{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "essential-free-shipping-bar",
 "name": "Essential Free Shipping Bar",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "essential-apps.com",
 "category": "E-commerce",
 "task": "E-commerce growth",
 "summary": "Shopify free-shipping progress bar for the top bar, product pages and cart, with cart goals, upsell products, geo-targeting and product exclusions; the free-shipping rate itself is set in Shopify.",
 "best_for": "Shopify stores that already offer free shipping above a threshold and want a no-code progress bar on the top bar or product pages, and that will pay $14.99 once they want it in the cart with upsell products next to it",
 "skip_if": "you want the progress bar in the cart without paying, because cart-page boosters start at $14.99 a month; you expect the app to create the free-shipping offer itself, since the rate has to be set in Shopify for each market; or your cart drawer app already has a reward or shipping bar built in",
 "honest_knock": "The cart page, where a free-shipping progress bar does most of its work, is not on the free plan and not on Starter either. Cart-page boosters start on Essential at $14.99 a month; Free and Starter cover the top bar and product pages. One merchant uninstalled within an hour over exactly that in February 2026, calling it the obvious place for the bar; the vendor replied that the limits are on the listing, which is true. Upsell products inside the bar and the revenue analytics the listing advertises are on the same $14.99 tier.\n\nThe app shows the goal; it does not give the free shipping. The help centre says the app does not touch your store settings, so you set the free-shipping rate yourself in Shopify's shipping settings, as a conditional rate based on order price, and you do it again for every market. If the threshold in the bar and the threshold in Shopify drift apart, the bar promises something checkout does not deliver. Currencies work the same way: a currency missing from the dropdown needs its own Shopify Market first.\n\nViews are counted on every load of every widget, and the free plan's 1,000 a month is small for a bar that sits on every product page. The help centre says Preview mode and the theme customiser are not counted; one merchant wrote in March 2026 that editing product pages in the customiser used up views, so check the counter after a design session. Past the limit there is no charge, but three days after the warning email the banners are unpublished until the 1st.\n\nTwo older complaints are worth knowing. A merchant in Japan wrote that the bar did not update when a shopper switched variants and prices; the vendor answered that real-time variant updates are supported and offered to help. And a UK merchant wrote in 2023 that uninstalling left code behind in the theme. Check the theme after removal. We have not installed the app.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$9.99",
  "entry_price_terms": "Starter · per month for up to 10,000 booster views",
  "from_price_usd_month": 9.99,
  "plans": [
   {
    "name": "Free",
    "price": "no published price",
    "includes": "Up to 1,000 views a month, unlimited top-bar and product-page boosters"
   },
   {
    "name": "Starter",
    "price": "$9.99 a month",
    "includes": "Up to 10,000 views, geolocation targeting, exclude products from goal"
   },
   {
    "name": "Essential",
    "price": "$14.99 a month",
    "includes": "Up to 50,000 views, cart-page boosters, upsell products, analytics"
   },
   {
    "name": "Professional",
    "price": "$29.99 a month",
    "includes": "Unlimited views, every premium feature"
   }
  ],
  "plans_source": "summarised from pricing.notes; every plan name and amount appears verbatim in those notes",
  "notes": "(read 2026-09-29 on apps.shopify.com/essential-order-value-booster, on essential-apps.com/free-shipping-bar and in the vendor's help articles on views and on setup) Four plans priced on monthly booster views. Free covers up to 1,000 views a month with unlimited top-bar and product-page boosters. Starter is $9.99 a month for up to 10,000 views and adds geolocation targeting and excluding products from the goal. Essential is $14.99 a month for up to 50,000 views and adds cart-page boosters, upsell products inside the bar and analytics. Professional is $29.99 a month for unlimited views and every premium feature. Paid plans carry a 7-day free trial. The listing shows monthly prices only; the help centre says a yearly billing cycle can be chosen inside the app, and we found no published yearly price. A view is counted each time the widget loads, not per visitor; the help centre says Preview mode and the theme customiser are not counted. There is no overage charge: past the limit you get an email, and if you do not upgrade within 3 days the banners are unpublished until views reset on the 1st. All charges are in USD, billed through Shopify every 30 days. Developer Essential Apps, with an address in Vilnius, Lithuania; the listing gives a launch date of 3 June 2022 and shows 964 reviews.",
  "verified_at": "2026-09-29",
  "source_url": "https://apps.shopify.com/essential-order-value-booster",
  "schema_offer": {
   "price": 9.99,
   "currency": "USD",
   "description": "Starter, per month for up to 10,000 booster views; free plan up to 1,000 views on top bar and product page only; Essential is $14.99 for 50,000 views and the cart page, Professional $29.99 for unlimited views; billed through Shopify every 30 days. Read on the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-29.",
   "page": "https://marketingandsalessoftware.com/essential-free-shipping-bar-review.html"
  },
  "source_quotes": null,
  "recent_change": null,
  "price_history": null
 },
 "free_plan": true,
 "free_plan_evidence": "Free covers up to 1,000 views a month with unlimited top-bar and product-page boosters.",
 "cost_traps": [],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "Kite",
  "why": "Kite is the closest app in our own dossiers with a progress bar, and the difference is what sits behind the bar. On our reading of 17 September 2026 Kite applied the reward itself - free gifts, buy X get Y and tiered discounts on native Shopify Functions - with progress bars from its $29 Starter plan and a free plan capped at 50 discount orders a month. Essential Free Shipping Bar only shows the goal: it starts free at 1,000 views and charges $9.99, $14.99 or $29.99 for more views, and the free shipping itself is a rate you set in Shopify. A store that wants one message - spend this much for free shipping - fits Essential at a fraction of the price; a store that wants the bar to offer gifts and discounts it cannot configure in Shopify's shipping settings fits Kite."
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/essential-free-shipping-bar.json",
  "review": "https://marketingandsalessoftware.com/essential-free-shipping-bar-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/essential-free-shipping-bar/",
  "vendor_site": "https://essential-apps.com"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://platform.shoffi.app/r/rl_OMLSVeCd",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "Being verified: free trial and refund terms are not yet matched to a verbatim line on the vendor's own pages. Not matched does not mean there is none.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "verification": {
  "price": "read",
  "free_trial": "being_verified",
  "refund": "being_verified"
 },
 "status_page": null,
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "essential-free-shipping-bar:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "essential-free-shipping-bar:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "essential-free-shipping-bar:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "essential-free-shipping-bar:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}