Shopify Won't Schedule a Christmas Gift Card Until September 26 — and the Apps That Fix It Meter You Five Different Ways

What you will learn

The short version What Shopify's native gift cards actually do Where native runs out The cost line nobody quotes The expiry setting that sits exactly on the legal floor Six apps, five meters

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If you sell gift cards, holiday season starts in about six weeks. A customer who wants a card to land in someone's inbox on Christmas morning is going to try to set that up in advance — and until September 26, 2026, Shopify will refuse. Not because of a bug, and not because of your theme. Shopify's gift card recipient form only accepts a send date up to 90 days in the future, and December 25 is exactly 90 days from September 26.

That single constraint is a useful way into a category most feature-led comparisons skip past. They start from app features. The more useful question is the reverse: Shopify already ships a real gift card system on every plan, so what specifically does it refuse to do, what does redeeming a gift card now cost you, and when an app does close the gap — what is it actually charging you for? Because the six apps below bill on five completely different units, and at the same gift card volume the monthly price ranges from $16.99 to $149.99.

The short version

Gift cards are available on all Shopify plans, and the native recipient form covers email, name, message, and a scheduled send date — but only on Online Store 2.0 themes from v9.0.0 onward, meaning Dawn and the Horizon family.
Hard native limits: 90 days maximum scheduling, 200 characters for the message, 255 characters for the recipient name, and the recipient form does not work with accelerated checkout buttons.
Customers cannot enter a custom amount on your storefront. Denominations are product variants, capped at $10,000 USD; cards you issue from the admin are capped at $2,000 USD.
On stores created on or after May 12, 2025, an order paid with a gift card is charged third-party transaction fees on the gift-card portion. Only Plus stores using Shopify Payments as their sole provider have this waived.
Shopify's optional expiry default is five years — the exact floor set by US federal law at 12 CFR 1005.20. You can shorten it in the admin. For covered cards, you generally shouldn't.
The apps meter on: total store orders, percentage of gift card value sold, a percentage plus a subscription, your Shopify plan tier, or a flat fee. Pick the wrong meter and you overpay by 5–9x at identical volume.

What Shopify's native gift cards actually do

Start here, because several of the features these apps advertise are already in the admin. Per the Shopify Help Center, gift cards are available on all Shopify subscription plans. You create a gift card product to sell on the storefront, and a gift card is generated when the order is fulfilled. You can also issue cards directly from the admin at no cost to the recipient — for promotions, service recovery, or refunds. Shopify Flow can issue one automatically from an order trigger, which Shopify explicitly names as the recommended way to run "spend $X, get a gift card" promotions.

Cards are redeemable on any channel that uses Shopify checkout — online store, Buy Button, Shopify POS, and the Shop app — and cards created in the admin and in POS are interchangeable. Turning on Apple Wallet Passes in Settings → Payments gives customers a way to check a balance and redeem in store, though Shopify notes some third-party and outdated themes are missing the supporting code.

The gifting experience is native too, with a catch. Adding recipient fields gives buyers Recipient email, Recipient name, Message, and a Send on date. Shopify says the feature was introduced in v9.0.0 of its free Online Store 2.0 themes and is available in Dawn and the Horizon family; it does not apply to vintage themes. Scheduled cards go out roughly between 4:00 am and 10:00 am in the purchasing customer's timezone.

Where native runs out

Shopify's own developer documentation for the recipient form lists the limits plainly: the recipient name can't exceed 255 characters, the message can't exceed 200 characters, and "you can only schedule a gift card to be sent up to 90 days in the future." The same page adds a constraint that costs real conversions: recipient form validation doesn't support accelerated checkout buttons, so the form should be used only with Add to Cart. Any customer who taps Shop Pay or Apple Pay on your gift card product page skips the gifting flow entirely.

Four more native boundaries matter:

No custom amounts. Denominations are saved as product variants, and Shopify states that "customers can't input a custom amount for a gift card from your online storefront." For an off-denomination value, the documented workaround is a draft order invoice, then issuing the card manually.

Two different value ceilings. A denomination sold as a product tops out at $10,000 USD and Shopify calls that a fixed maximum. A card created from the admin tops out at $2,000 USD — that one can be raised or lowered by Shopify Support, subject to review, which matters if you issue B2B or wholesale incentives.

