Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards vs. Markivo Referral & Rewards: A Comparison

Introduction

Selecting the right retention tools for a Shopify storefront often feels like a balancing act between feature depth and operational simplicity. For growing brands, the choice typically narrows down to whether they need a broad loyalty framework or a specialized referral engine designed for viral growth. Both paths offer distinct advantages for improving customer lifetime value, but they serve different strategic objectives within the broader marketing stack.

Short answer: Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards is a robust, full-cycle loyalty platform designed for brands needing deep Shopify integration and custom VIP structures. Markivo Referral & Rewards focuses on viral marketing mechanics like blind boxes to incentivize social sharing. For merchants seeking a consolidated approach, evaluating loyalty programs that keep customers coming back alongside other retention modules often provides better long-term efficiency.

This comparison examines Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards and Markivo Referral & Rewards across their feature sets, pricing models, and technical capabilities. The goal is to provide an objective look at how each app handles customer engagement, helping store owners determine which solution aligns with their current growth stage and technical requirements.

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

The following summary provides a high-level overview of how these two applications compare across fundamental metrics and use cases.

Core Features and Workflow Analysis

Understanding the workflow of each application is essential for determining how it will impact the daily operations of a marketing team. While both apps reside in the loyalty and rewards category, their execution of customer incentives follows different philosophies.

Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards Feature Set

Rivo positions itself as a modern loyalty solution built specifically for the 2025 Shopify ecosystem. The focus here is on a traditional points-based loyalty structure enhanced by deep technical customization.

Loyalty Points and Redemption

The core of the Rivo experience is the ability to earn and redeem points. This includes standard actions like making a purchase, following social media accounts, or celebrating a birthday. The redemption process is designed to be frictionless, integrating directly with the Shopify checkout process to ensure customers can apply rewards without leaving the purchase flow.

VIP Tiers and Customer Segments

For brands with a loyal core audience, Rivo offers VIP tiers. These tiers allow merchants to create a sense of exclusivity, rewarding high-spending customers with better earn rates or unique perks. This structure is intended to move customers up the value chain, turning one-time buyers into brand advocates.

Developer Toolkit and Customization

One of the distinguishing factors for Rivo is the emphasis on developer access. In the Plus plan, merchants gain access to a developer toolkit that allows for custom integrations and headless commerce support. This is particularly relevant for brands that have moved away from standard Shopify themes and require a loyalty program that can be triggered via API or custom scripts.

Markivo Referral & Rewards Feature Set

Markivo takes a more specialized approach, leaning into viral marketing mechanics rather than a broad loyalty framework. Its primary goal is to turn existing customers into a decentralized sales force through creative incentives.

Viral Referral Mechanics

Markivo introduces gamified elements like "blind boxes" and "collecting cards." Instead of a standard "give ten, get ten" referral link, these features add an element of chance and excitement to the referral process. This psychological trigger can often result in higher engagement rates for younger demographics or lifestyle brands where "unboxing" experiences are a key part of the brand identity.

Campaign Management

The app allows for the creation of multiple referral campaigns. Merchants can run seasonal campaigns or product-specific referral drives. The starter plan and above offer unlimited campaigns, providing flexibility for stores that like to test different incentive structures frequently.

Fraud Detection

Because referral programs are often targets for "self-referral" abuse, Markivo includes advanced fraud detection in its paid plans. This helps ensure that the rewards being issued are going to legitimate new customers rather than existing users attempting to game the system.

Customization and Control

A retention app should feel like a native part of the storefront, not an intrusive third-party add-on. The degree of control a merchant has over aesthetics and logic is a major factor in brand consistency.

Visual Branding Capabilities

Rivo provides branding tools even on its free tier, but the real control comes in the Scale plan. This plan allows for custom CSS and font loading, ensuring that the loyalty widget and dedicated loyalty page match the store's design system perfectly. For high-growth brands, the ability to remove third-party branding is essential for maintaining a premium feel.

Markivo focuses on ease of use with customizable widgets that do not require coding. While this is beneficial for merchants without technical resources, it may offer less granular control compared to Rivo’s CSS-heavy approach. The Growth plan in Markivo opens up all campaign themes, allowing for more visual variety across different promotional periods.

Logic and Event Customization

In terms of logic, Rivo allows for more complex event-based triggers, especially when paired with Klaviyo or Shopify Flow. This means a merchant can trigger a specific loyalty email based on a customer reaching a certain points threshold.

