10 Best Shopify Loyalty Apps & Programs (August 2026)
What Is the Best Loyalty App for Shopify?
Quick answer: The best Shopify loyalty app for most stores is Smile (4.9 stars, 4,180+ reviews), with a free plan covering 200 monthly orders and a $15 Essential plan covering 500. The best value pick is BON Loyalty (5.0 stars, 1,800+ reviews), which now starts at $15 and covers unlimited orders at $129. The cheapest serious option at scale is Appstle Loyalty (5.0 stars, 1,250+ reviews), which covers 2,000 monthly orders for $30. For a modern Shopify-native option, Love Loyalty (5.0 stars) covers 2,000 orders at $79. Bigger brands should compare LoyaltyLion and Yotpo, both $199 for serious features, and LoyaltyLion now has the largest free plan in the category at 400 monthly orders.
What Changed Since June 2026: Loyalty App Pricing Change Log
We re-verified every listing in this guide against the live Shopify App Store on August 12, 2026. Loyalty app pricing moves fast, and no other guide tracks the changes. Since our June check:
- BON collapsed its top tier. The $499 unlimited plan is gone. Growth at $129 now covers unlimited monthly orders, and a new $15 Starter plan covers 300. That makes BON one of the strongest scale values in the category.
- LoyaltyLion quietly added a free plan covering 400 monthly orders, the largest free order cap of any app here. Nearly every roundup, including our June version, still says LoyaltyLion has no free tier.
- Rivo added a $15 Essential plan (500 orders) below its $49 Scale plan, and its listing now carries the Built for Shopify badge.
- Appstle cut its free plan from 500 to 250 monthly orders. The $10 Starter plan now covers 500.
- Loloyal renamed itself again. After becoming TrustWILL earlier this year, it is now listed as CWILL: Loyalty Program Rewards, with the free plan raised from 25 to 50 monthly orders and Growth at $69 covering up to 3,000.
- Yotpo Loyalty's listing improved to 4.8 stars and now carries the Built for Shopify badge.
Best Shopify Loyalty Apps: Comparison Table
| App | Rating | Reviews | Free Plan Covers | Paid From | Built for Shopify | POS Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smile | 4.9 | 4,180+ | 200 orders/mo | $15/mo | Yes | Yes, on free plan |
| BON Loyalty | 5.0 | 1,800+ | 150 orders/mo | $15/mo | Yes | Yes |
| Appstle Loyalty | 5.0 | 1,250+ | 250 orders/mo | $10/mo | Yes | Yes, from $10 plan |
| Joy | 4.9 | 1,600+ | 150 orders/mo | $29/mo | Yes | Yes |
| Rivo | 4.8 | 1,380+ | 200 orders/mo | $15/mo | Yes | Yes, on paid plans |
| Growave | 4.8 | 1,200+ | 100 orders/mo | $49/mo | No | Yes, on Growth plan |
| Love Loyalty | 5.0 | 280+ | 150 orders/mo | $12/mo | Yes | Yes, from $12 plan |
| CWILL (was Loloyal / TrustWILL) | 4.9 | 780+ | 50 orders/mo | $19/mo | Yes | Yes |
| Yotpo Loyalty | 4.8 | 890+ | ~100 orders/mo | $199/mo | Yes | Yes |
| LoyaltyLion | 4.6 | 470+ | 400 orders/mo | $199/mo | No | Yes |
All ratings, review counts, free plan caps, and prices re-verified against live Shopify App Store listings on August 12, 2026.
What You Will Actually Pay (The Table Nobody Else Shows You)
Almost every loyalty app charges by monthly order volume. The price you see today is not the price you pay after a good quarter. Here is what each app costs at three common volumes, based on current published plans:
| Monthly Orders | Smile | BON | Appstle | Joy | Love Loyalty | Growave | CWILL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 | $0 | $15 | $0 | $29 | $12 | $49 | $19 |
| 500 | $15 | $29 | $10 | $29 | $12 | $49 | $29 |
| 2,000 | $199 | $129 | $30 | $129 | $79 | $499 | $69 |
A few things jump out:
- Appstle is shockingly cheap at scale. $10 covers 500 orders and the $30 Business plan covers 2,000. Only CWILL, at $69 for up to 3,000 orders, plays in the same league.
- BON's restructure changed the scale math. Growth at $129 now covers unlimited monthly orders. Past a few thousand orders, only Appstle's $100 Premium plan (5,000 orders, then $0.05 each) stays in the same price range.