Balances are read-only and deactivation is one-way. Shopify states balances can't be edited from the admin and change only through redemption, a refund, or the gift card API. Deactivating a card is permanent — it can't be reactivated, reloaded, or refunded onto. And gift cards can be reloaded during returns and exchanges only when the original transaction went through Shopify Payments.

No documented balance lookup page. Shopify's gift card documentation describes no customer-facing page where a shopper enters a code and sees a remaining balance. The only native routes it describes are Apple Wallet Passes and resending the card by email. It's a feature several of the apps below place behind a paid tier.

The cost line nobody quotes

Here's the change most gift card articles haven't caught up with. Shopify's third-party transaction fees page states that for stores created on or after May 12, 2025, an order that includes store credit or gift cards as a payment method is charged third-party transaction fees on the amount paid with that gift card. The rate is your plan's third-party rate, published on Shopify's pricing page.

A gift card is not a "free" payment method on a newer store. You paid processing when the card was sold; when the recipient redeems it, that redemption is billed again at your plan's third-party rate. Stores created before May 12, 2025 are exempt.

The Plus exemption is worth pinning down, because Shopify's two pages word it differently. The fees page says the waiver applies to Plus stores using Shopify Payments "as their sole payment provider," and adds that "if you use Shopify Payments alongside a third-party payment provider, then transaction fees apply." The gift cards overview page says only that it's waived on Plus "with Shopify Payments activated." If you're on Plus and also run a third-party gateway, treat the stricter wording as operative.

If you launched in the last sixteen months and gift cards are a meaningful share of revenue, this belongs in your gift card P&L before any app subscription does.

The expiry setting that sits exactly on the legal floor

Shopify's gift card settings default to never expiring, "because it's illegal in some countries for gift cards to expire." If you switch to Gift cards expire, Shopify defaults to five years — "however, you can change the length of the expiry date," alongside a caution to verify the rules for your country.

For a US merchant, that five-year default is not a neutral suggestion. Under 12 CFR 1005.20(e), a gift certificate or store gift card can't be sold or issued with an expiration date unless the underlying funds last at least five years from issuance or from the last load of funds — and the seller must have policies giving consumers a reasonable opportunity to buy a card with at least five years remaining. The rule also requires disclosures on the card itself, including the funds expiration date (or the fact that funds don't expire) and a toll-free number, and a website if one is maintained, for obtaining a replacement after the card expires.

Two practical consequences. First, Shopify's five-year default leaves you zero margin — shortening it puts covered cards outside the federal floor. Second, the disclosure obligation lands on your gift card notification templates, not on Shopify. Note that 1005.20(b) excludes several card types, including loyalty, award, or promotional gift cards carrying their own prescribed front-of-card disclosures, and cards not marketed to the general public — which is where a Flow-issued promotional card may land. This article is not legal advice, and state law can be stricter than the federal floor, so confirm any expiry term with counsel.

Six apps, five meters

Every figure below is from each app's Shopify App Store listing on September 6, 2026, in USD. Ratings and review counts move; re-check before you buy.

App	Meter	Entry price	What the meter counts	Built for Shopify	Rating
Rise Gift Cards & Store Credit	Total store orders	$19.99/mo	Every order your store takes, not just gift card orders	No	4.7 (756)
Gift Card Hero • All‑in‑one	Gift card value, capped	Free to install	2% of gift card value, min $9.99, max $49.99/mo	Yes	4.9 (172)
Vify: Professional Gift Cards	Your Shopify plan	Free plan	Which Shopify plan you're on — not usage	Yes	4.8 (123)
Gist \| Gift Card Pro Tools	Subscription + %	$9.99/mo + 2.5%	Gift card value sold, rate buys down by tier	Yes	4.5 (74)
Govalo \| Gift Card Suite	Subscription + %	Free to install + 2.9%	Gift card value, percentage applies on every tier	Yes	4.1 (25)
Selling Point	Flat	$49.99/mo	Nothing — unlimited migrations	Yes	5.0 (45)

Rise Gift Cards & Store Credit

The most-reviewed of the six apps here, from Rise.ai in Miami, listed since December 17, 2014. Plans are Starter at $19.99/month with 100 monthly store orders included and $0.20 per order above that; Small-Business at $59.99/month with 400 orders and $0.15 above; Pro at $199.99/month with 2,000 orders and $0.10 above. Each carries a 7-day free trial and an annual option saving 15–20%.

