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Let’s talk loyalty software. Assuming you want to increase your revenue by 50%, you’ve baked customer loyalty into your marketing strategy. What’s next? Time to start the dreaded search for the “right” Shopify app to execute on that loyalty-focused marketing strategy.
I’m sure that sounds familiar. Virtually every Shopify merchant feels overwhelmed about choosing the “right” loyalty app for their store. We decided to ease the pain and offer you a list of Shopify loyalty apps that we consider worth trying (yes, we’re on the list, but that’s because we built an amazing functionality that shadows the others—more on that later).
How did we choose the best Shopify loyalty apps?
We concluded that creating a list based exclusively on features is not helpful to most Shopify merchants. Store owners must consider a myriad of aspects before deciding to give an app a try. We’ve examined 5 interconnected dimensions:
- Clear pricing
Whether it’s crystal clear what each price plan the app offers and for what store sizes it's designed.
- Affordability level
Whether the app is affordable in the long run across different store sizes.
- Critical features
Whether the app not only has the minimum necessary features, but also promotes customer loyalty and increases store revenue.
- Complimentary features
Whether the app offers additional functionalities besides loyalty that could enhance its core offer.
- App reputation
Whether the app has good ratings, positive reviews, and has been on the market for some time.
Without further ado, let’s jump into it!
Which Shopify loyalty apps are the best?
1. Froonze Loyalty & Wishlist
Froonze positions itself as a full-fledged loyalty and wishlist solution that integrates seamlessly with its additional customer account and custom form plugins. Packed with powerful features, it’s one of the only Shopify loyalty apps to offer a built-in native store credit loyalty program.
Clear pricing
Froonze’s loyalty plugin pricing system ranges from free to $60 per month. It offers 4 plans that are easy to understand at a glance:
Froonze’s loyalty plugin pricing is clear and can be understood in a jiffy, even for the busy Shopify merchant focused on driving revenue.
Larger stores with over 1,000 orders will need to pay only $60 per month for access to all loyalty features. That’s it.
Smaller merchants who exceed the free plan’s limit or want access to virtually every loyalty feature (excepting customer exclusion functionality) will need to pay only $10 per month, and as they grow, only $30 per month.
You might ask yourself what the catch is. There isn’t one. Quality loyalty software can be priced decently and offer great value. It’s that simple.
Affordability level
Froonze shows that creating long-lasting customer loyalty is an affordable endeavour, and that should be the norm.
Large stores with more than 1,000 orders will pay a maximum of $720 a year for the loyalty plugin.
Smaller merchants who exceed the loyalty free plan’s limit or want all the loyalty features will pay $120 per year. If customer exclusion is preferred or the 500 monthly order limit is exceeded, the upgrade will result in spending only $360 per year for loyalty.
Critical features
Froonze offers all the essentials: points-based system (earning and spending rules), VIP and referral programs, Shopify POS integration, multi-language support (no limits; every language supported by Shopify), email notifications (pre-created templates or full customisation power), and the most exciting feature of all—a native Shopify store credit-based loyalty program (only for new customer account stores).
As one of the very few apps to have built full native store credit-based loyalty functionality, Froonze leads the way in creating a smoother checkout experience. How? Store credit can simply be applied at checkout without needing to redeem any points.
Faster checkout → smoother experience → higher conversion. It’s that simple.
Complimentary features
Froonze offers several complementary plugins: Wishlist (for both legacy and new customer accounts), Customer Account (for legacy accounts only), and Custom Forms (legacy accounts only).
These additional features not only enhance Froonze’s core loyalty functionality but also create a more integrated and streamlined customer experience, resulting in more growth.
App reputation
Froonze has a 5-star rating on the Shopify App Store from over 200 reviews. It was founded in 2021, so it has been on the market for 4 years. The only two negative reviews are from merchants who used the app for less than 20 minutes.
Shopify merchants highlight the app’s ease of use and impeccable customer support efforts. Furthermore, most reviews mention the extensive customisation possibilities, especially in terms of widget appearance, email notifications, and texts and translations. Merchants also praise the option to create a store credit-based loyalty program.
2. Joy Loyalty Rewards Program
Joy portrays itself as a social-first rewards program, tailored mostly towards beauty and fitness brands. Joy promises to “drive sustainable growth”.
Clear pricing
Joy’s pricing system ranges from free to custom. It offers 4 somewhat confusing pricing plans:
Joy states that for any plan, merchants get “free” monthly orders. Except for the free plan, which caps at 150 lifetime orders, merchants must pay for those “free” monthly orders, so they’re not really “free”.
Merchants who exceed the allocated maximum in a given plan will be automatically charged additional order-based fees. This is especially problematic for store owners who have to juggle more than app fees—that’s virtually any merchant focused on growing their business.
Bigger stores, with more than 7,000 monthly orders, must go through Joy’s sales team to get a custom price. Joy mentions the Enterprise price starts at $499/month.
