BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty

Introduction

Selecting the right applications to power a Shopify storefront is one of the most consequential decisions a merchant faces. The choice often involves balancing specialized functionality with the potential for technical complexity. When comparing tools designed to improve retention and customer lifetime value, the distinction between a loyalty-first platform and a subscription-first platform becomes a central theme for evaluation.

Short answer: BON Loyalty Program & Rewards is a dedicated loyalty specialist focused on points, referrals, and VIP tiers with strong B2B and headless support. Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty centers on recurring revenue, membership management, and subscription boxes, offering loyalty features primarily as an extension of its subscription model. For many growing brands, looking toward integrated platforms can help consolidate these disparate functions and reduce the operational overhead associated with managing multiple single-purpose apps.

This comparison provides a detailed look at the core features, pricing structures, and ideal use cases for both BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty. By analyzing the technical capabilities and merchant feedback for each tool, store owners can better determine which solution aligns with their current growth stage and long-term retention strategy.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards vs. Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

To understand which application fits a specific business model, it is necessary to examine how each tool handles the mechanics of customer engagement and revenue generation. While both apps exist within the marketing and conversion category, their primary objectives differ significantly.

Core Loyalty Mechanics and Referral Workflows

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards focuses heavily on the traditional loyalty loop. This involves rewarding customers for specific actions—such as making a purchase, following social media accounts, or celebrating a birthday—and allowing them to redeem those points for discounts or free products. The inclusion of an "Anti-Cheat" referral program is a notable technical detail, as it suggests the presence of logic designed to prevent self-referrals and fraudulent point accumulation, which can often erode the profit margins of a growing store.

The application also prioritizes high-value customers through its VIP Tier system. By creating tiers based on spending thresholds or point accumulation, merchants can offer accelerated earning rates to their most loyal shoppers. This creates a psychological incentive for customers to concentrate their spending with a single brand. For merchants operating in the B2B space, BON provides exclusive tiered rewards for wholesale clients, a feature not specified in the data for many standard loyalty apps.

In contrast, Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty approaches loyalty as a secondary retention layer. While it does offer loyalty programs with points and rewards to drive repeat visits, these features are presented as a way to enhance the subscription experience rather than as a standalone loyalty engine. For stores where the primary goal is building a community through points and referrals regardless of purchase frequency, BON offers a more specialized toolset.

Subscription and Recurring Revenue Management

Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty is built to facilitate recurring payments and "subscribe and save" models. This is its primary advantage over BON. Merchants can create physical or digital subscription products, services, and mystery boxes. These models are essential for stores that rely on predictable revenue and want to automate the billing process for their customers.

The technical infrastructure of Subi includes a self-service customer portal. This portal allows subscribers to manage their own accounts—skipping, pausing, or canceling their subscriptions without needing to contact customer support. This reduces administrative friction and improves the user experience. Additionally, Subi includes "smart dunning" or failed payment retry logic. This is a critical feature for subscription businesses, as it helps recover revenue that might otherwise be lost due to expired credit cards or temporary bank issues.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards does not offer subscription management. If a merchant requires a tool that handles automatic recurring billing and subscription boxes, Subi is the clear choice between the two. However, if a store already has a subscription solution and only needs to layer a robust rewards program on top, BON may provide more specialized loyalty depth.

Customization and Technical Flexibility

For Shopify Plus merchants or those with specific branding requirements, customization is a major factor. BON Loyalty Program & Rewards offers a brand-tailored loyalty page and allows for custom CSS with developer support on its higher plans. Perhaps most importantly for modern storefronts, BON specifies support for Headless commerce via Hydrogen, providing a Software Development Toolkit (SDK) and full API access on its Professional plan. This makes it a viable candidate for brands using non-standard frontends who still want to maintain a functional loyalty program.

Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty provides widget and portal customization, including four widget templates on its Growth plan. It aims for a "no-code" experience while still offering enough flexibility to match the store's aesthetic. On its highest tier, Subi Plus, the app provides a dedicated customer success manager and priority feature requests, suggesting a high level of white-glove service for enterprise-grade stores.

