HoldCart — Cart Reservation vs Shelfback
Two Shopify apps, side by side: detected stores, momentum, reviews, plans, listed features and who runs each. Store counts as of Oct 29, 2026 for HoldCart, Sep 10, 2026 for Shelfback.
The short answer
- Only HoldCart lists a free plan.
Head to head
Momentum
New reviews each month
Review pace is the clearest public read on how fast an app is winning new merchants.
Free
- · 15-minute hold timer
- · One-click disable & safe uninstall
- · Protect 3 products
- · Real inventory holds, fail-safe
- · Up to 100 reservations/month
Pro
- · Analytics dashboard
- · Checkout grace period
- · Custom hold timers, 2 to 60 min
- · Priority support
- · Unlimited reservations
Coverage counts what each App Store listing names. Every feature, checked off app by app, is in Shoplist.
See every featureShoppers add a one-of-a-kind item to their cart, race to checkout, and find it already sold. HoldCart places a genuine inventory hold the moment an item is added, so the unit is actually reserved while they check out, then auto-releases back to stock when the timer ends. It is not a fake countdown or manufactured urgency — it is a real hold with a real timer.
Sold-out products push shoppers away, and they are easy to miss. Shelfback watches your inventory and keeps out-of-stock products from cluttering your collections, so shoppers see what they can buy. It never drafts, hides, or deletes products, so your product pages and URLs stay intact.
- Real inventory holds — items are genuinely reserved at add-to-cart, not faked
- Fail-safe by design — if the app fails, your checkout keeps working
- Honest countdown — shoppers see a real timer backed by a real hold
- Automatic release — holds expire and return to stock on their own
- Automatically move out-of-stock products to the bottom of your collections
- Email alerts when a product sells out, plus an optional daily summary
- See which top-sellers are low or out of stock, ranked by restock priority
- Exclude any product, tag, vendor, or product type so it is never moved
All the numbers
Every figure, side by side
A green dot marks the app ahead on a measured figure. Estimates, gaps and apps that leave no storefront trace never take the lead.
Adoption
| Measure |  HoldCart |  Shelfback |
|---|---|---|
| Detected stores | Not published | Not published |
| Net store change, 28 days | 0 | 0 |
| Stores added, 28 days | Not enough data | Not enough data |
| Big-brand share | Not enough data | Not enough data |
| Top store categories | Not published | Not published |
| Top store countries | Not published | Not published |
Reviews
| Measure | HoldCart | Shelfback |
|---|---|---|
| App Store rating | 5.0 ★ | Not published |
| App Store reviews | 3 | Not published |
| New reviews, 28 days | Not enough data | Not enough data |
| Reviewers a year or more in | Not enough data | Not enough data |
FAQ
HoldCart and Shelfback: common questions
- Is HoldCart or Shelfback cheaper?
- Only HoldCart lists a free plan. Shoplist compares base prices only between monthly plans in the same currency; usage charges and annual plans vary, so check each plan’s limits.
- Where does this comparison’s data come from?
- Shoplist crawls Shopify storefronts to detect which apps each store runs, and reads each app’s Shopify App Store listing for reviews, pricing, features and integrations. Store counts are as of Oct 29, 2026 for HoldCart, Sep 10, 2026 for Shelfback; estimated figures are labeled.
How Shoplist compares apps
Store counts come from Shoplist’s crawl of Shopify storefronts, which detects the apps each store runs; they are as of Oct 29, 2026 for HoldCart, Sep 10, 2026 for Shelfback. Reviews, ratings, plans, features and integrations come from each app’s Shopify App Store listing. 28-day figures are labeled when estimated, and a figure that is missing or estimated never decides who leads. Read the methodology.