What does loyalty programme software really cost?
Seven loyalty apps for online shops priced at 200, 1,000 and 5,000 orders a month: the cheapest plan, billed month to month, that runs a points programme with rewards customers can redeem. Each line says which plan first adds VIP tiers, referrals and branding removal, because that's what makes people move up. Pick a size.
Last checked: 10 Nov 2026 · every price read off the vendor's own page or app listing, monthly billing, before VAT · no affiliate links
Jump to: the short answer · what I'd look at first · which plan first adds tiers
The short answer
Free plans go a long way at 200 orders a month; the price jump comes with VIP tiers and branding removal. Smile, LoyaltyLion, Yotpo and Rivo all run a points programme free at 200 orders (LoyaltyLion's rewards are money-off vouchers only, Yotpo's fixed-amount discounts only), and the cheapest paid plans are BON and Growave at $15 (about £11.18). Add VIP tiers and the cheapest plan is $34 (Gameball) to $199 (Smile, Growave) a month; LoyaltyLion and Yotpo put tiers behind a sales quote. Hiding the vendor's branding costs $15 on Smile and $159 on Gameball.
At 1,000 orders: Yotpo's own price table still lists its Free plan at $0 (fixed-amount discounts only; Pro, with more ways to earn and redeem, would be $299). Then Smile Standard at $79 (about £58.89), Growave Entry $115, BON Growth $129, Gameball Pro $159, Rivo Scale $169 and LoyaltyLion Classic $249 (about £185.60).
At 5,000 orders the spread is $129 to $999 a month. BON's Growth plan has no order limit, so it stays at $129 (about £96.15); Rivo's meter stops at $499; Yotpo Pro is $599, Smile Growth and Growave Plus $699 each, and Gameball Guru $999 (about £744.63). LoyaltyLion publishes no price from 4,500 orders ('Custom'; its last published price is $549 at 4,000).
Referrals are mostly free. Smile, Yotpo, Gameball and BON include them on their free plans. Growave adds them on Entry ($15), Rivo lists its 'Referrals Program' on Scale, and LoyaltyLion's free plan leaves them out, so they start on Classic ($199 at 500 orders).
Gameball counts customers, not orders. It charges by 'monthly rewarded customers', anyone who earned, received, redeemed or used a reward in the last 30 days. This page counts one order as one rewarded customer, the worst case: repeat buyers bring the count down, sign-up points push it up. Its own pages also disagree: its App Store listing says Starter ($34) works 'with 1000 orders/month max.', while its pricing page puts 1,000 on Pro at $159.
Free plans hide their limits in different places. Smile Free stops at 200 orders and keeps Smile branding; Rivo Free stops at 200, BON Free at 150 and Gameball Free at 100 rewarded customers. LoyaltyLion's free plan allows three earning rules and money-off vouchers, and its 400-order line is 'not a limit we enforce'. Growave's free plan allows 200 orders a month but only 500 in total, then its widgets stop, so this page uses its $15 Entry plan.
What counts as an order varies. Smile counts every order in the month, 'whether they are paid, unpaid, or refunded'; Rivo counts every Shopify order 'regardless of customer program participation'; Growave leaves out test and refunded orders but still counts orders from customers you've excluded from the programme.
The pricing models differ. Hard caps that force an upgrade (Smile, BON and Rivo's smaller plans); a base fee plus $20 per 100 extra orders (Smile Growth, Rivo Scale, capped at $499) or $20, $15 or $10 by plan (Growave); a falling per-order rate (Yotpo Pro: $0.20, then $0.10, then $0.05); a price menu by volume (LoyaltyLion Classic, $50 more per 500 orders); and a flat fee whatever the volume (BON Growth $129).
Every app here bills in US dollars, before VAT. Smile says you are 'billed in $USD regardless of where your business is located'. Only BON shows an annual discount on these plans (Growth $103 a month instead of $129). No Black Friday prices were showing.
Enterprise loyalty platforms don't publish prices. Open Loyalty ('We don't publish a list price'), Antavo ('Talk to an expert') and Talon.One all go through sales, and Open Loyalty itself says very small programmes 'usually fit better with a ready-made loyalty app'.
What I'd look at first
Alan Lui. I was Global Head of Shangri-La Circle at Shangri-La Group from September 2022 to December 2025, and scaled it to 17 million members. Before the price, I'd check four things.
