BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Lantern Loyalty & Rewards: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Selecting the right retention tools often feels like a balancing act between feature depth and operational simplicity. For Shopify merchants, the choice typically narrows down to specialized apps that promise to master one domain, such as loyalty or customer accounts. However, as a store grows, the weight of multiple subscriptions and disconnected data can slow down progress. This analysis explores two distinct approaches to customer retention: BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Lantern Loyalty & Rewards.

Short answer: BON Loyalty Program & Rewards is a robust choice for merchants requiring deep B2B functionality and multi-language support, while Lantern Loyalty & Rewards excels at providing a unified customer account experience with a focus on high-end front-end design. Both tools serve specific growth stages, though larger brands may eventually find that selecting plans that reduce stacked tooling costs is the more sustainable path for long-term retention.

The purpose of this comparison is to provide an objective, data-driven look at how these two apps function, their pricing structures, and their technical requirements. By the end of this evaluation, the goal is to clarify which tool aligns with specific business models, from small startups to Shopify Plus enterprises.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Lantern Loyalty & Rewards: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Core Features and Loyalty Workflows

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards centers its value proposition on flexibility across different business models. It offers a standard points-based system where customers earn rewards for actions like purchases and referrals. A significant differentiator for this app is the inclusion of B2B loyalty features. In the Shopify ecosystem, managing wholesale and retail loyalty within the same framework is notoriously difficult. BON addresses this by allowing exclusive tiered rewards for B2B customers, which helps merchants increase the lifetime value of their highest-volume buyers.

The app also emphasizes multi-channel capability. By working with Shopify POS, it ensures that customers shopping in physical locations receive the same incentives as those online. This omnichannel approach is critical for brands moving toward a "bricks and clicks" model. For international brands, the multi-language display support ensures that loyalty widgets and notifications resonate with a global audience without requiring external translation apps.

Lantern Loyalty & Rewards takes a more architectural approach to the customer experience. Built by developers with a deep background in Shopify’s own front-end design, Lantern focuses on the customer account page as the "source of truth" for the shopper. Instead of having separate widgets for rewards, referrals, and account details, Lantern embeds these into a single promotion engine. This reduces the visual clutter often seen on modern storefronts where multiple app bubbles compete for attention.

The workflow in Lantern is built around "preset blocks." This allows merchants to craft branded account pages without writing code. While it handles points and referrals similarly to BON, the emphasis is on the "Wallet" concept—a central place where customers manage rewards, discounts, and gift cards. This design-first philosophy aims to make the loyalty program feel like a native part of the store rather than a third-party add-on.

Customization and Brand Control

Customization is often where merchant satisfaction either peaks or plummets. BON Loyalty Program & Rewards offers a tiered approach to design. On lower plans, merchants use standard customization tools to align the loyalty page with their brand colors and fonts. As stores move into the Growth and Professional tiers, the app unlocks custom CSS. A notable service detail is that BON provides developer support for these CSS changes, which is a significant benefit for small teams that lack in-house technical resources but want a highly specific look.

Furthermore, BON’s support for Hydrogen and headless commerce suggests a commitment to high-performance, modern web architectures. This allows developers to build custom loyalty experiences from scratch using the Software Development Toolkit (SDK) and full API access available in the Professional plan.

Lantern Loyalty & Rewards approaches customization through the lens of modern Shopify development. It utilizes Liquid, Metafields, and a GraphQL API, giving developers the tools they need to build bespoke experiences while maintaining a "No-Code" editor for the marketing team. This balance is particularly useful for brands that want to iterate quickly on the frontend without involving developers for every minor change. The use of "automatic and codeless discounts" within Lantern also helps maintain a clean checkout experience, reducing the friction that often comes with manual coupon code entry.

Pricing Structure and Value for Money

Analyzing the pricing of these two apps reveals a clear distinction in their target audiences. Comparing plan fit against retention goals is essential here, as the entry price for Lantern is significantly higher than for BON.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards provides a "Free Forever" plan that includes basic points, an anti-cheat referral program, and automated emails. This makes it highly accessible for new stores. The Basic plan starts at $25 per month, adding POS rewards and multi-language support. The Growth plan, at $99 per month, is where the B2B features and VIP tiers are introduced. The Professional plan, at $349 per month, is clearly aimed at larger enterprises requiring headless support and priority development help.

