There is one thing I need to be honest about right from the start: most of the articles comparing various WooCommerce wish list plugins were written by people who have never installed a single one of these plugins on their live sites with actual products.
In this article, however, I will be sharing with you information regarding what really matters when choosing a wish list plugin, the plugins that can be considered truly good in 2026, and the plugin that I personally use for Elementor-based WooCommerce sites.
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Do You Really Need a Best WooCommerce Wishlist Plugin on Your Site?
The short answer? Yes, if you sell products that users think about before making a purchase.
Fashion items, gadgets, furniture, jewellery, presents- any items in which case your clients will be browsing several times before actually making a decision. In such product lines, a wish list transforms your clients from window shopping into real buyers since it gives them the motive to return. Statistics from Baymard Institute show that an average cart abandonment rate exceeds 70%. A wishlist plugin won’t solve all those issues, but it will grab the interest of users who are hesitating.
If you sell items that get added to a cart and purchased instantly, a wishlist plugin will just create confusion. However, it’s an obvious choice for any other WooCommerce site.
What to Look for Before Installing Anything
Here are the things that actually matter and that most comparisons skip.
Performance impact first, features second. A wishlist plugin that adds 300KB of JavaScript to every page load is doing more damage than good. In real testing, the difference between the lightest and heaviest wishlist plugins is enormous; one adds 2.5KB, another adds over 300KB. That gap shows up directly in your Core Web Vitals scores. Always check performance impact before installing.
Guest wishlist support. Requiring customers to create an account before saving a product is one of the most effective ways to drive them away. A good wishlist plugin saves items for guest visitors in a browser cookie and merges with their account when they log in later. Non-negotiable for most stores.
Elementor compatibility if you use it. Some wishlist plugins only work cleanly with standard WooCommerce themes. If your product pages and shop archive are built with Elementor, confirm the plugin integrates correctly with Elementor templates before you commit.
Not too many plugins doing the same job. This one is underrated. Installing a wishlist plugin, a quick view plugin, a compare plugin, and a filter plugin separately means four different scripts loading on every product page. That is four update schedules, four potential conflict points, and four sets of scripts adding weight. If you can get wishlist, quick view, and compare in one plugin, you should.
Best WooCommerce Wishlist Plugins 2026, Five Compared
1. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist, Most Installed, Most Overrated
YITH WooCommerce Wishlist has over 500,000 active installations and has been around for over a decade. It shows up at the top of almost every list for that reason. But I am going to say something most reviews will not: it is not the best choice for most stores in 2026.
The free version is fine for basic wishlist functionality; customers can save products, share their list, and come back to buy. The problem is performance. Independent testing shows YITH Wishlist adding over 300KB of code and 21 additional server requests per page load. For comparison, the lightest options on this list add under 3KB. That performance gap directly affects your Google PageSpeed scores, your Core Web Vitals, and ultimately your rankings.
The premium version at $89.99 per year unlocks multiple wishlists per user, price drop alerts, back-in-stock notifications, and email integration. These are genuinely useful features. But if performance is a priority, and for any store caring about SEO in 2026, it should be- there are better options.
Best for: Stores that need the specific YITH ecosystem integrations and are on forgiving hosting. Avoid if: PageSpeed scores matter to your business.
2. TI WooCommerce Wishlist, Best Free Visual Customization
TI WooCommerce Wishlist gives you more control over how the wishlist page looks than most free alternatives. Button placement, table columns, color settings, and more options are available without paying than competitors give you in their Pro tiers.
The free version covers most use cases well. Guest wishlist via cookie, social sharing, basic styling control, and WPML compatibility for multilingual stores. It is a solid, lightweight option that has been reliably maintained since 2016.
The limitation: premium features require TI WooCommerce Wishlist Pro, and some features that competing plugins include free, like multiple wishlists per user, are paid here. Price drop alerts require a separate add-on rather than being bundled.
Best for: Stores that want visual customization control without paying. Pricing: Free. Pro with advanced features available.
3. WPC Smart Wishlist Best Performance-to-Feature Ratio
WPC Smart Wishlist is lightweight, regularly updated, and includes a suggested products section inside the wishlist popup that shows related items when a customer views their saved list. This cross-sell functionality inside the wishlist itself is genuinely smart; most plugins just show a list; WPC shows a list plus reasons to buy more.
Guest wishlist support is included free. The popup display style keeps customers on the current page rather than redirecting to a separate wishlist page, which reduces friction in the browsing flow. Performance impact is minimal compared to YITH.
The $32.48 lifetime license for a single site is among the most reasonable pricing structures in this category. No annual renewal, just a one-time payment.
Best for: Stores that want lightweight performance with cross-sell capability. Pricing: Free. Lifetime Pro from $32.48 per site.
4. SaveTo Wishlist Best Overall Free Option in 2026
SaveTo Wishlist is newer than the other options but has quickly earned a strong reputation for what it includes free. Multiple wishlists per customer, a feature every other plugin locks behind premium, is free. Guest saving with auto-sync on login is free. Cart saving so customers can bookmark an entire cart session is free.
Performance is excellent. In independent testing, it added just 2.5KB and a single server request, the lightest wishlist plugin currently available. For stores where Core Web Vitals scores matter directly to rankings and conversion rates, that is a meaningful advantage.