- Breakage, balanced against engagement. A loyalty programme makes money from breakage, the points that are never redeemed, and from the difference between what points sell for and what their redemption costs. But it needs a fine balance: if nobody comes to redeem, the programme pockets the money and becomes a dead programme; if everyone redeems, there's almost no profit. So look at what members can redeem for: LoyaltyLion's free plan offers money-off vouchers only, and Yotpo's fixed-amount discounts only.
- Expiry that follows activity, not a calendar. Let points lapse according to how engaged a member is, not by a hard rule of so many years: if a member keeps earning, you don't want their points to break. Points expiry is listed on BON Starter ($15), Gameball Starter ($34, as reward expiry), Rivo Scale (from $49), Yotpo Pro (from $199) and Smile Growth ($199). Yotpo's help centre describes a set period (6 months or a year), and none of the pages read says whether expiry can follow a member's activity instead, so ask before you choose.
- Rewards money can't buy. Members value what money can't buy, or can't easily buy, whether they reach it with points or through their tier. The rewards these apps list are discounts, free shipping and free products; tiers are where something money can't buy fits, and tiers are what moves the price here, $34 to $199 a month for the cheapest plan with them.
- Rules members can read. People should know how what they do will change what they get. Look at the page each plan gives members: BON has a dedicated loyalty page from Starter, LoyaltyLion's Classic includes a loyalty page design, and Yotpo's Pro a customizable rewards page.
More in my essays How loyalty programs actually make money and How to price loyalty points for partners.
Which plan first adds…
Three features shops often pay more for, and the cheapest plan that includes each, from the vendor's own pages.
| App | VIP tiers | Referrals | Removing its branding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smile.io | Growth, $199 | Free | Essential, $15 |
| LoyaltyLion | Advanced (sales quote), or a Classic add-on with no published price | Classic, $199 at 500 orders | a Small Business plan, price not published |
| Yotpo | Premium (sales quote) | Free | not stated |
| Rivo | Scale, $49 + usage | Scale (Essential, $15, has a referral page) | not named ("depending on your plan") |
| Growave | Growth, $199 | Entry, $15 | not stated (the free plan shows its branding) |
| Gameball | Starter, $34 (5 tiers) | Free | Pro, $159 |
| BON Loyalty | Growth, $129 | Free | not stated |
When the cheapest is not the answer
- Your shop isn't on Shopify. Yotpo also runs on BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud and WooCommerce, and Smile on BigCommerce. LoyaltyLion's free plan is Shopify-only, and Growave, Rivo and BON describe themselves as Shopify apps.
- You want more than money-off rewards. Yotpo's free plan gives fixed-amount discounts only; Pro, with more ways to earn and redeem and checkout redemption, would be $299 at 1,000 orders. Smile adds free products from Essential.
- You'd use reviews and a wishlist too. Growave's price also covers reviews and wishlist, so it may replace a second app.
Who made this page
An AI agent read each app's pricing page, help centre and Shopify App Store listing in a real browser set to UK English, set the order volumes with each page's own controls (LoyaltyLion's order menu, Yotpo's order box, BON's monthly switch), and copied the sentence behind every figure; code checked each sentence was really on the page before it could be used. The "What I'd look at first" section is Alan's own view.
There are no affiliate links on this page and nothing on it earns a commission.
How the numbers are worked out
monthly cost = the cheapest plan, billed month to month, that runs a points programme with redeemable rewards at that many orders a month, + any published per-order charges
- 200 orders a month: a new or small shop, about 7 orders a day; this is where most free plans run out
- 1,000 orders a month: an established small brand, about 33 a day
- 5,000 orders a month: a growing brand, where the per-order meters separate the apps
VIP tiers, referrals and branding removal aren't required; the table above says which plan first adds each. Gameball charges by monthly rewarded customers, counted here as one order = one rewarded customer, the worst case. Rivo's figures come from its Shopify App Store listing, where it publishes its self-serve prices. LoyaltyLion publishes no price at 5,000 orders.