Lantern Loyalty & Rewards does not have a "Free Forever" tier for live stores in the same way BON does; its free plan is specifically for development and testing. The entry-level "Starter" plan begins at $75 per month, which includes loyalty, referrals, and customer accounts. The pricing scales dramatically to $325 (Momentum) and $625 (Growth) per month. For a merchant only looking for a basic rewards program, Lantern may represent a higher overhead. However, for a merchant who would otherwise pay for separate loyalty and advanced customer account apps, Lantern’s "all for one price" model might offer a clearer view of total retention-stack costs.

Integrations and Ecosystem Fit

The utility of a loyalty app is often limited by how well it "talks" to the rest of the tech stack. BON Loyalty Program & Rewards lists a wide array of integrations, particularly in the review space. It works with Fera, LAI, and Judge.me, allowing merchants to reward customers for leaving reviews. Its integration with Klaviyo for email and SMS ensures that loyalty data—like point balances or tier status—can be used to trigger personalized marketing automation.

Lantern Loyalty & Rewards focuses on the Shopify Flow connection as its primary integration engine. This allows it to connect with virtually any app that also supports Flow, such as Gorgias for customer support or Recharge for subscriptions. This "hub and spoke" model via Flow is efficient for complex workflows. For example, a merchant could set up a flow where a customer receiving a high-priority tag in Gorgias is automatically granted loyalty points in Lantern.

Customer Support and Reliability Signals

When evaluating reliability, review volume and ratings serve as the primary indicators in this comparison. BON Loyalty Program & Rewards currently shows a single review with a 5-star rating. While the rating is perfect, the sample size is extremely small, suggesting the app may be relatively new or has a smaller user base on the Shopify platform. Their 24/7 live chat support and dedicated developer assistance for CSS are strong signals that they are investing heavily in customer success to build that reputation.

Lantern Loyalty & Rewards shows three reviews, also with a 5-star rating. Again, the volume is low, but the presence of a "Dedicated Account Manager" in the Growth plan ($625/month) indicates a high-touch support model intended for larger brands. Both apps offer email and live chat, but the lack of extensive review history means merchants should perform their own due diligence by checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals across the broader ecosystem.

Technical Performance and Operational Overhead

Operational overhead is a hidden cost in e-commerce. Using BON Loyalty Program & Rewards means managing a loyalty program that is feature-rich but might require coordination between multiple other apps (like reviews and wishlists) to create a cohesive strategy. Because BON is specialized, the data it generates stays largely within the loyalty silo unless it is actively pushed to Klaviyo or Shopify Flow.

Lantern Loyalty & Rewards reduces some of this overhead by combining the account page and loyalty program. This "single place to engage" philosophy simplifies the customer journey. However, because Lantern focuses heavily on the front-end design, merchants must ensure that their theme is compatible with Lantern's "promotion engine" and that the "No-Code" blocks align with their site's performance goals.

For many brands, the challenge remains: even with an app like Lantern or BON, you still need separate solutions for reviews, wishlists, and social proof. This "app sprawl" can lead to inconsistent user experiences and slower site speeds. Merchants should focus on evaluating feature coverage across plans to see if their current stack is becoming too fragmented.

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 relies on six or seven different apps to manage retention—one for loyalty, one for reviews, one for wishlists, one for Instagram feeds, and another for referrals. Each app comes with its own subscription fee, its own script that slows down the site, and its own siloed data. This fragmentation makes it nearly impossible to get a 360-degree view of the customer.

Growave offers a solution to this through a "More Growth, Less Stack" philosophy. Instead of being a single-function tool, it provides an integrated ecosystem. By selecting plans that reduce stacked tooling costs, merchants can replace multiple subscriptions with one platform that manages the entire post-purchase experience.

