Best Shopify Gift Card Apps: What Operators Say

The data behind this page: 10 operator reviews of Shopify gift card apps, July 2024 to May 2026 · Rise.ai: 8 reviews · Gift Card Hero: 2 · Both samples are small, so we report what individual operators told us, not scores · App Store listings for seven apps checked November 11, 2026.

Shopify already sells gift cards on every plan. So the question each holiday season is what an app adds, and whether it’s worth a monthly fee. US searches for a Shopify gift card app reached 320 last December, against 70 in July, so most stores ask it right about now.

Operators who run a gift card app tell us they wanted three things: a card they could design, gift cards and store credit in one place, and cards that work in their shops as well as online. Below: what Shopify’s free gift cards cover, what operators say about the two apps in our network, how the main apps charge, and what to test before the rush.

Do this next:

• Open your theme editor and look for Shopify’s free recipient fields on gift card products. If they’re there, you can already send cards to someone else on a date.

• Write down what you need beyond that: your own design, custom amounts, store credit, POS or more than one store. Those needs split the field.

• Price each app at your December volume, not an average month. Some charge per store order, some take a share of gift card sales.

Quick answers: Shopify gift card apps

Do you need an app to sell gift cards on Shopify? No. Shopify says “Gift cards are available on all Shopify subscription plans,” and its Dawn and Horizon themes can collect a recipient’s email, name, message and send date for free. Apps add what Shopify doesn’t: your own designs, custom amounts, reloadable balances, bulk tools and more store credit control.

What is the most popular Shopify gift card app? By App Store reviews, Rise.ai, with 765 reviews and a 4.7 rating. Gift Card Hero is next among dedicated gift card apps, with 181 reviews and 4.9. Rise also has the most reviews in our own network for a gift card app: eight.

Is there a free Shopify gift card app? Shopify’s own gift cards cost nothing extra. Among apps, GV lists itself as free and Vify has a free plan. Gift Card Hero is free to install, then takes 2% of gift card value, with a $9.99 monthly minimum.

What do operators complain about in gift card apps? In our Rise reviews: price and billing, gift card emails landing in spam, extra steps to manage store credit between the app and Shopify admin, and multi-store features kept for a top tier. Our two Gift Card Hero owners name no complaints.

Can gift cards work in-store and online? Yes. Shopify’s own gift cards work at Shopify POS, and Rise, Gift Card Hero and Gift Card Factory list POS support. A finance lead uses Rise across retail outlets and online, but finds gift cards and store credit split between the two.

What do Shopify’s free gift cards already do?

More than many stores use. Gift cards come with every Shopify plan, sell through the online store, POS and the Shop app, and can be created by hand in the admin. Gift card products go up to $10,000, and a card bought in your store currency can be redeemed in any currency, per Shopify’s gift card overview.

The free recipient form is the part stores miss. Since version 9.0.0 of Shopify’s free themes, including Dawn and the Horizon family, a gift card product can ask for the recipient’s email, name, a message and a send date. Scheduled cards go out between about 4 and 10 am in the buyer’s time zone, per Shopify’s recipient fields guide. Vintage themes don’t have it.

Where Shopify stops, by its own account:

• Customers can’t enter a custom amount on the storefront.

• The card’s value and redemption code can’t be customized from your theme.

• A gift card can be redeemed only at the store that issued it.

• Cards created in the admin are capped at $2,000 unless Shopify Support changes it.

• Stores created on or after May 12, 2025 are charged third-party transaction fees on orders paid by gift card.

Store credit is built in now too. You can issue it from a customer’s profile or as a refund, and customers spend it online and at POS. It needs the new customer accounts or Shop Pay, applies only as a full balance, and must stay under $15,000 per customer, per Shopify’s store credit guide.

Why do operators add a gift card app?

For control Shopify doesn’t give them. An e-commerce manager who ran Rise for clients at their agency put the starting point plainly:

“Shopify already has a Gift Card feature, but you cannot customise your Gift cards.” (E-commerce Manager, verified ASR review)

They valued the send-to-a-friend option and the design. The first now exists in Shopify’s free themes. The second still doesn’t. Other reviewers want a way to track balances for customers, one place for gift cards and store credit, and one system for their shops and their website.

Gift cards also show up as a workaround. A Smile owner whose cheaper loyalty plan couldn’t combine reward codes with other discounts moved rewards onto gift cards instead:

“so we had to go the gift card route.” (Owner, verified ASR review)

That owner noted Shopify has since started allowing combined discount codes, so check your plan before copying the workaround. Our loyalty apps guide covers apps that pay rewards as store credit.

How do Shopify gift card apps compare on price?

Ratings, review counts and plans come from each Shopify App Store listing on November 11, 2026. The pricing model matters more than the headline price. Rise counts every order your store takes, gift card or not, so December volume moves the bill. Gift Card Pro, Givy and Gift Card Hero’s pay-as-you-go plan take a share of the gift cards you sell.

What do operators say about Rise.ai?