VAT. Every app bills in US dollars, before VAT or sales tax.
| App | 200 orders a month | 1,000 orders a month | 5,000 orders a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smile.iocounts every order in the month, 'whether they are paid, unpaid, or refunded'. Free, Essential ($15, 500 orders) and Standard stop at their limit. Smile Plus ($999, 7,500 orders) is billed annually only, so it isn't used. Billed in USD wherever you are | freeFree: up to 200 orders a month; points and referrals; rewards are discounts and free shipping (free products from Essential); Smile branding stays. VIP tiers first on Growth ($199); branding removable from Essential ($15) | £58.89Standard: up to 1,000 orders a month, no extra-order rate (above it you move up); points, referrals, free-product rewards, Smile branding can be hidden; no VIP tiers (first on Growth, $199); $79 a month · $79.00 | £521.02Growth: $199 includes 2,500 orders, then $20 per 100 more, so 2,500 extra orders add $500 = $699 a month; VIP tiers and points expiry included · $699.00 |
| LoyaltyLionClassic is $199 at 500 orders, $249 at 1,000, then $50 more per 500 orders up to $549 at 4,000. Its free plan's 400-order line is 'not a limit we enforce'. Its own pages disagree on VIP tiers: the pricing table makes them a Classic add-on, the Shopify listing lists them in Classic. Branding removal is named only for a Small Business plan with no published price | freeFree plan (Shopify App Store): recommended up to 400 orders a month; points for three activities; one reward type, money-off vouchers; no referrals (they start on Classic, $199 at 500 orders). VIP tiers on Advanced (sales quote) or as a Classic add-on with no published price | £185.60Classic at 1,000 orders, set with the page's order menu: $249 a month; referrals, free and discount vouchers, a loyalty page designed for you; VIP tiers are an 'Optional add-on' with no published price · $249.00 | no planNo published price: from 4,500 orders every plan reads 'Custom' (Classic's last published price is $549 at 4,000 orders) |
| Yotpothe live page and Yotpo's own price table disagree only on Free at 5,000 orders, so Pro is used there. Pro's highest published price is $599 (to 5,999 orders). Branding removal isn't stated for Loyalty. Also runs on BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud and WooCommerce | freeFree: basic points campaign and referrals; points redeem for fixed-amount discounts only. VIP tiers only on Premium (sales quote) | freeFree: Yotpo's own price table lists Free at $0 for 1,000–1,999 orders; fixed-amount discounts only. Pro, with more ways to earn and redeem, points expiry and checkout redemption, would be $299 ($199 + 500 orders at $0.20) | £446.48Pro: $199 + $100 (501–1,000 at $0.20) + $200 (1,001–3,000 at $0.10) + $100 (3,001–5,000 at $0.05) = $599 a month, Yotpo's own calculator; its price table shows Free as not offered from 5,000 orders · $599.00 |
| Rivothe figures are from Rivo's Shopify App Store listing, where Rivo publishes its self-serve prices; its own pricing page prices loyalty only as 'Custom'. Usage counts every Shopify order, whether or not the customer is in the programme. Branding removal 'depending on your plan', plan not named | freeShopify App Store listing, Free: up to 200 orders a month; points with ways to earn and redeem. VIP tiers and the 'Referrals Program' first on Scale ($49 + usage) | £125.97Shopify App Store listing, Scale: $49 includes 400 orders, then $20 per 100 more, so 600 extra orders add $120 = $169 a month; VIP tiers, referrals, points expiry · $169.00 | £371.94Shopify App Store listing, Scale: 'capped at $499/mo regardless of volume', so $499 a month; VIP tiers and referrals · $499.00 |
| Growaveeach plan has a ceiling: Entry 1,500 orders ($215), Growth 5,000 ($724), Plus 9,000 ($1,099). Its pages give the free plan as 100 or 200 orders a month. The price also covers reviews and wishlist. Branding removal isn't named (the free plan shows 'Growave branding') | £11.18Entry: $15 a month includes 500 orders; points, referrals, free-product rewards. The free plan doesn't count: it allows 200 orders a month but only 500 in total, then its widgets stop. VIP tiers first on Growth ($199) · $15.00 | £85.72Entry: $15 + 5 × $20 for each 100 orders over 500 = $115 a month (Growave's own table: '901-1000 $115'); no VIP tiers (first on Growth, $199) · $115.00 | £521.02Plus: $499 includes 3,000 orders, then $10 per 100, so $699 a month at 5,000 (Growth would be $724); VIP tiers, store credit, API · $699.00 |
