Two apps. Two different jobs. Rubik Variant Images filters product page images and adds swatches when a customer picks a color. Stamp takes the variants within a product and shows them as separate cards on collection pages.
They are listed as compatible on the Shopify App Store. This post explains what each app does, how they complement each other, and when you might want Rubik Combined Listings instead of Stamp.
In this post
- What Rubik Variant Images does
- What Stamp does
- How they work together
- Stamp vs Rubik Combined Listings
- Setup: install both apps
- When to use Stamp
- When to use Rubik Combined Listings
- Frequently asked questions
- Related reading
What Rubik Variant Images does
Rubik Variant Images solves a specific product page problem. Shopify shows all product images in one gallery regardless of which variant the customer selects. If your jacket has 10 colors with 5 photos each, the gallery shows all 50 images. The customer picks Navy and scrolls through 45 irrelevant photos.
Rubik fixes this. It lets you assign multiple images per variant and filters the gallery so only the selected variant’s images are visible. Pick Navy, see 5 Navy photos. Switch to Red, see 5 Red photos. Clean and instant.
On top of image filtering, Rubik replaces Shopify’s default variant dropdowns with visual swatches. These can be image thumbnails (showing a small product photo), color circles, or pill buttons for non-visual options like size. You can mix swatch types on the same product.
Key features:
- Multiple images per variant with real-time gallery filtering
- AI auto-assign: Claude AI analyzes images and assigns them to variants automatically
- Bulk assign: image-order based grouping across hundreds of products
- 3 swatch types: image thumbnails, color circles, pill buttons
- Video and 3D model support: assign videos to specific variants
- 350+ theme support with Shadow DOM isolation
- Metafield-based loading: no external API calls, data loads with the page
Rubik Variant Images works on the product page. It does not add anything to collection pages. That is where Stamp comes in.
What Stamp does
Stamp focuses on collection pages. It takes the variants within a Shopify product and shows them as separate product cards on collection pages. A t-shirt with 8 color variants appears as 8 separate cards, each showing the correct color image.
Stamp has a 5.0 rating with 101 reviews and carries the Built for Shopify badge. It is listed on the App Store as compatible with Rubik Variant Images (“Works with: Rubik Variant Images”).
What Stamp does on collection pages:
- Variant splitting: each variant appears as its own product card on collection pages
- Correct images: each card shows the variant’s assigned image, not the product’s default featured image
- Price ranges: shows the specific variant price on each card rather than a price range
- Hide unavailable: out-of-stock variants can be hidden from collection pages automatically
Stamp does not change anything on the product page. It only affects how products appear in collections. Your product page variant selector, image gallery, and swatches are handled by your theme or by Rubik Variant Images.
How they work together
The apps handle different parts of the shopping experience. There is no overlap or conflict.
Stamp handles the collection page. The customer browses your “Jackets” collection and sees each color as a separate card. They can scan through all 10 colors visually without clicking into any product. Out-of-stock colors are hidden. Each card shows the correct price for that variant.
Rubik handles the product page. The customer clicks the Navy jacket card and lands on the product page. Rubik filters the gallery to show only Navy photos. Color swatches let them switch to Red or Green. The gallery updates instantly. They see exactly the images for their selected color, plus any common images like size charts.
The flow looks like this:
- Customer opens collection page. Stamp shows each color variant as its own card.
- Customer clicks the Navy card. They land on the product page.
- Rubik Variant Images shows only Navy photos in the gallery. Color swatches are visible.
- Customer considers switching to Red. They click the Red swatch. Gallery updates to Red photos.
- Customer adds to cart. Done.
No configuration between the two apps is needed. They operate independently. Stamp reads variant data from Shopify. Rubik reads image assignments from metafields. Neither depends on the other.
Stamp vs Rubik Combined Listings
Rubik also offers a separate app called Rubik Combined Listings that puts swatches on collection pages. So when should you use Stamp, and when should you use Rubik Combined Listings?
They solve the same visual problem (colors visible on collection pages) but with fundamentally different approaches.
Stamp: variant splitting
Stamp works with your existing product structure. You keep one product with 10 color variants. Stamp takes those variants and displays each one as a separate card on collection pages. No product restructuring required.
