AutoCart vs GP Auto Add to Cart FREE Gifts: which free gift app fits your Shopify store?

Gift with purchase is one of the oldest promotions in retail, and on Shopify it usually needs an app because native automatic discounts cannot drop a product into the cart on their own. The big names in this niche have hundreds or thousands of reviews. This page looks at two smaller apps that most comparison articles skip: AutoCart: Gift With Purchase by Nextools and GP Auto Add to Cart FREE Gifts (also called GiftPro) by Productive Passengers. Both are young, both carry the Built for Shopify badge, and they take noticeably different routes to the same goal.

Everything below was checked on October 23, 2026 against each app's App Store listing, review pages, website and documentation. Where a feature is not listed, we say so rather than guess.

Who makes these apps

AutoCart by Nextools

AutoCart launched on the Shopify App Store on July 19, 2024. Its developer, Nextools, is based in Rome, Italy, and publishes twelve apps, most of them built around Shopify checkout logic: HidePay (hide payment methods), HideShip (hide shipping methods), SupaEasy (a Shopify Functions generator), Multiscount (tiered discounts), Cart Block and others. That background shows in AutoCart. The app talks about rules, conditions, priorities and checkout automations more than about pop-up design.

The listing describes AutoCart as a way to add free, discounted or companion products to the cart based on custom conditions, and to remove them automatically if the conditions change or a deadline passes. At the time of checking it had 25 reviews and a 4.9 rating.

GP Auto Add to Cart FREE Gifts by Productive Passengers

GP Auto Add to Cart FREE Gifts launched on January 20, 2026, so it is roughly eighteen months younger than AutoCart, yet it already shows about 50 reviews with a rating between 4.8 and 4.9 depending on the page you look at. The developer address on the listing is in Pune, India. Productive Passengers has two other apps: LockPro (password protection and B2B access control) and Wholesale Pro (B2B pricing).

GP positions itself as a gift with purchase and BOGO tool with tiered gifts, customer targeting and channel coverage that goes beyond the online store, including Shopify POS.

The core job: adding the gift

Both apps do the basic thing well according to their reviewers: when a cart matches a rule, the gift lands in the cart without the shopper typing a code. Both support BOGO and Buy X Get Y. Both let the shopper choose between several gifts instead of forcing one. AutoCart calls this the gift picker and gives it a drag and drop editor with grid or slider layouts and control over logo, fonts and colors. GP calls it the customer gift choice popup and includes it on its free plan.

The difference is in what can be added. AutoCart handles three kinds of extra product: a free gift, a discounted product (fixed amount or percentage off) and a companion product. That makes it usable for offers like "add the matching case at 30% off" rather than only "get this free". GP's listing is centred on free gifts and add-ons and does not mention a discounted gift option, so if that matters, confirm it with their support before committing.

AutoCart also explicitly lists automatic removal of the gift when the cart no longer qualifies. GP's listing does not describe what happens when a shopper removes the trigger product, which is worth testing during the trial.

Rules and triggers

Where AutoCart goes deeper

AutoCart's condition list is cart oriented and granular: cart total, discount total, currency code, line item price, item count and line item quantity. The help center adds a few less common triggers:

• a gift unlocked by a promo code
• a gift based on the payment method chosen
• rules that ignore specific Shopify discounts when calculating cart value
• rule priority, so you decide which automation wins when several apply

It also offers two reward patterns that GP does not list. Progressive rewards unlock different gifts at higher thresholds (Advanced plan and up). Cyclic rewards repeat the gift each time the threshold is reached again, which suits stores selling consumables. A feature called Automatic Cart Bot can offer a discount on smaller orders and switch to a free gift on bigger ones.

Where GP goes wider

GP's triggers lean toward the customer rather than the cart. From the Basic plan you can target by customer tag, reward a first order, offer free shipping as the gift, and schedule start and end dates. The Advanced plan adds discount code triggered gifts, private gift links for VIP customers, Shopify Markets country targeting and stacking of item and order level discounts. Rules can be built on products, variants, collections and cart totals.

If your promotions depend on who the customer is (wholesale tag, loyalty tier, first purchase, country), GP's list fits more naturally. If they depend on what is in the cart and how it is paid for, AutoCart offers more levers.

Checkout, POS and other channels

This is where the two apps split most clearly.

AutoCart has a modal gift picker inside checkout and checkout automations on its Ultimate plan. These checkout features are for Shopify Plus stores only, as stated on the AutoCart website. Its help center also flags two limits worth knowing: rules can behave inconsistently with Shop Pay until a checkout block is enabled, and automations do not run on draft order checkouts.