The meter is the thing to internalize: plans are denominated in total store orders, not gift card orders. A store doing 1,500 orders a month with fifteen gift card sales pays for 1,500 orders. Two features are gated by tier rather than volume — the Check Balance Page starts at Small-Business ($59.99), and Bulk Gift Card Creation starts at Pro ($199.99). Listed integrations include Shopify POS, Shopify Flow, Checkout, customer accounts, and Klaviyo. Ratings run 91% five-star and 3% one-star; among recent one-star reviews, two merchants describe redemption or dashboard-loading failures, with the developer replying publicly to both.

Gift Card Hero • All‑in‑one

From Syncube, listed since August 2021, with a Built for Shopify badge. The free-to-install plan charges 2% of total gift card value with a $9.99 monthly minimum and a $49.99 monthly maximum — the only capped percentage in this comparison. PRO is $19.99/month flat and adds POS tools, unused balance reminders, balance reload, and a developer API; a Shopify Plus plan is $39.99/month. Paid tiers carry a 7-day trial.

Its feature tags cover reloadable and physical cards, scheduled delivery, a balance page, and CSV bulk tools. Note the data access scope: it requests edit permissions on gift cards, Shopify Functions (cart transforms and payment customizations), the checkout page, theme, Markets settings, and translations — a wide surface for a gift card app, and worth reading before install.

Vify: Professional Gift Cards

From Vify.ai, listed since November 2022, Built for Shopify. It is the outlier here because it doesn't meter usage at all. There's a free plan, then Starter at $9.99/month described as "For Basic Shopify," Premium at $16.99/month "For Shopify/Advance Shopify," and Ultimate at $29.99/month "For Shopify Plus." All three paid tiers list the same features — custom gift card value, custom email templates, value adjustment, custom email branding, expiry reminder, bulk import — with a 14-day trial. The only stated difference between them is which Shopify plan they're for.

So you're billed on your Shopify plan, not on how many gift cards you sell. At high gift card volume that is the cheapest structure in this comparison, because nothing scales with the program. Listed integrations are limited to Shopify Flow and Shopify Admin — no Checkout, POS, or customer accounts extension appears, so verify POS coverage with the developer if you sell in person.

Gist | Gift Card Pro Tools

From Gist in Victoria, BC, listed since February 2022 under the earlier name Gift Card Pro; the App Store URL slug is still gift-card-pro. Four tiers: Basic $9.99/month + 2.5% of gift card value sold, Standard $29.99 + 1.5%, Business $89.99 + 1%, Enterprise $499.99 + 0.5%, each with a 14-day trial.

The unusual part: the listed feature difference between tiers is image and video storage (50 MB, 250 MB, 500 MB, 5 GB) plus priority support at Enterprise. Everything else — email and SMS delivery, video gift messages, bulk sending, balance check page, automated balance reminders — is on Basic. You are not upgrading for features; you are buying down a percentage. Its listing shows SMS delivery alongside email — as do Rise and Selling Point — and seven interface languages, making it the only app here listing anything beyond English.

Govalo | Gift Card Suite

From Incredible Gifts LLC in Columbus, OH, listed since September 2021, Built for Shopify. Essential is free to install plus 2.9% of total gift card value; Premium is $79/month plus 2.25%; Enterprise is $399/month plus 1.5%. The subscription and the percentage both apply. The balance lookup tool and Klaviyo integration start at Premium.

Two things to check first. Its card-type tags list bulk, digital, and store credit but not physical or reloadable, and its delivery-option tags list only bulk send and email — yet the Essential plan bullet says "Schedule gift card delivery." Resolve that inconsistency with support before you commit. And the rating distribution is unusually split: 4.1 overall from 25 reviews, 72% five-star and 24% one-star — the widest split of the six.

Selling Point

From ICEE Social in Smithtown, NY, listed since June 2021, Built for Shopify, 5.0 from 45 reviews. One plan, $49.99/month, for one job: bulk-importing gift cards and store credit into Shopify from another platform. Its listing states that existing codes, balances, and expiry dates are preserved. A March 2026 review describes a migration from Lightspeed.

It exists because of an asymmetry in Shopify's own documentation, covered next.

Gift cards go in. They don't come out.

