How to move your product reviews to a different Shopify app without losing them

What moves with your reviews and what does not

Moving reviews between Shopify apps is an export, a product match and an import, run in that order while the old widget stays live. Reviews are stored by the app, not by Shopify, so nothing transfers automatically when you uninstall. As of October 2026, every major reviews app accepts a CSV import, and some vendors will run the move for you, which is the difference between keeping your photos and losing them.

A standard review export is a CSV file. These fields usually survive the trip intact:

• Review text, star rating and review title
• Reviewer name and email address
• The original review date, which matters more than people expect
• A product identifier: handle, SKU, product ID or barcode
• The published or hidden state of each review

These are the parts that get lost when a migration is done casually:

• Photos and videos. Media files normally sit on the old app's servers and appear in the CSV as URLs. If nobody downloads and re-uploads them before you uninstall, the links die with the account.
• Verified buyer badges. A new app can only mark a review as verified if the import carries the order reference, or if the vendor's migration tool maps it.
• Merchant replies. Some exports put replies in their own column, some drop them.
• Review dates, when an importer stamps everything with the import date and makes a three-year-old review look like it was written this morning.
• Attributes and custom form answers, such as fit or skin type, which rarely map one to one between apps.

The order to run a migration in

The sequence below keeps the old reviews visible on your product pages until the new ones are confirmed in place, so there is never a day when the store shows zero reviews.

1. Export everything from the current app before you touch anything else. Take the full CSV, not a filtered view, and save a copy outside the app.
2. Download the media. Open the photo and video URL columns and pull the files down, or ask the new vendor to fetch them from the live URLs while the old account is still active.
3. Check the product key. Confirm the CSV identifies products by a field your store still uses. Handles change when products are renamed, so SKU or product ID is usually safer.
4. Import into the new app on a staging or unpublished theme first, then spot-check twenty products across your catalog: highest review count, lowest, and anything with variants.
5. Verify dates, ratings, replies and media on those products before you publish anything.
6. Add the new widgets to the theme, publish, and only then remove the old app's widget blocks.
7. Keep the old app installed for a few billing days after launch. Uninstalling is the step you cannot undo.

Where reviews get lost

Most failed migrations come down to four things, and all four are visible in the first spot check.

• Product matching. Reviews land on the wrong product, or on no product at all, when the identifier in the CSV does not match the catalog. Those orphaned rows sit in the new app unassigned and look like missing reviews.
• Duplicates. Running an import twice, or importing while the old app is still collecting, creates two copies of the same review and inflates the count.
• Dead media links. Photos that still point at the old app's CDN break the moment the old account closes. This is the single most common permanent loss, because review photos cannot be recreated.
• Two sets of structured data. If both apps output review schema at the same time, search engines see conflicting rating markup on the same page. Remove the old widget blocks from the theme rather than leaving them hidden.

If your current app does not expose a full export in the dashboard, ask support for one in writing before you start. A message like this is usually enough:

What each app's listing says about importing reviews

Every app below accepts existing reviews. What differs is whether imports sit on the free plan, whether the vendor does the work, and what you pay once you outgrow free.

From each app's Shopify App Store listing, checked October 16, 2026, and from Quoli's published plans.

"Listed" means importing appears on that app's Shopify App Store listing without a plan named.

Judgeme at $15 a month

Judgeme suits a store that wants imports handled on the free plan and sells on more than one marketplace. Its listing puts importing existing reviews on the free plan, including Etsy and Amazon reviews, which no other app in this set names. The Awesome plan at $15 a month adds Q&A, AI summaries and reply drafts, review snippets and a long integrations list. Full comparison: Judgeme vs Quoli.

Yotpo at $15 a month

Yotpo suits a store that already runs, or plans to add, Yotpo Loyalty, since reviews and loyalty then share one vendor. Its free plan covers up to 50 orders a month and the Starter plan is $15 a month, with prices that change as order volume grows, so plan the migration around the volume you will actually hit. Full comparison: Yotpo vs Quoli.

Okendo at $19 a month

Okendo suits a store consolidating reviews, loyalty, surveys, quizzes and referrals with one vendor, and it lists SMS review requests. The free plan covers up to 50 orders a month and the Essential plan is $19 a month with a 14-day trial. Questions and answers sit on its Growth plan. Full comparison: Okendo vs Quoli.