GP does not list an in-checkout picker, but its Advanced plan supports Shopify POS and the Buy now button, and its Works with section also names subscription apps, automatic discounts and discount codes. For a brand that runs a physical shop or market stalls next to its website, that POS support is a real advantage, since AutoCart does not mention POS at all.

Pricing compared

The pricing logic is opposite.

AutoCart has no free plan for live stores. Its free tier covers development stores and Shopify Plus sandbox stores only. Paid plans are cheap, though: Premium at $5.99/month already includes unlimited automation rules, Advanced at $8.99/month adds automatic gift discounts and progressive gifts, and Ultimate at $12.99/month adds checkout automations. Yearly billing saves 20% ($57.50, $86.30 and $124.70 per year).

GP starts free on a live store, with one always-on campaign until the app has generated $500 of revenue in a month. Basic at $12.99/month lifts that cap and allows five active campaigns. Advanced at $29.99/month unlocks discount code gifts, Markets, POS and priority support including video calls.

In short, GP is cheaper to try and AutoCart is cheaper to run. A store that grows past GP's free tier pays $12.99 for Basic, which is exactly the price of AutoCart's top plan. Both apps offer a 7-day free trial on paid plans and both bill in US dollars every 30 days.

Support, documentation and reviews

Reviews on both apps praise support speed above everything else. AutoCart reviewers regularly name individual support staff and mention same-day video calls and help with custom setups. GP reviewers mention quick fixes when a promotion did not show and customisation done within a day.

Documentation is a clear point for AutoCart. Nextools runs a help center with installation guides, an FAQ and a dedicated YouTube playlist covering gift modals, tiered gifts, cyclic rewards and promo code gifts. We could not find any public documentation for GP; the privacy policy link on its listing points to the help domain of LockPro, the developer's other app, and that help center only covers LockPro.

On the other hand, GP's admin is available in five languages (German, English, Spanish, Japanese and Hebrew), while AutoCart lists English only.

One feature request stands out on GP's reviews: a merchant asked for an option to give only the highest-value gift when several tiers are reached. Another reviewer had to add some custom code to get the exact result they wanted. On AutoCart, a reviewer also mentioned code tweaks for a complex setup. Neither app has a pattern of negative reviews; each shows only one or two low ratings.

Three stores, three answers

A new skincare store testing its first promotion

A store on the Basic Shopify plan doing a few dozen orders a month wants to add a free sample above $50. GP is the obvious start: the free plan covers one campaign on a live store and the $500 monthly revenue cap is unlikely to be hit at that stage. If the promotion works and the store wants several campaigns, it can move to Basic or compare against AutoCart Premium at $5.99.

A Shopify Plus beauty brand running seasonal gift tiers

A larger brand wants three gift tiers during the holidays, lets customers choose their gift in checkout, and gives a mini product for every $100 spent. AutoCart Ultimate at $12.99/month covers progressive and cyclic rewards plus the checkout gift picker, and its help center documents each setup step. GP would need the Advanced plan and still would not list the in-checkout picker or cyclic rewards.

A coffee roaster with a shop, wholesale clients and international buyers

This business sells online in several countries, through Shopify POS at its roastery, and to cafés tagged as wholesale. It wants a free mug for first orders online, a different gift for UK buyers, and the same promotion at the counter. GP Advanced at $29.99/month is the fit: customer tags, first order rewards, Markets targeting and POS support are all listed. AutoCart would cover the online part but not the counter.

Switching from one to the other

Neither app imports rules from the other, so migration means rebuilding campaigns by hand. A safe sequence:

1. List every active rule in the current app: trigger, threshold, gift product, dates and any exclusions.
2. Install the new app and use its trial (7 days on either side) to recreate the rules while the old app is still running on a duplicate or paused campaign.
3. Disable the old campaigns before enabling the new ones, so two apps never add a gift to the same cart.
4. Test on mobile and desktop with your cart drawer, the full cart page and Shop Pay, since AutoCart's docs mention a specific setting for Shop Pay.
5. Uninstall the old app and check that no leftover gift products or automatic discounts remain in your Shopify admin.

Moving from GP to AutoCart usually happens when a store wants discounted add-ons, cyclic rewards or checkout features on Plus. Moving from AutoCart to GP usually happens when POS, customer tags or country targeting become necessary.

Further reading

If you are still deciding how to structure the offer itself, our guide on setting up gift with purchase on Shopify covers the three main methods. For a comparison of two of the most installed gift apps, see EasyGift vs CartBot. And if your threshold is meant to lift basket size, the article on free shipping bars and AOV explains how to pick a threshold that customers actually reach.