Reviews are the most-read block on a product page and, on most Shopify stores, the heaviest. The app that shows them decides three things at once: whether the stars appear in Google’s search results, whether a shopper on a phone sees a real customer’s photo before the fold, and how many hundred milliseconds the widget costs every page it sits on. Shopify retired its own free Product Reviews app in 2024, so every store now makes this choice deliberately.
Seven apps below, compared on what moves conversion rather than on feature counts, with the weight of each measured the way we measure everything: in the field, on a phone. If you are choosing for a beauty or hair brand, the photo-review apps matter more; for a considered purchase like fine jewelry, the attribute ratings and the Google stars do.
Summary
- Judge.me: the default replacement for Shopify’s retired app; a genuinely usable free plan and Google rich snippets.
- Loox: photo and video reviews with the best-looking galleries; pricing scales with orders.
- Okendo: the Plus-grade choice — attribute ratings, UGC, surveys, deep Klaviyo integration.
- Yotpo: the enterprise suite — reviews plus loyalty and SMS in one vendor.
- Junip: the lightweight one; sends requests through your email tool and keeps the widget small.
- Stamped: reviews and loyalty for the mid-market.
- Fera: reviews plus social-proof widgets for smaller stores.
What to judge a review app on
- Rich snippets. Does it output Product and Review structured data Google reads, without clashing with the theme’s own Product schema? Stars in the search result are the single largest click-through gain a review app can give.
- Request timing. Reviews come from the request email, and the request has to land after the product has been used — seven days for a lash, three weeks for a serum, the day after for a phone case. Can you set it per product?
- Photo and video. For beauty, fashion and home, a customer photo is worth ten text reviews.
- Attribute ratings. Fit, scent, longevity, value: the second-level ratings a considered purchase needs.
- Widget weight. Measured, not claimed. A widget with its own fonts, stylesheet and carousel costs 100–400 ms of LCP on a phone.
- Integration. Reviews into Klaviyo as events and properties; syndication to Google Shopping; import from the previous app.
The seven apps
1. Judge.me
Judge.me became the standard replacement when Shopify’s app went, and deservedly: unlimited reviews on the free plan, review requests, photo reviews, Q&A, Google rich snippets and Google Shopping syndication, with a low paid tier for the branding removal and the extras. The widgets are light by review-app standards. Its weakness is design — the default look is generic and needs styling to sit inside a brand — and attribute ratings are thinner than Okendo’s.
2. Loox
Loox is built around photo and video reviews and has the best-looking galleries on the list: masonry grids, a carousel for the homepage, review-with-photo incentives baked into the request flow. For a visual category it lifts conversion in a way a text widget does not. Pricing scales with order volume, which is fair for small stores and expensive at scale, and the galleries are the heaviest widgets in this comparison — worth measuring on the product page before you decide.
3. Okendo
Okendo is the one we recommend most on Shopify Plus. Attribute ratings (fit, scent, value, whatever the category needs), UGC galleries, surveys and quizzes in the same platform, and the deepest Klaviyo integration of the group — review events, review properties on the profile, and segments built on them. It is priced for stores that will use all of that; a store that wants stars and a request email is paying for a suite.
4. Yotpo Reviews
Yotpo is the enterprise option: reviews, and in the same vendor loyalty, referrals, SMS and email, with Google Seller Ratings and the syndication relationships large brands need. It is the right choice when a brand wants one contract for retention and reviews, and the wrong one for a store that just needs reviews — the free tier is limited and the widget is not light.
5. Junip
Junip takes the opposite approach: a small, fast widget, and review requests sent through the email or SMS tool you already run — Klaviyo, Postscript — so the request is on-brand and in the same flow as everything else. Photo and video, attribute ratings, rich snippets, none of the suite. For a store whose retention stack is already Klaviyo-centred and whose page speed matters, it is usually the best fit.
6. Stamped
Stamped pairs reviews with a loyalty product for the mid-market: photo and video, Q&A, rich snippets, Google Shopping, and a points programme if you want it from the same vendor. Solid rather than exceptional at any one thing; the reason to pick it is wanting reviews and loyalty together below Yotpo’s price.
7. Fera
Fera combines reviews with social-proof widgets — recent purchases, visitor counts — for smaller stores. Easy to set up, inexpensive, fine for a first store. Use the social-proof widgets sparingly; on a considered purchase they read as pressure and cost trust.
Quick comparison
| App | Free plan | Rich snippets | Photo / video | Attribute ratings | Widget weight | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judge.me | Yes, unlimited reviews | Yes | Yes | Basic | Light | Most stores replacing Shopify’s app |
| Loox | Trial | Yes | Best galleries | Basic | Heavy | Visual categories |
| Okendo | Limited | Yes | Yes, UGC | Strong | Medium | Shopify Plus, Klaviyo-centred |
| Yotpo | Limited | Yes, Seller Ratings | Yes | Strong | Heavy | Enterprise, one vendor for retention |
| Junip | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Lightest | Speed-conscious stores on Klaviyo |
| Stamped | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Medium | Reviews + loyalty, mid-market |
| Fera | Limited | Yes | Yes | Basic | Medium | Small stores, social proof |
Getting the stars into Google
Every app in the table claims rich snippets; whether Google shows them depends on the page. The common failures we find in the free SEO audit: two Product schemas on the page (the theme’s and the app’s) with different data, a review count on the schema that does not match the visible reviews, and aggregate ratings on collection pages where Google ignores them. One Product schema per product page, the app’s rating merged into it, and the visible reviews matching the count — then the stars appear.
Review requests that get answered
Request rates are decided by timing and by who sends the email. Send it when the product has been used, not when it was delivered; send it from the brand’s own email tool where the app allows, so it sits in the same design as the post-purchase flow; ask for a photo with a specific prompt (“show us the colour in daylight”); and never incentivise the rating, only the review. On beauty stores we run the request as part of the post-purchase sequence in Klaviyo or Attentive, timed to the product — the same timing logic that drives the replenishment reminder.
Weight, measured
Install the app on a staging theme, run the Store Speed Test on the product page before and after, and keep the one that costs the least for what it gives. A review carousel on the homepage is the widget most often removed in our speed work: it is rarely the reason anyone converts and it is often 300 ms of LCP.
FAQ
Did Shopify remove its Product Reviews app?
Yes. Shopify’s free Product Reviews app was retired in 2024, and stores that relied on it moved to a third-party app. Judge.me is the usual free replacement; Loox, Okendo, Yotpo, Junip, Stamped and Fera are the paid alternatives compared here.
Which review app is best for Shopify Plus?
Okendo and Yotpo are the two built for Plus-scale stores: attribute ratings, UGC, surveys and quizzes, and deep Klaviyo integration. Junip is the lightweight choice for a Plus store that wants reviews without a widget suite.
Do review apps slow down a Shopify store?
Some do. A review widget that injects its own stylesheet, fonts and carousel on every page costs 100–400 ms of Largest Contentful Paint on a phone. Junip and Judge.me are the lightest; run the free Store Speed Test before and after installing any of them.
How do I get review stars in Google search results?
The app has to output Product and Review structured data that Google can read, and the page must not already carry conflicting Product schema from the theme. Judge.me, Okendo, Yotpo and Stamped all do this; the free SEO audit shows whether Google sees the markup on your product pages.
