BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Gather: Refer a Friend: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right technology for a Shopify store often feels like navigating a maze of specialized tools, each promising to be the key to growth. For many merchants, the choice eventually narrows down to how they want to acquire and retain customers. Do they focus on a holistic loyalty ecosystem that rewards every interaction, or do they lean into a high-powered referral engine designed to turn existing customers into a primary acquisition channel? This comparison examines two specific solutions that sit at different ends of this spectrum: BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Gather: Refer a Friend.

Short answer: BON Loyalty Program & Rewards is a multi-feature retention hub best suited for stores needing points, VIP tiers, and referrals in one place. Gather: Refer a Friend is a specialized acquisition tool designed for merchants who want a high-ROAS referral channel with advanced lead-generation capabilities. While both excel in their niches, merchants should consider how an integrated platform can reduce operational overhead compared to managing separate, single-function applications.

The purpose of this analysis is to provide a neutral, data-driven comparison of these two apps. By exploring their features, pricing, and integration ecosystems, store owners can determine which tool aligns with their current growth stage and technical requirements. This guide will look at the tactical benefits of each and eventually discuss why many growing brands are moving toward consolidated stacks to solve the problem of app sprawl.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Gather: Refer a Friend: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Understanding the nuances between these two apps requires looking past the surface-level descriptions. While both offer referral capabilities, their fundamental philosophies differ significantly. One treats referrals as one piece of a retention puzzle, while the other treats referrals as a sophisticated engine for sustainable growth and lower customer acquisition costs (CAC).

Core Features and Retention Workflows

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards positions itself as a retention platform designed to maximize customer lifetime value (LTV). It accomplishes this by offering a three-pronged approach: points, VIP tiers, and referrals. The point system is flexible, allowing merchants to reward customers for various actions and then offering redemption options like percentage discounts, fixed amount off, or free shipping.

The inclusion of VIP tiers is a significant differentiator. By creating levels of membership, merchants can offer accelerated points or exclusive rewards to their most loyal customers. This creates a "gamified" experience that encourages repeat purchases. Furthermore, the app includes a B2B loyalty program, which is a rare feature in this category. This allows wholesale sellers to provide tiered rewards to their business clients, potentially boosting high-volume sales and strengthening long-term partnerships.

Gather: Refer a Friend, on the other hand, focuses exclusively on the referral channel. Instead of points for every purchase, Gather is built to activate a brand's customer base as a new acquisition channel. It emphasizes high Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and low Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). The feature set is deeply specialized for this purpose. For instance, Gather offers "contact search" for email invitations, making it easier for customers to share the brand with their friends.

Gather also supports both single-sided and double-sided rewards. A double-sided reward (where both the referrer and the friend get a discount) is often considered the gold standard for referral programs because it removes the social friction of "profiting" from a friend. Gather also allows for "newsletter growth" or "lead-gen" focused referrals, meaning a merchant could reward a customer just for getting a friend to sign up for an email list, rather than requiring a full purchase.

Customization and Brand Control

For a loyalty or referral program to be effective, it must feel like a seamless part of the storefront. BON Loyalty emphasizes a "brand tailored loyalty page" and the ability to unlock custom CSS on its Growth plan. This level of customization ensures that the loyalty widget or page does not look like a generic third-party add-on. BON also supports multi-language displays, which is critical for brands operating in international markets.

A unique technical advantage of BON is its support for Headless commerce via Hydrogen. As more brands move toward headless architectures for better performance and frontend control, having an app that provides full API access and a Software Development Toolkit (SDK) becomes vital. This is typically an enterprise-level requirement, and BON offers it in its Professional plan.

Gather focuses its customization on the referral experience itself. It provides a drag-and-drop editor for designing referral emails and tools to design the embedded dashboard. The "post-purchase CTA sidebar" is a strategic touchpoint that Gather utilizes well, prompting customers to refer friends exactly when their brand affinity is at its highest—immediately after a successful order.

Pricing Structure and Value for Money

When evaluating feature coverage across plans, merchants must look at both the monthly fee and the limits on advocates or sales.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards follows a traditional SaaS pricing model:

• The Free Forever plan is generous, offering points, rewards, and an anti-cheat referral program.
• The Basic plan at $25 per month introduces the loyalty page and POS rewards for in-store customers.
• The Growth plan at $99 per month is where VIP tiers and B2B programs are unlocked, along with unlimited orders.
• The Professional plan at $349 per month is geared toward enterprise users needing API access and headless support.

Gather: Refer a Friend has a different approach to scaling:

• Its Get Started plan is free and includes all features, but it is limited to $1000 worth of referred sales or 250 advocates.
• The Business Plan jumps to $350 per month. This plan is designed for high-volume stores, allowing for 5000 advocates and 500,000 site views.