| Gameballcharges by 'monthly rewarded customers': anyone who earned, received, redeemed or used a reward in the last 30 days, so repeat buyers bring the count down and sign-up points push it up. Its two pages disagree: its App Store listing says Starter ($34) works 'with 1000 orders/month max.', which would make 1,000 orders $34, not $159. The figure is its pricing page's | £25.34Starter, counted by rewarded customers (one order = one rewarded customer assumed, the worst case): 300 a month; 5 VIP tiers, referrals, free-product and free-shipping rewards, reward expiry; $34 a month · $34.00 | £118.52Pro, counted by rewarded customers (one order = one, the worst case): 1,000 a month on its Shopify pricing page; unlimited VIP tiers, 'Remove Gameball branding'; $159 a month · $159.00 | £744.63Guru, counted by rewarded customers (one order = one, the worst case): 10,000 a month; API, unlimited integrations; $999 a month · $999.00 |
| BON LoyaltyMonthly chosen with the page's own switch; annual billing is Growth $103 and Basic $27 a month. Some extras cost more: points for specific collections or products $50 a month, excluding customers by tag $10. Branding removal isn't stated | £11.18Starter: up to 300 orders a month (Free stops at 150); points, referrals, dedicated loyalty page, free-product and birthday rewards, points expiry; $15 a month. VIP tiers first on Growth ($129) · $15.00 | £96.15Growth: no order limit (Basic, $29, stops at 500); VIP tiers, points on product pages; $129 a month · $129.00 | £96.15Growth: no order limit, so still $129 a month; VIP tiers and referrals · $129.00 |
Exchange rates. ECB euro reference rates of 9 November 2026, the latest published when fetched at 00:20 UTC on 10 Nov (the 10 Nov rates come out that afternoon): 1 EUR = 0.83430 GBP, 1 EUR = 1.1193 USD, so 1 USD = 0.74538 GBP.
Left out: Stamped loyalty — no published price for its loyalty product: the pricing page shows only Repeat and Reviews, and its loyalty page is 'Page not found'; Open Loyalty — sales only: 'We don't publish a list price'; Antavo — sales only: 'Talk to an expert' on every plan; Talon.One — sales only: priced on data volume, from at least 500k coupons; Sales-quoted and annual-only tiers (Smile Plus and Enterprise, LoyaltyLion Advanced and Plus, Yotpo Premium and Enterprise, Rivo Custom, Gameball Growth and Enterprise off Shopify, BON Plus) — no published monthly price, or annual billing only (Smile Plus); the self-serve plans already cover 200 to 5,000 orders for every app except LoyaltyLion at 5,000.
There are no affiliate links on this page. Growave pays partners 20% for two years, Rivo's agency partners get 10% for the first year, LoyaltyLion pays a one-off reward for referring a brand ($750 and up), and BON offers lifetime commissions at a rate it doesn't publish; this site hasn't joined any of them. The research is done by AI agents reading each vendor's own pages. Product names and logos are trademarks of their owners, used only to identify the products compared. No analytics cookies, no tracking scripts, no third-party requests. A personal project, separate from the author's day job.
Questions people ask
How much does loyalty programme software cost?
On this page's figures, month to month: free at 200 orders a month on Smile, LoyaltyLion, Yotpo or Rivo, with limits; at 1,000 orders from $0 on Yotpo's Free plan or $79 on Smile Standard to $249 on LoyaltyLion Classic; at 5,000 orders from $129 on BON Growth, which has no order limit, to $999 on Gameball Guru.
Which loyalty app is cheapest with VIP tiers?
Gameball Starter at $34 a month (5 tiers), though Gameball counts rewarded customers rather than orders. Then Rivo Scale from $49 plus usage, BON Growth at $129, and Smile Growth and Growave Growth at $199. LoyaltyLion and Yotpo put VIP tiers behind a sales quote.
Is Smile.io free?
Smile's Free plan covers up to 200 orders a month with points and referrals, but Smile branding stays (hiding it starts on Essential at $15) and VIP tiers start on Growth at $199. Smile counts every order in the month, paid, unpaid or refunded.
How much does LoyaltyLion cost?
Its free plan, on the Shopify App Store, gives three ways to earn and money-off vouchers only, with no referrals. Classic is $249 a month at 1,000 orders, $50 more per 500 orders up to $549 at 4,000; from 4,500 orders every plan reads 'Custom'.
Answers use the figures on this page, last checked 10 Nov 2026.