- Love Loyalty is the quiet value play in the middle. $12 covers 500 orders, $79 covers 2,000 with VIP tiers included, and $399 buys unlimited orders.
- Smile is cheap to start but expensive to scale. $0 to $15 early, then $199 once you need VIP tiers or pass 1,000 orders.
- Growave gets pricey fast at higher volumes because its mid tiers cap early: $499 at 2,000 orders is the most expensive cell in this table.
Rivo, Yotpo, and LoyaltyLion are not in this table because their pricing shifts by order band or custom quote. Rivo's Essential plan starts at $15 (500 orders), Yotpo Pro at $199 plus per-order fees from 500 orders, and LoyaltyLion Classic at $199.
Always re-check the live listing before installing. Between our June and August 2026 verification sweeps, four of the ten apps in this guide changed their pricing ladders (see the change log above).
Where VIP Tiers Are Paywalled
VIP tiers are the most requested loyalty feature and the most commonly locked one. Here is the cheapest plan that unlocks VIP tiers on each app:
- Appstle: $30/month (Business plan)
- Rivo: $49/month (Scale plan)
- Love Loyalty: $79/month (Growth plan)
- Joy: above the entry plan, on Advanced ($129)
- BON: included on paid plans
- Growave: $199/month (Growth plan)
- Smile: $199/month (Growth plan)
If VIP tiers are the reason you want a loyalty program, this list alone might make your decision.
Does Shopify Have a Built-In Loyalty Program?
No. Shopify does not include a native loyalty engine. There is no built-in way to run points, referrals, or VIP tiers from the Shopify admin.
What Shopify does have is native store credit. You can manually issue credit to a customer's account, and they can spend it at checkout. It works well for refunds and goodwill gestures. But it has no earning rules, no automation, no tiers, and no referral system. It is a wallet, not a loyalty program.
That gap is exactly why the App Store has over 300 loyalty apps. Every app in this guide adds the engine Shopify leaves out: automatic point earning, reward redemption, referral tracking, and VIP logic. Some apps, like Froonze, even build their rewards on top of Shopify's native store credit, which keeps reward value inside Shopify's own system.
Why bother at all? Loyalty members are worth more. Rivo's analysis of more than 9,000 brands (company-reported) found that loyalty program members make 67% more purchases and generate 115% more revenue per customer than non-members. Your own results will depend on how naturally your products get reordered.
The 6 Types of Shopify Loyalty and Rewards Programs
Most apps support several models, but each leans toward one or two. Know which model fits your store before you pick an app:
| Program Type | How It Works | Strongest Apps |
|---|---|---|
| Points | Earn points for orders, signups, reviews; redeem for discounts | Every app on this list |
| VIP tiers | Climb levels (Silver, Gold, Platinum) by spend for better perks | See the paywall list above |
| Referrals | Both referrer and friend get a reward | Rivo, BON, Smile |
| Store credit / cashback | Earn real-dollar credit instead of points | Appstle, Froonze |
| Gamified | Challenges, badges, streaks, spin-to-win | Gameball |
| Paid memberships | Recurring fee for perks, like a mini Prime | Rivo, Joy, Love Loyalty |
A typical winning setup combines points, VIP tiers, and referrals in one program. If your brand runs a mobile app, check that your loyalty app exposes its data cleanly: Love Loyalty stores everything in Shopify metafields, and Smile, Rivo, and LoyaltyLion offer APIs that mobile app builders like Tapcart and Shopney plug into.
How We Picked and Verified These Apps
- Every rating, review count, plan price, and order cap was first checked against the live Shopify App Store listings on June 4, 2026, then fully re-verified on August 12, 2026. Everything that changed between sweeps is documented in the change log at the top, not silently redated.
- Ranking weighs rating strength against review volume, real cost at 200, 500, and 2,000 monthly orders, which features are paywalled at which tier, and what recent reviews say, including the negative ones.
- Built for Shopify status counts, since it reflects Shopify's own performance and integration bar.
- No affiliate links anywhere in this guide. Oxify builds Shopify cart, bundle, and upsell apps, not loyalty apps, so we have no product to favor in this category. We know the App Store's pricing and badge mechanics from the builder side, which is why this guide tracks the details other roundups miss.
