Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards vs. 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty: A Shopify Comparison

Introduction

Selecting the right retention tools often feels like a balancing act between specific feature needs and the long-term health of the store’s technical infrastructure. For Shopify merchants, the choice frequently narrows down to specialized applications that solve high-priority problems such as repeat purchase rates or gift card management. Two prominent names in this space, Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards and 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty, offer distinct approaches to customer engagement. While both aim to foster brand affinity, their functional priorities and operational philosophies differ significantly.

Short answer: Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards is a dedicated loyalty and referral engine built for fast-scaling brands that require deep Shopify integration and developer flexibility. 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty serves as a multi-purpose utility focusing on gift cards, store credit, and automated refunds alongside traditional loyalty features. While both provide value, merchants seeking to minimize operational overhead often find that moving toward integrated ecosystems helps streamline data and customer experiences.

The purpose of this analysis is to provide a neutral, feature-by-feature evaluation of Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards and 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty. By examining their core workflows, customization capabilities, pricing structures, and integration ecosystems, merchants can determine which solution aligns with their current growth stage and technical requirements.

Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards vs. 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Functional Scope and Retention Workflows

The primary distinction between these two applications lies in their functional focus. Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards is fundamentally built as a loyalty and referral platform. Its architecture prioritizes the creation of points-based systems where customers earn rewards through specific actions, such as making a purchase or engaging with the brand on social media. The focus here is on the mechanics of retention—using VIP tiers and referral incentives to drive customer lifetime value. For a brand that already has a robust gift card solution and simply needs a powerful engine to manage points and referrals, Rivo provides a dedicated environment for those specific metrics.

In contrast, 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty adopts a broader utility-based approach. While it includes loyalty and referral components, it leans heavily into the management of gift cards and store credit. This is a critical distinction for merchants who view returns and refunds as a retention opportunity. Instead of issuing a standard refund to a credit card, 99minds allows brands to automate store credit workflows, effectively keeping the capital within the business ecosystem. The inclusion of physical gift card support also suggests a focus on omnichannel retail, where a merchant might need a cohesive way to manage credit across both digital and physical storefronts.

Customization and Developer Flexibility

Customization is often the deciding factor for brands that have moved past the initial growth phase and possess a specific brand identity. Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards addresses this through a tiered approach to branding. On its Scale plan, it offers advanced branding options, including custom CSS and font integrations, ensuring that the loyalty widget and dedicated pages feel like a native part of the storefront. For enterprise-level brands, Rivo provides a developer toolkit and access to checkout extensions on its Plus plan. This level of access is intended for teams that want to build bespoke loyalty experiences or integrate loyalty data deeply into their custom-built store themes.

99minds Gift Card & Loyalty emphasizes ease of use and rapid deployment. The platform is designed to be "no-code," allowing merchants to launch a complete gift card or loyalty program in minutes. While it offers personalization for referral programs and gift cards, its primary value proposition is the ability to substitute multiple specialized apps with a single tool. This makes it an attractive option for smaller teams or merchants who do not have dedicated developer resources but still want a professional-looking loyalty and credit system. However, the data does not specify the same level of deep developer access or CSS control that is present in the Rivo ecosystem.

Pricing Structure and Investment Value

Understanding the total cost of ownership is essential when evaluating feature coverage across plans. Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards uses a tiered pricing model that scales with the store’s requirements. They offer a "Free Forever" plan capped at 200 monthly orders, which is an accessible entry point for new merchants. As a store grows, the Scale plan at $49 per month introduces VIP tiers and analytics. The jump to the Plus plan at $499 per month represents a significant investment, targeting high-volume merchants who require checkout extensions and priority concierge support. This clear path allows merchants to plan their budget as their order volume increases.

The pricing details for 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty are not specified in the provided data. This lack of transparency in the initial data set makes it difficult to draw a direct comparison regarding monthly costs or order caps. Merchants interested in 99minds would need to investigate their current pricing on the Shopify App Store to ensure the cost aligns with their revenue. When comparing plan fit against retention goals, merchants must consider not just the monthly fee, but the potential savings found in consolidating gift card, store credit, and loyalty functions into one bill.

