Shopify Wishlist App: Add a Free Wishlist to Your Store

What a Shopify wishlist app does

A wishlist lets a shopper save a product they like without buying it yet. They tap a heart on the product, carry on browsing, and come back later to a page that lists everything they saved.

Shopify has no wishlist of its own. A theme shows products, a cart and a checkout, but nothing that remembers "I might buy this later" unless the shopper adds it to the cart. So a Shopify wishlist comes from an app, or from code someone adds to your theme.

I built a free Shopify wishlist app, Ploqo Wishlist, and set it up from scratch on a test store running Horizon, Shopify's current default theme. This guide walks through the setup screen by screen, then shows what shoppers see and what you get in your admin. The video covers the same ground in under eight minutes.

A collection page with a heart on each product card, the first one filled, and the floating button showing Wishlist 1 at the bottom right

How to add a wishlist to Shopify

To add a wishlist to Shopify, install a wishlist app, turn its app embed on in the theme editor, add its button to your product page and link its wishlist page in your menu. An app embed is a piece an app adds that loads on every page of your store. With Ploqo Wishlist that is three steps, and the app's Setup page checks each one for you:

1. Turn on Wishlist hearts in the theme editor's App embeds and click Save.
2. Add the Wishlist button block to your product page and click Save.
3. Add a menu item that links to /apps/wishlist.

Then open your store, tap a heart, and open the wishlist page from the floating button. Each step has a screenshot below.

What to look for in a Shopify wishlist app

Most wishlist apps put a heart on your products. They differ in what happens around it, and the differences show up months later. Before installing one, check five things.

Does it edit your theme's code? Some older wishlist apps paste code into your theme files. When you uninstall them, the code stays behind, and merchants report it breaking buttons or slowing pages. An app built on theme app extensions (app embeds and app blocks) adds nothing to your theme files: Shopify shows its parts while the app is installed and stops showing them when it is removed.

Can guests save? Many shoppers browse without logging in. If saving needs an account, a lot of hearts lead to a sign-in page and are never tapped again. Look for guest saving, with the option to turn it off.

What happens when a guest logs in? A guest's list is kept in their browser. The good behaviour is that it joins their account's list when they log in, so nothing they saved is lost.

Where is the logged-in list stored? If it's on the app's servers, it's gone when the app is. If it's on the customer's record in Shopify, it stays yours.

What does it cost, and is there a cap? Wishlist apps often charge by the number of saves or by plan. A wishlist is a small feature, and a free app covers what most stores need.

Ploqo Wishlist answers those as: no theme code, guests can save, guest lists join the account at login, logged-in lists live on the customer record in Shopify, and it's free with no paid plan.

Step 1: Install the app and open Setup

Install Ploqo Wishlist from the Shopify App Store. It opens on its Home page in your Shopify admin, with the Setup card listing the three steps. Each one shows whether it's done: Off or On for the hearts, Not added or Added for the button.

The Setup card with the three steps done: Hearts on product cards On, Wishlist button on product pages Added, Wishlist page in your menu marked done

The screenshot shows Setup at the end, with all three done. Yours starts with none done.

Step 2: Turn on the hearts

Click Hearts on product cards, then Turn on. The theme editor opens in a new tab on App embeds with Wishlist hearts already switched on. Click Save at the top right.

Back in the app, the step reads On. The app reads your live theme to know, so if it still says Off, click Check again.

This one embed does three jobs: the hearts on product cards, the floating Wishlist button, and joining a guest's list to their account when they log in.

Step 3: Add the Wishlist button to the product page

Click Wishlist button on product pages, then Add. The theme editor opens on your product page with the Wishlist button block already placed. Drag it where you want it, usually under the buy buttons, and click Save.

A product page with the Wishlist button reading Remove from wishlist under the product, and the floating button showing Wishlist 1

The button reads Add to wishlist, and Remove from wishlist once the product is saved.

Step 4: Link the wishlist page in your menu

The wishlist page already exists at /apps/wishlist. A menu link makes it easy to find.

Click Wishlist page in your menu, copy the link from the copy box, and click Open Menus. Open Main menu, click Add menu item, type "Wishlist" as the label, paste the link and press Enter, then click Save. Back in the app, click I've done this: the app can't read your menus, so this is the one step you mark yourself.

