Shopify has released what they are calling Combined Listings, for Plus users. Combined Listings allows you to group separate products together as a single parent item, as well as to show swatches for Combined Listings products. The first drawback is that the Combined Listings feature is Plus-only and costs $2,300 + $80 per year per online store. The next, bigger issue is that there are very few options for customizing Combined Listings and the listings look unnatural in the navigation menu and in search results.
Here’s an honest apples to apples comparison between Shopify’s standard product pages and what the Rubik Combined Listings app offers. See where each app excels. Includes actual numbers.
. Of course, if you aren’t already on Shopify Plus the answer is already spoilied for you, but for those who do operate on Plus there is still some value in the discussion.
Table of Contents
- What each one does
- Side by side table
- Pricing math
- The customization gap
- Migrating from native to Rubik
- When native actually wins
- FAQ
What each one does
Both the Automatic Price Comparision and Variant Swatches modules solve the same core problem. Within your Shopify store, you may have created separate products for different colours, materials or styles and would like to display them as one family on your site with corresponding swatches.
Shopify native method to display associated products is through Plus only Combined Listings feature. Simply create parent product, add child products, and set up option swatches in admin. Very easy, but extremely limited.
Unlike building groups of metafields manually using the metafield settings in the plugins, Rubik Combined Listings displays swatches of combined listings using a metafield-based group system and settings with Metafield magic! Each group can have its own settings and swatches and even metafields and settings can be filled with AI! Swatches will render on collection pages, on grouped product pages, and in any page builder block. 70+ custom CSS variables, shadow DOM isolation and so much more – all controllable on a different planet!
Side by side
| Feature | Shopify Native | Rubik Combined Listings |
|---|---|---|
| Plan required | Shopify Plus only | Every plan, Basic to Plus |
| Starting price | ~$2,300/mo (Plus) | Free for 5 groups |
| Paid plans | Included with Plus | $10 / $30 / $50 per month |
| Annual discount | N/A | 17% off yearly |
| Group limit | Higher cap on Plus | 5 / 100 / 500 / 5000 groups |
| Auto grouping | Manual only | AI Magic Fill |
| Visual editor AI | None | AI visual assistant |
| CSS variables | Few | 70+ CSS variables |
| Style isolation | None | Shadow DOM isolation |
| Per group settings | No | Yes |
| Theme compatibility | Plus themes mainly | 350+ themes |
| Page builders | Limited | Beae, EComposer, Foxify, GemPages, Instant, PageFly, Replo |
| Built for Shopify | N/A | Yes |
| Rating | N/A | 5.0 from 21 reviews |
Pricing math (this is the part that hurts)
Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month on the standard contract terms, which means $27,600 per year for the minimum merchant. Depending on the revenue and terms in the contract, merchants can pay more. Yes, Combined Listings is a naturally included feature with Shopify Plus, but you DO have to pay for Shopify Plus to get it.
Rubik Combined Listings on the Premium plan is $50 per month. That’s $600 per year. With the 17% annual discount, around $498. So:
- Native Combined Listings (via Plus): $27,600 per year
- Rubik Premium yearly: ~$498 per year
- Difference: $27,102 per year
The cost to upgrade from to 8Plus just to get Combined Listings is $27,102. Worse, the feature native to 8Plus has far fewer options than Rubik provides allowing you to customize how you view Combined Listings. So you pay a lot for less.
If you are already on the Plus plan for other extensibility, custom application or B2B type features then this is native functionality and free to you. Find out where you are on this feature in our feature comparison tool to help you understand the base Shopify plan pricing.
The customization gap
When compared side by side to the native Shopify swatch picker, Here’s where Rubik really pulls ahead. Shopify native gives you a swatch picker that mostly looks like every other Shopify store. There’s not much you can do to make it match a unique brand.
Rubik Combined Listings includes 70+ customizable CSS variables including border radius, swatch sizes, hover effect, label position, font, and all color tokens. You can make this listing look like a luxury fashion store or a toy store for kids with the same app, just different configurations. The shadow DOM isolation technology includes means the CSS for your store won’t conflict with the swatches and break them unlike native listing plugins.
Per group settings – the other huge feature that Rubik supports that native stitching does not. Want your shoes to use a linear pattern instead of a swatch with t-shirts? This is easily accomplished by flipping a single setting per group of objects. Not per garment, per group.
Another “secret weapon” for saving time is And the AI Magic Fill auto-grouping feature. You load your entire catalog into Point Rubik, it analyzes all the product names and tags and creates groups with a click of a button. You then go through these in batches of pages at a time and approve them. Going from 1000 ungrouped products to a clean grouped catalog used to take all week. Now it takes an afternoon. Learn more in our collection filters guide.
Migrating from native to Rubik
You have already setup native Combined Listings and want to test out Rubik’s Combined Listings? No problem, all products are already individual listings so all you have to do is install and activate the new plugin, run AI Magic Fill to fill in missing information and then the plugin will suggest the correct groupings based off your existing native Combined Listings. You can choose to disable native Combined Listings or keep it active while running tests with Rubik’s.
The reverse direction (Rubik to native) is much harder, since you would lose all of the customization of the Rubik. Most stores don’t go that direction.
When native actually wins
I must admit, native is not always evil. It is applicable in some scenarios.
- You’re already paying for Plus and don’t want any extra apps in your stack
- You want maximum simplicity and accept the default visual style
- Your brand doesn’t need custom swatch styling
- You only have a small number of groups and don’t need bulk auto-assign
This will work for everyone else (most stores) since Rubik is less expensive, offers more features, customization options, and will save you a ton of time. See our in-depth review on the best combined listings app as well as our combined listings vs metaobjects comparison.
Useful tools before you decide
- Shopify plan comparison for Plus math
- Grouping planner for figuring out how to structure your groups
- Collection analyzer to spot which collections need swatches most
See the live demo store or the combined listings demo, watch the tutorial video, or read the getting started guide.
FAQ
Is Shopify native Combined Listings only on Plus?
Yes. These Native Combined Listings are Plus only. Native Combined Listings are not available to Basic, Grow or Advanced stores. You need a Plus store to have these.
How much does Rubik Combined Listings cost?
Free for 5 groups, $10 per month for 100 groups, $30 per month for 500 groups, $50 per month for 5000 groups. Annual plans get 17% off.
Can I use Rubik on Plus?
Yes. Since Rubik Combined Listings is a Shopify App it can work on any Shopify plan including Shopify Plus. Plus stores actually select Rubik over the native product listing for many of the features and advantages that we include.
What is AI Magic Fill?
AI Magic Fill allows 1stLine to automatically suggest groups via scanning the product catalog for matching words and attributes and presenting the groups in bulk editable batches for approval instead of manually grouping every product.
Does Rubik work with my page builder?
Layouts can be used on Beae and many other Shopify themes including: EComposer, Foxify, GemPages, Instant, PageFly, and Replo. And over 350 standard Shopify themes.
Will switching break my SEO?
We should not do this. Both native and Rubik render separate listings, and each child product should have a separate URL, handle, metadata, ranking. Grouping would only occur on the frontend.
Can I run native and Rubik in parallel?
You can mix and match different grouping techniques DURING YOUR TEST. But it’s usually best to pick one METHOD OF GROUPING ONCE YOU’VE DECIDED ON IT.