Small stores are left with some basic loyalty functionality and are practically forced to upgrade from $0 to almost $25 to use the more advanced features. Also, once the 150 lifetime free order limit is reached, which means just a couple of months of usage even for the smallest stores, merchants are still required to upgrade.
Affordability level
Large merchants will have to pay a pretty penny, even if Joy caps the monthly maximum allocation at $10,000. That’s an easy $120,000 a year.
Small stores that grow and exceed the lifetime limit will need to upgrade; that’s a jump from $0 to $25, resulting in about $300 per year, and if 500 orders are not enough or more features are desired, the next jump is from $300 to $1,188 a year, at the very least.
Joy is an expensive app, especially in the long run, and especially for small stores that plan to grow affordably.
Critical features
According to Joy, core features refer to a loyalty page, referral program, translations, notifications, customer account blocks, specific earning and spending rules, and certain integrations. Among the advanced features, Joy offers a VIP program, a points preview widget, a checkout extension (available to Shopify Plus merchants), and access to all integrations.
One critical feature missing from Joy is the possibility to create a loyalty program based on native Shopify store credit. This is a huge missed opportunity for stores using Shopify’s New Customer Accounts. Rewarding store credit can only be done through Joy’s integration with Shopify Flow, which is limiting.
Complimentary features
Joy dabbles only in loyalty. They offer a customer account blocks feature that’s designed to enhance their loyalty offering, but that’s about it.
App reputation
Joy has a 4.9-star rating on the Shopify App Store from over 1,500 reviews. It was founded in 2021, so it has been on the market for 4 years.
Several customers have complained that Joy offers misleading information about pricing and functionalities. Furthermore, small store owners believe that Joy was not built for them.
3. Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards
Rivo describes itself as a loyalty platform built to drive revenue and retention for Shopify merchants, with a focus on pumping out weekly product updates.
Clear pricing
Rivo’s pricing system ranges from free to custom. It offers 4 plans, the paid ones being quite hard to understand:
Not only does Rivo charge per monthly orders, but it also pushes a “loyalty and referral participants” condition for the Scale plan, which caps at 250,000 participants. Rivo’s website pricing and the in-app pricing pages display conflicting information. Merchants must install the app to get the real prices. And even then, it’s hard to understand if the Scale or Plus plan is the right one for merchants.
Larger stores, with more than 2,500 orders, will need to go through Rivo’s sales team to negotiate a custom price, and must be willing to spend a minimum of $1,999 a month for the app.
Lower-volume stores that exceed the 200 monthly free plan or that desire access to more features will need to upgrade from $0 to $49 a month, and eventually jump to $499 per month.
Affordability level
Shopify store owners need to study Rivo’s complex pricing structure to avoid paying more money in the long run for features they may not need.
Large stores, with over 2,500 monthly orders, must be willing to spend a minimum of $24,000 a year.
Smaller merchants that exceed the 200-order limit or want access to advanced features will need to pay between $600 and $6,000 a year.
Rivo is an expensive solution tailored to large Shopify stores (specifically on the Shopify Plus plan), not for smaller Shopify merchants in need of a robust loyalty app that’s easy to use.
Critical features
Rivo promises that every plan comes with loyalty and referral programs, customisable branding options, and detailed analytics. Higher plans offer additional features, including dedicated loyalty and referral pages, an account page widget, VIP program, and various integrations (limited to 4 for the non-Enterprise plan).
Rivo claims that they offer a store credit program. We couldn’t find any settings to enable that, though. As is the case with Joy, Rivo missed the opportunity to cater to stores using Shopify’s New Customer Accounts that want to reward store credit instead of points.
Nonetheless, it seems that rewarding store credit can only be done through Rivo’s integration with Shopify Flow, which, again, is limiting.
Complimentary features
Excluding the account page widget, Enterprise-level merchants are offered a list of complementary features as part of the Enterprise plan offer. It’s unclear whether these features are included or are paid for separately. Among these Enterprise-level features, Rivo offers wishlists and favourites, recently viewed and saved to cart, order management, recommendation engine, custom blocks, and eligibility for Rivo Accounts.
App reputation
Rivo has a 4.9-star rating on the Shopify App Store from over 1,500 reviews. It was founded in 2021, so it has been on the market for 4 years.
Various merchants have complained about leftover code after the app is uninstalled, as well as features not working, especially after updates. Furthermore, Shopify store owners feel frustrated due to the continuous upselling attempts and pop-ups within the app. Some complained about poor customer support.
4. Smile: Loyalty Rewards Program
Smile declares itself the “world’s largest reward program provider” and has its roots in the Magento ecosystem. Later, they expanded into BigCommerce and Shopify and rebranded from Sweet Tooth Rewards to Smile.
Clear pricing
Smile’s pricing system ranges from free to custom, and is far more straightforward than Joy or Rivo. It offers 5 plans:
Smile’s additional order-based fees rule for exceeding the allocated maximum creates similar problems to Joy’s. Again, busy store owners may not have the time to pay attention when they exceed the 2,500 or 7,500 order-count limits. However, they will be automatically charged nonetheless.
