BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Shopwaive Credit, Loyalty & AI: An In-Depth Comparison

Introduction

Choosing the right loyalty or retention tool often feels like a balancing act between specific technical requirements and the long-term health of the Shopify tech stack. Merchants must decide if they need a traditional rewards program based on points and referrals or a more flexible financial system based on store credits and checkout APIs.

Short answer: BON Loyalty Program & Rewards excels at creating classic, tiered loyalty structures with a strong focus on VIP levels and B2B rewards, making it a solid choice for stores prioritizing traditional gamification. Shopwaive Credit, Loyalty & AI focuses on financial flexibility, offering store credits, gift cards, and AI-driven insights, which suits enterprise brands requiring deep checkout integration and credit-based refunds. For brands seeking to consolidate multiple tools into one, integrated platforms offer a way to reduce operational overhead while maintaining high performance.

The purpose of this analysis is to provide a neutral, feature-by-feature comparison of BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Shopwaive Credit, Loyalty & AI. By looking at pricing, functionality, and developer support, merchants can identify which tool aligns with their specific growth stage and customer retention strategy.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Shopwaive Credit, Loyalty & AI: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Core Features and Loyalty Workflows

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards is built around the traditional pillars of customer retention: points, VIP tiers, and referrals. It focuses on the psychological aspect of "earning" and "leveling up." Merchants can set up specific actions that trigger point rewards, such as making a purchase, following social media accounts, or celebrating a birthday. The referral program includes anti-cheat mechanisms, ensuring that the growth generated through word-of-mouth is authentic and profitable. For stores with a heavy B2B component, the ability to create exclusive tiered rewards for wholesale clients is a standout feature, allowing for a segmented approach to loyalty that many basic apps lack.

In contrast, Shopwaive Credit, Loyalty & AI treats loyalty more like a financial ecosystem. Instead of just focusing on points, it emphasizes store credits and gift cards. This approach is particularly effective for brands that want to offer cashback refunds or upsells at checkout using store credit. The inclusion of an AI agent adds a modern layer of functionality, allowing merchants to ask questions about business performance or tips for running the store directly within the app interface. While it supports traditional points, the strength of the tool lies in its flexibility for "payments-as-loyalty," including the ability for customers to cash out via direct deposits or Stripe Connect, a feature not specified in the provided data for BON Loyalty.

Customization and Design Control

The ability to make a loyalty program feel like a native part of the storefront is critical for brand trust. BON Loyalty offers a dedicated loyalty page and customization services intended to match the store's aesthetic. On the Growth plan, merchants can access custom CSS with developer support, providing a bridge between template-based designs and fully bespoke interfaces. The app also emphasizes its integration at multiple touchpoints, including product pages and the checkout area, which is specifically available for Shopify Plus users.

Shopwaive approaches design through a "Design Editor" available on its Pro plan. Because the app focuses heavily on checkout extensions and APIs, the customization often centers on how the credit and loyalty options appear during the transaction process. The app is built to fit the brand and integrates with thousands of other tools through Zapier and Shopify Flow, suggesting that while it has its own design tools, it is also meant to work behind the scenes of a merchant's existing tech stack. For headless commerce users, both apps offer SDKs or API access, though the Professional plan for BON and the Checkout plan for Shopwaive are the specific tiers where these advanced technical capabilities reside.

Pricing Structure and Value for Money

Evaluating the cost of these tools requires looking beyond the monthly fee and considering the order volume and feature accessibility. A merchant should begin by seeing how the app is positioned for Shopify stores through the lens of their specific monthly transaction count.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards offers a four-tier pricing structure:

• FREE FOREVER: Includes points, rewards, anti-cheat referrals, and automated emails. This is a robust entry point for small stores.
• Basic ($25/mo): Adds a loyalty page, POS rewards, and unlimited integrations with tools like Klaviyo and Fera.
• Growth ($99/mo): This is a significant jump but offers unlimited orders, VIP tiers, and B2B tier programs. The "unlimited orders" feature is a major value driver for high-volume stores that want to avoid scaling costs.
• Professional ($349/mo): Targets enterprise users with full API access, Hydrogen support for headless commerce, and monthly custom development packages.

Shopwaive Credit, Loyalty & AI follows a different pricing logic:

• Shopwaive Starter ($15/mo): Includes the loyalty program and API access but limits automated emails to 500 per month.
• Shopwaive Pro ($45/mo): Increases the email limit to 10,000 and adds Klaviyo flows, shipping credits, and the design editor.
• Shopwaive Checkout ($60/mo): This plan focuses on the checkout experience, adding AI agent access, checkout extensions, and B2B checkout features.

When comparing plan fit against retention goals, BON Loyalty appears better for stores that prioritize gamification and high order volume without per-order fees on their Growth plan. Shopwaive offers a lower entry price for API access and unique features like direct deposit cash outs, which might offer better value for niche stores with complex financial workflows.

Integrations and Technical Fit

Modern e-commerce requires tools that talk to each other. BON Loyalty lists a wide range of "works with" partners, including POS for in-store rewards and several review apps like Judge.me and Fera. This suggests a focus on the visual and social aspects of commerce. By working with PageFly and Klaviyo, it ensures that the loyalty program is woven into both the landing pages and the post-purchase email strategy.

