Hey Scarcity vs Scarcity AI: both are Built for Shopify urgency apps, but only one has a free plan a live store can actually use. Hey!Scarcity’s Starter plan is free for stores under 3 products, until total page views pass 5,000, no monthly reset. Scarcity.AI’s “Free” tier is development-store only, so a live store pays $4.99/month after a 7-day trial. Hey!Scarcity also carries the larger review base: 4.9 from 137 reviews against Scarcity.AI’s 4.7 from 84.
In this post:
- Hey!Scarcity vs Scarcity.AI: the short answer
- Free plan limits compared (the real gap)
- Feature differences
- Where Urgency+ fits in (the paid-only sibling)
- Reviews and ratings side by side
- How to choose
- FAQ
Disclosure: I’m the founder of Minimate Apps, and Hey!Scarcity Low Stock Counter is one of the two apps in this comparison. Every rating, review count, and pricing detail below comes from each app’s public Shopify App Store listing, pulled the week this post was written, so verify them directly before you decide.
Hey Scarcity vs Scarcity AI: The Short Answer
Pick Hey!Scarcity if a genuine free plan matters and you want collection-page display, messaging that adapts to different inventory conditions, and translations included. Pick Scarcity.AI if you’re fine paying from day one and want its animated countdown presets built for specific sale events. Both are Built for Shopify, and both sit around a 4.7 to 4.9 rating, so the free-plan gap is the real differentiator, not review quality.
Free Plan Limits Compared (The Real Gap)
Hey!Scarcity’s Starter plan is genuinely free for any live store under 3 products, until total page views pass 5,000, that count doesn’t reset every month, and there’s no development-store requirement. Scarcity.AI lists “Free plan available” on its App Store badge, but its actual pricing page shows the Free tier is restricted to development and partner stores only, with a note that “payment will be activated on upgrade.” A live store connects and is routed straight to the $4.99/month Monthly Plan after a 7-day trial. This is the single biggest gap in the Hey Scarcity vs Scarcity AI comparison.
That’s not a red flag exactly, a free tier scoped to dev stores is a normal way to let merchants test an app before committing, but it’s not the same thing as a free plan for a live, selling store, and the App Store badge doesn’t make that distinction obvious.
Feature Differences
Hey!Scarcity reads more than a single stock number. A product set to continue selling when sold out, one marked sold out outright, and one tracked with a manual inventory count each get their own message, so a customer sees “restocking soon” instead of a flat “sold out” when that’s what’s actually happening. The manual inventory setting also covers digital or made-to-order products that have no real stock count to pull from, a merchant sets the number directly instead of leaving urgency messaging off entirely. Hey!Scarcity also displays on collection pages, not just product pages, and support tends to respond the same day, which shows up repeatedly in its reviews.
Scarcity.AI focuses on animated countdown presets: a progress bar animation plus shake and blink animation styles, with dozens of ready-made presets for events like BFCM, Halloween, and Christmas.
One honest limit on our side: we don’t ship a seasonal preset library like Scarcity.AI’s BFCM, Halloween, and Christmas presets. What we do give you is full control over the wording itself, every message is editable in your own words directly in the app, plus a pulse animation on the counter. We deliberately don’t offer a shaking animation, it tends to look cheap. If seasonal presets or that animation style matter more to you than free-plan access and inventory-condition messaging, Scarcity.AI’s feature set is genuinely different from ours, not just a rebrand of the same widget.
“The application interface is prepared in a very clean and understandable way. Result oriented. Customer support responds quickly, receiving customized action for needs.”
Source: Luxora®, Germany (Shopify App Store review)
Where Urgency+ Fits In (The Paid-Only Sibling)
Urgency+ Low Stock Counter is a separate app from the same category, also Built for Shopify, rated 4.8 from 51 reviews, and it has never offered a free plan for live stores, only a 7-day trial ahead of its $4.99/month Premium plan. Urgency+ leans on real Shopify inventory or a manual stock mode with multi-location filtering and variant-aware theme support. It’s worth knowing about if you’ve seen the name mentioned alongside Scarcity.AI, but it isn’t the app this comparison is centered on.
Reviews and Ratings Side by Side
| App | Rating | Reviews | Pricing | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hey!Scarcity Low Stock Counter (us) | 4.9 | 137 | Free (<3 products, 5,000 total views), Premium $5.99/mo or $47.88/yr | Stores wanting a real free plan plus collection-page display, inventory-condition messaging, and responsive support |
| Scarcity.AI: Low Stock Counter | 4.7 | 84 | “Free” tier is dev-store only; live stores pay $4.99/mo or $41.91/yr after a 7-day trial | Stores that don’t need a free plan and want animated countdown presets with holiday styling |
| Urgency+ Low Stock Counter (paid-only sibling) | 4.8 | 51 | $4.99/mo, 7-day trial, no free plan | Stores wanting multi-location inventory filtering and variant-aware theme support |
How to Choose
- Want a real free plan for a live store: Hey!Scarcity.
- Want animated countdown presets and holiday-themed styling, and don’t mind paying from day one: Scarcity.AI.
- Need multi-location inventory filtering specifically: Urgency+.
- Running a small catalog under 3 products: Hey!Scarcity’s free tier likely covers you outright; the other two won’t, past their trial period.
- Selling digital or made-to-order products with no real stock count: Hey!Scarcity’s manual inventory setting lets you show accurate messaging anyway.
Shopify’s own inventory management help docs are a useful baseline before adding any low-stock display app. For a related comparison, see our Hey!Scarcity vs Hextom post, or our broader guide on how to create urgency on your Shopify store.
Frequently Asked Questions
- 1. Hey Scarcity vs Scarcity AI: what’s the actual difference?
- Hey!Scarcity has a genuine free plan for live stores under 3 products and up to 5,000 total page views, that count doesn’t reset monthly, plus messaging that adapts to different inventory conditions and collection-page display. Scarcity.AI restricts its free tier to development stores only, so live stores pay from $4.99/month, and its strength is animated countdown presets.
- 2. Does Scarcity.AI have a free plan?
- Not for live stores. Scarcity.AI shows a “Free plan available” badge, but that free tier is limited to development and partner stores. A connected live store is routed to the $4.99/month Monthly Plan after a 7-day trial.
- 3. Which Shopify urgency app has the most reviews?
- Among Hey!Scarcity, Scarcity.AI, and Urgency+, Hey!Scarcity has the most with 137 reviews at a 4.9 rating, as of this writing.
- 4. Does Hey!Scarcity support collection pages, not just product pages?
- Yes. Hey!Scarcity displays low-stock and sold-out messaging on both product and collection pages.
- 5. Can Hey!Scarcity show different messages for different inventory conditions?
- Yes. It reads conditions like continue selling when sold out and sold out outright, and it also supports a manual inventory count for digital or made-to-order products with no real stock number, so messaging like “restocking soon” only shows when it’s accurate.
- 6. Which app is Built for Shopify, Hey!Scarcity or Scarcity.AI?
- Both carry the Built for Shopify badge, along with Urgency+. All three meet Shopify’s performance, design, and integration standards.
- 7. Is Hey!Scarcity’s support responsive?
- Yes. Same-day responses are one of the more consistent points raised in its reviews.