Markivo’s logic is primarily focused on the referral conversion. The app tracks the referral link through to the purchase, providing real-time analytics on how the network is expanding. While it lacks the broader "ways to earn" variety of Rivo, it excels in the specific niche of tracking word-of-mouth endorsements.

Pricing Structure and Value for Money

Budget considerations are always a priority, but the cheapest option is not always the best value. Merchants must look at how the cost scales as their order volume or customer base grows.

Rivo Pricing Tiers

Rivo uses a structure that targets different business maturities:

• 100% Free Forever: This plan supports up to 200 monthly orders. It includes the loyalty points program and basic branding. It is an excellent entry point for new stores.
• Scale ($49/month): This tier removes the order cap and adds advanced branding, VIP tiers, and analytics. It is the sweet spot for established DTC brands.
• Plus ($499/month): Aimed at enterprise-level stores, this plan includes checkout extensions, the developer toolkit, and priority support.

Markivo Pricing Tiers

Markivo offers a much lower entry price for its paid features:

• Free: Includes one campaign and basic analysis. It offers unlimited referral links, which is generous for a free tier.
• Starter ($9.99/month): Unlocks unlimited campaigns and newsletter signup rewards, along with fraud detection.
• Growth ($29.99/month): Provides all themes and more detailed discount data analysis.

When evaluating feature coverage across plans, merchants must decide if they need the comprehensive loyalty infrastructure of Rivo or if a high-performance referral tool like Markivo is sufficient. Rivo is significantly more expensive at the top end, but it covers a much wider range of retention activities beyond just referrals.

Integrations and Ecosystem Fit

No app exists in a vacuum. A loyalty tool must communicate with the email service provider (ESP), the customer service desk, and the shipping platform to provide a cohesive experience.

Rivo’s Integration Strategy

Rivo has built a strong network of integrations. It works seamlessly with:

• Klaviyo & Postscript: For syncing loyalty data to email and SMS flows.
• Gorgias: Allowing support agents to see a customer’s loyalty status during a chat.
• Shopify POS: For brands that sell both online and in-person.
• Shopify Flow: For automating backend tasks based on loyalty events.

These integrations suggest that Rivo is meant to be a central node in a brand's tech stack, sharing data across multiple departments.

Markivo’s Connectivity

The provided data does not specify a wide list of third-party integrations for Markivo. It focuses primarily on its internal viral marketing mechanism. For a merchant who already has a complex stack, the lack of specified integrations with tools like Klaviyo might result in manual data exports or fragmented customer communication. However, for a smaller merchant looking for a standalone referral boost, this simplicity might be preferred.

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

As a Shopify store grows, the temptation to install a specialized app for every problem is high. One app for loyalty, one for reviews, one for referrals, and another for wishlists. This approach often leads to "app fatigue"—a state where the store becomes bogged down by multiple scripts, conflicting data, and a disjointed user interface.

The Impact of Tool Sprawl

Managing five different apps means five different subscriptions, five different dashboards to learn, and five different support teams to contact when something breaks. More importantly, it creates a fragmented experience for the customer. A customer might have loyalty points in one app but find that those points don't interact with the review system or the wishlist rewards.

When merchants begin reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from, they often look for ways to simplify their operations without losing functionality. This is where the "More Growth, Less Stack" philosophy becomes a strategic advantage.

Growave: A Unified Retention Ecosystem

Growave provides a consolidated alternative by housing loyalty, referrals, reviews, wishlists, and VIP tiers under one roof. This integration ensures that data flows naturally between modules. For instance, a customer can be rewarded for leaving a review, and those points are immediately visible in their loyalty portal—all powered by a single app.

If consolidating tools is a priority, start by choosing a plan built for long-term value. By reducing the number of active scripts on a site, merchants often see improvements in site speed and a more consistent visual identity across all customer touchpoints.

Key Benefits of an Integrated Approach

• Data Synergy: Instead of siloed information, all customer interactions are tracked in one place. This allows for more accurate customer segmentation and more effective marketing campaigns.
• Consistent UX: The loyalty widget, the review section, and the wishlist icon all share the same design logic and branding, creating a professional and trustworthy environment for the buyer.
• Operational Efficiency: Managing one platform instead of four reduces the administrative burden on the team. This is particularly valuable when customer stories that show how teams reduce app sprawl highlight the time saved in training and troubleshooting.
• Cost Management: By a pricing structure that scales as order volume grows, brands can often replace several individual subscriptions with one platform, leading to better predictable costs and higher ROI.

