Comparison · Shopify trust badges + CRO apps
Conversion Bear vs Vitals: Which Trust Badge App in 2026?
Conversion Bear and Vitals both let you add trust badges to your Shopify store, but they're fundamentally different products. Conversion Bear is a focused, completely free trust-badge app. Vitals is an all-in-one CRO suite bundling 40+ features (one of which is trust badges) for $29.99/month. This comparison walks through when each actually makes sense — verified against 2026 App Store pricing.
Verified against current App Store + pricing pages on May 12, 2026
Quick verdict
Conversion Bear if all you need is trust badges — it's free, Built-for-Shopify certified, lightweight (under 30KB), and does the one thing well. Vitals if you'd otherwise be paying for 5+ separate CRO apps (reviews + bundles + upsells + sticky cart + visitor recordings) and bundling them into one $29.99/month subscription saves real money.
At-a-glance
Feature-by-feature
Green highlight = winner on that dimension. Untied dimensions in plain text.
Conversion Bear Trust Badges
Completely free with no paid tier. 300+ badge designs, place anywhere on the storefront, lightweight under 30KB.
Strengths
- Completely free with no upgrade pressure — the full badge library and customization is available to every store
- Built for Shopify performance badge — meets Shopify's highest standards for performance, design, and integration
- Lightweight under 30KB — virtually no impact on page load (Vitals' 40-feature suite adds significantly more JavaScript)
- Focused product — does one thing (trust badges) and does it well, no feature bloat
- 97% of 360 App Store reviews are 5-star — very consistent positive sentiment
Tradeoffs
- Only does trust badges — if you also want reviews, upsells, bundles, etc., you'll be installing separate apps
- Lower review count (360) compared to Vitals (2,600+) — less battle-tested at scale
- Limited customer support (typical for free apps) — primarily email and self-serve docs
Best for
- Any store that just needs trust badges and doesn't want feature bloat
- Page-speed-conscious stores where every KB of JavaScript matters
- Stores already running other specialized apps (Judge.me for reviews, Shopify Inbox for chat) that want to keep the one-app-per-job pattern
- Budget-conscious stores where free + Built-for-Shopify is the right tradeoff
Vitals
No free tier — only a 7-day free trial. After trial, $29.99/month base price with additional usage-based charges as revenue grows. Bundles 40+ CRO features.
Strengths
- Built for Shopify certified — meets Shopify's performance and integration standards despite bundling 40+ features
- Massive feature consolidation — if you'd otherwise pay for 5+ separate apps (reviews + bundles + upsells + etc.), $29.99/month can be net cheaper than running each app individually
- 4.9-star rating across 2,600+ reviews — strong sentiment despite the complexity of running 40+ features in one app
- AI tools included in the bundle (smart sorting, AI summaries, etc.) without paying extra per-feature
- Centralized admin — one settings interface instead of switching between 5+ separate app dashboards
Tradeoffs
- Trust badges are ONE of 40+ features — Vitals isn't badge-specialized, the badge UX is functional but not as polished as Conversion Bear's focused offering
- $29.99/month base + usage-based charges that scale with your revenue — costs grow with the business in ways flat-priced apps don't
- Bundling everything in one app means one app's JavaScript loads even features you don't use — bigger page-weight footprint than Conversion Bear's <30KB
- No free tier — 7-day trial only, then you're paying $29.99/month immediately to keep the badges working
- Vendor lock-in risk — replacing 40 features with 40 separate apps after migrating away is significant work
Best for
- Stores currently using 5+ separate CRO apps where Vitals' bundle pricing would save real money
- Stores wanting one admin interface instead of switching between multiple app dashboards
- Higher-revenue stores ($500K+/year) where Vitals' usage-based pricing still pencils out vs. enterprise alternatives
- Teams who specifically want the AI tools, visitor recordings, or other features Vitals bundles that aren't in standalone apps
How to choose
Choose Conversion Bear Trust Badges if…
- Trust badges are all you need from this app — you have reviews handled elsewhere (Judge.me/Loox), reviews handled, etc.
- You care about page speed. Conversion Bear's under-30KB footprint is meaningfully lighter than Vitals' 40-feature bundle.
- You prefer the one-app-per-job pattern — specialized tools for each trust signal rather than one swiss-army-knife app.
- You're early-stage or budget-conscious — $0 vs $360+/year is a real difference at the seed-stage of a Shopify store.
- You don't want vendor lock-in — uninstalling Conversion Bear costs you trust badges; uninstalling Vitals costs you 40 features at once.
Choose Vitals if…
- You're already paying for 5+ separate CRO apps (reviews + bundles + upsells + visitor recordings + sticky cart). $29.99/month consolidation likely saves real money.
- You specifically want the AI tools (smart sorting, summaries, etc.) without paying separately for them.
- You want one admin interface for multiple CRO jobs instead of switching between 5+ app dashboards.
- You need visitor session recordings and want them bundled rather than paying for a separate session-replay app.
- You're scaling past $500K/year revenue where Vitals' usage-based pricing still beats enterprise alternatives.
Migration between the two
- From Vitals to Conversion Bear (for trust badges only): install Conversion Bear, configure badge placement to match what Vitals was showing, then disable Vitals' trust-badge feature OR uninstall Vitals entirely if you've moved all 40 features elsewhere.
- From Conversion Bear to Vitals: install Vitals, configure trust badges within Vitals settings, then uninstall Conversion Bear. Note that if you only use Vitals for trust badges, you're paying $359.88/year for what Conversion Bear gives free — only do this migration if you're using Vitals' other 39+ features too.
- Critical step on either migration: edit your theme code (Online Store → Themes → Edit code) and remove orphan badge widget snippets from the uninstalled app. Both apps inject theme code that doesn't auto-remove on uninstall.
- Test on a private/incognito browser tab after migration to confirm the new badges render and the old ones are gone (browser cache can hide leftover badges from your own view).
Related
How to Add Trust Badges to Shopify →
Full setup walkthrough for whichever app you pick — native footer payment icons first, then specific app configuration.
Why trust badges matter (methodology) →
The research behind why payment icons and security indicators convert, and why fake trust badges hurt more than they help.
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