Best Recently Viewed Products Apps for Shopify in 2026

A shopper lands on one of your product pages, compares it against two or three others, and then gets pulled away by a phone call or a notification. Ten minutes later they are back on your store, but they cannot remember which items they liked, so they either click through collections again or give up and leave. This is the exact browsing pattern that a recently viewed products app for Shopify is built to solve: instead of making the shopper re-search your catalogue, it quietly tracks what they already looked at and puts those items back in front of them.

Quick Insight 

A good recently viewed products app for Shopify should install without touching your theme code, match your store’s design, load fast on mobile, and let you choose where the section appears, whether that is your home, collection, product, or cart page. Pricing across most apps in this category sits between free and roughly ten dollars a month, and nearly every serious option offers a free trial worth testing before you commit.

What Is a Recently Viewed Products App?

A recently viewed products app tracks the items a shopper opens during their session and displays them back in a carousel, grid, or drawer. It is a storefront merchandising tool, not a discount tool. Instead of guessing what a customer wants, it shows them exactly what they already showed interest in, which keeps the shopper journey moving forward.

What Should Shopify Merchants Compare Before Installing One?

Before adding any app to your storefront, look past the marketing copy and check these factors directly.

Theme compatibility. Does it drop into your Shopify theme through app embeds and sections, or does it require custom code?

Mobile responsiveness. Since most product-page browsing happens on a phone, the slider or drawer needs to resize cleanly without cutting off images or buttons.

Placement options. Can you choose home, collection, product, and cart page placement, or is it locked to one spot?

Customisation. Colours, fonts, product count, and titles should be editable without a developer.

Performance. A recently viewed section should not add noticeable load time, because a slow page defeats the purpose of reducing friction.

Pricing and trial length. Confirm whether there is a genuinely free plan, or just a free trial before charges begin, and whether that free plan is restricted to development or test stores.

Reviews and support. A handful of detailed reviews, and how many total reviews an app has, tells you more than a star rating alone.

Best Recently Viewed Products Apps for Shopify in 2026

Product-page browsing friction is a real, measurable cost. Baymard Institute’s ongoing usability benchmarking has found that sites with mediocre product-finding tools see shoppers abandon their search 67 to 90 percent of the time, while sites with even modestly optimised tools cut that down to 17 to 33 percent for the same tasks. A recently viewed products section is one of the simplest ways to reduce that friction, because it removes the need to search at all.

Mobile browsing is also where most of this friction shows up. According to Salesforce’s Shopping Index, as of the second quarter of 2025 more than three-quarters of retail site visits worldwide came from smartphones, generating roughly two-thirds of online shopping orders. As a result, mobile responsiveness is a non-negotiable requirement for any recently viewed products app for Shopify, not a nice-to-have feature.

App	Best For	Key Feature	Customisation	Pricing/Trial
Qe Recently Viewed	Native, straightforward setup	Quick-add drawer with sale badges	Colours, product count, slider type	Free plan; $4.99/mo Premium; 7-day trial
MLV Recently Viewed Products	Every-page display by default	Auto-display on home, collection, product, cart	Position and page selection	$9.95/mo, no free plan; 15-day trial
EL Recently Viewed Products	Full theme-editor design control	Visual, theme-editor customisation	Appearance, currency localisation	Free (dev stores); $4.99/mo or $99 lifetime; 14-day trial
JustViewed – Recently Products	Tiered pricing, translation support	Homepage display, multi-language	Colours, button text, slider toggle	Free (test stores); $3.99–$5.99/mo; 7-day trial
Oc Recently Viewed Product	Very small stores testing the concept	Simple widget, label translation	Min/max products per device	Free plan; $1.99/mo Pro; 5-day trial
Ultimate Recently Viewed	Lightweight, auto theme-matching	Auto-matches theme colours/settings	Responsive, multi-currency	Free (dev/partner only); $4.99/mo; 5-day trial

Check the current Shopify App Store listing for the latest pricing and review counts, since these details change over time.

