Pick Smile.io if you want points, tiers and referrals and nothing else attached. Pick Rivo if loyalty is one piece of a wider retention stack and you also want cashback store credit, customer accounts and memberships. Pick Loyalty Lion if you need POS locations, a headless API or a wallet pass. Pick Okendo if you want reviews, loyalty, quizzes, referrals and surveys billed as one platform, and Yotpo if reviews and loyalty under one vendor matters more than flexibility.
The short comparison
 Rivo |  Yotpo |  Loyalty Lion |  Smile.io |  Okendo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Shopify merchants; the site describes it as built for Shopify Plus | Ecommerce brands from fast-growing DTC brands to large retailers | Shopify and Shopify Plus, small through enterprise, including POS | Shopify merchants including Plus, enterprise and headless/Hydrogen storefronts | Shopify merchants from small order volumes to enterprise custom plans |
| What else it sells | Customer accounts, cashback store credit, referrals, paid memberships | Reviews and UGC, referrals, Discover for AI visibility | Referrals, VIP tiers, challenges, headless API, Loyalty Pass wallet add-on | Loyalty Studio, Loyalty Hub, JavaScript SDK, Smile UI for custom storefronts | Reviews, quizzes, referrals, surveys, bundled as one platform |
| Pricing shape | Free plan to 200 orders, then monthly tiers; Cashback and Accounts priced separately; month-to-month billing | Loyalty free under 100 orders/month, then Pro monthly with per-order pricing above 500 orders | Free plan to 400 orders, Classic monthly, Advanced and Plus by quote | Free plan to 200 orders, then four monthly tiers, Smile Plus annual, Enterprise custom | Free plan, monthly Reviews tiers by order volume, platform and Scale pricing custom |
| Strongest at | Bundling loyalty with store credit and accounts from one vendor | Running reviews and loyalty under one vendor with 24/7 support | Guided setup: Classic includes onboarding support and a built loyalty page | Plan ladder and a migration team for members, point balances and tiers | One customer data set across reviews, loyalty and surveys |
| Common reason brands leave | Cost at renewal and a program that felt rigid to change | Price relative to how much of the feature set gets used | Programs that stall after launch when nobody owns them | Doubts about how much the data drives action | |
| Typical switch | Arrives as the replacement for an incumbent loyalty vendor | Out to Rivo, Smile.io or Okendo | Out to Smile.io, or a sideways move to another loyalty app | In from Yotpo Loyalty | In from Yotpo |
Rivo
Rivo sells a retention platform rather than a loyalty app alone. Loyalty covers points, cashback and VIP tiers with Shopify Checkout integration. Around it sit Rivo Accounts (Shop, Google and Apple login, customer settings, analytics), Rivo Cashback (a percentage of each order back as store credit) and Rivo Referrals with fraud protection.
Pricing has two shapes and you should read both. The App Store listing runs from a free plan at up to 200 monthly orders through Essential, Scale and Plus, with Scale metered per 100 extra orders and capped. The website prices Cashback and Accounts as their own monthly products. Billing is month to month.
VIP tiers, points expiry, analytics and bonus campaigns start on Scale. Custom integrations such as Klaviyo events, checkout extensions and the developer toolkit sit on Plus. Rivo lists integrations with Klaviyo, Postscript, Attentive, Gorgias, Recharge, Skio, Okendo, Judge.me and Yotpo Reviews, so it does not assume it owns your reviews. The App Store listing is rated 4.7 and is Built for Shopify.
Yotpo
Yotpo Loyalty is the loyalty half of a suite that also sells Reviews and UGC and Discover, its AI visibility product. The free loyalty plan is for stores under 100 monthly orders and includes a rewards sticky bar, points for purchases, referrals and reporting. Pro adds the rewards page, more ways to earn, points redemption at checkout, webhooks and integrations with Klaviyo and Recharge, priced monthly with per-order pricing from 500 orders a month and custom quotes above 5,000.
The case for Yotpo is one vendor across reviews and loyalty, with support stated as available 24/7 and an implementation team per customer. The case against shows up at renewal. Cost is the recurring complaint, paired with the sense that the program is hard to change once it is built and that much of what is paid for never gets used. Brands leaving Yotpo Loyalty land on Smile.io, Rivo or Okendo.
