We went through the Shopify App Store the hard way this time: every app on this list of the best shopify apps to increase sales had to pass one test first. Its free plan had to actually work, not just dangle a seven-day trial and call it free.
Having solid Shopify analytics in place is the foundation for knowing which of these apps will actually move the needle for your store, and understanding the common challenges Shopify stores face helps you pick a fix instead of adding complexity you don’t need.
This list of free shopify apps only keeps a pick if its free tier does something real, and we say exactly what that something is for each one. It also works whether you dropship or hold your own inventory: every shopify app for dropshipping or regular retail below earned its spot the same way, a free plan we could actually verify, not a rebranded trial.
Growave: one of the best shopify apps for reviews, loyalty, and wishlists
Growave bundles reviews, wishlists, loyalty points, referrals, and social login into one app, aimed mainly at customer retention. We like it here because the free plan is a real starting point, not a locked demo.
How does it work?
- One dashboard controls reviews, wishlists, loyalty points, and social login instead of running five separate apps.
- Reward points and VIP tiers sit on top of Shopify’s checkout and account pages.
- Reviews import from past platforms in one pass if you’re migrating.
Features:
- Reward points and discounts for social shares and referrals.
- Product wishlists with back-in-stock and price-drop reminders.
- Customer photo and video reviews.
- Social login through major platforms.
- Shoppable Instagram galleries.
Free plan: $0/month for up to 100 orders/month, covering the core reviews, wishlist, and loyalty features.
Price: Paid plans start at $49/month once you pass 100 orders/month, scaling up from there.
Best for: New and small Shopify stores that want reviews, loyalty, and wishlists without paying for three separate apps.
Best free Shopify app for popups: OptiMonk
OptiMonk builds popups, banners, and exit-intent offers to capture emails and recover visitors before they leave. The free plan isn’t a stripped demo either: it includes the full AI popup builder, not just one template.
How does it work?
- Enter your store URL and OptiMonk’s AI drafts an on-brand popup automatically.
- A drag-and-drop editor lets you fine-tune copy, design, and targeting by hand.
- Campaigns can target by traffic source, page, device, or cart behavior.
Features:
- Exit-intent, email/SMS capture, and cart-abandonment popups.
- A/B testing on every campaign.
- Facebook Messenger integration for a second capture channel.
- Real-time analytics on revenue attributed to each popup.
Free plan: $0/month for 10,000 pageviews and one domain, with every feature unlocked at that volume.
Price: Paid plans start at $29/month (Essential) once you outgrow the pageview cap, up to $249/month (Premium) for high-traffic stores.
Best for: Stores under roughly 10,000 monthly visits that want a full-featured popup builder before paying for one.
Best free Shopify app for upsells and cross-sells: Essential Upsell & Cross Sell
Essential Upsell & Cross Sell adds frequently-bought-together bundles, product-page upsells, and post-purchase offers. We’re including it because its free plan covers real revenue, not just a feature preview.
How does it work?
- Product page widgets suggest frequently bought together bundles at the point of purchase.
- Post-purchase offers appear right after checkout, before the customer leaves the confirmation page.
- Analytics show which upsells are actually converting so you can drop the ones that aren’t.
Features:
- Customizable upsell, cross-sell, and add-on widgets.
- Frequently bought together bundles with automatic discounts.
- Post-purchase upsell offers.
- Built-in translations for international stores.
Free plan: $0/month for up to $100 in additional revenue generated through the app, covering product-page and post-purchase offers.
Price: Paid plans start at $9.99/month once you pass $100 in upsell revenue, up to $39.99/month for unlimited revenue and cart-page offers.
Best for: Stores testing whether upsells move the needle before committing to a paid plan.
Open Essential Upsell & Cross Sell
Best free Shopify app for a free shipping bar: Hextom
Hextom’s Free Shipping Bar shows customers a progress message, “you’re $12 away from free shipping,” as they add items to their cart. It’s a small nudge, but Shopify currently marks the app as unavailable; Hextom’s own product page still lists a free plan.
How does it work?
- The bar tracks live cart value and updates its message as customers add or remove items.
- Targeting rules can vary the offer by country, device, page, or product.
- Multiple offers can run at once for different markets using Shopify Markets.
Features:
- Fully customizable banner text, color, and position.
- Device and page-level targeting.
- Scheduling for planned sales events.
- Emoji support and multi-language text.
Free plan: $0/month with no order or pageview cap on the core banner, position, and targeting features.
Price: $9.99/month (Premium) adds geo-targeting through Shopify Markets, auto currency conversion, and performance tracking.