The value proposition here depends on the store's goals. If a merchant wants a complete loyalty system with points and tiers for $99, BON offers a strong path. If a merchant is purely focused on scaling a referral program and wants "all features" from the start without a high monthly fee (until they hit the sales cap), Gather is a compelling option. Merchants should be comparing plan fit against retention goals to ensure they don't overpay for features they won't use or hit caps too quickly.

Integrations and Ecosystem Fit

The "Works With" list is often the most overlooked part of an app evaluation, yet it determines the operational complexity for the store's team.

BON Loyalty integrates with a wide variety of tools, including Shopify POS and Shopify Flow. Its integration with review apps like Fera, LAI, and Judge.me is important because it allows merchants to reward customers for leaving reviews—a powerful way to build social proof. Its connection to Klaviyo ensures that loyalty data can be used to trigger personalized emails, such as point expiration reminders.

Gather has a narrower but deeper focus on marketing automation. It works with Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Dotdigital, and Campaign Monitor. This focus on email service providers (ESPs) reinforces Gather’s position as a lead-generation tool. By syncing referral data with these platforms, merchants can build complex automated flows that nurture referred leads into first-time buyers.

Customer Support and Reliability

Reliability can often be gauged by checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals.

Gather has a longer track record on the platform with 16 reviews and a 5-star rating. This suggests a consistent level of service and a product that delivers on its promises for its specific niche. BON Loyalty, while also holding a 5-star rating, only has one review listed in the provided data. This indicates it may be a newer entrant or a recently updated solution. However, BON does offer 24/7 live chat support on its higher tiers, which is a significant safety net for merchants who cannot afford downtime on their loyalty program.

Operational Overhead and App Stack Impact

Every app added to a Shopify store introduces a degree of "technical debt." Each app has its own script, its own dashboard, and its own data silo.

Using BON Loyalty means a merchant gets points, tiers, and referrals in one package. This reduces the number of apps to manage for retention. However, if that merchant also wants reviews or a wishlist, they will still need to find additional apps (like Fera or Judge.me).

Using Gather means the merchant is choosing a "best-of-breed" tool for referrals. The trade-off is that they will definitely need other apps for points, VIP tiers, and reviews. This leads to a "stacked" approach where several specialized apps are working alongside each other. While this can provide deep functionality in each area, it often leads to a fragmented customer experience where the "Refer a Friend" widget looks different from the "Review" widget, and the customer has to log into different areas to see their status.

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

As merchants scale, they often encounter "app fatigue." This occurs when the cost and complexity of managing five or six different apps for retention (loyalty, reviews, referrals, wishlist, social login, etc.) become a burden. Data becomes fragmented—a customer might be a "VIP" in one app but hasn't left a review in another, and the two apps don't talk to each other. This lack of integration makes it difficult to get a 360-degree view of the customer.

Furthermore, multiple apps can slow down site performance and create a cluttered user interface. This is why many brands are moving toward the "More Growth, Less Stack" philosophy. By using an integrated platform, merchants can manage their entire retention strategy from a single dashboard, ensuring that every touchpoint—from the first referral to the fifth repeat purchase—is consistent and data-driven.

Growave provides this unified experience by combining loyalty programs that keep customers coming back with other essential tools. Instead of choosing between a referral-only tool or a points-only tool, merchants can access a suite that includes:

• Loyalty and Rewards: A comprehensive system for points and VIP tiers.
• Referrals: Tools to turn customers into brand advocates.
• Reviews & UGC:Collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews to build trust.
• Wishlist: Reducing cart abandonment by allowing customers to save items for later.

This integrated approach means that a customer's referral activity, review history, and purchase behavior all contribute to their loyalty status in one place. When seeing how other brands connect loyalty and reviews, it becomes clear that the synergy between these features drives higher engagement than they would individually.

If consolidating tools is a priority, start by choosing a plan built for long-term value. By moving away from a fragmented stack, merchants can achieve a clearer view of total retention-stack costs.

One of the biggest advantages of an all-in-one platform is the consistency of the user experience. When the loyalty program and the review system are built by the same developer, they share the same design language. This creates a professional, cohesive feel on the storefront that builds brand authority. Moreover, review automation that builds trust at purchase time can be directly linked to incentives that pair well with lifecycle email flows.

Merchants can find real examples from brands improving retention by simplifying their tech stack. These customer stories that show how teams reduce app sprawl often highlight how much time is saved when support teams only have to deal with one platform instead of four or five different support departments.

When verifying compatibility details in the official app listing, it is evident that an integrated platform is built to work seamlessly with the Shopify ecosystem, including Shopify POS and Checkout. This ensures that as a store grows, the technology scales with it without the need for constant "patchwork" integrations between disparate apps.

