A great way to get more sales on your Shopify store is to encourage existing customers to recommend your business to friends and family and the best way to encourage them to do this is to have a referral program.
But Shopify doesn’t offer this feature as standard but fortunately, there is a great selection of referral apps you can choose from and we’ve selected what we think are the best options for your store.
Best Shopify Referral 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.
EcommerceGold is reader supported and we may earn a commission from products or services purchased through links on our site at no additional cost to you, to learn more please see our affiliate disclosure.
Testing The Apps
Testing out Referral apps is quite 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:
- Two-sided referral program – set up your referral program so that both parties get a reward for becoming a paying customer, can be set up so each side gets a different reward
- Multiple offer types – offer different incentives, including points (for a loyalty program), fixed price discount, percentage discount, free shipping or free product
- Widget selection – a range of different widgets that can be placed around your store to get customers to sign up, all of which can be customized to fit your store’s branding
We’ve focused on the features for the referral program but BON does offer more features relating to the loyalty program.
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.
2. Loox – $9.99 to $299.99/month
Loox is one of the most popular apps for adding an affiliate program to your store and it offers a very easy-to-set-up and use referral program that offers:
- Customize your referral offer – you can offer a 1 or 2 sided reward and choose whether the offer is a percentage or fixed amount
- Different Widgets – you can have on-site, post-purchase or after review widgets to encourage customers to refer people to your store
- Fraud Protection – a range of measures that you can implement that stops people from abusing your referral program
This is all great but the reason why we like Loox is that it is more than just a referral app, instead it is more of a marketing app that includes a referral program alongside:
- Reviews – Loox started out as a review app and it allows you to easily collect product reviews on your store
- Upsells – offer post-purchase upsells to increase order value, this can be set up manually or use Smart Upsell which chooses products to recommend based on the customer’s cart
In terms of pricing, Loox offers 3 plans, which are:
- Beginner $9.99/m + $5 for Referrals
- Scale $34.99/m + $5 for Referrals
- Unlimited $299.99/m
It would be nice if Loox included the referrals as part of their standard monthly prices but overall, the plans are very reasonably priced considering you get one of the best review apps, an easy to use referral program and upsells.
3. Rivo – Free to $499/month
Rivo is another app that offers a loyalty and referral program in one app, with the referral program being very easy to set up and use, it also includes the following features:
- Customizable offers – you can offer different rewards to the referrer and new customer, which include fixed price or percentage discounts, free shipping or a free product
- Custom landing page – you can set the referral link to land on a custom landing page, which could be great for increasing conversions
- Social sharing – you can set it so that customers can share their referral link on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and email
With the paid plans, you can also add a reward expiration date and there are obviously many more features relating to the loyalty program.
One of the things we really liked about Rivo is the dashboard, it is very easy to use and you can get your referral program set up in a couple of minutes.
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.
4. Loloyal – Free to $299/month
Loloyal is another app that combines a loyalty and referral program in one app and in terms of referrals offers some nice features, including:
- Two-sided referral program – set up your program so that both the referrer and new customer get a reward
- Different rewards – you can customize the rewards that both sides get with the options of a fixed price discount, percentage discount, free shipping or product or points for the loyalty program
- Customizable widgets – you can customize the existing widgets to fir your stores branding or you can create your own custom widget
There are also plenty of additional features relating to the loyalty program and you can integrate Loloyal with other apps, including those developed by ChannelWill (who developed Loloyal) along with page builders and email marketing.
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.
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 low price doesn’t mean to say that this app lacks features as it offers:
- Two-sided referral program – you can set up rewards, including fixed amount and percentage discounts for referrers and new customers
- Customizable widgets – customize the pop-up and post-purchase widget to fit your store’s branding
- Social sharing – let customers share their referral code on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp
The app also includes features for creating and running a loyalty program alongside your referral program.
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 really good for the price and is definitely worth considering for smaller stores but we think some of the other apps are more suitable for larger businesses.
6. ReferralCandy – $59 to $299/month
ReferralCandy is the longest established app on this list as they launched it in 2010 and are still very much going strong today.
So they must be doing something right and they offer a combined referral and affiliate marketing app that allows you to manage both through one dashboard and they offer some nice features, including:
- Automated referral program – simply set up your referral program, choose the rules and rewards and the app will automate the process, freeing up more of your time
- Different reward types – choose from a coupon, reward or subscription
- Unlimited everything – ReferralCandy doesn’t set limits on the number of campaigns, rewards, emails and fraud detection
The dashboard is also nice and easy to use, which is good for an app that is aimed at everything from start-ups to enterprise level stores.
When it comes to pricing, ReferralCandy is a bit on the expensive side as the three plans are:
- Premium Plan $59/m + 3.5% commission on referral sales
- Plus $299/m + 1.5% commission on referral sales
- Enterprise $24,000/yr
This might not be ideal for some stores but the lack of limits on all the features does somewhat help to balance this out and we do like what they offer as a package for managing a referral and affiliate program.
7. SC Conjured Referrals – Free to $149/month
SC Conjured is one of the few apps that just focuses on referrals and this focus has resulted in a very good app, with some of the key features being:
- Two-sided referral program – set up your program so that both the referrer and new customer get a reward
- Different reward types – choose from a fixed price discount, percentage discount or free shipping
- Unlimited referral links – generate and track unlimited referral links for your campaign
The one thing we didn’t like about SC Conjured is the usability as setting up and managing your campaigns isn’t the most straightforward thing to do as there lots of different options and settings, which might not be ideal for users who want a simple, easy-to-use referral program.
In terms of pricing, SC Conjured has a range of plans, such as:
- Free – up to 250 referred orders a month
- Starter $19/m – up to 400 referred orders a month + additional features
- Growth $79/m – up to 800 referred orders a month + additional features
- Pro $149/m – up to 1,600 referred orders a month
The $19/m starter plan offers a lot of additional features over the free plan, including:
- Unlimited campaigns
- Newsletter campaign
- Integrations
- Fraud detection
We liked the features that SC Conjure offer but the dashboard just doesn’t offer the same levels of usability as many of the other apps on this list but if you want complete control over your referral program, then this app might be ideal for you.
Conclusion
Choosing the right customer app for your Shopify store can be daunting as there are lots to choose from, which is why we narrowed it down to the 7 apps that we liked the most and as most offer a free plan or trial, then can easily be tried out.
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
Choosing the right referral app can make a big difference to how successful your referral program is but we liked that most of these offer more than just a referral program, with many also offering a loyalty program to help grow a returning customer base.
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!