyalty points when a wishlist item converts). While single-purpose apps can be lightweight and cheaper initially, the cumulative cost and maintenance of multiple specialized apps often exceed the value of a unified platform for merchants focused on retention and scalable growth.

Is support and reliability a decisive factor between these two apps?

Yes. Ultimate Wishlist’s higher review count (34) and 4.9 rating indicate mature product-market fit and likely more dependable support. ESC’s 2 reviews and 1.0 rating are red flags. Merchants needing consistent uptime and responsive support should factor ratings and review counts heavily into the decision.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Ultimate Wishlist and ESC Wishlist + Save for Later, the decision comes down to scope and reliability. Ultimate Wishlist is well-suited to merchants who want a customizable wishlist with analytics and email re-engagement, backed by strong ratings. ESC Wishlist + Save for Later targets a narrow use case — a cart-adjacent save-for-later module — at a low monthly price but carries higher operational risk due to minimal reviews and a low rating.

Beyond choosing between single-purpose apps, merchants should consider the strategic costs of adding yet another tool to the stack. An integrated retention suite can reduce maintenance overhead while improving retention outcomes across loyalty, referrals, reviews, and wishlist behavior. Growave’s “More Growth, Less Stack” approach bundles wishlist features into a single platform alongside loyalty, referrals, and reviews to reduce complexity and improve lifetime value. Merchants can explore plans to understand which tier matches their growth needs and order volume by visiting a page to compare Growave plans and pricing. For merchants who prefer to install via the Shopify App Store, the full stack is available to install from the Shopify App Store.

Start a 14-day free trial to see how consolidating wishlist, loyalty, and reviews into one platform reduces tool sprawl and drives more repeat purchases. Start a 14-day free trial

For merchants who want to dig into specific Growave capabilities, the platform documents how merchants can build loyalty and rewards that drive repeat purchases and how to collect and showcase authentic reviews. See real customer stories from brands scaling retention for practical examples.

If the priority is a simple wishlist with email reminders and analytics, Ultimate Wishlist is a strong choice. If the need is a minimal save-for-later module, ESC may be an economical option but requires careful vetting. For merchants aiming to reduce apps and build a cohesive retention strategy, an integrated suite merits serious consideration.

Frequently asked questions and next steps are provided above; for a tailored evaluation, consider booking a personalized demo to explore migration paths and integration details.