Ultimately, the goal is to spend less time managing software and more time growing the business. By checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals, store owners can see that a consolidated approach is often the preferred path for high-growth brands.

Strategy: Choosing Based on Store Maturity

The decision between BON, Gather, or a consolidated platform often depends on the current stage of the business. Each choice represents a different strategic priority.

When to Choose BON Loyalty Program & Rewards

BON is an excellent choice for a merchant who knows they want a traditional loyalty program but isn't ready for a full suite of five or six different tools. It is particularly strong for:

• International Stores: The multi-language support is a major benefit for stores selling in different regions.
• B2B Merchants: The specialized B2B tiered rewards program is a unique selling point that many other apps lack.
• Headless Storefronts: For developers building on Shopify Hydrogen, BON’s Professional plan offers the necessary API and SDK tools.
• Retail-First Brands: With Shopify POS integration in the Basic plan, it’s a solid choice for brands with a physical presence.

When to Choose Gather: Refer a Friend

Gather is for the merchant who believes that their existing customers are their best marketing team. It is a precision tool for:

• High-Growth Acquisition: If the primary goal is to lower CAC through viral loops and "refer-a-friend" mechanics.
• Lead Generation: If the brand needs to grow its email list and wants to reward customers for successful sign-ups rather than just completed sales.
• Advanced Email Marketing: Merchants who are experts in Klaviyo or Mailchimp will appreciate the deep ESP integrations and the ability to design custom referral emails.
• Low-Budget Testing: The free plan with all features included (up to $1000 in sales) allows a merchant to test a sophisticated referral program without an upfront monthly cost.

When to Choose a Consolidated Platform

A consolidated platform is the strategic choice for a merchant who is looking at the "big picture." It is for those who are seeing how the app is positioned for Shopify stores as a long-term partner rather than a quick fix. This path is best for:

• Scaling Brands: When a store grows past a certain point, managing multiple apps becomes a full-time job. Consolidation saves time and reduces errors.
• UX-Focused Brands: If the merchant wants a perfectly consistent look and feel across loyalty, reviews, and wishlist.
• Data-Driven Marketers: Having all retention data in one place allows for much more powerful segmentation and personalization.
• Value-Conscious Owners: While the monthly price of an all-in-one app might seem higher than a single specialized app, it is almost always lower than the combined cost of five different specialized apps.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Gather: Refer a Friend, the decision comes down to whether they need a general loyalty program with points and tiers or a highly specialized referral and lead-generation engine. BON Loyalty provides a well-rounded retention hub that handles points and VIP statuses effectively, making it a strong contender for stores that want to reward every aspect of the customer journey. Gather: Refer a Friend is a powerful acquisition-focused tool that excels at turning social sharing into a predictable revenue stream.

However, as a Shopify store grows, the challenges of managing separate apps for loyalty, referrals, and reviews can lead to significant operational friction. The "app sprawl" that results from stacking individual tools often creates a disjointed customer experience and complicates data management. This is where an integrated platform offers a higher-value alternative. By validating fit by reading merchant review patterns, it becomes clear that many store owners eventually transition to a single suite to gain a unified view of their customers and streamline their workflows.

Choosing a consolidated approach not only simplifies the back-end operations but also ensures a more cohesive and professional front-end experience for the shopper. To reduce app fatigue and run retention from one place, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

FAQ

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

Specialized apps often provide deeper, niche features for one specific task, such as lead-generation referrals or headless loyalty. However, an all-in-one platform provides a unified ecosystem where different features—like loyalty, reviews, and wishlist—work together. This synergy typically results in a better customer experience, easier data management for the merchant, and a lower total cost of ownership than paying for multiple individual subscriptions.

Can I run a referral program without a point system?

Yes. Apps like Gather: Refer a Friend are designed specifically for this. They allow you to reward customers with discounts, free products, or other incentives directly for a referral, without the need for them to accumulate points over time. This is often simpler for the customer to understand and can lead to faster acquisition results.

Is it difficult to switch from a specialized app to an integrated suite?

Most modern Shopify apps allow for easy data export and import. If a merchant is moving from a specialized loyalty app to an integrated suite, they can typically migrate their customer point balances and referral data via CSV files. Most integrated platforms also offer migration support to ensure that no customer data is lost during the transition.

Does having more apps affect my Shopify store speed?

Generally, yes. Every app that adds a widget or script to the storefront can impact load times. While one or two specialized apps might not make a noticeable difference, a stack of five or six different apps—each loading its own JavaScript and CSS—can significantly slow down a site. An integrated platform is usually more efficient because it uses a single script to power multiple features, leading to better performance and a smoother shopping experience.