On the reviews side, abc carpet & home and AirDoctor both run Yotpo on their storefronts. If you already pay for Yotpo Reviews, the loyalty add-on is worth pricing, but price the standalone alternatives in the same meeting.
LoyaltyLion
LoyaltyLion is loyalty only: points, rewards, referrals, VIP tiers and challenges tied to order, subscription, review or referral milestones. The free plan covers 400 monthly orders, the largest free allowance of the five. Classic is a flat monthly price including 500 orders, with Advanced and Plus quoted by volume.
Two things are distinctive. There is a headless API for building loyalty into a custom storefront, and Loyalty Pass puts the program in Apple or Google Wallet as an add-on on every paid plan. Classic also includes onboarding support and a loyalty page designed for you, which helps a small team get live.
Watch the plan lines. Multilingual translations across 130+ languages sit on Advanced; the free plan ships seven pre-written languages. Gift card rewards, checkout redemption and the Shopify Flow connector are listed for Shopify Plus. Shopify POS is single location on Classic and multi-location on Advanced and Plus. The pressure point is price against actual usage: if you are running a plain points program, confirm you need the tier you are quoted.
Smile.io
Smile.io lists four paid tiers above its free plan. Free covers 200 monthly orders with points, referrals, 15+ ways to earn and multi-language support in 20+ languages. Essential adds a dedicated loyalty page and nudges. Standard adds bonus events, points on product pages, subscription and gift card rewards, and loyalty segments. Growth adds Loyalty Hub, VIP tiers, points expiry and checkout redemption on Shopify Plus. Smile Plus is annual and includes a success team, migration, a guided launch plan and quarterly program reviews.
Switching is the path Smile has built for. The vendor runs a migration team for moves from Yotpo, LoyaltyLion, Rivo or Okendo that carries over members, point balances and VIP tiers. The App Store listing is rated 4.9 and is Built for Shopify.
The failure mode is not the software. It is a program that launches, gets no owner and quietly does nothing. If nobody on your team is going to run bonus events, watch redemption and change the earn rules, a different plan will not fix that. Brands on Smile include about-face and ALT. Fragrances.
Okendo
Okendo sells reviews, loyalty, referrals, quizzes and surveys as one customer marketing platform with shared customer data and reporting. Okendo Loyalty runs points, rewards and memberships. The App Store listing is Built for Shopify, rated 4.8, with a free plan to 50 orders a month and Reviews tiers stepping up by order volume. Platform and bundle pricing depends on monthly order volume, and the Scale plan is a fixed annual price for unlimited orders.
Platform plans include an onboarding manager, a dedicated success manager, solutions engineering and 24/7 tech support. Okendo lists GDPR, CCPA, SOC2, QCGA and ADA compliance, plus integrations with Klaviyo, Attentive, Recharge, TikTok Shop and Shopify POS. The Klaviyo connection is a common reason it lands on a shortlist: loyalty and review data flowing into segments without another project.
Where opinion splits is on how much of the data turns into action. Set it up and walk away and it reads as a dashboard you pay for. Wire it into email segments and on-site content and you get more out of it. 1st Phorm and AG Jeans run Okendo on their storefronts.
How to decide
Questions people ask
Which loyalty app is cheapest to start with on Shopify?
All five list a free plan, but the order allowance differs. Loyalty Lion's free plan covers 400 monthly orders, Rivo and Smile.io cover 200, Yotpo Loyalty is free for stores under 100 monthly orders, and Okendo's free plan covers up to 50 orders a month. Compare the allowance, not just the word free, because the paid tiers above it are priced by order volume.
Can I keep my reviews app and still switch loyalty vendors?
Yes. Smile.io lists integrations with Okendo Reviews, Yotpo Reviews, Judge.me, Stamped.io and Loox, and Rivo lists Okendo, Judge.me and Yotpo Reviews among its integrations. Loyalty Lion lists Bazaarvoice. If you only want to replace the loyalty half of a suite, you can.
What happens to my customers' existing points when I migrate?
Ask the vendor directly before signing. Smile.io states it runs a migration team that carries over members, point balances and VIP tiers for switches from Yotpo, LoyaltyLion, Rivo or Okendo. Other vendors handle this through onboarding, so get the scope written into the contract rather than assumed.
