What happened to Shopify's Product Reviews app
For years, many stores used Product Reviews, the free app built by Shopify. Today its Shopify App Store listing states that the app is not available, and the Shopify Help Center no longer presents it as an option for new stores.
If your store still has reviews in that app or another old one, the usual step is to export them and import them into the new one. Most current review apps have importers from CSV and from other apps. Check that the date, rating, associated product and, if it existed, the verified purchase badge are kept.
How to choose a reviews app
The Shopify App Store has many review apps (Judge.me, Yotpo, Okendo, Loox and others) with very different plans. More than the brand, what matters is that it covers what you need and does not weigh the store down. Before installing, check these points:
- It integrates as a theme app block (Online Store 2.0), not by injecting code
- It fills in the standard product rating metafields
- It generates valid structured data for stars in Google
- It supports photo reviews and flags verified purchases
- It can be translated if you sell in several languages
- It exports reviews in case you switch apps one day
Rating metafields and why they matter
Shopify has two standard metafield definitions for reviews: reviews.rating, which stores the average rating of the product or variant, and reviews.rating_count, which stores the total number of ratings. Well-built review apps fill them in automatically.
Having them in standard metafields has practical advantages: the theme can show stars on product cards without loading the app's script on every collection, you can sort or filter by rating and other channels can read the data. If the app only renders stars with JavaScript, every collection page loads more code than it needs.
Where to show reviews
On the product page, the average rating with the number of reviews should be visible near the title and link to the reviews block, which usually goes after the description. On collection product cards, small stars with the count help shoppers compare. On the homepage, a selection of real reviews works as a trust block.
Photo reviews are especially useful in fashion, home decor or beauty, because they show the product outside the studio. If the app allows it, show the most helpful reviews or those with photos first, not just the most recent.
Shopify also lets customers rate products from the Shop app, and some compatible third-party apps can send their reviews there. If you sell through Shop, check whether your app supports it.
How to get more reviews
The most effective way is to ask by email a few days after delivery, once the customer has used the product. Almost every review app automates this, and the send timing should match how long your product takes to arrive and be tried.
Make leaving a review easy: one click from the email, a direct star rating and photos as an option. You can offer a small incentive for leaving a review, as long as it does not depend on the review being positive. Asking only happy customers or filtering out bad reviews ends up hurting credibility.
Negative reviews and transparency
A product page with nothing but five stars raises suspicion. Negative reviews, answered politely and with a solution, build more trust than their absence. They also give you valuable information about sizing, quality or shipping that you should carry over into the description.
European consumer law requires you to disclose whether reviews come from real buyers and how you verify it, and it prohibits publishing fake reviews. For details on how this affects you, consult a legal advisor; from a technical point of view, choose an app that flags verified purchases and lets you show an explanatory note.
Review stars in Google
For Google to show stars in search results, the product page has to include product structured data with the aggregate rating, and it must match what is visible on the page. Many apps generate it, but they sometimes duplicate the markup the theme already includes and Google receives two different products on the same page.
Check the product page with Google's Rich Results Test after installing the app. Keep in mind that even with correct markup, Google decides when to show the stars.
If you sell on Google Shopping, product ratings are managed separately in Google Merchant Center, which has its own requirements for receiving reviews. Several review apps send reviews to Google through a feed, but check the app's documentation to confirm whether they do and under what conditions before counting on it.
And when you switch apps, make sure the old markup is gone. An uninstalled app often leaves code fragments in the theme that keep generating empty or duplicate structured data. Online Store 2.0 app blocks are removed cleanly on uninstall; code pasted by hand into the theme is not.
Frequently asked questions
Does Shopify have its own free reviews app?
Shopify's old Product Reviews app is no longer available in the App Store. Today reviews are handled with third-party apps, several of them with free plans.
Can I migrate my reviews to another app?
Usually yes. Most review apps import from CSV and from other apps. Check that the date, rating, product and verified purchase badge are kept.
Do reviews slow down the store?
They can, if the app loads its script on every page. The best approach is to use app blocks and show collection stars from the rating metafields.
Can I delete negative reviews?
Technically apps allow moderation, but hiding legitimate negative reviews hurts credibility and may conflict with consumer law. Consult a legal advisor if in doubt.