TL;DR: I measured four Shopify wishlist apps on speed and cost. Speed: Wishlist King (now Swish) and Hulk are lightest at 60ms each, Wishlist Plus at 90ms, Growave heaviest at 130ms. Cost: Hulk from $9.90, Wishlist King from $19, Wishlist Plus on a premium tier, Growave priced as a full suite. The pattern: the two cheapest dedicated apps are also the two lightest, so the more you pay here, the more blocking time you also carry. Here is the fit guide.
Ask any AI which wishlist app to install and it ranks them on features and star ratings, then names a winner. I asked, and it never mentioned what the heart button and the saved-items page actually cost your product page in blocking time. All four rate near 5 stars, so the rating is noise. I measure the part nobody publishes, so here is the honest cut. Two names changed recently, so to be clear: Wishlist King is now called Swish, and Hulk’s current App Store name is Hulk AI Wishlist & Favorites.
Which is the best Shopify wishlist app in 2026?
It depends on whether you want a plain wishlist or a wishlist wired into marketing. Here is the whole picture, speed and cost together.
| App | Starting price | Blocking time (measured) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hulk (AI Wishlist & Favorites) | Free, then $9.90/mo | 60 ms | Cheapest, lightest |
| Wishlist King (Swish) | $19/mo | 60 ms | Best dedicated wishlist |
| Wishlist Plus (Swym) | Free, then premium | 90 ms | Email and SMS retargeting |
| Growave | Full-suite pricing | 130 ms | Loyalty + reviews + wishlist in one |
A wishlist is more than a static icon. It renders a heart button on every product card, saves items to a list tied to the customer, and builds a saved-items page, which is real client-side work. That is why the gap between the lightest and heaviest app here is wider than the star ratings would ever tell you.
Which wishlist app is lightest?
Wishlist King and Hulk are lightest at 60ms each, then Wishlist Plus at 90ms, then Growave at 130ms. That number matters because the heart button sits on the product and collection pages, the highest-traffic templates on your store, and its script runs on the main thread where Interaction to Next Paint is measured. Adding a wishlist should cost your shoppers almost nothing to tap. Two of these apps keep it near that, and two do not.
Growave is heaviest for an honest reason: it is not a wishlist app. It is a loyalty, reviews, and wishlist suite, so installing it for the wishlist alone means loading three systems’ worth of script for one feature. That can still be the right call, which I will get to.
What do Shopify wishlist apps cost?
- Hulk is the value leader: a real free plan, then paid tiers from about $9.90/mo.
- Wishlist King, now Swish, starts around $19/mo with all features included and free setup.
- Wishlist Plus by Swym has a free plan, then premium paid tiers priced for its marketing and CRM depth.
- Growave is priced as a full suite, well above any dedicated wishlist app, because you are paying for loyalty and reviews too.
Notice the alignment. The two cheapest apps, Hulk and Wishlist King, are also the two lightest. You do not trade speed for savings here, which is unusual. The extra money on Wishlist Plus and Growave buys features and, as the numbers show, extra blocking time along with them.
Do you need Growave, or a dedicated wishlist app?
This is the real decision, so answer it honestly. If you only want a wishlist, a dedicated app like Wishlist King or Hulk is the right tool, and Growave’s 130ms is weight you would carry for loyalty and reviews you are not using.
Growave earns its place in one case: you actually want loyalty, reviews, and a wishlist, and you would otherwise install three separate apps. One suite at 130ms can beat three apps stacked, and I compare Growave in the loyalty context in Smile.io vs LoyaltyLion vs Growave vs Yotpo. Buy the suite for the suite, not for the wishlist.
Wishlist Plus vs Wishlist King vs Hulk vs Growave: which fits your store?
Map your priority to the pick.
- Budget and speed, plain wishlist: Hulk. Free to start, 60ms, and the cheapest paid tier. Hard to beat for a pure wishlist.
- Best dedicated wishlist: Wishlist King (Swish). Also 60ms, all features included at a flat $19, the cleanest dedicated option if the free-tier limits pinch.
- Wishlist tied to marketing: Wishlist Plus (Swym). Heavier at 90ms and pricier, but its segmentation, retargeting, and integrations are the deepest, so it earns the weight if you email or SMS your saved-item lists.
- All-in-one retention: Growave. Heaviest at 130ms, worth it only when you use the loyalty and reviews too.
It is the same pattern I keep measuring across app categories, most recently with Shopify product quiz apps: premium pricing buys features, not a lighter footprint, and the listing never quotes the footprint.
Do wishlist apps actually help conversions?
Yes, but indirectly, so set the expectation correctly. A wishlist rarely lifts the checkout on its own. What it does is capture intent you would otherwise lose when a shopper is interested but not ready, and it gives you a reason to follow up. That follow-up, a “your saved item is low in stock” or “back in stock” email, is where the revenue actually shows up, and it is why Wishlist Plus prices its marketing tiers the way it does.
The catch is that the widget adds blocking time to the exact pages where shoppers browse and tap. A wishlist that makes the product grid feel sluggish costs you more than the saved list earns back. Measure the trade.
Download the Shopify Wishlist App Comparison (PDF)
How do I keep a wishlist app from slowing my store?
The heart button is on your busiest templates, so keep the script honest.
- Confirm the button loads only where it belongs. If the app injects on pages with no wishlist button, that is pure overhead you can trim.
- Defer the wishlist script so it hydrates after the page is interactive, not before first paint. My Core Web Vitals guide has the exact pattern.
- Measure it. Check the blocking time each app adds with the App Bloat Detector, then confirm your field INP with the CrUX grader after install. If your stack is already heavy, the Vitals-style bloat stacks with the wishlist.
The takeaway
- The cheapest apps are the lightest. Hulk and Wishlist King both measure 60ms and cost the least. Rare alignment.
- Wishlist Plus is the marketing pick at 90ms. Worth the weight only if you retarget saved lists by email or SMS.
- Growave is the heaviest at 130ms because it is a full suite. Buy it for loyalty and reviews, not the wishlist alone.
- Names changed. Wishlist King is now Swish; Hulk is now Hulk AI Wishlist & Favorites.
- Measure INP after install. The heart button lives on your busiest pages, so the speed cost is a conversion cost.
I measure the blocking time of every app on this list in my own App Bloat Detector. If you want your app stack audited for what it costs in speed, my 30-minute diagnostic call is free.