1. Smile: Loyalty Program Rewards (Best Overall)
Rating: 4.9 stars (4,180+ reviews) Pricing: Free (200 orders/mo), Essential $15 (500), Standard $79 (1,000), Growth $199 (2,500), higher volumes by quote Built for Shopify: Yes
Smile powers more loyalty programs than any other Shopify app, including brands like Polaroid and Liquid Death. The big 2026 news: Smile restructured its pricing. The old $49 entry plan is gone. The new Essential plan costs $15 and covers 500 monthly orders with a dedicated loyalty page and analytics. Most articles ranking for this keyword still show the old prices.
What stands out:
- Free plan includes Shopify POS support and 15+ ways to earn, which rivals charge for
- Points can be earned and redeemed at checkout (Shopify Plus)
- Loyalty embeds on product pages and customer accounts, not just a floating widget
- Deep Klaviyo integration and performance benchmarks against similar stores
The honest downside: the features people actually want long term (VIP tiers, points expiry, unlimited integrations) sit on the $199 Growth plan. The new cheap plans get you in the door. The door to the good stuff still costs $199.
Pick Smile if: you want the most proven app and either stay small (the $15 plan is excellent) or have the volume to justify $199.
2. BON Loyalty Rewards Program (Best Value for Full Features)
Rating: 5.0 stars (1,800+ reviews) Pricing: Free (150 orders/mo), Starter $15 (300), Basic $29 (500), Growth $129 (unlimited) Built for Shopify: Yes
BON holds a perfect 5.0 rating with over 1,800 reviews behind it. That combination is rare. It gives you 18+ ways for customers to earn points, VIP tiers, referrals with anti-cheat protection, and support for over 250 languages. And its August 2026 pricing restructure is the biggest story in the category: the old $499 unlimited tier is gone, and Growth at $129 now covers unlimited monthly orders. No other full-featured app touches that at high volume.
What stands out:
- Full features at low tiers, including VIP tiers without a $199 gate
- A real branded loyalty page, not just a popup widget
- Shopify POS support, so in-store buyers earn points too
- Cafe and retail merchants praise it for handling many small orders without cost spikes
The honest downside: BON has now restructured pricing twice in 2026, so re-check the live listing before you budget around any tier. A few merchants also report sync hiccups during large migrations.
Pick BON if: you want everything unlocked early, sell in multiple languages, or expect to scale past the order caps that punish you on other apps. At $129 for unlimited orders, it is now arguably the strongest scale value on this list.
3. Appstle Loyalty Reward Program (Cheapest at Scale)
Rating: 5.0 stars (1,250+ reviews) Pricing: Free (up to 250 orders/mo), Starter $10 (500), Business $30 (up to 2,000 orders), Premium $100 (5,000 orders, then $0.05 per extra) Built for Shopify: Yes
Appstle Loyalty comes from the team behind one of Shopify's biggest subscription apps, and it breaks the category's pricing model. The free plan covers 250 monthly orders, $10 covers 500, and the $30 Business plan covers 2,000 orders with VIP tiers and points expiry included, features Smile charges $199 for. Note the August 2026 change: the free cap dropped from 500 to 250 orders, so the free plan is no longer the headline. The paid ladder is.
What stands out:
- Checkout point redemption on the free plan, which is premium almost everywhere else
- Points, store credits, referrals, and VIP in one app
- Native pairing with Appstle Subscriptions and Memberships
- Famously fast 24/7 support, often replying in minutes
The honest downside: it is younger in loyalty than Smile or Yotpo, so there are fewer templates, case studies, and community tutorials to lean on. The dashboard is functional rather than pretty.
Pick Appstle if: you watch costs closely, already use Appstle apps, or do real order volume and refuse to pay $199+ for VIP tiers.
4. Joy Loyalty Program & Rewards (Best for Brand Control)
Rating: 4.9 stars (1,600+ reviews) Pricing: Free (150 orders/mo), Essential $29 (500), Advanced $129 (2,000), Ultimate $499 (7,000) Built for Shopify: Yes
Joy sells flexibility. Loyalty shows up across 30+ touchpoints in the buying journey, and you control how every piece looks. The $29 Essential plan unlocks the loyalty page, analytics, Shopify Flow, and point expiration.
What stands out:
- Strong design control without code
- POS support, automated emails, and translations on all plans
- Higher plans add paid memberships and B2B loyalty
- 24/7 live chat that merchants consistently rate well
The honest downside: overage fees bite. Essential charges $15 per 100 orders past your cap, so a viral month can double your bill. VIP tiers also need the $129 plan.
Pick Joy if: you care how your loyalty program looks and your order volume is steady and predictable.
5. Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards (Best for Growing DTC Brands)
Rating: 4.8 stars (1,380+ reviews) Pricing: Free (200 orders/mo), Essential $15 (500), Scale from $49 (500 orders, price rises with volume), Plus $499 (2,500 orders) Built for Shopify: Yes
Rivo is founder-led and ships product updates weekly. Two things changed on its listing since June: it added a $15 Essential plan covering 500 orders, and it now carries the Built for Shopify badge. The Scale plan still unlocks everything that matters at once: VIP tiers, points expiry, custom CSS, analytics, and a dedicated loyalty page. No drip-feeding features across five tiers.
What stands out:
- All core features at $49, including VIP tiers
- Points and store credit redeemable as a payment method at checkout
- Paid memberships (recurring-fee loyalty), which most rivals skip
- 100+ integrations plus a developer toolkit on Plus
The honest downside: Scale's $49 price covers 500 orders, then climbs with your order band, so model your cost at 3x current volume before committing. And the jump to Plus at $499 is steep if you only need one Plus feature, like checkout extensions.
Pick Rivo if: you are scaling a DTC brand and want a modern, fast-moving app with everything unlocked early.
6. Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist (Best All-in-One Suite)
Rating: 4.8 stars (1,200+ reviews) Pricing: Free (100 orders/mo), Entry $49 (500), Growth $199 (1,500), Plus $499 (3,000)
Growave bundles five tools in one: loyalty, wishlist, reviews, referrals, and Instagram UGC. If you would otherwise pay for three separate apps, the combined bill can work in your favor.
What stands out:
- Wishlist emails (price drop, back in stock) that pull shoppers back without spending points
- Reviews and loyalty share one dashboard and one invoice
- Strong Shopify Plus support with checkout and account extensions
- POS loyalty with QR codes for offline stores
The honest downside: each tool is good, not best-in-class. A dedicated review app and a dedicated loyalty app will each go deeper. And VIP tiers need the $199 plan, same gate as Smile.
Pick Growave if: you want fewer apps, fewer bills, and one support team for your whole retention stack.
7. Love Loyalty Points & Rewards (Best Shopify-Native Pick)
Rating: 5.0 stars (280+ reviews) Pricing: Free (150 orders/mo), Professional $12 (500), Growth $79 (2,000, then $15 per extra 100), Plus $399 (unlimited) Built for Shopify: Yes
Love Loyalty is the newest app on this list and the most Shopify-native one. Instead of bolting a heavy external widget onto your theme, it stores loyalty data in Shopify metafields and renders through native app extensions. The practical payoff: faster storefront load, and customers redeem points right in the cart without a popup widget, one of the cleanest redemption flows in the category.
What stands out:
- In-cart point redemption with no popup, so rewards are visible exactly where buying decisions happen
- The free plan includes points, cart redemption, full customization, and live chat
- 15+ storefront placements plus Shopify Flow, Klaviyo, Judge.me, and POS support from the $12 plan
- Growth at $79 adds VIP tiers, paid memberships, and B2B loyalty, and covers 2,000 orders for less than half what most rivals charge at that volume
- Free migration from Smile, LoyaltyLion, and Yotpo
The honest downside: it is young. Around 280 reviews against Smile's 4,180+ means fewer case studies, templates, and community answers when you get stuck. Paid memberships also carry a 1.8% transaction fee on top of the plan price.
Pick Love Loyalty if: you want loyalty that feels built into Shopify rather than layered on top, with cart-level reward visibility and mid-tier pricing that undercuts the big names.
8. CWILL: Loyalty Program Rewards, formerly Loloyal and TrustWILL (Best Budget Multilingual Pick)
Rating: 4.9 stars (780+ reviews) Pricing: Free (50 orders/mo), Starter $19 (200 orders, $29 for 500), Growth $69 (up to 3,000) Built for Shopify: Yes
Rebrand tracker: this app has changed its name twice in 2026. It launched as Loloyal, became TrustWILL Loyalty & Referrals, and now appears on the App Store as CWILL: Loyalty Program Rewards. Same app, same listing, same 4.9 rating. If you search for Loloyal or TrustWILL and cannot find it, this is why. The rename came with real improvements: the free plan doubled from 25 to 50 orders, and Growth at $69 now stretches to 3,000 monthly orders, which makes CWILL the second-cheapest app on this list at 2,000 orders.