Larger stores, with more than 7,500 orders, will need to either keep paying $5 per 100 orders or contact the Smile sales team for a custom offer. Smile allows merchants on their loyalty Plus plan to choose between monthly ($999/month) or yearly ($849/month) payments.
Lower-volume stores that exceed the 200 monthly orders free plan or that want to access more features will need to upgrade from $0 to $49 a month. And, eventually, to $199/month once the 500 monthly order limit is reached.
Affordability level
The pricing structure might be easier to digest, but the price tag isn’t.
Large stores will pay between almost $10,200 and $12,000 per year, depending on the billing frequency (annual or monthly). And that’s at the very minimum. Smile provides no info about the starting sum for the custom plan.
Smaller stores that exceed the 200 monthly order count limit will give almost $600 annually. Exceeding the 500 monthly order count raises the price to around $2,400 per year.
Smile is an expensive platform that targets large, enterprise-level Shopify stores willing to pay a hefty price for what appears to be limited value, not smaller merchants who are on a budget and need customisation power to fuel growth.
Critical features
Smile mentions that they offer a points program, referral program, customisation options (basic and advanced), reporting, VIP program, on-site reminders, a loyalty page, and various integrations. Every critical feature requires a paid plan, except for the basic points and referral programs.
Smile offers only the classic reward types: points, discounts, and free products. We didn’t see any mention of anything related to creating a native Shopify store credit-based loyalty program.
Complimentary features
Smile offers only loyalty features, and that’s pretty much it.
App reputation
Smile has a 4.9-star rating on the Shopify App Store, from close to 4,000 reviews. It was founded in 2012, so it has been on the market for 13 years. Smile is the fossil on this list.
And it does things the ancient way—price goes up, value stays the same, or worse, decreases. That’s the consensus among the many negative reviews. Some merchants complained about a lack of effort from support, while many others highlighted broken features, constant paywalls, and even being kept on paid plans without consent. And we’re talking about Shopify merchants who have been with Smile for 1,3, and even 10 years (well, not anymore)!
5. BON Loyalty Rewards Program
BON characterises itself as the leading Shopify loyalty & rewards app that helps thousands of merchants nurture customer loyalty and increase repeat purchases.
Clear pricing
BON’s pricing system ranges from free to $349 per month. It offers 4 plans that are easier to understand than Smile, Rivo, and Joy. The plans are:
BON opted for a mix between order count and available features. While the prices are clear, it takes some figuring out what features are included in each plan. Also, all the paid plans offer 20% off for annual payments.
Larger stores that don’t want to be locked in by a monthly order limit can choose between monthly ($99/month) or yearly ($79/month) payments for certain advanced features. Alternatively, they can opt for monthly ($349/month) or annual ($279/month) payments for the most advanced features.
Smaller stores that exceed the free plan’s monthly order limit or want to access more features will need to switch from $0 to either a monthly ($25/month) or yearly ($23/month) payment.
Affordability level
BON is mostly affordable for larger stores, but not so much for small merchants.
Large stores will pay between $950 and almost $1,200 per year, or $3,350 and $4,200 per year, depending on desired features and billing frequency (annual or monthly).
Smaller stores that exceed the 250 monthly order count limit or simply want more will give between $275 and $300 a year, depending on the billing frequency (annual or monthly).
BON is not that expensive, but it’s not affordable either. On one hand, Shopify merchants with large stores will benefit from the lower price. On the other hand, smaller Shopify stores will still have to pay money, but for limited features.
Critical features
BON highlights that it offers a points-based system (basic and advanced), VIP and referral programs, Shopify POS integration, multi-language support (in over 250 languages or limited), email notifications, and a dedicated loyalty page.
Just like Smile, BON doesn’t mention anything about store credit rewards or the possibility of creating a store credit-based loyalty program. We couldn’t find such a functionality anywhere in the app either.
Complimentary features
BON is limited to loyalty only and nothing else.
App reputation
BON has a 4.9-star rating on the Shopify App Store from around 1,450 reviews. It was founded in 2021, so it has been on the market for 4 years.
Merchants complained about a diverse range of issues. These include a lack of engagement with the app from store customers, app features not working, needing to pay for simple customisations, and a lack of proper solutions from support, to name a few.
How do our chosen Shopify loyalty apps stack against each other?
Since we prefer to make things easy to understand, we put together a comparison table between each app across each dimension:
Are you ready to install the best Shopify loyalty app?
You’ve seen our take on the best loyalty apps for Shopify. While it’s your choice which app you think is worth your time, we can’t help but recommend that you give our Froonze Loyalty & Wishlist app a try, especially if creating customer loyalty at a reasonable price is your goal! If it’s your first time installing the app, you’ll benefit from a 14-day free trial!
Froonze Customer Accounts Concierge