Ecosystem Integration and Compatibility

A loyalty program does not exist in a vacuum; it must communicate with email marketing platforms, help desks, and SMS tools. Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards shows a strong emphasis on the modern Shopify stack. It integrates with Klaviyo, Gorgias, Postscript, and Attentive, which are staples for high-growth DTC brands. Furthermore, it works with Shopify Flow, allowing merchants to automate complex loyalty workflows based on triggers within other apps. The mention of "Fuego" and "Status" integrations suggests Rivo is catering to brands that stay on the cutting edge of Shopify's developer ecosystem.

99minds Gift Card & Loyalty also maintains a healthy integration list, though its focus appears slightly more diverse. In addition to Klaviyo and Shopify Flow, it connects with CRM and marketing automation tools like HubSpot, Active Campaign, Mailchimp, and DotDigital. This makes 99minds a strong contender for brands that use a wider variety of marketing tools beyond the standard Shopify-centric stack. The support for Omnisend further reinforces its position as a flexible tool for multi-channel communication. For a merchant, the choice here depends on their existing stack; a brand heavily invested in HubSpot might lean toward 99minds, while a brand focused on Gorgias and Postscript might find Rivo more aligned with their workflow.

Support and Reliability Cues

Trust is a major factor in the Shopify app ecosystem. Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards lists 24/7 world-class live chat support and emphasizes a focus on driving actual retention metrics. Although it currently shows a single review in the provided data, the 4.8 rating indicates a positive initial reception. Rivo positions its customer success team as a core part of the product experience, particularly for those on higher-tier plans who receive priority or concierge support.

99minds Gift Card & Loyalty has a higher volume of feedback in this data set, with 33 reviews and a 5-star rating. This suggests a consistent track record of reliability and customer satisfaction. The developer, 99Minds Inc, emphasizes the ease of creating programs without coding skills, which often leads to fewer support tickets and a smoother onboarding experience. When assessing app-store ratings as a trust signal, merchants often look for this kind of consistent, high-rating history to mitigate the risk of downtime or technical bugs during peak sales periods.

Performance and Operational Overhead

Every app added to a Shopify store introduces a degree of operational overhead. This includes the time spent managing the app, the impact on site speed, and the complexity of managing data across different silos. Rivo's approach is to provide a highly specialized, weekly-updated tool that uses Shopify’s latest technology, such as checkout extensions. This can reduce friction for the customer, but it requires the merchant to actively manage the loyalty and referral strategy to justify the cost.

99minds attempts to reduce overhead by consolidating features. By handling gift cards, store credit, and loyalty in one place, a merchant reduces the number of apps they need to monitor. However, this "all-in-one" approach for specific utilities still leaves other gaps—such as reviews or wishlists—unfilled. Merchants must decide if they prefer a specialized loyalty tool like Rivo or a multi-utility tool like 99minds, keeping in mind that both still represent individual pieces of a larger retention puzzle. Before making a final choice, verifying compatibility details in the official app listing is a necessary step to ensure the app won't conflict with existing theme architecture or checkout scripts.

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

While specialized tools like Rivo and 99minds offer powerful features, many growing brands eventually encounter a phenomenon known as app fatigue. This occurs when a store's backend becomes a patchwork of five, ten, or even fifteen different applications, each handling a single slice of the customer experience. This tool sprawl leads to fragmented data, where loyalty points might not talk to review data, or wishlist items aren't used to trigger personalized referral offers. Furthermore, each additional app can potentially slow down site performance and increase the total cost of ownership.

Growave offers a different philosophy: "More Growth, Less Stack." By integrating several high-impact modules—loyalty, reviews, wishlists, and referrals—into a single platform, Growave eliminates the need for merchants to juggle multiple subscriptions and support teams. This integrated approach ensures a consistent user experience for the customer, as the loyalty program can naturally incentivize the collection of social proof that supports conversion and AOV. Instead of a customer interacting with three different widgets from three different developers, they experience a unified brand journey.