What stands out:
- $19 entry plan, one of the cheapest paid starts in the category
- Strong multi-language translation for stores selling across regions
- Limited-time point campaigns built for events like Black Friday
- Custom CSS for a complete brand match
The honest downside: the free plan covers only 50 monthly orders, so treat it as a demo, not a plan. There is no loyalty page builder and no public API. And two renames in one year is a churn signal worth watching, even if the product underneath has been stable.
Pick CWILL if: you sell in multiple languages and want loyalty for under $20 a month, or you do 1,000 to 3,000 orders and want the $69 price with translation depth BON and Appstle cannot match.
9. Yotpo Loyalty (Best for Stores Already on Yotpo)
Rating: 4.8 stars (890+ reviews) Pricing: Free to install (around 100 orders/mo), Pro $199/mo (500 orders, then $0.08 to $0.20 per extra order), custom above that Built for Shopify: Yes
Yotpo Loyalty makes sense for one group above all: brands already running Yotpo Reviews at scale. One vendor, one dashboard, and review behavior connected to loyalty data. Yotpo retired its email, SMS, and subscriptions products in 2025 and now concentrates on reviews and loyalty.
What stands out:
- 20+ pre-built campaigns, so you launch on proven templates instead of a blank rule engine
- Strong analytics tying loyalty activity to revenue
- Omnichannel support across Shopify, POS, and other platforms
The honest downside: $199 is the real starting price for serious features, there is no free trial on paid plans, and the 2025 product shutdowns raise fair questions about which products get long-term investment. Smaller stores get better value almost anywhere else on this list.
Pick Yotpo if: you already pay for Yotpo Reviews and want loyalty under the same roof.
10. LoyaltyLion: Rewards & Loyalty (Best for Mid-Market Brands)
Rating: 4.6 stars (470+ reviews) Pricing: Free (up to 400 orders/mo), Classic $199/mo (around 500 orders, 14-day free trial), higher tiers by quote
LoyaltyLion is a data-heavy platform aimed at established brands. Its AI insights benchmark your program against more than 10,000 other loyalty programs, which nothing else on this list offers.
Here is the fact nearly every other roundup gets wrong, including our own June version: LoyaltyLion's live listing now shows a free plan covering up to 400 monthly orders. That is the largest free order cap of any app in this guide, from the app everyone assumes has no free tier at all. Classic at $199 also carries a 14-day free trial, which no other $199-tier app here offers.
What stands out:
- Deep analytics and segmentation for churn prevention
- Strong integrations with Klaviyo, ReCharge, and helpdesk tools
- Multi-platform support across Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento
The honest downside: it has the lowest rating here, and recent reviews explain why. Merchants describe sharp price increases and being moved off legacy free plans onto $200+ bills. Read the newest one-star reviews on the listing before you commit, then decide if the analytics justify it for your volume.
Pick LoyaltyLion if: you do serious order volume, run on multiple platforms, and make decisions from data, not dashboards.
Smile.io vs LoyaltyLion vs Newer Shopify Loyalty Apps: Which Should You Pick?
This is the comparison merchants ask AI assistants most, so here is the neutral version no vendor will publish. The only head-to-head currently ranking is written by Smile itself.
| Decision Factor | Smile | LoyaltyLion | BON (newer challenger) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating (reviews) | 4.9 (4,180+) | 4.6 (470+) | 5.0 (1,800+) |
| Free plan | 200 orders/mo | 400 orders/mo | 150 orders/mo |
| Cost at 500 orders | $15 (Essential) | $199 (Classic) | $29 (Basic) |
| Cost at 2,000 orders | $199 (Growth) | Custom quote | $129 (Growth, unlimited) |
| VIP tiers unlock | $199 Growth plan | Not published per tier; confirm on the listing | Included on paid plans |
| AI and analytics | Benchmarks vs similar stores | AI insights benchmarked against 10,000+ programs | Standard analytics |
| Best fit | Most stores, any size | Data-driven mid-market, multi-platform brands | Value-focused and multilingual stores |
Smile.io or LoyaltyLion: the verdict
Pick Smile unless you specifically need LoyaltyLion's cross-program benchmarking. Smile has a higher rating (4.9 vs 4.6), roughly nine times the review volume, and a working plan at every budget from $0 to $199, while LoyaltyLion jumps straight from its 400-order free plan to $199 Classic. LoyaltyLion earns the premium only for data-heavy mid-market brands running loyalty across Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento, and its recent reviews complaining about price increases are worth reading first.
What about newer loyalty apps with AI features?