Rise.ai, now listed as Rise Gift Cards & Store Credit, is the gift card app our network reviews most, and the reviews are mixed. Of eight reviewers, two are very satisfied, four are neutral and two are not satisfied. Six still use it and six rate it critical. With eight reviews, treat each one as a single store’s experience.

The praise is about daily handling. Three reviewers found setup easy, one mentions quick replies from support, and a finance lead uses it to manage gift cards at several retail outlets and online. A customer service rep, two to three years in:

“Very easy to use and keep track of customer’s gift cards.” (Customer Service, verified ASR review)

Past the three-year mark, an e-commerce manager says it handles gift cards and store credit reliably, with costs that stay predictable at their volume. The same reviewer has the sharpest list of concerns. Managing store credit means constant back-and-forth between Rise and Shopify admin, and the multi-store features they want sit behind an enterprise tier they put at $600 a month:

“I’d honestly love to see Shopify absorb these basic features natively.” (E-commerce Manager, verified ASR review)

The other concerns are specific:

• Price and billing. An owner who left after two to three years calls the billing overpriced and incorrect, and the off-boarding poor.

• Extra charges. An e-commerce manager objects to paying for bulk imports of loyalty points, which they say Smile and LoyaltyLion don’t charge for.

• Emails. The customer service rep says customers often miss gift card emails because they land in spam. An owner says the emails only look right on mobile, and support told them that’s how it works.

• Store credit split. The finance lead finds gift cards and store credit divided between POS and online.

A developer who tried it for under a year found slow loading when a card is added to cart, and docs that lagged behind:

“the documentation wasn’t up to date and everything seemed clunky.” (Developer, verified ASR review)

Some stay despite the friction. An owner past three years, rating it neutral, explains why:

“It’s hard to switch to another rewards app so I just stay with it.” (Owner, verified ASR review)

What do operators say about Gift Card Hero?

Gift Card Hero has two reviews in our network, both from owners more than three years into using it. Both are very satisfied, both still use it, and both call it valuable but not essential. Two owners make a small sample, so treat this as their experience, not a rating.

One owner says the app took over a gift card process their team used to run by hand. Customers now buy and redeem cards without staff stepping in, which they say saved time and ended a run of small errors:

“Three years in, it just works.” (Owner, verified ASR review)

Neither reviewer names a complaint. The other owner calls it close to perfect:

“A feasible solution for gift cards with lots of options.” (Owner, verified ASR review)

Gift Card Hero’s App Store listing shows 4.9 stars from 181 reviews and includes scheduled sending, video greetings, balance top-ups and bulk tools, with POS tools and unused balance reminders on the PRO plan.

Which other gift card apps have the most App Store reviews?

Five more dedicated gift card apps have 50 or more App Store reviews. None has an operator review with us yet, so this is how each one describes itself on the App Store:

• Vify: Professional Gift Cards (4.9, 137 reviews). Custom product and redemption pages, custom card values, branded emails and expiry reminders, with plans priced by Shopify plan.

• GV: Gift Cards & Store Credit (4.2, 91 reviews). Free. Digital and physical cards, scheduled delivery, and a store credit loyalty program with VIP tiers.

• Gift Card Pro (4.4, 91 reviews). Cards sent by email or text, video messages, bulk sending and balance reminder emails.

• Gift Card Factory (5.0, 65 reviews). Bulk creation, imports from other systems, refunds onto gift cards and bulk store credit.

• Givy (5.0, 53 reviews). Multi-currency gift cards, gifting of products and subscriptions, and bulk vouchers for corporate gifts.

What should you test before the holiday rush?

Gift cards sell in the last days before a holiday, when there’s no time to fix delivery. These checks come from what our reviewers ran into:

• Delivery. Send a test card to a Gmail and an Outlook address and check spam.

• Display. Open that email on a phone and on a desktop.

• POS and store credit. If you sell in person, redeem a card in-store and online, and issue store credit both ways.

• Amounts and dates. Buy a card for a custom amount and schedule it for a later date.

• Cost at peak. Price the plan at your December orders or expected gift card sales.

• More than one store. Shopify’s own cards work only where they were issued, so confirm what the app supports and on which plan.

• Existing cards. If you’re switching, check that your current cards can be imported.

The app stack audit guide covers how to review an app you already pay for. If gift cards feed your returns flow, see our returns app comparison.

Which gift card app fits your store?

Every review quoted above is listed in full under Shopify App Reviews.

Selling gift cards this season? Your setup is worth something to app teams.

Each research session pays $100 to $250. App teams use them to see which tools operators run for gifting, store credit and loyalty, and the gaps they patch by hand.

Apply as an operator on app store research →

Operator figures come from 10 verified operator reviews collected between July 2024 and May 2026: eight of Rise.ai and two of Gift Card Hero. Samples this small are reported as individual accounts, not scores. One Smile review that mentions gift cards is quoted for context.

Listing ratings, review counts and prices date from November 11, 2026, as do Shopify’s gift card and store credit rules from its help center. Search volumes are monthly US estimates. Last reviewed: November 11, 2026.