BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Extole: Customer Referrals Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right retention tools often dictates the trajectory of a merchant's long-term profitability. While many brands focus heavily on top-of-funnel acquisition, the sustainability of a Shopify store depends on its ability to turn one-time shoppers into repeat buyers. This decision usually leads merchants to compare specialized solutions that focus on different aspects of the customer lifecycle, from deep loyalty structures to high-velocity referral engines.

Short answer: The choice between BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Extole: Customer Referrals depends on store maturity and primary growth goals. BON Loyalty is an accessible, feature-rich loyalty platform suitable for small to mid-market brands, whereas Extole is an enterprise-level referral powerhouse specifically built for high-revenue Shopify Plus stores. Integrating these functions into a unified stack can further reduce the technical debt often caused by managing multiple disconnected applications.

The purpose of this comparison is to provide an objective, data-driven analysis of both apps. This post examines their core functionalities, pricing structures, and integration capabilities to help e-commerce leaders identify which tool aligns best with their operational constraints and scaling ambitions.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Extole: Customer Referrals: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Market Positioning and Strategic Intent

The two apps operate in the same category of marketing and conversion but serve vastly different strategic intents. BON Loyalty Program & Rewards is positioned as an all-encompassing retention platform. It aims to provide merchants with everything they need to start a loyalty program immediately, focusing on points, VIP levels, and basic referral mechanics. Its architecture is designed for ease of use, allowing brands to launch programs in minutes without heavy developer intervention.

Extole: Customer Referrals, conversely, is a specialized growth engine. It does not attempt to be a general loyalty points app. Instead, it focuses exclusively on the science of referral marketing for enterprise-level brands. Its value proposition is built around optimization, data science, and scaling referral programs through rigorous testing. While BON Loyalty helps a brand establish its first retention layer, Extole is typically adopted by established brands that already have significant traffic and want to optimize their viral coefficient.

Core Features and Referral Workflows

When looking at referral mechanics, the two apps offer different levels of depth.

BON Loyalty Referral Mechanics

BON Loyalty includes an "Anti-Cheat" referral program as part of its base offering. The primary goal here is simplicity and security. It allows customers to refer friends and receive rewards like percentage-off discounts or free shipping.

• Automated email notifications for referrals.
• Fraud prevention through anti-cheat logic.
• Integration with loyalty points, where referrals can trigger point bonuses.
• Rewards for both the referrer and the referred friend.

Extole Referral Workflows

Extole treats referrals as a dynamic customer acquisition channel rather than just a loyalty perk. The platform offers deep technical tools to customize the "advocacy" experience.

• Personalized referral codes and links shared via SMS, social, or QR codes.
• A/B testing capabilities to determine which referral incentives perform best.
• Audiences and targeting to show different referral offers to different customer segments.
• Real-time reward triggering through Shopify Discounts.
• Tracking of the entire journey from referral to shipment and potential cancellation.

Loyalty and VIP Tier Management

This is where the two platforms diverge most significantly. BON Loyalty is a true loyalty platform, whereas Extole focuses on the referral moment.

The BON Loyalty Ecosystem

BON Loyalty provides a multi-layered loyalty structure. It enables merchants to build a system where customers earn points for various actions, such as making a purchase, following on social media, or celebrating a birthday.

• VIP Tiers: Merchants can create levels (e.g., Bronze, Silver, Gold) that offer accelerated point earning and exclusive rewards.
• B2B Loyalty: A standout feature is the ability to reward wholesale customers with exclusive tiered rewards, a necessity for brands running hybrid B2C/B2B models.
• Omnichannel Rewards: The app works with Shopify POS, meaning customers can earn and redeem points both online and in-store, maintaining a consistent brand experience.
• Point Expiration: Automated reminders and expiration settings help create urgency and drive repeat purchases.

The Extole Approach

Extole does not offer a traditional "points and rewards" loyalty system in the way BON does. It focuses on "loyalty through advocacy." The idea is that the most loyal customers are those who refer others. While it drives loyalty, it does not provide the infrastructure for point-based redemption or VIP tier progression outside of the referral context. Merchants seeking a traditional points-based program would likely find Extole insufficient for that specific need.