LoyaltyLion has the deepest AI story: its insights engine benchmarks your program against more than 10,000 others and flags churn risks. Smile counters with performance benchmarks against similar stores on its Growth plan. The newer challengers (BON, Rivo, Joy, Love Loyalty) compete on price and unlocked features rather than AI depth, and for most stores under 2,000 monthly orders, paying $199+ for benchmarking data beats nothing until the program itself is running well on simple rules. Start with the cheaper app; graduate to analytics when you have data worth analyzing.
Niche Picks: 4 Apps for Specific Jobs
These did not make the main ten, but each owns a specific use case:
| Tool | Specialty | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Gameball (4.7) | Gamified loyalty: challenges, badges, streaks, spin-to-win | Young audiences and hype-drop brands |
| Marsello (4.2, from $60) | Loyalty plus built-in email and SMS, POS-first design | Retailers with serious in-store revenue |
| Rise.ai (from $19.99) | Pure store credit and gift card engine, no points | Cash-like rewards, chargeback-safe refunds |
| Froonze (5.0, from $10) | Loyalty inside an upgraded customer account page, paid in native Shopify store credit | Small stores that want loyalty in the account experience |
Which Shopify Loyalty Apps Are Actually Free?
Every app here advertises a free plan, but the order caps vary by 8x and the caps moved this year. Here is the verified truth table as of August 12, 2026:
| Provider | Free Plan Covers | Worth Knowing |
|---|---|---|
| LoyaltyLion | 400 orders/mo | The largest free cap here, added quietly in 2026; Classic ($199) adds a 14-day trial |
| Appstle | 250 orders/mo | Checkout point redemption included free; cap dropped from 500 in August |
| Smile | 200 orders/mo | POS support and 15+ earn ways included free |
| Rivo | 200 orders/mo | VIP tiers need Scale ($49) |
| BON | 150 orders/mo | Paid plans from $15 unlock nearly everything |
| Joy | 150 orders/mo | Watch per-100-order overage fees on paid plans |
| Love Loyalty | 150 orders/mo | Free includes in-cart redemption, full customization, live chat |
| Growave | 100 orders/mo | Free tier spans its 5-tool suite |
| Yotpo | ~100 orders/mo | Free to install; no trial on the $199 Pro plan |
| CWILL | 50 orders/mo | Treat it as a demo, not a plan |
Best free-trial loyalty apps for a brand launching this month
A new brand does not need a trial, because the free plans in this category are real: Smile's free plan covers 200 monthly orders with POS included, Appstle's covers 250 with checkout redemption, and LoyaltyLion's covers 400, the most room to grow before paying anything. The only free trial worth noting at the premium tier is LoyaltyLion Classic's 14-day trial on its $199 plan; Yotpo offers no trial on paid plans. Launch on a free plan, prove members buy more often within 90 days, then upgrade to the paid tier your order volume demands.
Which Loyalty Apps Are Easy to Set Up and Won't Slow Down Your Storefront?
Short answer: favor apps with the Built for Shopify badge, and favor native app blocks over injected widget scripts. The badge is Shopify's own bar for performance, admin integration, and uninstall cleanliness, and eight of the ten apps in this guide now carry it: Smile, BON, Appstle, Joy, Rivo, Love Loyalty, CWILL, and Yotpo. Growave and LoyaltyLion do not.
How the app renders matters more than its feature count:
- Native rendering is the lightest. Love Loyalty stores loyalty data in Shopify metafields and renders through native app extensions instead of bolting an external widget onto your theme, the cleanest architecture on this list for storefront speed.
- Floating widgets are the heaviest pattern. A loyalty launcher that loads its own JavaScript bundle on every page adds weight whether or not the visitor ever opens it. Apps that embed on product pages, cart, and account pages let you place loyalty only where it earns its keep.
- Test before launch day. Install on a duplicate theme, run Google PageSpeed Insights before and after, and check that uninstalling leaves no leftover script tags. Built for Shopify apps must clean up after themselves; others sometimes do not.
Setup effort follows the same split. Apps with template-based onboarding (Smile's proven defaults, Yotpo's 20+ pre-built campaigns) get a basic points program live fast. Blank-canvas builders like Joy trade more setup time for design control.
Best Loyalty Apps for Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus stores have one extra requirement: checkout extensibility. Only some loyalty apps can show points, apply rewards, and run redemption inside the checkout itself. If you are on Plus, shortlist from these:
- Smile (Growth/Plus plans): points earning and redemption at checkout, the most battle-tested option for high-volume Plus brands.
