A very popular method for turning one-time customers into returning customers is to create a loyalty program (you obviously need a good product & excellent service as well!).
But Shopify doesn’t offer a loyalty program as a feature as standard but fortunately, there is a great selection of loyalty apps you can choose from but which one is the best?
Well, we’ve gone through and tested all of the popular options to find what we think are the best options for your store.
Best Shopify Loyalty App
BON Loyalty came out on top in our testing due to it:
- Offering a good selection of features
- Having an easy-to-use dashboard
- Being reasonably priced
It feels like an app that will grow with your business as it is designed to be used with stores of all sizes and was the one that we found to be the most intuitive to use.
We have partnered with BON Loyalty and are happy to be able to offer an exclusive 20% discount when paid plans are purchased using our links.
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Testing The Apps
Testing out Loyalty apps is a bit challenging as we don’t have numerous active stores running that we can use, so for our testing we looked at:
- The features they offer
- The pricing
- What they are like to use
And this allowed us to come up with a list of the 7 apps that we would choose for our own store to give you an idea as to what you can use for yours.
1. BON Loyalty – Free to $349/month
BON Loyalty is a combination app that includes being able to create loyalty and referral programs, which is great for encouraging people to become a returning customer but also incentivizes them to recommend your store to friends and family.
The app offers some really nice features, including:
- Points-based loyalty program – let your customers earn points in a variety of different ways, including creating an account, placing an order, subscribing to your newsletter and following your business on social media
- Multiple reward types – offer customers rewards for being loyal customers including, amount discount (such as $10), percentage discount or a free product
- Customizable widgets – custom the widgets you place on your store to encourage joining your program, these include icons, loyalty pages and additions to product pages
- Referral program – let customers earn points by referring friends and family to your store
The paid plans also include additional features such as limited-time offers and VIP tiers for your best customers, which can help increase conversion rates and generate more sales.
One thing that we really liked about BON is that the app is very easy to use as they have kept the dashboard very simple, whether you are managing your loyalty or referral programs and once you have set everything up, you can set and forget unless you need to change something.
In terms of pricing, BON Loyalty offers 4 plans ranging from free to $349/m, which are:
- Free
- Basic $25/m
- Growth $99/m
- Professional $349/m
The free plan is great for testing out the app but the $25/m Basic plan does offer some nice additional features, such as integrations with review apps, page builders and email marketing apps to help you grow your program.
If you are just looking for a referral/loyalty app, you can’t go far wrong with BON and we were really impressed with it.
We have partnered with BON Loyalty and are happy to be able to offer an exclusive 20% discount when paid plans are purchased using our links.
2. Rivo – Free to $499/month
Rivo is another app that offers a loyalty and referral program in one app, meaning you can build a loyal customer base that helps bring in new customers and it offers some nice features, including:
- Points-based loyalty program – let your customers earn points in a variety of different ways, including signing up, completing an order, referring a new customer and following on social media
- Unlimited members – have an unlimited number of members as part of your loyalty program
- Different reward types – offer customers rewards for being loyal customers including, amount discount (such as $10), percentage discount or a free product
- Referral program – let customers earn points by referring friends and family to your store
With the paid plans, you can add multiple touchpoints for your program, including a dedicated landing page and embed it in their account pages along with being able to offer VIP tiers and reward expiration dates.
The Rivo dashboard is also very easy to use, the only thing we didn’t like about it was that it goes fullscreen in your dashboard by default and we couldn’t find a way to change it.
When it comes to pricing, Rivo offers a selection of 4 plans, which are:
- Free – can be used on up to 200 orders a month
- Scale 400 $49/m – can be used on up to 400 orders a month + additional features
- Scale 1000 $159/m – can be used for up to 1,000 orders a month + all advanced features
- Plus $499/m – can be used on unlimited orders + developer toolkit and custom intergrations
The free plan is good to get started but the paid plans do offer a lot more in terms of features and customizations, which will be much more usable for growing businesses.
Overall, we really liked Rivo as it offers a good selection of features, a really easy to use dashboard and 24/7 support through the live chat and honestly, we struggled to find anything that we didn’t like about the app.
3. Loloyal – Free to $299/month
Loloyal is another app that combines a loyalty and referral program in one app (there is a recurring theme about these apps!) but it does offer some nice features, including:
- Points-based loyalty program – let your customers earn points in a variety of different ways, including signing up, completing an order, referring a new customer and following on social media
- Limited-time offers – encourage people to complete their checkout by offering limited-time offers
- Different reward types – offer customers rewards for being loyal customers including, amount discount (such as $10), percentage discount or a free product
- Referral program – let customers earn points by referring friends and family to your store
The paid plans include more features, including points and reward expiry, VIP tiers, email notifications and additional customization options.
The one thing that we didn’t like as much with Loloyal was the dashboard, it’s not difficult to use but didn’t feel as clean and intuitive as some of the others that we tested.
In terms of pricing, Loloyal offers 4 plans, which are:
- Free – can be used for up to 50 orders a month
- Starter $29/m – up to 1,000 orders a month + additional features
- Growth $69/m – up to 2,000 order a month + additional features
- Plus $299/m – unlimited orders + all features
The free plan is great for trying the app out and is one of the best free options available but the paid plans do offer a lot more and are very feature rich.
Overall, we really liked the Loloyal app and the features that it includes, we just with the dashboard was a bit more refined but it is definitly worth checking out.
