How we rank

Where the data comes from

Every rating, count, pricing label and — where the marketplace publishes one — vendor name in this index comes from a public marketplace listing. Nothing is estimated and nothing is supplied by a vendor.

• Shopify figures come from App Store listings, which publish a star rating and a review count.
• WooCommerce figures come from the WordPress.org plugin API, which publishes a rating, a review count, the number of active installs, and the date of the last release.
• BigCommerce figures come from App Marketplace listings, which publish a star rating, a review count and a pricing type — but no vendor name, which is why BigCommerce cards name the app and stop there.

Where a platform gives us a better signal, we rank on it. Active installs say more than a review count — a plugin running on 300,000 sites has met more themes and more edge cases than any number of ratings conveys. And a plugin that has not shipped in two years is a liability whatever its score, which is why the last-updated date appears on WooCommerce entries.

The numbers are only comparable inside a marketplace, never across them. BigCommerce's whole catalogue is a fraction of Shopify's, so its leading apps carry review counts that would place them mid-table on Shopify. We never rank apps from different platforms against each other, and neither should you.

The whole index was last checked on 2026-08-23. That date appears on every page that shows numbers, because App Store ratings move constantly — an app gaining a thousand reviews in a quarter is normal. Always click through to the live listing before you install. We link to every one of them.

What we judge, and how

Ratings and review counts are facts. Everything else — the ranking order, the "best for" line, the pros and the trade-offs — is editorial judgement, and here is the basis for it.

Review weight over raw rating. A 5.0 from 40 merchants tells you much less than a 4.9 from 9,000. On Shopify, where nearly everything sits between 4.7 and 5.0, rating alone is close to meaningless and the size of the evidence base does all the work. On the smaller marketplaces the spread is wider and the average is worth reading — but the counts are smaller too, so we say on the page how much evidence is actually behind a number.

An honest empty space beats a padded list. Some categories on the smaller marketplaces have one app worth ranking, not five. Where that happens we publish the one and say why, rather than filling the page with listings that have four reviews between them.

Scope honesty. An app doing one job well is ranked on that job. A suite covering eight jobs is judged on whether the consolidation is worth the depth you give up — not credited for feature count.

Pricing model, not just price. "Free to install" usually means usage-based billing that scales with your orders. We say so every time, because it is the single most common unpleasant surprise in this category.

Install model. Apps built as theme app extensions install and uninstall cleanly. Apps that inject script tags or edit your theme files leave residue behind. Where we know the difference, it counts.

Page weight. Third-party JavaScript is the leading cause of poor Core Web Vitals on Shopify. An app that is heavy for what it does is marked down, and consolidation that genuinely reduces requests is marked up.

What the picks mean

A Top pick is the app we would install first in that category without more information about the store. The other labels — Best free, Best value, Best at scale, Best all-in-one and so on — mark apps that win on a specific axis rather than overall. An app with no label is a legitimate option that did not win a category; it is not a warning.

What we do not do

No affiliate links. Every link out of this site — to the Shopify App Store, the WordPress.org directory or the BigCommerce App Marketplace — is a plain link. We earn nothing if you install anything.

No sponsored placements. No vendor can pay to appear here, to rank higher, or to have a trade-off removed. Nobody has been offered the option.

No vendor-supplied copy. We do not publish press releases, and we do not send drafts to vendors for approval before publishing.

Our own apps

We intend to publish our own widget apps. When we do, they will live on the Our widgets page only — never ranked inside a category against apps we also review. That separation is the whole basis on which this index is worth reading.

Corrections

If a number here is wrong or out of date, or an assessment is unfair, tell us at hello@bestwidgetapps.com and we will fix it and note the change. Facts are correctable by definition; opinions we will defend or revise on the argument.