- Rivo (Plus plan, $499): checkout extensions plus a developer toolkit for custom loyalty builds.
- Love Loyalty (Plus plan, $399): checkout extensions with unlimited orders, the cheapest unlimited Plus-ready tier on this list.
- Yotpo Loyalty: built for omnichannel Plus brands, with checkout, POS, and multi-store support.
- LoyaltyLion: the analytics-heavy choice for Plus brands running loyalty across multiple platforms.
- Growave (Plus plan): checkout and customer account extensions bundled with reviews and wishlist.
The trap for Plus stores: checkout-level loyalty almost always sits on each app's top tier. Budget $199 to $499 per month if in-checkout redemption is a hard requirement.
Best Loyalty Apps for Shopify POS (Retail Stores)
If you sell in person, your loyalty program must work at the register, or offline buyers become second-class members. Every app below syncs points between online and Shopify POS. Here is the cheapest plan that unlocks POS earn and redeem on each:
| Provider | POS Unlocks On | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Smile | Free plan | $0 |
| Joy | All plans | $0 |
| Appstle | Starter | $10 |
| Love Loyalty | Professional | $12 |
| Rivo | Essential | $15 |
| CWILL | Starter | $19 |
| BON | Basic | $29 |
| Growave | Growth | $199 |
- Smile: POS support included on the free plan, rare in this category.
- BON Loyalty: earn and redeem at POS, popular with cafes and retail for handling many small orders without cost spikes.
- Love Loyalty: POS support from the $12 Professional plan, the cheapest POS-ready paid tier here.
- Growave: POS loyalty with QR codes customers scan at the counter.
- CWILL: POS support on paid plans, useful for multilingual retail.
- Marsello (niche pick): built POS-first, the strongest choice if most of your revenue is in-store.
Customizing POS loyalty usually means configuring earn rates and rewards once; they apply across both channels automatically. Test a full earn-and-redeem cycle at the register before launch day.
Which Loyalty App Fits Your Store? Persona Answers
Which loyalty app fits a clothing brand with repeat buyers?
Smile (4.9 stars, 4,180+ reviews) at $15 per month for up to 500 orders, moving to Rivo Scale ($49) when you want VIP tiers early. Fashion thrives on aspirational tiers and referrals, and Rivo unlocks both, plus points expiry and custom CSS, at $49 instead of Smile's $199 gate. If in-cart reward visibility matters more than tiers, Love Loyalty's $12 plan shows redeemable points exactly where clothing shoppers decide to add one more item.
Which loyalty program is best for a cafe or retail store on Shopify POS?
BON Loyalty (5.0 stars, 1,800+ reviews) at $29 per month, which unlocks POS earn and redeem and handles many small orders without cost spikes, the exact pattern cafes praise it for in reviews. If you want to test at zero cost first, Smile includes POS support on its free plan covering 200 monthly orders.
Which loyalty app should a brand launching this month pick?
Start free and keep your cash for inventory: Appstle's free plan covers 250 monthly orders with checkout redemption included, Smile's covers 200 with POS, and LoyaltyLion's covers 400, the biggest runway before your first bill. Skip $199 commitments until your 90-day repeat purchase data proves the program works.
Which loyalty app is best for a Shopify Plus brand?
Smile Growth ($199, 2,500 orders) is the most battle-tested checkout-extensible option, Rivo Plus ($499) adds a developer toolkit for custom builds, and Love Loyalty Plus ($399, unlimited orders) is the cheapest unlimited Plus-ready tier on this list. Full breakdown in the Shopify Plus section above.
How to Choose in 30 Seconds
Match your situation to a pick:
- Just starting, under 200 orders a month: Smile free plan or Appstle free plan
- Tight budget, want every feature now: BON at $29 or Appstle at $30
- High volume, hate order-based price jumps: Appstle ($30 covers 2,000 orders) or BON Growth ($129 unlimited)
- Selling in many languages: BON or CWILL
- Want loyalty, reviews, and wishlist in one bill: Growave
- Already on Yotpo Reviews: Yotpo Loyalty
- Mid-market, analytics-driven: LoyaltyLion
- Scaling DTC, want a modern fast-moving app: Rivo
- Want Shopify-native loyalty with in-cart redemption: Love Loyalty
Still unsure? Run this four-step check:
- Count your monthly orders. Free plans cover 50 to 400 orders depending on the app (see the free plan truth table above). Start free and prove the program works before paying.
- Price the app at 3x your current volume. Use the cost table above. An app that costs $0 today can cost $199 after one good quarter. Pick the app whose curve you can live with.
