Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards vs. FavLoyalty: Loyalty & Rewards: A Comparison

Introduction

Selecting the right retention tools often feels like a balancing act between feature richness and operational simplicity. For Shopify merchants, the choice of a loyalty app dictates how effectively a brand can turn one-time buyers into repeat customers. While some stores require deep technical customization, others prioritize a quick setup and generous entry-level limits. Navigating the sea of available options requires a clear understanding of how different apps align with specific business goals, technical capabilities, and budget constraints.

Short answer: Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards is a high-performance solution geared toward fast-growing DTC brands that value technical flexibility and tight integrations, whereas FavLoyalty: Loyalty & Rewards offers a highly accessible entry point with a generous free plan for smaller stores. Choosing between them involves comparing plan fit against retention goals to ensure the selected tool supports long-term scalability without adding unnecessary complexity to the tech stack.

The purpose of this article is to provide an objective, feature-by-feature comparison of Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards and FavLoyalty: Loyalty & Rewards. By examining their pricing structures, customization options, and integration capabilities, merchants can determine which platform best serves their current needs while preparing for future growth.

Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards vs. FavLoyalty: Loyalty & Rewards: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Understanding the nuances of these two apps requires a look at how they handle the day-to-day realities of customer retention. While both focus on rewarding customer behavior, their approaches to the merchant experience and technical architecture differ significantly.

Core Features and Workflows

Both apps provide the fundamental building blocks of a modern loyalty program, including points-based rewards and referral systems. However, the sophistication of these workflows varies depending on the maturity of the storefront.

Points and Reward Mechanics

Rivo focuses on driving specific retention metrics through a customizable points program. Merchants can set up various ways for customers to earn points, which can then be redeemed for discounts or other incentives. The workflow is designed to be seamless, often utilizing checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals to refine how rewards are presented to the end-user.

FavLoyalty takes a more prescriptive approach, offering rewards for purchases, referrals, and even birthdays or social events. Their system is built for speed, allowing a merchant to launch a program in minutes. This app includes specific triggers like profile completion and newsletter sign-ups as standard ways to earn points, which helps smaller stores build their database quickly.

VIP Tiers and Customer Progression

VIP tiers are a critical component for increasing customer lifetime value. Rivo offers VIP tiers in its Scale and Plus plans, allowing brands to create exclusive experiences for their most loyal segments. This often involves tiered rewards that increase in value as the customer spends more over time.

FavLoyalty also provides VIP tiers, offering up to three tiers in its Professional plan. This structured approach allows merchants to offer exclusive perks and rewards, though it may lack some of the advanced logic found in more enterprise-focused tools. The focus here remains on simplicity, ensuring that even merchants without technical staff can manage a multi-tiered program effectively.

Customization and Control

The ability to align a loyalty program with a brand's visual identity is often a deciding factor for professional storefronts. A disjointed user experience can lead to lower trust and reduced participation in the loyalty program.

Visual Branding and CSS

Rivo places a heavy emphasis on branding. In its Scale plan, it allows for advanced branding through custom CSS and fonts. This level of control is essential for brands that want their loyalty widget and dedicated pages to feel like a native part of their website. For merchants on the Plus plan, the Rivo Developer Toolkit provides even deeper access, allowing for a fully bespoke loyalty experience that can be integrated directly into the storefront's code.

FavLoyalty provides customization options through a no-code interface. Merchants can change widget colors, placement, and logos without touching a single line of code. While this is excellent for accessibility and speed, it may be restrictive for brands with very specific design requirements or those that need to match complex theme architectures.

Dedicated Loyalty Pages

A dedicated loyalty page serves as a hub for customers to check their points balance, understand how to earn more, and view their VIP status. Rivo includes a dedicated loyalty and referral page in its mid-tier plans, emphasizing the importance of a centralized landing page for retention efforts. FavLoyalty also supports customizable pages, but the emphasis is more on the ease of the initial setup rather than the depth of the layout's flexibility.

Pricing Structure and Value for Money

When evaluating feature coverage across plans, merchants must look beyond the monthly fee and consider order limits and functional depth.

Entry-Level and Free Tiers

FavLoyalty offers a very competitive entry point with its "Essential" free plan, which supports up to 300 monthly orders. This plan includes core features like points for sign-ups, custom widget colors, and email notifications. This is slightly more generous than Rivo’s free plan, which caps at 200 monthly orders. For a new store just starting out, those extra 100 orders can represent a significant amount of runway before needing to upgrade to a paid tier.

Rivo’s free plan, while having a lower order limit, positions itself as a gateway to a more robust ecosystem. It includes the loyalty points program and automated email campaigns, ensuring that even small stores have access to professional-grade tools.

Scaling to Mid and High Tiers

As a store grows, the pricing gap shifts. FavLoyalty’s Professional plan is priced at $20 per month, making it a very affordable option for stores that have surpassed the 300-order limit but still want features like referrals, birthday points, and VIP tiers.

Rivo’s Scale plan starts at $49 per month. While more expensive, it introduces advanced analytics, points expiry logic, and the custom CSS capabilities mentioned earlier. For high-volume merchants, Rivo offers a Plus plan at $499 per month, which includes checkout extensions and priority support. This plan is clearly aimed at Shopify Plus merchants who need enterprise-level stability and custom integration work.

Integrations and Ecosystem Fit

A loyalty app does not exist in a vacuum; it must communicate with email marketing platforms, helpdesks, and SMS tools to be truly effective.

Technical Compatibility

Rivo boasts a strong list of integrations, including Klaviyo, Gorgias, Postscript, and Attentive. These integrations allow for advanced automation, such as sending an email via Klaviyo when a customer reaches a new VIP tier or earns enough points for a reward. The "Works With" data for Rivo includes Shopify POS and Shopify Flow, indicating that it is built to handle omnichannel retail and complex backend workflows.

