BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. ShopHub: Loyalty Stamp Card: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Selecting the right retention tools for a Shopify storefront involves a careful balance between feature depth, user simplicity, and long-term cost. Merchants often find themselves caught between sophisticated point-based systems that offer granular control and simplified visual reward systems that prioritize ease of use for the end consumer. This choice is pivotal because the loyalty experience is often the primary touchpoint for repeat customers, influencing whether they return for a second purchase or churn to a competitor.

Short answer: Choosing between BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and ShopHub: Loyalty Stamp Card depends on whether a store requires a traditional point-and-tier system for complex B2B and B2C needs or a simplified, visual stamp-card mechanic for high-frequency purchases. While both apps provide distinct pathways to retention, merchants seeking to scale efficiently may find that consolidating these functions into an integrated platform helps reduce the technical debt and inconsistent user experiences often associated with managing multiple single-purpose apps.

The goal of this analysis is to provide a neutral, data-driven comparison of these two solutions. By examining pricing, feature sets, and integration capabilities, merchants can determine which tool aligns with their current operational maturity and future growth objectives.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. ShopHub: Loyalty Stamp Card: At a Glance

The following table provides a high-level summary of how these two loyalty solutions compare across several critical business metrics.

Deep Dive Comparison

To understand which application fits a specific business model, it is necessary to look past the basic descriptions and analyze how these tools function in a live retail environment. Retention is not just about giving away points; it is about creating a friction-free path to the next transaction.

Core Features and Loyalty Workflows

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards operates on a traditional points-for-actions model. Customers earn points for various activities, which they can later redeem for discounts, free shipping, or specific products. This model is highly effective for stores with large catalogs where customers might not buy the same item twice but return for the brand's variety. The inclusion of VIP tiers allows merchants to create a sense of exclusivity, rewarding high-intent customers with accelerated earning rates. One significant differentiator for BON is its B2B loyalty program functionality, which allows wholesale merchants to apply tiered rewards to their business clients, a feature often missing from entry-level loyalty apps.

ShopHub: Loyalty Stamp Card takes a different psychological approach. By using digital stamps instead of points, it mimics the traditional coffee shop "buy ten, get one free" experience. This visual progress bar can be more intuitive for certain demographics who find point conversions (e.g., 500 points equals $5) confusing. This approach is particularly powerful for consumable goods or high-frequency purchases where the goal is to build a habit. While ShopHub also includes a referral program, its primary value proposition lies in the simplicity and "fun" factor of the stamp card interface.

Customization and Brand Control

Customization is a major factor for merchants who have invested heavily in their brand identity. BON Loyalty offers a brand-tailored loyalty page and allows for custom CSS in its higher tiers. This ensures that the loyalty experience feels like a native part of the website rather than a third-party widget. For developers and high-growth brands, BON provides a Software Development Toolkit (SDK) and full API access in its Professional plan. This is a critical feature for stores running on Hydrogen or other headless commerce frameworks, as it allows the loyalty logic to be integrated into custom front-end environments.

ShopHub places a heavy emphasis on visual customization through typography and language support. With over 1,500 fonts and support for more than 200 languages in its Premium plan, it is well-suited for international merchants who need to localize their rewards program for different regions. The ability to upload custom fonts and fully customize the text within the app ensures that the stamp card looks and feels like a bespoke creation. However, it lacks the deep API and SDK access found in BON’s top-tier plans, making it more of a "plug-and-play" solution than a developer-centric platform.

Pricing Structure and Value for Money

When comparing plan fit against retention goals, merchants must look at both the sticker price and the feature limits. BON Loyalty offers a Free Forever plan that is surprisingly robust, including an anti-cheat referral program and automated emails. As merchants move to the Basic ($25/month) and Growth ($99/month) plans, they unlock features like POS rewards, VIP tiers, and points expiration reminders. The Professional plan at $349/month is clearly aimed at enterprise-level stores, offering significant custom development support and priority access.

ShopHub’s pricing is also accessible but follows a different scaling logic. Their free-to-install plan provides basic rewards and branding. The Standard plan ($49/month) introduces advanced branding and priority support, while the Premium plan ($199/month) is required for those needing full language support, product-variant rewards, and deep integration with email marketing platforms like Klaviyo. While the top-tier price is lower than BON’s Professional plan, it also offers less in terms of technical infrastructure for headless builds.

Integrations and Technical Fit

The utility of a loyalty app is often determined by how well it "plays" with the rest of the tech stack. BON Loyalty has a broad integration profile, working with Shopify POS, Flow, and multiple review platforms such as Fera, LAI, and Judge.me. This makes it a strong contender for merchants who already have a preferred review tool and want their loyalty points to trigger based on review submissions. Its compatibility with page builders like PageFly also means merchants can design custom landing pages that highlight loyalty rewards without needing to write code.

ShopHub lists Klaviyo as a primary integration. This focus allows merchants to sync their stamp card data with their email marketing, ensuring that customers receive automated reminders when they are close to completing a card. While its integration list is more focused than BON’s, it covers the most critical touchpoint for loyalty: email. For merchants who only use Klaviyo and do not require complex connections with third-party review or wishlist apps, ShopHub provides a streamlined experience.

Customer Support and Reliability

Reliability is a major concern when choosing a retention tool. BON Loyalty, despite having a lower review volume in the provided data, emphasizes its 24/7 support team and live chat availability on its Growth plan. The 5.0 rating suggests that the early adopters have had a positive experience with the implementation and support process. In contrast, ShopHub has a more established presence with 23 reviews and a 4.6 rating. This indicates a consistent track record of performance across a wider variety of store environments.