The block-based architecture means it integrates naturally with Gutenberg and modern WordPress site structures. If you run a standard WooCommerce theme setup rather than an Elementor build, SaveTo Wishlist is the strongest free option in 2026.
Best for: Standard WooCommerce themes, stores that want the best free feature set. Pricing: Free tier is genuinely comprehensive. Premium available for price drop alerts.
5. WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor Best for Elementor Stores
Here is the option that most general wishlist comparisons miss entirely, and it is the most relevant one if your WooCommerce store is built with Elementor.
WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor includes a built-in wishlist widget as one of its 15 WooCommerce-specific Elementor widgets. This means the wishlist integrates directly into your Elementor product card layouts, your product page designs, and your shop archive templates, styled consistently with the rest of your design system, not bolted on as a separate plugin with its own CSS.
Here is what makes this genuinely different from standalone wishlist plugins for Elementor users. The wishlist icon appears inside your Elementor product grid widget, matching your brand colors and font settings automatically. There is no separate plugin stylesheet competing with your Elementor styles. No additional script loading on pages that do not use the wishlist. Guest wishlist support with automatic merge on login is built in.
Beyond wishlist, the same single plugin also handles Ajax product filtering, product quick view, product comparison, sale countdown timers, and stock availability badges. So instead of installing a wishlist plugin, a filter plugin, a quick view plugin, and a comparison plugin separately, all with their own scripts and potential conflicts, you install one plugin that handles all of it.
The practical saving is real. Four separate WooCommerce add-on subscriptions would cost you $120 to $300 per year combined. WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor costs $60 as a one-time purchase with no annual renewal.
Get WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor — $60 One-Time
Best for: Any WooCommerce store built with Elementor that wants wishlist, filter, quick view, and compare without four separate plugins.
Quick Comparison Table
| Plugin | Price | Guest Wishlist | Performance | Elementor | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YITH WooCommerce Wishlist | Free, $89.99 per year Pro | Yes | Heavy, 300KB plus | Basic | Legacy stores needing YITH ecosystem |
| TI WooCommerce Wishlist | Free, Pro available | Yes | Light | Basic | Free visual customization |
| WPC Smart Wishlist | Free, $32.48 lifetime | Yes | Light | Basic | Cross-sell inside wishlist |
| SaveTo Wishlist | Free, Premium available | Yes | Very light, 2.5KB | Good | Best free option for standard themes |
| WC Smart Widgets | $60 one-time | Yes, with login merge | Very light | Native | Elementor stores, all-in-one |
Which One Should You Choose?
If your store runs on a standard WooCommerce theme and you want the best free option, SaveTo Wishlist. It gives you the most features at zero cost with the lightest performance impact.
If you need something free with good visual customization and long-term reliability, try TI WooCommerce Wishlist. It has been around since 2016 and is maintained consistently.
If you want lightweight performance with cross-sell capability and a reasonable one-time price, WPC Smart Wishlist is at $32.48 lifetime.
If your WooCommerce store is built with Elementor, WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor is the option that makes the most sense. You get native Elementor integration, consistent styling without CSS conflicts, and wishlist plus four other WooCommerce features in one $60 purchase instead of five separate plugins.
Get WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor
Frequently Asked Questions Best WooCommerce Wishlist Plugin
Do WooCommerce wishlist plugins slow down your store? Some do, significantly. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist adds over 300KB and 21 requests in independent testing. SaveTo Wishlist adds 2.5KB and 1 request. WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor uses conditional loading; scripts only load on pages where the widget is used. Always test your PageSpeed score after installing any wishlist plugin.
Can guest users save to a wishlist without creating an account? Yes, with most modern plugins. Guest wishlist data is stored in a browser cookie. When the guest creates an account or logs in later, the cookie wishlist merges with their account wishlist automatically. WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor, WPC Smart Wishlist, TI WooCommerce Wishlist, and SaveTo Wishlist all support this.
Do I need a separate wishlist plugin if I already use Elementor? Not if you use WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor. The wishlist widget is built directly into the plugin alongside product filtering, quick view, comparison, and countdown timers. One plugin replaces four to five separate add-ons for Elementor-built stores.
Which wishlist plugin works best with WPML for multilingual stores? TI WooCommerce Wishlist includes explicit WPML compatibility. WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor works alongside WPEL Language Switcher Pro, available at wpexpertlab.com/wordpress-plugins, for a complete Elementor multilingual store setup.
Is YITH WooCommerce Wishlist still worth using in 2026? For stores deeply embedded in the YITH ecosystem, using YITH for product bundles, bookings, or subscriptions alongside wishlist, the integration consistency can justify it. For stores starting fresh, the performance overhead compared to lighter alternatives is hard to justify when free options like SaveTo Wishlist and paid all-in-one options like WooCommerce Smart Widgets exist.
Building a WooCommerce store with Elementor and want expert help setting up product filtering, wishlist, quick view, and a fast, well-optimized store? I offer professional WordPress WooCommerce development services for businesses that want it done right from day one. Contact me here.
Written by the WordPress Expert at wpexpertlab.com
Also read: WooCommerce Smart Widgets for Elementor | Best WooCommerce Product Filter Plugin 2026 | Elementor Pro Review 2026 | WordPress WooCommerce Development Service