Shopwaive has a more expansive integration profile, claiming compatibility with over 6,000 apps via Zapier. Its "works with" list includes heavy-duty financial and operational tools like QuickBooks Online, HubSpot, and Stripe. This positions Shopwaive as a tool for merchants who view loyalty as a subset of their broader business operations and financial accounting. While both apps work with Shopify POS and Shopify Flow, Shopwaive's connection to Stripe and direct deposits makes it a more specialized tool for brands managing employee credits or complex refund scenarios.

Performance and Operational Overhead

Using specialized apps for every function can lead to "app sprawl," where the store becomes weighed down by multiple scripts and separate billing cycles. When checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals, it is important to consider how an app impacts site speed and the admin experience.

BON Loyalty emphasizes an "effortless setup" and a 24/7 support team. With a single review but a 5-star rating, it is a newer or more niche contender compared to larger platforms, but it promises 24/7 live chat on its Growth plan. This level of support is crucial for maintaining a loyalty program that runs continuously.

Shopwaive also offers 24/7 support and operates on "auto-pilot." With 17 reviews and a 5-star rating, it has a slightly larger footprint of verified merchant satisfaction. The operational overhead for Shopwaive might be higher initially due to its AI agent and API focus, but the automation features are designed to reduce manual work in the long run. Merchants should keep a clearer view of total retention-stack costs to ensure that the complexity of these specialized tools doesn't outweigh the benefits.

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

As a Shopify store grows, the temptation to add more apps to solve individual problems—one for reviews, one for loyalty, one for wishlists—often leads to a fragmented customer experience. This "app fatigue" results in data silos where information about a customer's wishlist isn't used to trigger a loyalty reward, or a negative review doesn't alert the customer service team within the loyalty interface. Managing multiple subscriptions also complicates the process of comparing plan fit against retention goals.

Growave offers a different philosophy: "More Growth, Less Stack." By integrating loyalty points and rewards designed to lift repeat purchases with other essential retention tools, it eliminates the need for five or six separate apps. This approach ensures that the user experience is consistent across every touchpoint, from the moment a shopper saves an item to their wishlist to the point they earn VIP tiers and incentives for high-intent customers after a purchase.

The benefit of an integrated platform goes beyond just saving money on app subscriptions. It is about the synergy between different modules. For example, instead of just collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews, an integrated system can automatically reward points for those reviews within the same ecosystem. This creates a seamless loop of engagement that specialized apps often struggle to replicate without complex custom integrations. By using review automation that builds trust at purchase time, merchants can drive higher conversion rates while simultaneously fueling their loyalty program.

Consolidating these functions also improves site performance. Every individual app added to a Shopify store typically adds its own scripts, which can slow down page load times. A unified platform uses a shared codebase for multiple features, reducing the technical weight on the storefront. Brands looking for real examples from brands improving retention often find that reducing the number of active apps is a key step in optimizing their mobile shopping experience.

Ultimately, the goal of any retention strategy is to create a frictionless path for the customer. Looking at customer stories that show how teams reduce app sprawl clarifies how an all-in-one platform can simplify the backend for the merchant while providing a more polished front-end for the shopper. When all the data lives in one place, reporting becomes more accurate, and the ability to personalize the shopping journey becomes significantly easier.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Shopwaive Credit, Loyalty & AI, the decision comes down to the specific goals of the retention program and the technical requirements of the store. BON Loyalty is the clear choice for brands that want a classic, gamified loyalty experience with a focus on VIP tiers and B2B functionality. It is particularly well-suited for high-volume stores that can benefit from the unlimited order capacity of its Growth plan. Shopwaive, on the other hand, is the better fit for enterprise-level merchants who need store credit flexibility, AI-driven business insights, and deep checkout API integration to handle complex financial transactions or refunds.

However, many merchants eventually find that managing these specialized apps alongside other tools for reviews and wishlists creates unnecessary complexity. While both BON and Shopwaive are excellent at their specific niches, they still represent individual pieces of a larger puzzle. Moving toward an integrated retention suite allows for better data synchronization and a more unified customer journey. By choosing a pricing structure that scales as order volume grows, brands can focus on strategy rather than managing a disparate stack of tools.

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 BON Loyalty and Shopwaive offer features specifically for Shopify Plus, such as checkout extensions and advanced API access. BON Loyalty is excellent for Plus merchants who want a traditional but highly scalable loyalty and VIP program. Shopwaive is better for Plus merchants who require custom checkout logic, such as allowing customers to cash out credits or managing B2B credit requests.

Can I use both points and store credits at the same time?

While some apps allow for both, they often treat them differently. Shopwaive is heavily weighted toward store credits and gift cards, while BON Loyalty focuses on points that are redeemed for discounts. If a merchant needs both to be part of a unified strategy, an integrated platform that handles multiple reward types under one roof is usually the most efficient way to manage those workflows.

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

Specialized apps often provide deeper functionality in one specific area, such as Shopwaive’s AI agent or BON’s B2B tiers. However, an all-in-one platform provides better synergy between different features like reviews, loyalty, and wishlists. This integration reduces the need for manual data syncing, lowers the total cost of ownership by eliminating multiple subscriptions, and typically results in a faster storefront due to fewer external scripts.

Does BON Loyalty support in-store rewards?

Yes, BON Loyalty integrates with Shopify POS, allowing merchants to reward both online and in-store shoppers. This ensures a consistent loyalty experience across all sales channels, which is essential for omnichannel retailers. Shopwaive also supports Shopify POS, focusing on the redemption of store credits and gift cards at the physical point of sale.