Stamped at $23 a month

Stamped suits a store that wants reviews and a loyalty program from the same vendor, with VIP tiers and points alongside reviews. Its listing shows a Reviews plan from $23 a month, no free plan, and a separate Loyalty plan at $299 a month, so a migration here starts as a paid commitment. Full comparison: Stamped vs Quoli.

Loox at $49.99 a month

Loox suits a photo-heavy store that wants referrals and AI sorting of photo reviews in one plan, plus reviews published as social posts and stories. Its free plan covers up to 500 orders and the Convert plan is $49.99 a month with a 14-day trial, where video reviews, AI highlights and Google syndication sit. Full comparison: Loox vs Quoli.

Quoli at $10 a month

Quoli is a Shopify product reviews app with a free forever plan covering up to 100 orders a month and paid plans from $10 a month with a 14-day trial. CSV import is on every plan, including Free. On any paid plan, the Quoli team runs a white-glove migration: reviews move with their photos and videos, and the widgets go live with the reviews already in place, so the product pages are never empty.

Where Quoli does not match the apps above: it does not offer SMS review requests or a referrals program, and it has no loyalty product, so a store consolidating reviews with points and tiers is better served by Okendo or Stamped. Judgeme is the better fit for Etsy and Amazon imports.

What comes with the move on Quoli: questions and answers on every plan, shopper filters and attributes on every plan, review analytics on every plan, and UGC ads built from published 4 and 5 star reviews on Growth and up. Plans and limits are on pricing, and every app comparison sits on compare.

Keeping star ratings in Google through the switch

Star ratings in search results come from review structured data on the product page, so they survive a migration as long as one app is always producing that markup. Three rules keep the stars in place.

• Import the reviews before you publish the new widgets, not after. A page that briefly shows zero reviews drops its rating markup.
• Preserve the original review dates in the import, so the ratings keep the history behind them.
• Run only one review app's schema per page. Remove the old theme blocks on launch day instead of hiding them with CSS.

Quoli outputs rich snippets on every plan, including Free, and the Google Shopping feed and Meta catalog ratings come with Growth and up. More on the feed side: Google Shopping star ratings from Shopify reviews.

The pre-uninstall checklist

Before you remove the old app, confirm all of the following. Each item is something you cannot recover afterward.

1. A full CSV export is saved outside both apps.
2. Every review photo and video is either downloaded or confirmed re-hosted by the new app.
3. Total review counts match between the old dashboard and the new one, product by product on your top sellers.
4. Average rating on the storefront matches the old average.
5. Original dates, merchant replies and verified badges are showing where they should.
6. The new widget is live on product, collection, cart and home pages, and the old blocks are gone from the theme.
7. Review request automations are switched on in the new app and switched off in the old one, so buyers do not get two emails.

If you want a second pair of eyes on an export before the import runs, contact the team. For a wider view of what to weigh when picking the destination app, read how to choose the best Shopify product reviews app.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my reviews if I uninstall my current reviews app?

Yes, in practice. Reviews live in the app, not in Shopify, so uninstalling ends access to the data and usually kills the photo and video URLs hosted by that app. Export the CSV and secure the media files before you uninstall anything.

Do review photos and videos transfer in a CSV import?

Only as links. A CSV carries media URLs that point at the old app's servers, so the files have to be downloaded and re-uploaded, or fetched by the new app while the old account is still live. On Quoli's paid plans, the team moves reviews with their photos and videos as part of the migration.

Can I keep verified buyer badges after moving apps?

The new app can mark reviews as verified only if the import carries an order reference it can match. Ask the destination vendor how they handle verified status before you run the import, and expect badges to be lost on any plain CSV that does not include order data.

How do I avoid duplicate reviews during a migration?

Import once, into a staging setup, and turn off review collection in the old app before the final import. If duplicates appear, remove them in the new app before the widgets go live rather than after shoppers see inflated counts.

Does Quoli charge for migration?

CSV import is available on every Quoli plan, including the free forever plan. White-glove migration by the Quoli team is included with every paid plan, which starts at $10 a month with a 14-day trial. Details are on pricing.

How long should I keep the old app installed after switching?

Keep it installed until you have verified counts, ratings, dates and media on the new app and the new widgets have been live on the storefront for a few days. The old app is your only rollback, so cancel it last.