Both apps integrate with Klaviyo, which is essential for review automation that builds trust at purchase time through data-driven email flows. By sending loyalty balance updates or subscription reminders, merchants can keep their brand top-of-mind without manual intervention.

Pricing Structure and Value Analysis

The pricing models of these two applications reflect their different focuses. Understanding the total cost of ownership requires comparing plan fit against retention goals to ensure the features align with the budget.

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards Pricing

BON offers a Free Forever plan that includes basic points and rewards, the anti-cheat referral program, and automated emails. This is an accessible entry point for new stores. As a store grows, the Basic plan at $25 per month introduces POS rewards, multi-language display, and point expiration reminders.

The Growth plan at $99 per month is where more advanced features like VIP Tiers and the B2B Tier Program are unlocked. This plan also includes "Order Booster" functionality and points on the product page. For large-scale operations, the Professional plan at $349 per month provides the aforementioned API access and headless commerce support, alongside a significant amount of custom development support.

Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty Pricing

Subi’s pricing is tied partially to revenue and partially to feature access. The Free plan is generous, allowing up to $300 in subscription revenue per month, which includes membership management and the customer portal. The Growth plan at $19 per month removes the revenue cap and adds more customization options for the widget and emails.

A key distinction occurs at the $69 "Subi" plan. This is the tier where loyalty programs and rewards are introduced. Merchants primarily interested in loyalty would need to pay at least this amount to access those features within the Subi ecosystem. The highest tier, Subi Plus at $299 per month, is focused on service and reliability, offering 99.998% uptime and a private Slack channel for support.

Integration Ecosystem and "Works With" Compatibility

Integrations are the "connective tissue" of a Shopify store. BON Loyalty Program & Rewards highlights its compatibility with various review apps like Judge.me, LAI, and Fera. This is a strategic advantage because loyalty points and rewards designed to lift repeat purchases are often most effective when shoppers can see social proof simultaneously. BON also works with Shopify POS, allowing for a unified loyalty experience between online and physical retail locations.

Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty integrates with payment gateways like Stripe, Paypal, and Authorize, which is necessary for its recurring billing functions. It also works with bundle apps like Fast Bundle and translation tools like Translate & Adapt. This indicates that Subi is positioned as a hub for the transactional side of the business—ensuring that payments are processed and subscription packages are managed correctly.

When checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals, Subi currently has a much larger volume of reviews (755) compared to BON (1). While BON has a perfect rating, the sample size is too small to draw definitive conclusions about long-term reliability at scale. Subi’s 4.9 rating across hundreds of reviews suggests a highly stable and well-regarded product.

Customer Support and Reliability Cues

Support expectations often dictate whether an app becomes a help or a hindrance. BON offers 24/7 live chat support on its Growth plan and "Support Priority" on its Professional plan. For brands moving into complex territory like headless commerce, this level of access to developers is a significant value add.

Subi offers live chat and email support across its plans, with "Priority Fast-track" support and regular one-on-one meetings with a Customer Success Manager on the Subi Plus plan. The inclusion of a private Slack channel for enterprise users is a strong indicator that Subi aims to be a partner for its largest merchants, rather than just a software provider.

Both apps emphasize quick setup. BON claims a launch can happen in "just minutes," and Subi highlights its "auto-adding widget" and "no-code" approach. For merchants who need to implement a solution quickly without heavy developer involvement, both tools appear to meet that requirement.

Performance and Operational Overhead

Adding any application to a Shopify store introduces a certain amount of overhead. This can manifest as slower page load speeds if the app scripts are not optimized, or as administrative burden if the app requires frequent manual updates.

BON’s focus on headless commerce and its SDK suggests a commitment to performance, as headless builds are often chosen specifically for their speed advantages. By providing full API access, BON allows developers to build a custom loyalty interface that doesn't rely on heavy third-party widgets that might slow down a standard theme.

Subi’s impact is primarily felt in the checkout and customer account sections. Because it manages recurring contracts, it must remain perfectly synced with Shopify’s checkout and customer account logic. The complexity here is not just technical but also logistical, as the merchant must manage subscription cycles, inventory for boxes, and failed payment communications.