Best for: Any store that wants a free-shipping nudge without committing to a paid banner app first.
Check Hextom: Free Shipping Bar
Best free Shopify app for WhatsApp marketing: Dondy
Dondy adds a WhatsApp chat widget and, on paid plans, abandoned-cart recovery and marketing automation over WhatsApp. We’re upfront about the split here: the free plan is the chat widget, not the automation.
How does it work?
- A floating WhatsApp button connects customers straight to a chat, with pre-filled messages you control.
- Paid plans add automated abandoned-cart messages, marketing campaigns, and an AI chatbot on top of the widget.
- Everything ties back into Shopify order and customer data through the app’s dashboard.
Features:
- Unlimited WhatsApp conversations through the widget.
- Custom button size, position, and design.
- Pre-filled message templates.
- Integrates with Judge.me, Loox, Klaviyo, and Shopify Flow.
Free plan: $0/month for the WhatsApp chat widget with unlimited conversations. Abandoned-cart recovery, marketing campaigns, and the AI chatbot require a paid plan.
Price: Paid plans start at $6.99/month (Pro) for widget customization and manual cart-recovery messages, up to $79.99/month (Power Automation) for full WhatsApp API automation.
Best for: Stores that want a WhatsApp contact channel now and can add automation later if it earns its keep.
Best free Shopify app for email and SMS marketing: Klaviyo
Klaviyo handles email and SMS campaigns, automated flows, and customer segmentation based on real purchase behavior. The free plan works for a brand-new store, and gets tight fast once your list grows.
How does it work?
- Klaviyo pulls order, browse, and customer data straight from Shopify to trigger flows automatically.
- Drag-and-drop editors build welcome series, abandoned-cart, and post-purchase emails without code.
- Segments update in real time as customers browse, buy, or go quiet.
Features:
- Email and SMS in one platform.
- Behavior-based automation flows.
- Revenue and campaign-performance reporting.
- Segmentation by purchase history, browsing, and engagement.
Free plan: $0/month for up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends per month, plus a small SMS/MMS credit. Enough to test flows, not to run a real list.
Price: Paid plans are billed by active profile count and start around $30-45/month once you cross 250 profiles.
Best for: Brand-new stores testing their first automated flows before their list grows past a few hundred people.
Best free Shopify app for loyalty and referrals: Smile.io
Smile.io runs points, referrals, and, on paid plans, VIP tiers. It’s one of the most widely installed loyalty apps on Shopify, and its free plan is a real points-and-referrals program, not a watered-down teaser.
How does it work?
- Customers earn points for purchases, referrals, and social actions, then redeem them for discounts or rewards.
- A dedicated loyalty page and on-site widget show customers their balance without leaving the store.
- Referral links generate automatically and reward both sides of the referral.
Features:
- Points program with discount and free-shipping rewards.
- Built-in referral system.
- Full branding customization.
- Multi-language support.
Free plan: $0/month for up to 200 orders/month, including points and referrals.
Price: Paid plans start at $15/month (Essential), followed by $79/month (Standard) and $199/month (Growth). VIP tiers are included in the Growth plan.
Best for: Stores that want points and referrals running before deciding whether VIP tiers are worth the jump to $199/month.
Best free Shopify app for low stock alerts: Bee Low Stock Alert & Forecast
Bee, by Merchbees, watches inventory levels and emails you before a product actually runs out, with reorder-quantity forecasting built in. We picked it as the inventory app on this list because Shopify’s own Stocky app shuts down completely on August 31, 2026, and Bee’s free plan still does real forecasting math.
How does it work?
- Set a minimum stock threshold per product, and Bee emails you and your vendor when inventory drops below it.
- The forecasting module calculates reorder quantities based on each product’s sales velocity.
- Alerts can run storewide, by collection, or by individual product.
Features:
- Scheduled low-stock alerts by email.
- Automatic reorder-quantity calculation.
- Real-time inventory dashboard.
- CSV export for reports.
Free plan: $0/month for up to 250 SKUs, one scheduled alert, and one email recipient.
Price: Paid plans start at $5.99/month for up to 8,000 SKUs and unlimited alerts, up to $11.99/month for 100,000 SKUs with reorder-quantity automation.
Best for: Stores migrating off Stocky that need stockout alerts without jumping straight to a $40+/month forecasting platform.
Open Bee Low Stock Alert & Forecast
Best free Shopify app for heatmaps and session recordings: Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity shows heatmaps and session recordings of real visitors on your store, the kind of user behavior data that actually explains why your conversion rate looks the way it does. It’s the one app on this list with no free-plan limit at all: no traffic cap, no session cap, ever.