1. Qe Recently Viewed

Qe Recently Viewed holds Shopify’s Built for Shopify badge and displays a recently viewed carousel across home, product, collection, and cart pages. Setup happens through theme app embeds, so no code is required, and the drawer includes a quick add-to-cart with variant selection and promotional badges. It carries a 4.9 rating and includes a free plan alongside a $4.99 monthly Premium tier with a 7-day trial. Full pricing and reviews sit on its Shopify App Store listing. It suits merchants who want a native setup without a separate translation-tier pricing structure, though it does not auto-display on every page by default the way some competitors do.

2. MLV Recently Viewed Products

Rated 5.0 from 10 reviews, this app displays recently viewed items automatically across every major page type, with control over placement. It suits stores that want the section to appear everywhere by default. There is no free tier, however; it runs at a flat $9.95 a month, offset by a 15-day trial.

3. EL Recently Viewed Products

Rated 5.0 from 7 reviews and carrying the Built for Shopify badge, this app is fully customisable inside the theme editor with no coding required, and it adapts automatically to your store’s currency. Pricing spans a free development tier to $4.99 a month, plus an uncommon $99 lifetime option, backed by a 14-day trial.

4. JustViewed – Recently Products

Rated 4.6 from 37 reviews, the largest review count in this comparison. It adds a recently viewed section to both the homepage and product pages, with multi-language support and an editable add-to-cart button. Its free plan is limited to test stores; live stores pay $3.99 to $5.99 a month after a 7-day trial.

5. Oc Recently Viewed Product

Rated 4.9, though from only 2 reviews, so treat that rating as thin evidence. It offers a genuinely free plan alongside a $1.99 monthly Pro tier, with control over minimum and maximum products shown per device. One review describes a billing dispute over trial timing, worth checking on the listing first.

6. Ultimate Recently Viewed

Rated 4.4 from 12 reviews. Built to auto-match your theme’s existing colours and settings, it also supports multi-currency and multi-language stores. Its free tier is limited to development and partner stores; live stores pay $4.99 a month after a 5-day trial.

How to Choose the Right Recently Viewed App for Your Shopify Store

Match the app to your catalogue size and browsing patterns, not just the star rating. For instance, a fashion store with heavy mobile browsing should prioritise mobile responsiveness and quick-add functionality, while a smaller catalogue might not need every-page placement at all. Always run the free trial on a real product page first, and confirm whether the free plan actually applies to a live store or only to test stores. Each of the six apps above suits a slightly different priority, from every-page auto-display to full theme-editor control, so the “best” one depends on what your store already needs rather than any single feature list.

Final Takeaway

If your store sees shoppers moving between several product pages before deciding, a recently viewed products section is worth testing rather than assuming. Compare theme fit, mobile display, and pricing across a couple of options, and use the free trials before settling on one. Each app listed here, including Qe Recently Viewed, can be reviewed on the Shopify App Store alongside its current pricing and reviews. If you are also considering related storefront tools, QeApps’ full app catalogue includes product comparison and frequently bought together options as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1 What is a recently viewed products app on Shopify? 

It tracks which products a shopper has opened and displays those items back to them, so they can return to a product without searching again.

Q.2 Do recently viewed products increase conversions? 

They can reduce the friction of re-finding a product, a common reason shoppers abandon a browsing session. However, the actual effect depends on your catalogue, so testing on your own store confirms the impact.

Q.3 Can I add recently viewed products to Shopify without coding? 

Yes. Every app in this comparison installs through theme app embeds, sections, or a visual editor, so no developer is required.

Q.4 Are recently viewed products the same as product recommendations? 

No. Recently viewed shows items the shopper already looked at, while recommendations suggest items based on algorithms. Some apps display both together.

Q.5 Do all these apps have a genuinely free plan? 

Not quite. Oc Recently Viewed Product and Qe Recently Viewed offer free plans usable on a live store. The others restrict free access to development or test stores, and MLV has no free tier at all.