Shopify's page on managing created gift cards is explicit: because gift cards are treated as currency, only the customer can see the full code, the admin shows the last four characters, and the full code can't be viewed in the admin after creation. The CSV export includes only those last four characters. Shopify states that "ongoing or recurring full-code export isn't supported," and that if you're migrating to another system you should review that system's import requirements and issue new codes where needed.

Elsewhere Shopify adds that a gift card is redeemable only at the store that issued it, with no native way to move or transfer cards between stores — so a Plus merchant spinning up an additional store can't carry outstanding balances across.

The door swings one way. An app can write codes into Shopify; nothing can read them back out. If you're replatforming onto Shopify with outstanding liability on the books, a migration tool is worth its flat fee; if you might leave Shopify later, plan on reissuing.

What the meters actually cost

The arithmetic below uses each app's published prices. Assume a store selling $5,000/month in gift cards while taking 1,000 total orders/month:

App	Best tier at this volume	Monthly cost
Vify: Professional Gift Cards	Premium (Shopify/Advanced)	$16.99
Gift Card Hero • All‑in‑one	PRO flat	$19.99
Gift Card Hero • All‑in‑one	Free to install (2%, capped)	$49.99
Gist \| Gift Card Pro Tools	Standard ($29.99 + 1.5%)	$104.99
Govalo \| Gift Card Suite	Essential (2.9%)	$145.00
Rise Gift Cards & Store Credit	Small-Business	$149.99

Same gift card program, an 8.8x spread. The feature sets are not identical — Rise adds loyalty and cashback, Gist adds video messages and SMS — but the spread is far larger than the feature gap, and it comes from what each app counts. Three crossover points are worth knowing:

Gist tiers cross at $2,000, $12,000, and $82,000 of monthly gift card value. Below $2,000, Basic wins; above $82,000, Enterprise's 0.5% finally justifies $499.99.
Govalo's Premium tier only beats Essential above roughly $12,150/month in gift card value, since $79 has to be recovered by a 0.65-point rate difference. Enterprise doesn't overtake Premium until about $42,700/month.
Gift Card Hero's cap binds at $2,499.50/month in gift card value, where 2% hits $49.99. Its flat PRO plan beats its own percentage plan above $999.50/month — and PRO is where POS tools and balance reload live anyway.

Choosing by situation

You just want scheduled sending past 90 days, a balance page, and custom amounts, on a non-Plus plan. Vify or Gift Card Hero — both carry a Built for Shopify badge. Vify is cheaper and plan-based; Gift Card Hero adds POS tools and balance reload on its PRO tier.

You sell in person as well as online. Check the "Works with" block. Rise, Gift Card Hero, and Govalo list the Shopify POS extension, and Gist lists Point of Sale; Vify and Selling Point list neither.

Your gift card volume is large and lumpy — corporate gifting, holiday spikes. Avoid uncapped percentages. A $60,000 December on Govalo Essential is $1,740 for that month alone; the same month on Gift Card Hero's capped plan is $49.99, and on Vify Ultimate $29.99.

You want gift cards, store credit, cashback, and loyalty in one wallet. Rise is the only app here that spans all four, and it's priced accordingly. Just model it against your total order count, not your gift card count.

You're moving to Shopify with live gift card balances. Selling Point for the migration window, then cancel. Check first whether the gift card app you're adopting already includes bulk import.

You need none of the above. If your denominations are fixed, your customers buy for themselves, and nobody asks for a balance page, native gift cards on a Dawn or Horizon theme are complete. Turn on the recipient form and Apple Wallet Passes and stop there.

Before you install

Confirm your theme is Online Store 2.0 v9.0.0+ (Dawn or Horizon). If not, no app fixes the vintage-theme gap for you — you're changing themes or hiring a developer.
Check your store's creation date. On or after May 12, 2025 means gift card redemptions carry third-party transaction fees.
Test the gift card product page with accelerated checkout buttons visible. Decide whether to hide them on that template.
Model twelve months of gift card value against each meter — not one month, and not your best month.
If you're setting any expiry at all, confirm the term against 12 CFR 1005.20 and your state's rules before you save the setting.
Read the data access section on each listing. At least two of these apps request edit access to your theme, and one also requests the checkout page and Shopify Functions.

Sources

Hextom: Free Shipping Bar is no longer available on the Shopify App Store. Here's what Shopify's native announcement bar can and can't do, and five real apps that fill the gap in 2026.