When seeing how the app is positioned for Shopify stores, it is clear that BON is for the loyalty purist who might have complex B2B or technical needs. Subi is for the merchant whose business model is built around subscriptions and who wants a solid, well-reviewed tool to manage those recurring relationships.

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

Navigating the Shopify ecosystem often leads to a phenomenon known as app fatigue. This occurs when a store relies on a dozen different single-function tools to manage its operations. If consolidating tools is a priority, start by a pricing structure that scales as order volume grows. Using multiple disconnected apps can lead to fragmented data and a disjointed user experience for customers.

When a merchant installs BON for loyalty, Subi for subscriptions, and yet another app for reviews or wishlists, they are creating a "stacked" cost structure. More importantly, they are creating data silos. Points earned in one app might not be visible in another, or a customer's VIP status might not influence the review request they receive. This fragmentation makes it difficult to execute a cohesive brand strategy.

Growave offers a different philosophy: "More Growth, Less Stack." By integrating several essential retention modules into a single platform, it eliminates the friction of managing disparate apps. This approach ensures that VIP tiers and incentives for high-intent customers work in harmony with other tools. For example, a merchant can reward a customer with loyalty points specifically for collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews, all within the same dashboard.

This level of integration goes beyond simple convenience. It allows for a more sophisticated understanding of customer behavior. There are many customer stories that show how teams reduce app sprawl by moving away from a collection of single-feature apps toward a unified retention suite. When the loyalty program, wishlist, and review system all share the same database, the merchant can create more personalized marketing flows.

A unified platform also reduces the technical burden on the storefront. Instead of loading scripts from five different app developers, the store loads a single, optimized platform. This can lead to better performance and fewer conflicts between different app widgets. Furthermore, looking at real examples from brands improving retention shows that a consistent user interface across the loyalty page, review section, and wishlist helps build brand trust.

For brands that have moved past the initial startup phase and are beginning to scale, the complexity of managing an "app stack" often becomes a bottleneck. Transitioning to an integrated solution allows the team to focus on strategy and creative growth rather than troubleshooting integration issues.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between BON Loyalty Program & Rewards and Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty, the decision comes down to the primary business model and the desired depth of specific features. BON is a robust choice for those who need a sophisticated, stand-alone loyalty engine with specific requirements for B2B tiers or headless commerce support. Subi is the logical selection for businesses built on a subscription or membership model where recurring revenue management is the top priority.

However, many merchants eventually find that specialized apps—while powerful individually—contribute to a cluttered tech stack that becomes expensive and difficult to manage. Choosing a platform that offers a clearer view of total retention-stack costs can be a more sustainable long-term strategy. By unifying loyalty, reviews, and referrals, brands can create a more seamless experience for their customers and a more efficient workflow for their teams.

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 new Shopify store on a tight budget?

BON Loyalty Program & Rewards offers a "Free Forever" plan that includes foundational loyalty features like points and referrals without any revenue limits, making it a very accessible choice for brand-new stores. Subi also has a free plan, but it is capped at $300 of subscription revenue per month. If the goal is strictly loyalty, BON provides more functionality at the zero-dollar mark.

Can I use both BON Loyalty and Subi: Subscriptions & Loyalty together?

Yes, it is possible to use both apps simultaneously. A merchant might use Subi to handle the recurring billing and "subscribe and save" logic while using BON to manage a more complex loyalty and referral program that encompasses all customers, not just subscribers. However, this increases the monthly app spend and requires managing two separate dashboards.

Does BON Loyalty support B2B wholesale stores?

Yes, BON Loyalty Program & Rewards specifically lists a B2B Tier Program as part of its Growth plan. This allows merchants to create exclusive rewards and tiers specifically for their wholesale or business-to-business clients, which is a feature that distinguishes it from many other consumer-focused loyalty apps.

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

Specialized apps often provide deeper functionality in one specific area (like Subi’s subscription boxes or BON’s headless support). An all-in-one platform focuses on the synergy between different tools. While it may not have every niche feature of a specialized app, it removes the "app tax" (stacked costs), prevents data silos, and provides a more consistent experience for the customer. It is generally better for brands looking to scale efficiently without managing a massive list of individual subscriptions.