How does it work?
- Clarity’s Shopify Pixel integration tracks product views, add-to-carts, and checkout steps automatically, with no manual event setup.
- Heatmaps show exactly where visitors click, scroll, and lose interest on any page.
- Session recordings let you watch an actual visitor’s path through your store.
Features:
- Unlimited heatmaps and session recordings.
- Rage-click and dead-click detection for frustration points.
- Checkout and post-purchase page tracking through the Shopify Pixel.
- No page-speed impact from the tracking script.
Free plan: $0/month, permanently, with no traffic limits, session caps, or feature gates.
Price: There isn’t one. Clarity has no paid tier.
Best for: Every store. There’s no real reason not to run this alongside whatever analytics tool you’re already using.
Best free Shopify app for wishlists: Wishlist Plus
Wishlist Plus lets customers save products to a wishlist and get notified about price drops or restocks later. The free plan is real, but it’s worth knowing exactly how it’s capped before you build around it.
How does it work?
- A heart icon on product and collection pages lets customers save items without creating an account.
- Saved items sync to email so customers can pick up their wishlist on any device.
- Price-drop and restock alerts notify customers automatically once you’re on a paid plan.
Features:
- Guest wishlists with no login required.
- Wishlist sharing via social media.
- Basic shopper-behavior reports.
- Save-for-later at checkout.
Free plan: $0/month for 500 lifetime wishlist actions. That’s a lifetime cap, not a monthly one, so it’s really meant for testing before you commit.
Price: Paid plans start at $19.99/month for 1,000 wishlist actions per month, with price-drop and restock alerts added in.
Best for: Confirming customers actually want a wishlist before paying for one long-term.
Best free Shopify app for wholesale catalogs: Catalog Maker by EasyCatalog
Catalog Maker turns your product catalog into a PDF or flipbook linesheet for wholesale buyers, trade shows, or B2B customers. We’re including it as the wholesale-specific pick on this list rather than a general sales app, since that’s exactly what it’s built for.
How does it work?
- Select products or collections, apply a template, and the app generates a branded PDF catalog with pricing and variants.
- A dedicated wholesale channel turns the catalog into an order form that creates draft orders in Shopify.
- Canva integration lets you sync images and pricing without leaving Canva.
Features:
- Wholesale and retail pricing in the same catalog.
- QR codes, barcodes, and variant tables.
- PDF, flipbook, and print-ready formats.
- Order forms tied to Shopify draft orders.
Free plan: $0/month with a limited product and catalog count. Reviews are mixed on stability at scale, so test it on a small catalog before relying on it for a trade show.
Price: Paid plans scale by catalog size and product count, up to $599.99/year for unlimited catalogs and 5,000+ products.
Best for: Stores that sell wholesale or attend trade shows and need a shareable line sheet, not a general sales-boosting app.
Best free Shopify app for restock alerts: Back in Stock
Back in Stock adds a “Notify me” button to out-of-stock products and emails or texts customers the moment inventory returns. It’s been around since 2011, and the free plan is enough for a store with occasional stockouts.
How does it work?
- Shoppers click “Notify me” on an out-of-stock product and leave their email or phone number.
- The app sends alerts automatically, usually within 60 seconds of a restock.
- Batch sending lets you control the pace of alerts if a limited restock would sell out again in seconds.
Features:
- Email and SMS restock alerts.
- Customizable signup forms and buttons.
- Demand analytics on which out-of-stock products get the most signups.
- Integrates with Klaviyo and other mailing platforms.
Free plan: $0/month for up to 10 notifications per month, with unlimited customer signups.
Price: Paid plans start at $19/month for more notification volume, up to $99/month for high-traffic stores.
Best for: Stores with occasional stockouts that don’t need more than a handful of restock alerts a month.
Best free Shopify app for SEO: Sherpas Smart SEO
Smart SEO automates meta tags, image alt text, and broken-link fixes, the unglamorous SEO work most stores never get around to. The free plan handles real fixes, just at a limited quota.
How does it work?
- The app scans your store for missing meta tags, broken links, and unoptimized images.
- AI generates meta titles and descriptions in bulk instead of writing each one by hand.
- JSON-LD structured data gets added automatically for rich snippets in search results.
Features:
- AI-generated meta tags.
- Image optimization and compression.
- Broken-link detection and fixes.
- JSON-LD structured data.
Free plan: $0/month for a limited quota of broken-link fixes, image optimization, and AI-generated tags, enough to test the app on a small catalog.