Integrated Loyalty and Reviews

When loyalty points and rewards designed to lift repeat purchases live in the same house as collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews, the synergy is immediate. In an integrated platform, rewarding a customer for a photo review doesn't require a complex integration between two different companies. It happens natively. This creates a smoother experience for the customer and less troubleshooting for the merchant.

This integration extends to VIP tiers and incentives for high-intent customers. A merchant can see that a customer is in the "Gold Tier" and simultaneously see that they haven't left a review for their last three purchases. Automated review automation that builds trust at purchase time can then trigger a personalized request, offering bonus points that are automatically credited to their account.

Social Proof and Practical Success

Seeing how other brands navigate these challenges is often the best way to choose a direction. There are many real examples from brands improving retention by moving away from fragmented apps. These customer stories that show how teams reduce app sprawl highlight a common theme: simplicity leads to better execution. When a small marketing team only has one dashboard to learn, they are much more likely to actually use the features they are paying for.

Performance and Reliability at Scale

For stores growing beyond the initial startup phase, site speed becomes a primary KPI. Every additional app script added to the header of a Shopify store increases the "Time to Interactive." By using a single platform for loyalty, reviews, and wishlists, merchants significantly reduce the number of external calls the browser has to make. This leads to a faster, more professional storefront.

Furthermore, verifying compatibility details in the official app listing is a critical step for any brand concerned about stability. With over 1,100 reviews and a high rating, the reliability signals for an integrated platform are often much stronger than those for newer, niche apps. This history of performance provides peace of mind for merchants who cannot afford for their rewards program to go down during a peak sale period like Black Friday.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Lantern Loyalty & Rewards, the decision comes down to the specific technical needs and the current structure of the business.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards is the clear choice for stores with a heavy B2B focus or those operating in multiple languages across international borders. Its low entry price for basic loyalty features makes it an excellent starting point for new merchants, while its Hydrogen support ensures it can grow with brands moving toward headless commerce.

Lantern Loyalty & Rewards is better suited for brands that prioritize a unified, design-forward customer account experience. If the goal is to clean up the front-end of the site and provide a centralized "wallet" for customers, Lantern’s architectural approach provides significant value, despite its higher starting price.

However, many growing stores eventually realize that loyalty is just one piece of the retention puzzle. Managing separate apps for loyalty, reviews, and wishlists often creates more work than it solves. To avoid the complexities of tool sprawl, merchants should consider planning retention spend without app sprawl surprises by moving toward an integrated platform.

Choosing a solution that covers the entire customer lifecycle—from the first review read to the final loyalty point redeemed—allows for a more cohesive brand experience and a lower total cost of ownership. To reduce app fatigue and run retention from one place, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

FAQ

Which app is better for a Shopify Plus store?

Both apps offer features that cater to high-volume merchants. BON Loyalty Program & Rewards provides points at checkout and Hydrogen support for headless builds, which are common requirements for Plus stores. Lantern Loyalty & Rewards offers a GraphQL API and dedicated account management at its highest tier. The choice depends on whether the merchant values B2B capabilities (BON) or a more sophisticated account hub (Lantern).

Can I migrate my existing points from another app to BON or Lantern?

While both developers generally support data migration, the ease of this process depends on the export capabilities of the current app. BON mentions "effortless setup," which often includes importing customer balances via CSV. Lantern’s focus on professional front-end design suggests a high level of technical competence, but merchants should always contact support to confirm migration paths before switching.

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

Specialized apps often provide deeper, more granular features in one specific area, such as B2B loyalty. However, an all-in-one platform offers better value by integrating multiple tools like loyalty, reviews, and wishlists into a single dashboard. This reduces the number of scripts on the site, lowers the total monthly subscription cost, and ensures that data flows seamlessly between different retention modules without the need for third-party connectors.

Does BON Loyalty support in-store rewards?

Yes, BON Loyalty Program & Rewards integrates with Shopify POS. This allows merchants to reward customers for their purchases regardless of whether they shop online or in a physical retail location, creating a consistent brand experience across all channels.