Strategic Retention with Growave

For brands looking to build trust, collecting and showcasing authentic customer reviews is just as important as a referral program. Growave allows these two elements to work in tandem. A customer who refers a friend can also be prompted to leave a review, with both actions contributing to their status in the loyalty program.

This holistic view of the customer journey is what separates a collection of apps from a growth strategy. When you see real examples from brands improving retention, the common thread is often a move toward simplicity and integrated data. This allows the marketing team to focus on creative strategy rather than technical maintenance.

Practical Considerations for Scaling

When moving from a basic setup to a growth phase, the technical requirements of a store change. Performance and compatibility become just as important as the feature list.

Performance and Site Speed

Every app added to a Shopify store adds JavaScript to the frontend. Rivo and Growave are both built with modern Shopify technologies like App Blocks and Checkout Extensions, which minimize the impact on site speed. Markivo, being a more lightweight referral tool, also aims for a low-impact installation. However, the collective weight of four or five individual apps (like a separate referral tool, a separate loyalty tool, and a separate review tool) will almost always be heavier than a single optimized platform.

Support and Reliability

Rivo offers 24/7 live chat and, at the Plus level, priority or concierge support. This is a strong signal of reliability for brands that cannot afford downtime. Markivo also lists 24/7 support, which is impressive for a smaller application.

Growave provides tiered support that scales with the brand. From email and live chat for entry-level plans to a dedicated customer success manager and 24/7 phone support for Plus merchants, the support structure is designed to grow with the business. This ensures that as the complexity of the retention strategy increases, the merchant has a direct partner to help navigate technical or strategic hurdles.

Multi-Channel and International Growth

For brands looking to expand internationally, multi-language support is a critical feature. While Rivo supports standard customization, Growave is specifically built to handle multi-language stores, making it a preferred choice for brands scaling across different regions. Additionally, for businesses with a physical presence, integration with Shopify POS—offered by both Rivo and Growave—is essential for maintaining a unified loyalty experience.

Using social proof that supports conversion and AOV across different regions requires a tool that can adapt to different cultural contexts and languages. An integrated platform makes this global management significantly easier than managing localized versions of multiple different apps.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Rivo: Loyalty Program, Rewards and Markivo Referral & Rewards, the decision comes down to the specific goals of the retention strategy. Rivo is an excellent choice for merchants who want a dedicated, high-tier loyalty and VIP program with deep developer access. It is built for brands that have the budget to invest in a premium loyalty experience. Markivo, on the other hand, is a fantastic option for smaller stores or those who want to experiment with viral, gamified referral mechanics without a large monthly commitment.

However, as a brand grows, the limitations of using specialized, single-function apps become more apparent. The overhead of managing separate tools for loyalty, referrals, and reviews can eventually hinder growth rather than accelerate it. Moving toward an integrated platform allows for a more cohesive customer experience and a more efficient marketing operation.

By comparing plan fit against retention goals, it becomes clear that consolidating these functions can lead to better data visibility and a lower total cost of ownership. When merchants are scanning reviews to understand real-world adoption, they often find that the most successful stores are those that prioritize a clean, unified tech stack.

If you are ready to move beyond fragmented apps and build a comprehensive retention strategy, consider how a unified platform can simplify your workflow. 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 Markivo better for a brand-new Shopify store?

For a brand-new store with a limited budget, Markivo's $9.99 Starter plan provides a low-cost way to launch referral campaigns. However, Rivo offers a 100% free plan for up to 200 orders, which includes a basic points program. If you only need referrals, Markivo is highly specialized. If you want to start building a points-based loyalty foundation from day one, Rivo’s free tier is a strong starting point.

Can I use Rivo and Markivo together?

While technically possible, it is not recommended. Both apps offer referral functionality, which would create confusion for customers and potentially lead to duplicate rewards. It is better to choose one platform for your rewards logic to ensure that your data and customer experience remain consistent.

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

Specialized apps often offer deeper features in one specific niche, such as Markivo’s unique "blind box" mechanics. However, an all-in-one platform like Growave provides a unified data layer. This means that VIP tiers and incentives for high-intent customers can be influenced by their review activity or wishlist behavior. The trade-off is usually between having one very specific "viral" feature versus having a perfectly synchronized retention ecosystem that improves the entire customer journey.

Do these apps work with Shopify Plus?

Rivo has a dedicated Plus plan at $499/month that includes checkout extensions and a developer toolkit. Markivo does not specify a Plus-specific plan but its Growth plan is accessible to all merchants. Growave is fully optimized for Shopify Plus, offering enterprise-grade features and dedicated support to handle high-volume traffic and complex integration requirements.