Price: Paid plans start at $14.99/month (Pro), followed by $24.99/month (Business) and $49.99/month (Premium).
Best for: Stores that know they’re behind on basic SEO hygiene and want it automated instead of done by hand.
Best free Shopify app for live chat: Tidio
Tidio adds live chat and an AI chatbot to your store so customers can ask questions before they abandon a purchase. The free plan covers a real, if modest, volume of conversations.
How does it work?
- A chat widget sits on your storefront and routes conversations to you or an AI chatbot.
- The chatbot answers common questions automatically and hands off to a human when it can’t.
- Deeper Shopify actions, like pulling up a customer’s order status inside the chat, unlock on paid plans.
Features:
- Live chat and AI chatbot in one dashboard.
- Multichannel inbox for chat, email, and social messages.
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android.
- Up to 10 seats on the free plan.
Free plan: $0/month for roughly 50 conversations a month across up to 10 seats. Native Shopify order lookups and in-chat product recommendations need a paid plan.
Price: Paid plans start around $24/month (Starter) and scale by conversation volume, with the AI chatbot add-on priced separately.
Best for: Stores answering under 50 support conversations a month that want live chat without another line item.
Putler: the best shopify apps pick for sales and customer reporting
Putler consolidates data from Shopify and 16 other sources into one dashboard: sales, customers, products, refunds, and, if you run a SaaS side of the business, subscription metrics like MRR and ARR. It also handles customer segmentation and forecasting alongside the reporting. We put it last on purpose, since it’s the one app on this list without a permanent free plan. It’s a straight 14-day trial, and we’d rather say that upfront than bury it.
How does it work?
- Connect Shopify along with WooCommerce, PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, BigCommerce, eBay, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, and other sources, and Putler deduplicates and merges the data into one view.
- Reports cover sales trends and product performance without exporting anything to a spreadsheet.
- RFM segmentation groups customers by recency, frequency, and monetary value automatically.
Features:
- Multi-store and multi-source reporting from one dashboard.
- Instant transaction lookup and refund management.
- Automatic currency and timezone conversion.
- 200+ metrics and reports across sales, customers, and products.
Free plan: None. Putler runs on a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, not a permanent free tier like the rest of this list.
Price: Starter from $20/month (3 data sources), Growth from $50/month (15 data sources), Custom for larger stores. Pricing is metered by monthly revenue.
Best for: Stores that outgrew checking Shopify analytics, PayPal, and a spreadsheet separately and want one number for how the business is actually doing.
Over to you
That’s our list of the best shopify apps to increase sales for 2026, and every one of them has a free plan we could actually verify. Not every app here fits every store. A wholesale seller needs Catalog Maker; a store with no stockout problem can skip Back in Stock entirely.
Start with the gap that’s actually costing you sales right now, install one app for it, and see what changes before adding a second. If you’ve found a shopify app for dropshipping or general sales that deserves a spot on this list, we’d like to hear about it in the comments.
Once you’ve got the right apps in place, strategies to boost sales on your Shopify store are the next piece worth reading.
FAQs
What are the best shopify apps to increase sales?
The best shopify apps to increase sales depend on where your store is actually losing revenue. Popups and email capture (OptiMonk, Klaviyo) address visitors who leave without buying. Upsell and loyalty apps (Essential Upsell & Cross Sell, Smile.io, Growave) increase what existing customers spend. Restock and low-stock alerts (Back in Stock, Bee) recover sales lost to inventory gaps.
Are there actually free shopify apps, or do they all require a credit card eventually?
Every app on this list has a real free plan verified through a current official listing or pricing page, not just a free trial. The free-plan limit is stated for each one above, since some cap by order volume, some by pageviews, and one, Microsoft Clarity, doesn’t cap you at all.
Is there a good shopify app for dropshipping on this list?
Nothing here is dropshipping-specific, but nothing on this list requires holding your own inventory either. Popups, email marketing, loyalty, upsells, and live chat all work the same way whether you fulfill orders yourself or drop-ship them.
How many shopify apps should a new store actually install?
Fewer than most guides suggest. Install one app to fix the biggest gap first, usually cart abandonment or no email capture, confirm it’s working, then add the next one. Running ten free apps at once slows a store down and makes it hard to tell which one is actually driving sales.
Do free plans on these apps ever stop being free?
Yes, in the sense that all of them cap out eventually except Microsoft Clarity. Growave, Smile.io, and OptiMonk cap by order volume or pageviews; Wishlist Plus caps by lifetime actions rather than monthly ones, which is easy to miss. The free-plan line for each app above states exactly where its cap sits.
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