FavLoyalty’s integration list is not specified in the provided data, which may be a point of consideration for merchants who rely heavily on a specific marketing stack. While the app mentions "seamless integrations" in its description, the lack of a detailed list of compatible software suggests that its ecosystem may be less developed than Rivo's at this stage.

Customer Support and Reliability

The reliability of an app is often reflected in its support structure and update frequency. Rivo emphasizes a 24/7 world-class live chat support team and claims to ship product updates every week. This high velocity of development is a strong signal for merchants who want a tool that evolves alongside Shopify's own platform updates.

FavLoyalty offers 24/7 premium chat support and onboarding in its Professional plan. For a smaller app with fewer reviews, this high level of support is crucial for building trust with new users. However, without a significant volume of merchant reviews to verify these claims, users must rely on the developer's stated commitment to service.

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

While choosing between two specialized loyalty apps is a common starting point, many merchants eventually encounter the challenge of "app fatigue." This occurs when a store becomes a patchwork of different tools—one for loyalty, one for reviews, another for wishlists, and yet another for social proof. This fragmentation often leads to inconsistent customer experiences, data silos, and a high total cost of ownership.

The "More Growth, Less Stack" philosophy suggests that an integrated platform is often more effective than a collection of single-purpose apps. By consolidating essential retention features into one system, merchants can ensure that loyalty points and rewards designed to lift repeat purchases work in perfect harmony with other customer touchpoints. For example, rewarding a customer for leaving a review is much simpler when the loyalty and review systems share the same database and interface.

Using an integrated solution helps maintain social proof that supports conversion and AOV without needing to sync data between different providers. When a customer sees that they can earn points for sharing their experience through a review, the incentive to participate increases, leading to more authentic content for the store.

If consolidating tools is a priority, start by choosing a plan built for long-term value.

Moving toward a unified platform also allows for more sophisticated VIP tiers and incentives for high-intent customers. Instead of just tracking spend, a merchant can reward customers for various types of engagement, such as adding items to a wishlist or uploading a photo with their review. This creates a holistic view of the customer, making it easier to identify and nurture the most valuable brand advocates.

Furthermore, collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews becomes an automated part of the post-purchase journey. When these modules are connected, the system knows exactly when a customer has received their order and can trigger a review request that mentions the specific points they will earn for their contribution.

For brands that are unsure how to transition from a fragmented stack to a unified one, a tailored walkthrough based on store goals and constraints can provide clarity. This type of a guided evaluation of an integrated retention stack helps stakeholders understand how removing redundant apps can improve site performance and reduce the time spent managing multiple subscriptions.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards and FavLoyalty: Loyalty & Rewards, the decision comes down to the current scale of the business and the required level of technical depth. Rivo is clearly positioned for the brand that needs a high degree of customization, weekly product updates, and a developer-friendly toolkit to build a unique loyalty experience. Its higher price point reflects a focus on the scaling DTC market where complex integrations and branding control are paramount.

On the other hand, FavLoyalty: Loyalty & Rewards serves as an excellent entry point for newer stores. Its generous free plan and straightforward, no-code setup make it a practical choice for merchants who want to launch a program quickly without a significant upfront investment. While it may lack the technical sophistication and extensive integration list of its competitor, its affordability and ease of use are strong advantages for smaller operations.

Ultimately, the most sustainable path to growth often involves moving beyond individual apps toward a unified retention strategy. By consolidating loyalty, reviews, and other engagement tools, merchants can create a more cohesive experience for their customers while simplifying their own administrative tasks. This approach not only reduces the risk of app sprawl but also ensures that every piece of customer data is used to its full potential to drive repeat sales. seeing how the app is positioned for Shopify stores can help merchants visualize how an integrated platform fits into their long-term architecture.

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 brand new Shopify store with low volume?

For a brand new store, FavLoyalty: Loyalty & Rewards is often the more accessible choice due to its generous free plan that covers up to 300 monthly orders. This provides a longer window of time for the store to grow before incurring additional costs. However, if the store owner plans to scale very rapidly and requires specific integrations like Klaviyo or Gorgias from day one, Rivo's free plan—though limited to 200 orders—might offer a better long-term technical foundation.

Can I customize the loyalty widget to match my brand's unique fonts and colors?

Both apps offer customization, but the level of detail differs. FavLoyalty allows for basic changes to colors and placement through a simple interface, which is sufficient for most standard themes. Rivo offers more advanced options, including custom CSS and font support on its Scale plan, and a full developer toolkit on its Plus plan. Merchants with highly specific design needs or custom-built themes will likely find Rivo's flexibility more suitable.

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

An all-in-one platform provides multiple functions—such as loyalty, reviews, and wishlists—within a single installation. This typically results in a more consistent user experience for the customer and less technical overhead for the merchant. Specialized apps, conversely, focus on doing one thing exceptionally well and often offer deeper niche features. The choice depends on whether the merchant prefers the simplicity and cost-efficiency of a unified system or the hyper-specialized capabilities of multiple independent tools.

Do these apps support Shopify Plus features like checkout extensions?

Rivo explicitly lists checkout extensions as a feature of its Plus plan, which is priced at $499 per month. This allows loyalty rewards to be integrated directly into the checkout page, a high-conversion tactic for Plus merchants. FavLoyalty's provided data does not mention checkout extensions, suggesting it may be more focused on standard Shopify plans. Merchants on Shopify Plus should prioritize apps that demonstrate a clear understanding of enterprise-level requirements and governance.