Customization and Brand Alignment

A retention program must feel like an organic part of the storefront to be effective.

BON Loyalty emphasizes customization through its loyalty page and widget.

• Tailored loyalty pages that match brand aesthetics.
• Access to custom CSS in higher-tier plans, supported by their development team.
• Multi-language display support, which is critical for brands operating in international markets.
• Integration with landing page builders like PageFly to create unique loyalty experiences.

Extole provides customization through "App Embeds" and "Checkout Extensions." Because it targets Shopify Plus merchants, its customization is focused on the high-conversion areas of the store.

• Dynamic offers that can be tested and personalized.
• Deep integration into the Shopify Plus checkout experience.
• Sophisticated reporting that allows brands to iterate on the visual and copy elements of their referral modules.

Pricing Structure and Value for Money

The pricing models of these two apps represent their different target markets.

BON Loyalty Pricing

The pricing for BON Loyalty is structured to scale with the merchant.

• Free Forever: A robust entry point offering points, anti-cheat referrals, and automated emails.
• Basic ($25/month): Adds multi-language support, POS rewards, and unlimited integrations.
• Growth ($99/month): Introduces VIP Tiers, B2B programs, and unlimited orders.
• Professional ($349/month): Provides full API access, headless commerce support (Hydrogen), and priority support.

Extole Pricing

Extole is an enterprise-level investment.

• Existing Customers: Free for those already using the Extole platform outside of Shopify.
• <$10M revenue ($999/month): The entry point for smaller enterprise brands.
• $10M-$40M revenue ($2,500/month): Scaled pricing for mid-market enterprise.
• $41M-$80M revenue ($44,000/year): Annual contract for high-volume merchants.

For a merchant making $1 million in annual revenue, BON Loyalty offers an extremely low total cost of ownership. For a merchant making $50 million, the $44,000 annual cost of Extole may be justified if the A/B testing and optimization features drive even a 1% increase in total customer acquisition.

Integrations and Technical Fit

The "works with" list is a vital indicator of how an app will fit into a merchant's existing tech stack.

BON Loyalty integrates with a wide variety of "standard" Shopify tools:

• Review apps: Fera, LAI, Judge.me.
• Marketing: Klaviyo.
• Building: PageFly, Headless (Hydrogen).
• Operations: Shopify POS, Shopify Flow.

Extole integrates with enterprise-grade marketing clouds:

• Marketing Automation: Braze, Iterable, Listrak, Attentive.
• Data/CDP: Twilio Segment.
• Shopify Specifics: Checkout, Customer accounts, Klaviyo.

Extole’s integration list suggests it is designed to sit inside a complex marketing ecosystem where data flows between a CRM, a CDP, and the referral platform. BON Loyalty is designed to be the hub of the retention effort for stores that use popular, mid-market Shopify apps.

Customer Support and Reliability Cues

Trust is established through ratings and support availability. BON Loyalty has a 5.0 rating, although it only has one review recorded in the provided data. This suggests it is a high-quality solution that may be newer to the market or has a smaller but satisfied user base. They offer 24/7 live chat support on their Growth plan, which is a significant safety net for global merchants.

Extole has 0 reviews and a 0.0 rating in the provided data. This is common for enterprise apps on the Shopify App Store, as these brands often sign contracts offline or through the Extole website rather than through the app store's self-serve interface. The lack of reviews shouldn't necessarily be seen as a negative, but rather an indicator of a high-touch, sales-led growth model rather than a product-led one.

Performance and Operational Overhead

Using specialized apps like Extole for referrals and BON for loyalty (if used simultaneously, though they overlap) can lead to "tool sprawl." Each app adds a script to the storefront, requires separate configuration, and stores data in separate silos.

BON Loyalty is relatively lightweight because it handles loyalty, VIP, and referrals in one place. However, if a merchant also wants reviews or a wishlist, they would need to add even more apps. Extole is very specialized; it does one thing (referrals) exceptionally well but requires the merchant to manage other apps for every other retention function. This creates a "stacked" cost and a fragmented user experience for the customer, who may have to interact with different widgets for loyalty points and referral links.