The setup guide has a screenshot of every screen in these three steps.

What shoppers see

Open your store. Every product card has a heart: on collection pages, search results, featured products on the home page and "You may also like" rows. A tap fills the heart and the floating Wishlist button appears with a count.

The wishlist page lists each saved product with its photo, name, current price and a Remove button, newest first. A sold-out product stays on the list with a Sold out label under its price, and a product you set to draft is hidden until you make it active again.

The wishlist page seen by a guest: the line Log in to keep your list on every device, and a saved notebook with its price, a Sold out label and a Remove button

A save happens only when a shopper taps. The app doesn't add products on its own and sends no email, so there are no "you left something in your wishlist" messages.

More on each part: hearts and the product page button and the wishlist page.

Guests and logged-in customers

A shopper who isn't logged in saves to their own browser, with no account needed. That list stays on that device. The wishlist page tells them so with one line: Log in to keep your list on every device.

When they log in, what they saved as a guest joins the list on their customer record, and from then on the list follows them to their phone, laptop or any other device they log in on. A product saved in both places shows once.

If you want every list tied to an account, untick Guests can save in the embed's settings: a guest who taps a heart then goes to your sign-in page first. Details are in guest wishlists and logged-in customer lists.

What you see in your admin

Most wishlisted ranks your products by how many logged-in customers have them on their list. It's a list of what people want but haven't bought yet: worth checking before you reorder stock or pick products for a featured collection.

The Most wishlisted page listing nine products, each with its number of saves

On any customer's page in your Shopify admin, the Wishlist card names what that customer saved. You add the card once from the page's Blocks area and pin it, and it then shows on every customer.

The Wishlist card on a customer's page, listing eight products and a link to see all nine

Guests' lists never appear in either place, because they never leave the shopper's browser. See most wishlisted products and each customer's saved list.

Make it match your store

Everything a shopper sees is a setting in the theme editor. The embed sets the icon (heart, star or bookmark), the saved colour, the floating button's label and side, the two messages and every word on the wishlist page. The button block has its own icon and colour, and can drop its label to show a round heart alone.

A product page with the icon-only heart button, and the floating button renamed My list at the bottom left

Typing your own words into those settings is also how you put the wishlist in your store's language. Customize the icon, floating button and wording lists every setting.

Add a wishlist to Shopify without an app

You can build a basic wishlist into a theme yourself: a heart button in the product card's code, a script that keeps saved product handles in the browser's storage, and a page template that reads them back and fetches each product. It works for guests on one device.

The work starts when you want more than that. A list that follows a customer across devices needs somewhere on the server to keep it, which a theme alone can't write to. Merging a guest's list at login, keeping hearts in step across the grid and the product page, and handling sold-out or deleted products each take more code. And all of it lives in your theme files, so every theme update or theme switch means carrying it over by hand.

For a developer who wants one heart on one theme, the code route is fine. For most stores, a free app that adds nothing to the theme files is less to maintain.

If the hearts don't show

• Check the embed is on and saved in the theme editor's App embeds, on your live theme. The app's Setup page says On when it is.
• Check your theme. The hearts find product cards on Dawn, Horizon and themes built like them. On another theme, set Find product cards to With a custom selector in the embed's settings (a selector is a short name that points at one product card in your theme's code), or ask the developer from the app's Chat button.
• Check the product is on the Online Store channel. Products that aren't published there don't show on the storefront, so they get no heart either.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ploqo Wishlist a free Shopify wishlist app? Yes. There is no paid plan and no charge per save. One shopper's list holds up to 100 products.

Does it work with Dawn and Horizon? Yes. It was built and tested on both, and on themes built like them.

Do shoppers need an account to save? No. Guests save in their browser, and their list joins their account if they log in. You can turn guest saving off.

Does it send wishlist reminder emails? No. The app sends no email.

What happens if I uninstall it? No theme file changes, because it never edited any. The hearts and the button stop showing, your customers' lists stay on their records in Shopify, and the app deletes its count rows 48 hours later. What stays and what goes has the details.