REVIEW APP TRIAL CHECKLIST (run during the free plan or trial, before you send a single review request)
Gather / trygather.ai  -  facts checked 2026-09-27; re-check the App Store listing on the day you install.

1. PRICE AT YOUR VOLUME
[ ] Write down your average orders per month for the last 3 months (or your forecast).
[ ] On the app's Shopify App Store listing, find the cheapest plan that covers that volume. Is the cap monthly or lifetime?
[ ] Work out the price at 3x your volume. That is roughly what you'll pay in a year if you grow.

2. EXIT BEFORE ENTRY
[ ] Submit 5 test reviews on a test product through the app's own review form (one with a photo, one with 2 stars), then export them to CSV. Don't use imported reviews for this test: they carry no verified status.
[ ] Open the CSV. Are rating, body, reviewer name, date, product handle/ID, photo URLs and a verified-buyer flag all present?
[ ] Note anything missing (videos and verified status are common gaps). That is what you lose if you switch later.

3. PUBLISHING RULES (FTC 16 CFR 465.7 - review suppression)
[ ] Find the auto-publish setting. Record the default.
[ ] If any rating threshold is set (Okendo documents a 4-star default), change it to publish all ratings. If you moderate, hide a review only for a reason the rule lists (personal information, abusive or vulgar content, clearly false or misleading, reasonably believed fake, wholly unrelated to the product), apply it to every rating, and log why.
[ ] Check how a pending low-star review is handled and when it publishes automatically.

4. REQUEST EMAILS
[ ] When does the first request go out (days after fulfilment or after delivery)? Can you change it per product?
[ ] How many reminders, and can you turn them off?
[ ] If the app offers a discount for a review, it must be for any honest review, never only positive ones, and the review must disclose the incentive.

5. SHOP APP
[ ] If you use the Shop channel, confirm the app is one of Shopify's Shop product review sync partners.
[ ] Remember: reviews imported from CSV do not appear in Shop.

6. STOREFRONT WEIGHT
[ ] Run PageSpeed Insights (mobile) on one product page three times before install; note the median.
[ ] Install, add the review block, run it three more times; compare.
[ ] If the median drops by more than 5 points, remove optional widgets (carousels, popups, collection badges) and test again.
[ ] In Chrome DevTools > Network, filter by the app's domain and note the transferred JS size.

7. STARS AND STRUCTURED DATA
[ ] Does the app write Shopify's standard reviews.rating / reviews.rating_count metafields (so theme product cards can show stars)?
[ ] Run Google's Rich Results Test on a product page with reviews: one Product item with one aggregateRating. If the theme and the app both output a rating, turn one off.
[ ] Keep imported reviews out of that rating (Google: "Don't aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites").

8. IMPORTED REVIEWS (if you use any)
[ ] Each imported review is labelled with its source on the storefront.
[ ] Text and rating unedited; translations marked.
[ ] Imported ratings kept out of your product structured data.
[ ] Source marketplace terms checked.

Not legal advice. Sources and links: trygather.ai/blog/shopify-review-apps-compared