The Alternative: Solving App Fatigue with an All-in-One Platform

As merchants scale, they often encounter "app fatigue." This phenomenon occurs when a store uses a different app for loyalty, another for reviews, another for wishlists, and another for referrals. Each additional app increases the monthly subscription total and adds another layer of complexity to the site's code, potentially slowing down page load speeds. Furthermore, fragmented data makes it difficult to get a clear picture of customer behavior. For example, knowing that a customer who frequently uses their wishlist is also your top referrer is valuable information that is often lost when using isolated tools.

Growave addresses these challenges through a "More Growth, Less Stack" philosophy. Instead of forcing merchants to manage five different dashboards and five different support teams, it consolidates essential retention tools into a single, high-performance platform. By using loyalty programs that keep customers coming back alongside integrated referral and review systems, merchants can create a seamless journey for their customers.

When a brand moves away from a fragmented stack, they often find that they can execute more sophisticated strategies with less effort. If consolidating tools is a priority, start by selecting plans that reduce stacked tooling costs. An integrated approach ensures that the loyalty points earned through collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews are immediately visible in the same customer portal where they track their referral bonuses.

The strategic advantage of a unified platform becomes clear when looking at customer stories that show how teams reduce app sprawl. These brands often find that their reward mechanics that support customer lifetime value are more effective because they are powered by data from multiple touchpoints. For instance, review automation that builds trust at purchase time can trigger loyalty points, which then encourages the customer to check out practical retention playbooks from growing storefronts to maximize their rewards.

This consolidated model significantly reduces the operational overhead of running a Shopify store. Instead of training a team on four different interfaces, there is one source of truth for customer retention data. This clarity allows for better decision-making and a more consistent brand voice across all post-purchase interactions.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Extole: Customer Referrals, the decision comes down to the specific goals of the business and the current stage of growth. BON Loyalty is an excellent choice for merchants who need a full-featured loyalty and VIP program that is easy to set up and offers great value, especially with its B2B and POS capabilities. Extole: Customer Referrals is the go-to option for Shopify Plus brands that have moved beyond basic loyalty and want to treat referral marketing as a high-precision, A/B-tested acquisition channel with an enterprise-level budget.

However, many brands find that neither a basic loyalty tool nor a highly specialized referral engine solves the underlying problem of app sprawl. Managing a disconnected stack of apps for loyalty, reviews, and referrals often leads to higher costs and a disjointed customer experience. By evaluating feature coverage across plans, merchants can often find a more holistic way to manage their retention strategy.

Before making a final commitment, it is often helpful to start by checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals to see how other brands have navigated these choices. This helps in verifying compatibility details in the official app listing before adding more scripts to a store. Ultimately, the goal is to build a retention engine that drives growth without adding unnecessary complexity to the business.

To reduce app fatigue and run retention from one place, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

FAQ

Is BON Loyalty better for small stores or large ones?

BON Loyalty is versatile enough to serve both. Its Free Forever and Basic plans are perfect for small stores starting their journey. However, its Professional plan includes features like full API access and Hydrogen support, making it a viable option for high-growth brands that want a loyalty-focused solution without the enterprise price tag of tools like Extole.

Why would a merchant choose Extole over a standard loyalty app?

A merchant would choose Extole if their primary growth lever is word-of-mouth acquisition rather than a point-based loyalty system. Extole provides enterprise-grade tools for A/B testing referral offers and managing complex audience segments, which are features rarely found in standard loyalty apps. It is built for brands that have the traffic and the budget to optimize the viral loop at a granular level.

Can BON Loyalty and Extole be used together?

Technically, they could be used together, but it is rarely recommended due to feature overlap and the potential for a confusing customer experience. Using both would mean a customer might have two different referral links or two different sets of rewards to track. It is generally better to choose one platform that aligns with your primary goal—either loyalty (BON) or high-end referral marketing (Extole).

How does an all-in-one platform compare to specialized apps?

An all-in-one platform reduces technical debt by consolidating multiple features into a single script and dashboard. While a specialized app might offer more "depth" in one specific niche (like Extole does for referral testing), an all-in-one platform offers "breadth" and integration. This means loyalty, reviews, and referrals all talk to each other, creating a more cohesive experience for the customer and providing the merchant with a unified view of customer data.