Flare: Delivery Date Picker
If your delivery rules are genuinely complicated — perishables, postcode zones, cut-offs, Saturday upcharges — this is the app whose two founders will configure it with you; if you just need a date box, note that reviewers describe the backend as "a bit overwhelming".
Should you install it?
This is a delivery-date app for stores whose dates depend on where the customer is and what they ordered — perishable food, florists, bakeries, furniture, high-value shipments — and it earns its reviews on rule depth (zip/postcode zones, cut-offs, lead times, blackout dates, capacity limits) plus two founders who do the setup with you and will build missing logic. If what you need is a plain date field, expect more configuration than that warrants: the one merchant who says it plainly calls the backend overwhelming for non-technical people ([6953]). Across 109 text reviews there are exactly two dissatisfied merchants — a 1★ at 26 minutes ([8836]) and an untexted 2★ ([8159]) — and every other negative signal is a "needed a few tweaks, they fixed it" aside inside a 5★. Treat that as absence of failure data rather than proof of reliability, and assume you will be leaning on the founders during setup. Reviews name only ShipStation and FedEx, so if you need a specific postal carrier, ask before installing.
Fair evidence. Three reasons not to go higher despite 117 reviews. There is almost no failure data to test the positive claims against — the only detailed negative is 26 minutes old and the recent 2★ from a year-long user ([8159]) has no text, so nothing tells you how the app behaves after a year. 39% of reviewers had used it under a month and at least nine reviewed within a day, so most reviews evidence the onboarding experience rather than the app in production. And about 7% of reviews ([6272], [6309], [2814], [5139], [8833], [9238], [9323]) rate an earlier order-ahead-discount product, so the headline average is partly borrowed.
Right for
- Perishable food, meat, seafood, bakery and florist stores that must limit shippable dates by zip/postcode and cut-off time ([2760], [8779], [2374], [4936])
- Stores where the chosen delivery date must match the shipping service actually sold at checkout ([3518], [4806])
- Merchants replacing a hand-built calendar, manual date entry or a weaker date-picker app ([8469], [0861], [6452], [5008], [0490])
- Stores that want the selected date passed on to ShipStation or a 3PL rather than rekeyed ([5275], [3518], [5008])
- Merchants who want the vendor to do the configuration with them on a call, including bespoke logic ([7049], [3196], [5275], [4436], [8068])
Wrong for
- Non-technical owners who want to self-serve complex configuration — the admin is described as overwhelming and setup often needs the founders ([6953], [1164])
- Stores wanting in-app sales reporting or analytics on scheduled orders ([9323])
- Anyone who needs review evidence that a specific carrier integration works: across 109 text reviews merchants name only ShipStation and FedEx, and no postal carrier at all
- Anyone judging long-run reliability from reviews: nearly all detailed reviews are written in the first weeks of use, and the one long-tenure unhappy review ([8159], 2★, over a year, June 2026) has no text
- Buyers comparing on price — only one review mentions cost at all ([2760], "the price is reasonable")
What will annoy you
Configuration is complex; non-technical merchants and merchants with specific requirements struggle without the founders doing it: 7 reviews, steady, last seen 2026-06.
How the developer behaves when it breaks
Replies to roughly three-quarters of reviews and to both negatives. The 1★ got a same-week, named reply from the founder offering troubleshooting and free extended support ([8836]); the 2★ got a reply saying they had emailed to find out what was wrong ([8159]). Neither shows a public resolution or an updated rating, so there is no evidence of what happened next. Where problems are described inside positive reviews, merchants repeatedly say they were fixed fast and sometimes with new code ([2324], [8035], [0490], [2527], [5275]). Note the replies to positive reviews arrive in batches months later (Nov 2024, Apr 2025, Jun 2025, Feb 2026) and read as keyword-dense feature recaps of each merchant's setup, so the 78% reply rate is not a measure of support speed — the reviews themselves are.
What goes wrong 4 recurring themes
- Configuration is complex; non-technical merchants and merchants with specific requirements struggle without the founders doing it 7 reviews steady, last seen 2026-06
“While the backend can feel a bit overwhelming (at least for non-technically minded people like myself), the team are quick to respond” review 6953
- Feature gaps merchants had to wait on (reporting/insights, discount-code interaction, operational odds and ends) 3 reviews fading, last seen 2025-05
“There are some bits I'd like to see on our backend (e.g. better sales data and insights)” review 9323
- Storefront breakage reported at install (single report, uninstalled after 26 minutes) 1 review fading, last seen 2025-03
“It makes your website glitch avoid this.” review 8836
Also 8836 - Customers able to bypass mandatory date selection 1 review resolved, last seen 2025-09
“I needed some help figuring out how some customers were able to circumvent choosing a delivery date but Daniel helped me fix it very quickly via chat.” review 2324
Also 2324
What it does well 6 themes
- Hands-on founder support: fast replies, scheduled calls, white-glove install and configuration 85 reviews
“they were willing to white glove install the app on our store, manually input my complex shipping rules by zip code directly into the app” review 2760
- Builds custom features and tweaks on request, sometimes within weeks 22 reviews
“We needed different pickup times for different days and they added the feature to the app for us.” review 5275
- Handles complex location and date logic: zip/postcode zones, cut-offs, lead times, blackout dates, capacity limits 25 reviews
“the zone settings that automatically assign delivery dates based on postal codes are something we have not seen in any other app” review 8068
- Aligns the delivery date with the shipping service sold, cutting "when will it arrive" calls and manual admin 14 reviews
“Gone are the calls, "you chose this delivery date but the service you chose will not get it there".” review 3518
- Replaced a previous date-picker app, custom build or manual process, and avoided a custom 3PL integration 10 reviews
“we don't have to make a custom integration with our 3PL, and it is easy to set up” review 5008
- Merchant-reported commercial results after install 5 reviews
“Since installing Flare, our conversion rate is up 17%.” review 8332
Red flags
- None found in the reviews.
Trend
Volume is steady — 50 reviews in the last 12 months against 57 the year before, about 4 a month — and the negative share has not moved (2%). What has changed is who writes them and about what. The 2024 reviews are about an order-ahead-for-a-discount concept (cash flow, B Corp, reduced waste); from mid-2024 onward they are about delivery-date logic, and through 2025–2026 they get heavier: US zip-code zones, UK postcodes, Australian postcode lists, Japanese regional dates, Saturday premiums, ShipStation and 3PL hand-off, draft orders, stores calling themselves Shopify Plus or migrating from Magento. The single install-breakage report is from March 2025 with roughly 60 reviews since and no recurrence. The one recent bad signal is [8159] — a 2★ in June 2026 from a store that had used it over a year, with no text explaining why.
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