If you’re looking for a Frequently Bought Together alternative, you’re most likely running the CBB app by Code Black Belt — the Amazon-style “customers also bought” widget that has quietly become one of the most reviewed apps in its category. Its whole premise is automation: an AI trained on years of Shopify order data suggests complementary products right on the product page, so shoppers can add a matched bundle in one click. With 1,000+ reviews and a ~4.9 rating at a low monthly price, it’s a proven tool. Merchants search for an alternative usually for one of two reasons: they’d rather define their own offers than rely on a recommendation engine, or they want the bundle discount to be provably safe at checkout. This is an honest look at where CBB shines and where Profit Flow AOV Bundle fits.
What Frequently Bought Together does well
CBB’s strength is automation backed by data, and it’s a real strength. Code Black Belt has been crunching Shopify order data since 2017, so the moment you install the widget it can suggest pairings that make statistical sense — even on a new store with little order history of its own. That “Amazon-style bought together” block is a familiar, high-trust pattern for shoppers, and letting an algorithm choose the products removes the guesswork of building cross-sells by hand.
It’s also flexible and cheap. You can lean on the AI, write manual rules, or use global presets, and layer in four kinds of bundle discount — percentage, fixed, free item or free shipping. The widget installs with no code and themes to fit any storefront. All of this sits on a free basic tier and a single low-cost paid plan around $10–$16 a month, which is a lot of capability for the price.
The 1,000+ reviews and near-perfect rating reflect a mature, focused app that does its one thing — data-driven cross-sell — very well.
Where Frequently Bought Together can fall short
The honest limitations are about offer type, control and enforcement.
It’s a recommender, not an AOV offer suite. CBB is built around the “bought together” pattern. It doesn’t do tiered quantity breaks (“buy 3, save 20%”) on a single product, and its gift and BOGO mechanics are narrower than a dedicated offer app. If your AOV lever is volume pricing or a gift-with-purchase rather than cross-sell, the widget isn’t aimed at that.
You cede control to the algorithm. For many stores the AI suggestions are a feature — but if you want to merchandise specific, intentional bundles, an engine that picks products for you is working against you as much as for you. Manual rules exist, but at that point you’re doing the curation the AI was meant to save you.
Bundle discounts aren’t discount-function enforced. The widget applies its bundle discount through its own logic. A discount or free item surfaced that way is only as safe as that logic — when it isn’t backed by a Shopify Discount Function, a shopper can edit the cart or reach checkout in a way that leaves an unqualified free item or price in the order. For gift and free-item offers, the enforcement layer is what protects your margin.
Why consider Profit Flow
Profit Flow AOV Bundle takes a different, merchant-controlled approach — and it’s free. It does product-page quantity breaks, bundles, Buy-X-Get-Y and a checkout-safe free gift, with no offer caps and no transaction fees. You define the offer; there’s no algorithm deciding for you.
The wedge is checkout-safe. Every discount and every free gift is enforced by a Shopify Discount Function at checkout — not by a widget or on-page JavaScript. That means the price and the free item the shopper sees on the product page are exactly what Shopify charges and fulfills, with no gap for an unqualified gift to slip through. For BOGO and gift-with-purchase offers, that’s the difference between a promotion and a margin leak. See the mechanics on our free gift with purchase and volume discounts pages.
We’ll be honest about the trade-offs. Profit Flow has no recommendation engine — no AI “bought together” suggestions, none of the data-driven cross-sell CBB is built around. You pick the products in each offer yourself. It’s also newer, with fewer reviews than CBB’s long track record, and product-page focused with no cart drawer. If automatic, algorithmic cross-sell is what moves revenue for you, CBB is the right tool and Profit Flow won’t replace it. The honest angle is narrow: for a store that wants free, deliberate, checkout-safe offers rather than an AI widget, Profit Flow does exactly that. Our roundup of the best Shopify apps to increase AOV puts both in context.
Switching from Frequently Bought Together
Because they do different jobs, this is often adding Profit Flow rather than a straight swap:
- Install Profit Flow — it’s free, so there’s no trial clock and no billing decision to make first.
- Build your offers in the editor: quantity tiers, curated bundles, BOGO rules and any free gift — the intentional offers the AI widget doesn’t cover.
- Add the block to your product-page template in the theme editor — no code.
- Place one real test order and confirm the discount and gift hold all the way through checkout. This is the step that proves checkout-safety, so don’t skip it.
- Decide what to keep. If CBB’s AI cross-sell suggestions still earn their keep, keep the widget and let Profit Flow own the quantity breaks, bundles and gift. If you’d rather curate offers yourself, you can uninstall it.
Because Profit Flow is free, you can run it side by side on a test product before committing.
The bottom line
Stay on Frequently Bought Together if your growth lever is automatic, data-driven cross-sell — the Amazon-style “bought together” widget picking complementary products for you — at a low monthly price. It’s a mature, highly rated app and there’s no reason to remove it if it’s converting.
Try Profit Flow if you’d rather define your own offers with product-page quantity breaks, bundles, BOGO and a free gift that are free and provably correct at checkout. The wedge is simple: what the shopper sees is what they pay, enforced by Shopify itself, at no cost. Not sure which offers will actually move your AOV? Get a free store audit and we’ll tell you straight.