For merchants who are scanning reviews to understand real-world adoption, the benefits of consolidation become clear. When loyalty data is housed in the same environment as product reviews, the brand can automate reward points for every review submitted, creating a self-sustaining loop of engagement. Growave’s platform allows for loyalty points and rewards designed to lift repeat purchases while simultaneously collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews. This synergy is difficult to achieve when using standalone apps that require complex third-party integrations to "talk" to one another.

Scaling a business also means managing costs effectively. By selecting plans that reduce stacked tooling costs, brands can reallocate their budget toward marketing or product development rather than paying for multiple overlapping app subscriptions. Growave’s pricing model is designed to grow with the merchant, offering a broad feature set even at the entry level. This allows teams to access VIP tiers and incentives for high-intent customers without needing to upgrade to an enterprise-tier specialized app just to get basic tiering functionality.

Technical debt is another hidden cost of app sprawl. Every app has its own script, its own way of handling CSS, and its own database. An integrated platform reduces this friction, providing a more stable environment for high-volume stores. Merchants who are ready for a more streamlined operation can benefit from a product walkthrough aligned to Shopify store maturity. This helps ensure that the transition from a fragmented stack to an integrated one is handled with a clear strategy. For those who want to see how this works in practice, a guided evaluation of an integrated retention stack can clarify how to unify customer touchpoints.

Ultimately, the goal of any retention strategy is to create a seamless path for the customer to return and buy again. Whether it is through loyalty points and rewards designed to lift repeat purchases or by leveraging social proof that supports conversion and AOV, the strategy works best when it is cohesive. An all-in-one platform doesn't just provide features; it provides a framework for growth that respects both the merchant's time and the customer's experience.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards and 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty, the decision comes down to the specific functional priorities of the business. Rivo is the ideal choice for brands that want a laser focus on loyalty and referrals, with the added benefit of weekly product updates and a developer-friendly toolkit for Plus-level customization. It is a tool built for the modern DTC stack, prioritizing deep integrations with marketing leaders like Klaviyo and Gorgias. On the other hand, 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty is better suited for merchants who need a versatile utility for gift cards, store credit, and refund automation. Its ability to simplify these disparate functions into one no-code solution makes it a practical choice for teams looking to solve specific operational headaches around returns and credits.

However, as a brand grows, the limitations of using multiple specialized apps often become more apparent. The operational friction of managing different data silos and the rising total cost of multiple subscriptions can hinder long-term scalability. This is where an integrated approach becomes a strategic advantage. By moving toward a platform that unifies loyalty, reviews, and wishlists, merchants can create a more cohesive brand experience while simultaneously planning retention spend without app sprawl surprises. Reducing the number of apps in the stack doesn't mean sacrificing power; it means gaining clarity and efficiency.

To reduce app fatigue and run retention from one place, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

FAQ

Is Rivo or 99minds better for a small store just starting out?

Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards offers a free plan for up to 200 monthly orders, making it very accessible for new stores focusing on loyalty and referrals. 99minds is also designed for quick, no-code setup, which is helpful for beginners, though their pricing data is not specified here. The best choice depends on whether the merchant needs a loyalty engine (Rivo) or a gift card/store credit tool (99minds).

Can I use 99minds for both online and physical stores?

Yes, 99minds Gift Card & Loyalty supports both physical and e-gift cards and works with Shopify POS. This makes it a strong option for omnichannel merchants who need to manage store credit and gift cards across both digital and brick-and-mortar locations.

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

Specialized apps often provide deeper features in one specific area, such as Rivo’s developer toolkit for loyalty. However, all-in-one platforms reduce "app fatigue" by combining multiple retention tools—like loyalty, reviews, and wishlists—into a single interface. This leads to better data synchronization, lower total costs, and a more consistent experience for the customer.

Do these apps integrate with my existing email marketing tool?

Both apps have strong integration profiles. Rivo focuses on the modern DTC stack like Klaviyo and Attentive. 99minds offers a broader range of CRM integrations including HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Active Campaign. Merchants should verify their specific tool is supported before committing to an app.