Best Shopify loyalty program apps: 8 by job, each with a free plan

At a glance

What is the best Shopify loyalty program?

Find the line that sounds like your store.

Then check where each free plan stops, and the plan where referrals and VIP tiers start.

1 · Smile.io

Smile.io: can points and referrals start on a free plan?

Your first buyers have no reason to come back, and there's no budget for a loyalty app yet. Smile.io's free plan gives buyers points on each order and lets them refer friends, up to 200 orders a month.

Buyers can spend points in store with Shopify POS on every plan, the free one included. Essential, $15 for up to 500 orders, adds a loyalty page and lets a free product serve as a reward. VIP tiers, and points spent on the checkout page of a Shopify Plus store, come with Growth at $199.

Best for: points and referrals from your first order, at no cost.

2 · Joy

Joy: can shoppers spend points in the cart?

Your shoppers earn points easily and find spending them harder. Joy's Advanced plan, $129 a month for 2,000 orders, puts their reward coupons in the cart drawer.

The free Starter plan covers points, referrals with fraud checks and a loyalty widget to 250 orders a month. It has no overage charge: past 250 in a month, you move up a plan to keep the program running. Essential is $29 for 500 orders, then $15 per 100, and adds points for social engagement, such as Instagram comments. Advanced also runs VIP tiers and in-store points on Shopify POS.

Best for: points shoppers can spend in the cart drawer.

3 · BON Loyalty

BON Loyalty: can VIP tiers cost the same at any order count?

Your best customers spend more than the rest, and the plans that reward them climb with every busy month. BON's Growth plan runs VIP tiers for $129 a month with no limit on orders.

The free plan covers 150 orders a month, with points, referrals and automated emails. A Shopify Plus store on it can also let shoppers spend points on the checkout page. Starter is $15 for 300 orders, and Basic $29 for 500 with in-store points on Shopify POS. Paid plans start with a 7-day free trial, and paying yearly brings Growth to $103 a month.

Best for: VIP tiers on a price that doesn't follow your order count.

4 · Froonze

Froonze: can rewards land as Shopify store credit?

You'd rather hand returning buyers credit they spend like cash than one more discount code. Froonze's free loyalty plan pays rewards into Shopify's own store credit, for stores under 100 orders a month.

Shoppers spend that credit at checkout once they sign in to their account or pay with Shop Pay. A shopper can't choose to spend only part of the balance. The $10 Advanced plan, up to 500 orders, adds VIP tiers with their own earning rules, referrals with fraud checks and in-store points on Shopify POS. Premium raises the cap to 1,000 orders for $30, and Unlimited, at $60, adds points spent on the checkout page of a Shopify Plus store.

Best for: rewards as Shopify store credit, with tiers from $10.

5 · Rivo

Rivo: is there a loyalty plan with a ceiling on the bill?

Your loyalty bill counts orders, so a big sale month raises it. Rivo's Scale plan starts at $49 for 400 orders and adds $20 per 100 more, and its App Store listing caps the bill at $499 a month.

Scale is the plan with VIP tiers, referrals, bonus campaigns and points that expire. Say a sale month brings 2,000 orders: Scale bills $369 that month. Rivo's own pricing page lists Scale for up to 2,500 orders a month, so ask Rivo what a bigger month costs. Free covers points and automated emails to 200 orders, and Essential, for up to 500 orders, brings a loyalty page and Shopify POS.

Best for: a loyalty bill with a ceiling.

6 · LoyaltyLion

LoyaltyLion: what does its free plan cover?

One strong month carries you past the free plan's order limit, and the next plan up costs $199. LoyaltyLion calls the 400 orders on its free plan a recommendation, not a limit it enforces.

The free plan pays points for three things: creating an account, placing an order and visiting your store. Buyers trade them for a fixed amount off, online and in store, and a widget and pop-up show on every page. Referrals, birthdays and points for reviews are paid features you add one at a time, priced inside the app.

Classic costs $199 for 500 orders. Its listing says that price buys a designed loyalty page and Klaviyo emails that LoyaltyLion sets up for you. The listing names VIP tiers on Classic while the pricing page sells them as an add-on, so confirm in writing.

Best for: a free program that keeps running past 400 orders a month, with paid features added one at a time.

7 · Yotpo Loyalty

Yotpo Loyalty: should loyalty sit with your Yotpo reviews?

Your reviews already run on Yotpo, and a second loyalty company means a second contract and login. Yotpo sells loyalty and referrals as a product of its own, and prices a reviews and loyalty bundle below the two bought apart.

Its free plan covers stores under 100 orders a month, with points on purchases, points spent as discounts and a referral program. Pro costs $199 with 500 orders included, then 20 cents an order up to 1,000, so $299 at 1,000 orders. On a Shopify Plus store, Pro also lets shoppers spend points on the checkout page. Yotpo keeps VIP tiers for Premium, priced by quote.

Leaving Yotpo Reviews instead? The Yotpo alternatives cover the reviews side.

Best for: keeping loyalty with the company that runs your reviews.

8 · Growave

Growave: can points, reviews and a wishlist share one free plan?

You want reviews and a points program without installing a second app. Growave's free plan runs points, product reviews and a wishlist together, up to 200 orders a month.

Referrals and review request emails start on Entry, $15 with 500 orders included and $20 per 100 more. VIP tiers and store credit come with Growth at $199, which includes 1,500 orders. The free plan shows Growave's branding.

Already on Growave and leaving? Seven Growave alternatives show what its jobs cost when you split them across apps. Okendo also runs reviews and loyalty under one company, priced as separate products: see the Okendo alternatives.

Best for: points, reviews and a wishlist in one app, starting free.

Spending points

Where can shoppers spend their points?

Earning points is the easy half. The reward also has to show where your shopper is about to pay.

"Not listed" means neither the app's listing nor its pricing page names it today.

Points spent on the checkout page work only in a Shopify Plus store, because Shopify lets apps change the information, shipping and payment pages for Plus alone. Store credit is not limited to Plus: shoppers spend it at checkout, on Shopify POS and in the Shop app. To issue it by hand with no app at all, see how to get repeat customers.

The order count

Which orders count toward a loyalty app's monthly limit?

An order from a marketplace channel can earn no points and still push your loyalty plan into the next price.

Joy counts every order created in Shopify, whatever the source: your online store, social channels, imports and orders you enter by hand. On Smile.io, the count runs by calendar month, and unpaid and refunded orders are in it too.

Price the plan against your busiest month, not your average one, and ask the app in writing whether orders from other channels count. To see where your sales come from, open the "Total sales by sales channel" report under Analytics.

Before you pay

Should you start a loyalty program yet?

Before you pay for points, check your churn rate: count how many first-time buyers from three months ago have ordered again. If few have, the fix is the product, the first delivery or the follow-up. If many have, start on a free plan and test one full round: earn points, spend them, then refund that order and check the balance.

That reorder count is the part of customer lifetime value a loyalty program is meant to raise.