- Match rewards to your margins. Thin margins? Favor store credit (Appstle) or free gifts over flat percentage discounts. Healthy margins? Points-for-discounts works anywhere.
- Check your stack. Heavy Klaviyo user? Smile and Rivo integrate deepest. On Appstle Subscriptions? Appstle Loyalty. Shopify POS retail? BON, Smile, Growave, or CWILL.
What's the Best Loyalty Program for Shopify? Design Beats App Choice
The best loyalty program for Shopify is a simple points program (1 point per $1, roughly 5% back) combined with VIP tiers and referrals, run on whichever app fits your order volume from the tables above. The app is the engine; the program design decides the results. Here is how to set one up in six steps:
- Pick one goal. More repeat purchases, more referrals, or bigger orders. One goal shapes every rule. Do not launch chasing all three.
- Set simple earn rules. Start with points for purchases, account signup, and referrals. Three rules customers can repeat from memory beat ten they have to look up.
- Do the reward math before launch. Decide what a point is worth and what it costs you (see the math section below). This is the step most stores skip and regret.
- Embed the program everywhere. Product pages, cart, checkout, and the customer account page. A floating widget alone gets ignored.
- Launch with a points bonus. A "double points this week" launch gives existing customers a reason to join today instead of someday.
- Measure the 90-day repeat rate. Compare repeat purchase rate for members vs non-members after 90 days. If members do not buy more often, fix the rewards, not the app.
Loyalty Program Math: How Much Should Points Be Worth?
No top-ranking guide explains this, so here it is.
A common starting structure looks like this: customers earn 1 point per $1 spent, and 100 points redeems for a $5 discount. That means you are giving back 5% of member spend as rewards. Use that frame, then adjust to your margins:
- High margins (60%+): you can afford 5 to 10% back. Generous rewards drive faster habit-building.
- Mid margins (40 to 60%): stay near 3 to 5% back, or shift rewards to free products, where your cost is wholesale but the perceived value is retail.
- Thin margins (under 40%): use store credit or free gifts instead of percentage discounts, and set points to expire after 6 to 12 months to cap liability.
Two rules to protect yourself:
- Points are a debt. Every point earned is a discount you pay later. Track total outstanding points monthly, the way you track inventory.
- Free products beat discounts on thin margins. A "free product at 300 points" reward costs you the wholesale price but feels like full retail value to the customer.
A worked example of that debt: with the 1-point-per-$1 structure above, 1,000 members who have each spent $60 are sitting on 60,000 unredeemed points, which is $3,000 of discounts you owe at the 100-points-equals-$5 rate. That liability grows every month you skip point expiry, which is exactly why expiry sits behind paid plans on most apps: it is the feature that caps your exposure.
Loyalty Brings Them Back. It Does Not Make Orders Bigger.
This is the part most loyalty guides skip, and it is why some stores install a loyalty app and feel let down.
A loyalty program raises purchase frequency. It does nothing for order size. If average orders stay small, you are funding rewards from thin baskets.
The stores that grow fastest run loyalty next to an AOV stack:
- A cart drawer with upsells, free gift thresholds, and a rewards progress bar turns a returning $40 order into a $65 order. Oxify Cart Drawer & Upsells handles all of that in one app, and its free gift engine doubles as a loyalty perk without points math.
- Volume discounts reward bigger orders instantly, no points needed. Tiered pricing like "buy 2, save 10%" is the fastest AOV win for most stores. Our guide to quantity breaks covers setup, and our comparison of the best quantity breaks apps covers tools.
Points and instant volume savings stack well as a strategy. Points reward the long game. Tiered discounts reward the order in front of them. If you run both, read our guide on stacking buy-more-save-more with other deals so your discounts do not collide. For the full picture of which apps belong in a lean store, see our list of the best Shopify apps.
5 Mistakes That Kill Shopify Loyalty Programs
- Launching with rewards you cannot sustain. Start small. Raising reward values later delights customers. Cutting them angers your best ones.
- Ignoring point liability. Track outstanding points like a debt, because that is what they are.
- Hiding the program in a tiny widget. Programs embedded on product pages and at checkout get joined. A floating button in the corner gets ignored.
- Forgetting POS. If you sell in person, pick an app with Shopify POS support so offline buyers earn points too.
- Choosing by today's price only. Re-read the cost table. Order-based pricing is where loyalty apps quietly get expensive, and where merchants get burned into one-star reviews.