Start with what Shopify gives you for nothing, and move to a portal when exchanges or volume outgrow it. Loop and ReturnGO are built around Shopify, Narvar is for large retailers, ZigZag is strongest across borders, and Redo sells a broader bundle. Kept isn't a portal and doesn't compete with any of them.
A note on this page
Nearly every comparison of this software you'll find was written by one of the companies being compared, so you should know where we stand. Kept sits alongside a portal, and Loop, ReturnGO, Narvar, ZigZag and Redo are the ones in scope first, which gives us an interest in all of them getting on with us. None of them pays us. We've left out prices and star ratings because the sources contradict each other and plans change, so you'll need to ask each vendor for a quote.
What a portal does
A returns portal is the page where a customer starts a return. Behind it sit the rules on who may return what, the label, the tracking, the refund or exchange and the reporting. Its real value is that it takes the whole job out of your inbox, and for a store handling a few hundred returns a month that may be all you need from it.
Start with Shopify's own tools
Shopify has return rules and self-serve returns through customer accounts, which cover the return window, return shipping, restocking fees and final-sale items. It costs nothing extra, and for a small store we'd start here and see how far it gets you.
The limits show up with volume. Return fees aren't taken off the refund automatically, so someone has to do it by hand, and that's fine at ten returns a week and tiresome at two hundred. The exchange flows are also plainer than the specialists offer. When your team is spending real time on these things, it's time to look further.
The main options
| Option | Built for | Look at it if | Check before signing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify built-in | Smaller Shopify stores | You want the basics and no new vendor | Whether manual fee handling and plain exchanges will hold up at your volume |
| Loop | Shopify brands | Keeping revenue through exchanges is your main aim | Which plan you would really need, and how exchange costs are charged |
| ReturnGO | Shopify-first brands | You want detailed rules and exchange incentives | How much of the rule set is on the plan quoted |
| Redo | Brands wanting one post-purchase supplier | You would also buy tracking, protection and support from them | How returns are priced, and how easily you could leave |
| Narvar | Large retailers | You run many countries and have an enterprise budget | Minimum contract and time to launch |
| ZigZag | Retailers selling across borders | International returns are the hard part | Hub coverage in your markets. It was reported to have bought Shipup in 2026, so ask what has changed |
These descriptions are our reading of the vendors' own pages and of third-party write-ups, and this market moves quickly, so we may well be behind on something. If you spot a mistake, tell us and we'll correct it.
Eight questions for a demo
A demo will always show you the happy path, where one customer returns one full-price item for a refund. Your returns queue doesn't look like that, so ask to see the awkward cases.
- Show me a partial return from a mixed basket, including a discounted item.
- Show me an exchange for a size that's out of stock.
- When exactly does the refund fire, and can I change that per customer?
- What does the warehouse see, and how does it record condition?
- Which UK carriers and drop-off networks do you support today?
- How is it priced: per return, per order, or flat? What would last November have cost me?
- Can I export every return with its reason, by item, whenever I like?
- If I leave, what happens to returns in progress and to my data?
What a portal won't tell you
A portal starts its work when the customer asks to send something back, and by then the sale has been made on whatever terms your policy promised everyone. It can make that return cheaper, and it can turn some returns into exchanges. What it generally won't do is decide who should have been offered free returns in the first place, or tell you whether that offer made you any money.
That earlier decision is the part Kept is for. It passes the agreed terms to your portal and leaves the portal where it is, but it doesn't handle the return itself, so if that's what you need, buy a portal.
Before you judge what any of these is worth to you, run your figures through the returns cost calculator.