Let's face it, product reviews are critical to the customer's journey, so it's a no-brainer that brands encourage their shoppers to leave feedback, and the best product review apps for Shopify make that easy. Be honest with yourself, when's the last time you made a purchase from an online brand or marketplace without reading the reviews first?

Reviews are more important than you think

For most brands, reviews are an absolute necessity. Why? Because 49% of consumers surveyed in the US, UK and France consider positive reviews one of their top three purchase influences, according to Trustpilot's 2020 research. Reviews are the embodiment of social proof that consumers need to drive their confidence in purchasing from your brand.

Sure, you could simply post fake reviews, but that's a large undertaking that involves quite a bit of risk: the FTC's 2024 rule bans fake reviews and lets the agency seek civil penalties against knowing violators (FTC).

Consider the fact that 83% of U.S. consumers agree or somewhat agree that reviews must be recent and relevant for them to care about them, according to a 2020 survey of 1,543 consumers in Podium's State of Reviews report. That means a handful of old reviews won't cut it, and your products need a steady stream of new ones. Couple that with the 68% of consumers in the same survey who agree or somewhat agree that they don't trust a high rating unless there's a high quantity of reviews behind it.

You'll soon see the only sustainable option is having your customers leave legitimate reviews. Consumer confidence isn't the only benefit to encouraging or incentivizing customers to review their recent purchases on your website. Having your customers add unique content to your product pages can help your SEO too.

Are no reviews better than negative reviews?

Absolutely not, you should try hard to provide each customer with the best experience possible. If you're worried that your brand will be inundated with bad reviews, then you need to address your customer's journey. Reviews are wonderful indicators that your customer experience strategy is paying off. Having a good retail CRM is a great way to manage customer relationships so you can spot and fix problems before they turn into negative reviews, and work with your shoppers to change negative ratings. Remember, without reviews it's hard for would-be customers to determine the reliability of your product. Sure, they might be able to find mentions of your products on external websites like social media, but then you risk not being in control of the conversation. What do you do if you receive negative reviews? Should you remove them? Glad you asked, let's discuss some simple strategies when it comes to handling reviews.

Tactics to keep in mind when managing reviews

It's wishful thinking if you believe you'll be able to set it and forget it when planning a product review strategy. Sure, this list of best review apps for Shopify Plus checks the box for automation, but you'll still need to keep an eye on product reviews.

\[Goal\] Make sure products are always receiving reviews. \[How to achieve\] With 83% of consumers saying reviews must be recent and relevant (Podium), you'll need to make sure your Shopify Plus review app is capable of following up and incentivizing customers to post a review once their order has arrived. Reward the act of reviewing, never a positive rating, and disclose the incentive: the FTC prohibits incentives conditioned on a particular sentiment (FTC). By relying on personalized messaging, you can reinforce this strategy through the use of building campaigns that focus on customer feedback.

\[Goal\] Customers value authenticity over perfectly-scored reviews. \[How to achieve\] A realistic mix of positive and negative reviews is a top motivator to purchase for 53% of consumers surveyed in the US, UK and France (Trustpilot, 2020). That means you should only remove negative reviews when they're not truthful to that specific customer's journey, and never just because of the star rating. Honesty goes a long way. Your customers will accept mistakes, but they won't appreciate being manipulated.

\[Goal\] Reviews that include a customer's personal story with the product are more useful to shoppers. \[How to achieve\] Make sure you encourage your customers to share their story and customer journey throughout their review. This can be done through incentivization or sending a template with pre-formatted questions to your customers.

What are the best review apps for Shopify Plus?

The best review apps for Shopify Plus are Judge.me for budget-conscious brands, Yotpo for brands that want to incentivize reviews, Okendo for flexible rewards and Stamped for a simple setup. Here's how they compare on the Shopify App Store as of October 2026.

We highly recommend using a review app to power your reviews. Paid plans add cost for your brand (three of the four apps below have free plans), but the alternative would be manually running an ongoing product review campaign.

Judge.me

Judge.me carries Shopify's Built for Shopify badge and offers a free plan or a paid plan for $15 a month. It automates review requests after a purchase.

Judge.me uses star ratings and will solicit your customers after they've completed a purchase. Reviews are placed on your products' pages and appear to be SEO friendly. Review requests go out by email, and by SMS through an integration such as ConvertWay on the paid plan, using templates that make image and video uploads easy. The paid plan adds coupons and referrals, and they also offer integrations with LoyaltyLion and Smile.io.

Final Verdict - Judge.me is a wonderful and affordable app that should satisfy budget conscious brands not looking to spend an arm and a leg for reviews. However, many brands looking for something a little more than the basics will want to look at other options in this list. See Judge.me's Shopify App Store listing.

Yotpo

Yotpo is one of the longest-running product review apps. While they offer an expanding suite of services, product reviews have long been their backbone and their pricing is dependent on the number of monthly orders you receive. There's a free plan available for up to 50 orders a month.

Yotpo displays star ratings, along with options for customers to include photos and videos. Their reviews are embedded into product pages, and Google rich snippets come with the paid plans. Final Verdict - Yotpo is a good fit for brands that want to incentivize their customers to leave reviews, since review coupons come with the paid plans. Yotpo is a well-established Shopify review app. They offer a multitude of different options that are geared toward brands that want more than just a simple product review.

Okendo

Okendo is a product review solution that is geared toward growing and enterprise brands. Not only can you automate reviews with Okendo, you can also reward customers for posting their product review. Pricing starts with a free plan for up to 50 orders a month, then runs from $19 to $299 a month by order volume (Shopify App Store, October 2026). Okendo prides itself on being flexible and offering a versatile API. Brands can place specific reviews strategically throughout the buyer's journey, and offer a question and answer section within their product reviews. Final Verdict - Okendo's versatility coupled with their built-in rewards feature makes them a great fit for brands that want to have something more than just starred reviews. Their sleek design and premium plans cost more as your order volume grows, however. If you're looking to collect user generated content for your brand, then Okendo checks all the boxes.

Stamped

Stamped is another easy to install product review app that automatically solicits feedback from customers after they've made a purchase. This straightforward app relies on star ratings and user generated content from customers. Pricing runs from $23 a month (up to 200 orders) to $399 a month by order volume, according to its Shopify App Store listing (October 2026). Its customer rewards sit in a separate loyalty plan. Final Verdict - If you're looking for a basic, easy to use review solution for your brand then it's worth giving Stamped a more in-depth look.

Reviews tell you how customers feel. A retail CRM shows your team what to do about it, from thanking happy customers to following up with unhappy ones. Book a demo to see how Endear works.