Best for stores that:
- Already have products set up with color variants
- Do not want to restructure their catalog into separate products
- Want a quick setup with minimal changes to their existing workflow
- Need to hide out-of-stock variants from collection pages
Rubik Combined Listings: product grouping
Rubik Combined Listings works with separate products. Each color is its own product with its own URL, title, description, and media. The app links them together with swatches on both product pages and collection pages.
Best for stores that:
- Want SEO benefits of separate URLs per color
- Need different descriptions or media per color
- Use print-on-demand (Printify, Printful create separate products)
- Need different pricing per color option
- Hit the 250 media limit and need more images across separate products
- Want swatches on both product pages AND collection pages from one app
The key difference
Stamp = variant splitting. Takes one product, displays its variants as separate collection cards. The Shopify admin stays the same.
Rubik Combined Listings = product grouping. Takes separate products, links them together with swatches. The Shopify admin has separate product listings.
Different starting points, different use cases. Neither is objectively better. It depends on how your catalog is structured and what you need.
Setup: install both apps
If you decide to use Rubik Variant Images and Stamp together, setup is straightforward. The apps do not interact with each other, so you configure them independently.
Step 1: Set up Rubik Variant Images
- Install Rubik Variant Images from the Shopify App Store.
- Go to your theme settings and enable the Rubik app embed.
- Open a product in the app. Assign images to variants using AI auto-assign or manually.
- Configure swatch style: image thumbnails, color circles, or pill buttons.
- Preview on the storefront. Confirm gallery filtering works.
Step 2: Set up Stamp
- Install Stamp from the Shopify App Store.
- Enable the Stamp app embed in your theme settings.
- Configure which variant option to split by (typically Color).
- Set visibility rules: hide out-of-stock, show price per variant, etc.
- Browse a collection page to confirm each color appears as a separate card.
That is it. Both apps run through Shopify’s app embed system. No theme code editing required. No conflicts between them because they target different pages.
When to use Stamp
Stamp is the right choice when your products are already structured as single listings with color variants and you do not want to restructure them. If your t-shirt is one product with 10 color variants, Stamp shows those 10 colors on the collection page without any product changes.
It is also a good fit if you want to hide sold-out variants from collection pages. A customer browsing should not see a “Sold Out” badge on half the cards. Stamp hides those automatically.
Stamp is not our app. We are mentioning it because it genuinely works well with Rubik Variant Images and is a quality option for this specific use case. The App Store compatibility listing confirms they work together.
When to use Rubik Combined Listings
Choose Rubik Combined Listings when you want separate products linked together. This is the better approach if:
- You need each color to have its own URL for SEO
- You use print-on-demand and colors are already separate products
- You want different descriptions, pricing, or media per color
- You need swatches on both product pages and collection pages from a single app
- You have hit the 250 media limit on a single product
Rubik Combined Listings uses metaobject-based loading with no external API calls, same performance approach as Rubik Variant Images.
If you go with Rubik Combined Listings for collection pages, you may not need Stamp at all. RCL handles both product page swatches and collection page swatches. You would pair it with Rubik Variant Images only if you need the image filtering feature (multiple images per variant with gallery filtering).
Watch it in action
See how variants appear on collection pages with proper image display:
Get started
Rubik Variant Images has a free plan so you can test image filtering and swatches on your product pages before committing.
Stamp is available at apps.shopify.com/custom-collections.
Frequently asked questions
Do Rubik Variant Images and Stamp conflict with each other?
No. They work on different pages. Rubik handles the product page (image filtering, swatches). Stamp handles collection pages (variant splitting). They are listed as compatible on the Shopify App Store.
Is Stamp made by the same developer as Rubik?
No. Stamp is made by a different developer. Rubik Variant Images and Rubik Combined Listings are made by CraftShift. Stamp is a third-party app that we are mentioning because of its proven compatibility with Rubik.
Can I use all three apps together (Rubik Variant Images + Rubik Combined Listings + Stamp)?
There is usually no reason to. Stamp and Rubik Combined Listings both handle collection page display but with different approaches. Pick one based on your catalog structure. Then add Rubik Variant Images for product page image filtering if needed.
Does Stamp slow down my store?
Stamp carries the Built for Shopify badge, which requires meeting Shopify’s performance standards. It has a 5.0 rating with 101 reviews. We have not observed performance issues when running it alongside Rubik.
Which option should I split by on collection pages?
Color, almost always. Color is the visual option that changes how a product looks. Size, material, and other non-visual options look the same in product photos. Showing separate cards for each size adds clutter without helping the customer.