The operational overhead of managing these tools is also worth noting. BON’s deeper feature set may require more time to configure correctly, especially when setting up VIP tiers or B2B logic. ShopHub is designed for a "setup in minutes" experience, which is ideal for smaller teams that do not have dedicated developers or e-commerce managers to oversee the loyalty program daily.

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

While specialized apps like BON Loyalty and ShopHub serve their specific purposes well, many merchants eventually encounter the phenomenon known as app fatigue. This occurs when a store’s backend becomes cluttered with dozens of single-function tools, each with its own subscription cost, admin interface, and data silo. When loyalty is handled by one app, reviews by another, and wishlists by a third, the customer experience can become fragmented. For example, a customer might earn points in a loyalty app but find that those points cannot be easily redeemed or viewed within the review request email they just received.

App fatigue often leads to slower site speeds, inconsistent branding, and significant integration overhead. Every time a Shopify theme is updated or a new marketing tool is added, the risk of these disparate apps breaking increases. Furthermore, the total cost of ownership for multiple "best-of-breed" apps often exceeds the cost of a single integrated platform. This is where the philosophy of "More Growth, Less Stack" becomes a competitive advantage for growing brands.

By consolidating retention efforts into a single ecosystem, merchants can ensure that loyalty points and rewards designed to lift repeat purchases work in perfect harmony with other marketing efforts. Instead of managing five different dashboards, a merchant can oversee the entire customer journey from one place. This integration allows for more sophisticated automation. For instance, when a customer leaves a high-quality review, an integrated system can automatically award points and update their VIP status, all while maintaining a consistent visual identity.

Strategic growth requires a clearer view of total retention-stack costs to ensure that the budget is being spent on outcomes rather than just maintaining software. An integrated platform reduces the time spent on troubleshooting integrations and allows the team to focus on high-level strategy, such as refining VIP tiers and incentives for high-intent customers or optimizing the referral funnel.

Moreover, the quality of data is vastly improved when it is centralized. When collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews, having that data immediately available to the loyalty program allows for better segmentation. Merchants can identify their most loyal advocates and offer them early access to new products or exclusive rewards, creating a powerful feedback loop. This kind of social proof that supports conversion and AOV is much harder to orchestrate when the data is trapped in separate apps.

For merchants who are unsure about how to transition from a fragmented stack to a unified one, a tailored walkthrough based on store goals and constraints can provide clarity. Seeing how all the pieces of the retention puzzle—loyalty, reviews, referrals, and wishlists—fit together helps stakeholders align on priorities. A guided evaluation of an integrated retention stack can often reveal hidden efficiencies that were previously obscured by the complexity of a multi-app setup.

Ultimately, the goal is to create a seamless experience for the customer. When a shopper visits a store, they shouldn't see three different pop-ups from three different apps. They should see a unified brand experience that recognizes their value and rewards their behavior consistently. If consolidating tools is a priority, start by evaluating feature coverage across plans.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and ShopHub: Loyalty Stamp Card, the decision comes down to the specific mechanics of the desired loyalty experience and the technical requirements of the storefront. BON Loyalty is a strong fit for merchants who need a traditional point-based system with the flexibility of VIP tiers and B2B capabilities. Its support for headless commerce and extensive API access makes it a viable choice for high-growth brands with complex technical needs. On the other hand, ShopHub: Loyalty Stamp Card is an excellent option for merchants who prefer a visual, intuitive reward system that can be launched quickly and localized for an international audience.

However, as a store grows, the challenge often shifts from finding a specific feature to managing the complexity of the entire technology stack. While both BON and ShopHub are effective at what they do, they represent single pieces of a much larger retention puzzle. Merchants who find themselves struggling with "app creep"—the gradual accumulation of many specialized tools—may want to consider the long-term benefits of a unified platform.

Consolidating loyalty, reviews, and referrals into a single interface not only reduces costs but also creates a more stable and faster website. Before committing to a new single-purpose app, it is worth checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals to see how other brands have successfully simplified their operations. By focusing on a "less is more" approach to their tech stack, merchants can build a more resilient and scalable business.

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 an international Shopify store?

ShopHub: Loyalty Stamp Card has a slight edge for international stores that require extensive localization, as its Premium plan supports over 200 languages and custom font uploads. BON Loyalty also offers multi-language display in its Basic plan, but ShopHub’s breadth of language support is particularly notable for global brands.

Can I use these loyalty apps for a wholesale (B2B) business?

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards explicitly includes a B2B Tier Program in its Growth plan. This allows merchants to create specific reward structures for their wholesale clients, which is a specialized requirement that many loyalty apps do not support. ShopHub: Loyalty Stamp Card does not specifically mention B2B-specific tier functionality in its provided data.

Do these apps work with Shopify POS?

Yes, both applications support omnichannel retailing. BON Loyalty offers POS rewards for in-store customers starting in its Basic plan, allowing for a seamless transition between online and physical locations. ShopHub also states that its digital stamp card is designed for both online and POS use, ensuring that customers can earn "stamps" regardless of where they shop.

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

Specialized apps often provide a very deep focus on a single mechanic, such as stamp cards or points. An all-in-one platform, however, integrates multiple retention tools—like loyalty, reviews, and wishlists—into a single system. This reduces the number of apps a merchant needs to manage, lowers the risk of code conflicts, and ensures that data flows naturally between different parts of the customer journey, often leading to a more consistent user experience and assessing app-store ratings as a trust signal for overall platform reliability.