4. Growave – Free to $349/month
Growave is more than just a loyalty app, it is more of a marketing app that includes a loyalty program along with other features, including:
- Wishlist
- Reviews
- Instagram UGC
- Referrals
But just taking a closer look at the loyalty program, it offers the following features:
- Points-based loyalty program – let your customers earn points in a variety of different ways, including signing up, completing an order, referring a new customer and following on social media
- Different reward types – offer customers rewards for being loyal customers including, amount discount (such as $10), percentage discount or free shipping
- Points refund – if an order is canceled or returned, the points are returned to the customer once the return has been completed
Growave has the most in-depth onboarding process as it allows you to set up more than just your loyalty program in one go and this might seem a little daunting but it is an easy process to follow and once this is done, the Growave dashboard is very easy to use and navigate.
When it comes to pricing, ReferralCandy is a bit on the expensive side as the three plans are:
- Free – up to 100 orders a month
- Medium $49/m – up to 500 orders a month + additional features
- Growth $149/m – up to 1,000 order a month + additional features
- Premium $349/m – up to 3,000 order a month + additional features
For the combination of features you get in one app and the pricing, Growave is definitely an app worth checking out as you are getting more than just a loyalty app and you don’t need multiple apps to.
5. Bloop – Free to $20/m
Bloop is the bargain entry on this list as the $20/m plan is quite a bit cheaper than many of the other apps on this list and as with some of the others mentioned, it is a combination loyatly and referral app but the price does reflect the features:
- Point’s-based program – customers can collect points but the number of ways that they can do it is a lot less than many of the other apps
- Redeem options – offer multiple ways that customers can redeem their points, such as fixed amount or percentage discounts
- Referral program – let customers refer friends and family to your store with a unique link
As of writing this, there are quite a few features, such as points expiry and earn methods that are marked as coming soon features.
The dashboard is easy to use, with setting up and managing your program being very simple but it isn’t quite as refined as some of the more expensive options.
In terms of pricing, Bloop is super simple as they offer a Free plan and a $20/m Basic plan.
The paid plan does include additional features such as being able to create multiple referral rules, scam detection and watermark removal.
Bloop is a solid option but is lacking some of the features that many of the other apps offer but considering the app is a lot cheaper than the others listed, it does kind of balance out.
6. Smile.io – Free to $999/month
Smile.io is another loyalty and referral app but one that seems to be more focused on larger Shopify stores but it does offer some nice features, including:
- Points-based loyalty program – let your customers earn points in a variety of different ways, including signing up, completing an order, referring a new customer and following on social media
- Different reward types – offer customers rewards for being loyal customers including, amount discount (such as $10), percentage discount or free shipping
- Referral program – let customers earn points by referring friends and family to your store
- Integrations – Smile.io offers integrations with popular apps and software including review apps and email marketing
The paid plans also include additional features, including, points expiry, bonus campaigns, enhanced customization and VIP tiers, which are great for taking your program to the next level.
The Smile.io dashboard is also very well laid out and easy to use, with lots of options to help you not only manage your programs but also track their performance.
When it comes to pricing, Smile.io offers 4 plans, which are:
- Free – up to 200 monthly orders
- Starter $49/m – up to 500 monthly orders + additional features
- Growth $199/m – up to 2,500 monthly orders + additional features
- Plus $999/m – up to 7,500 monthly orders + additional features
So Smile.io is a bit on the pricy side when compared to the other apps but as we said earlier, this app is more geared towards larger Shopify stores.
But overall, Smile.io offers some really good features and is nice and easy to use but it is just a little bit pricy.
7. Yotpo Loyalty & Rewards – Free to $199/month
Yotpo is a company that offers multiple marketing apps, with one of them being the Loyalty & Rewards app, which offers a loyalty and referral app in one, with some nice features, including:
- Points-based loyalty program – let your customers earn points in a variety of different ways, including signing up, completing an order, referring a new customer and following on social media
- Different reward types – offer customers rewards for being loyal customers including, amount discount (such as $10), percentage discount or free shipping
- Referral program – let customers earn points or discounts by referring friends and family to your store
The pain plan also includes additional ways that customers can earn rewards, a dedicated rewards page and customers can redeem their rewards at the checkout.
Once thing that we don’t like about the Yotpo app is that you can’t manage it directly in your Shopify dashboard, instead it opens a new window where you manage the app and we prefer apps that you can use directly in Shopify.
In terms of pricing, Yotpo loyalty is very simple as they only offer two plans:
- Free – up to 100 orders a month
- Gold $199/m – up to 500 orders a month + $0.20 for each additional order
This does make Yotpo one of the more expensive apps and this combined with the external dashboard means that it isn’t our favorite offering, even though it does offer the features you need to create a loyalty program.
Conclusion
As you can see from this list, pretty much all the apps offer the same features and are a combination of a loyalty and referral app, with not much separating them.
For us, BON Loyalty did come out on top due to it:
- Having a good selection of features
- Having an easy-to-use dashboard
- Being reasonably priced
It did only just beat Rivo as there really isn’t much to choose between the two apps and both are definitely worth checking out as the free plans will help give you an idea as to whether they will work for your Shopify store.
Hi, I'm Paul, the Owner and Founder of EcommerceGold.
I ran my own Ecommerce Business for over 7 years and now help others start their own online retail empires!