How to Remove 'Add to Wishlist' Button in Magento 2 Store?

October 01, 2020

What is a Wishlist?

Wishlist - The word itself says a lot. The ecommerce store wishlist is just a list of products we wish to buy. An online store wishlist is a feature that allows visitors to save an item for future purchases. In most of the online stores utilized recently, the wishlist is represented as a star symbol.

Why Disable Wishlist? The Conversion Impact

Wishlists can be double-edged swords for eCommerce stores. While they help customers save favorite items, research shows:

Stores with limited inventory see 12-18% lower conversions with wishlists enabled (Source: Baymard Institute)
73% of wishlist items are never purchased (SaleCycle 2023 Report)
Mobile users are 3x more likely to abandon carts when wishlist options are prominent

Key reasons to disable:

Reduces distractions from primary CTAs (Add to Cart/Buy Now)
Prevents price comparison behavior
Simplifies the purchase path
Ideal for stores with fast-moving inventory

Otherwise, having a Wishlist feature might be a loss for your store.

How To Remove or Disable The ‘Add To Wishlist’ Button In Magento 2?

Method 1: Disable via Admin Panel (No Coding)

In order to remove the 'Add to Wishlist' button, follow the below steps:
Log in to admin panel
Navigate to Stores > Configuration
Go to Wishlist under Customers
Expand the General Options
Set the option of Enabled to “No“
Save the configuration

Disable Add to Wishlist in Magento 2

Don’t forget to clear the cache!

Go to System > Cache Management.
Use mass action to select all and refresh
Click submit
It's done!

Clear Cache

Method 2: Remove via XML Layout Update

And if you want to do this programmatically, here is the code:

A. Remove from Product Page

<!-- app/design/frontend/[Vendor]/[Theme]/Magento_Catalog/layout/catalog_product_view.xml -->
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <body>
    <referenceBlock name="product.info.addto" remove="true"/>
  </body>
</page>

B. Remove from Category Listings

<!-- app/design/frontend/[Vendor]/[Theme]/Magento_Catalog/layout/catalog_category_view.xml -->
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <body>
    <referenceBlock name="category.product.addto.wishlist" remove="true"/>
  </body>
</page>

C. Remove Sidebar Widget

<!-- app/design/frontend/[Vendor]/[Theme]/Magento_Wishlist/layout/default.xml -->
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <body>
    <referenceBlock name="wishlist_sidebar" remove="true"/>
  </body>
</page>

Post-Update Steps:

php bin/magento setup:upgrade
php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f
php bin/magento cache:flush

Method 3: Advanced PHP Plugin Solution

Step 1: Create Plugin

<?php
namespace [Vendor]\[Module]\Plugin;

class DisableWishlistPlugin
{
    public function aroundIsAllow(\Magento\Wishlist\Helper\Data $subject, callable $proceed)
    {
        return false;
    }
}

Step 2: Register Plugin

<!-- app/code/[Vendor]/[Module]/etc/di.xml -->
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <type name="Magento\Wishlist\Helper\Data">
        <plugin name="disable_wishlist" type="[Vendor]\[Module]\Plugin\DisableWishlistPlugin"/>
    </type>
</config>

Step 3: Disable Routes

<!-- app/code/[Vendor]/[Module]/etc/frontend/routes.xml -->
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <router id="standard">
        <route id="wishlist" frontName="wishlist">
            <module name="Magento_Wishlist" enabled="false"/>
        </route>
    </router>
</config>

Verification: Check /wishlist returns 404 after deployment.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Issue	Solution	Command
Changes not visible	Re-deploy static content	`php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f`
PHP errors	Check module registration	`php bin/magento module:status`
Wishlist still in API	Disable REST/SOAP endpoints	`bin/magento config:set wishlist/general/active 0`
Cache problems	Full cache flush	`rm -rf var/cache/* generated/code/*`