Yotpo and Smile loyalty are two of the most popular loyalty apps on Shopify, helping brands turn one-time shoppers into repeat customers with points, referrals, VIP programs, and rewards.
But as your order volume grows, pricing tiers, order limits, and the features included at each level can make a significant difference to what you actually pay.
In this article, I'll break down what Yotpo and Smile.io actually cost at 500, 2,000, and 5,000+ orders per month, which features like VIP tiers are included at each level, and why Love Loyalty is a stronger alternative that costs 60% less while giving Shopify merchants more features.
Yotpo is worth it if you want built-in fraud prevention and social earning campaigns from day one. However, its $199/month Pro plan only covers 500 orders, and VIP tiers require a separate custom quote on the Premium tier.
Smile.io is a strong self-serve option if you don't need paid memberships. VIP tiers are included on the $199/month Growth plan, which covers up to 2,500 orders, a full tier of functionality Yotpo doesn't include at the same price.
Love Loyalty is the best Shopify loyalty app for stores that want VIP tiers, referrals, and paid memberships together at a fixed, published price starting at $79/month for 2,000 orders, without the custom quotes either Yotpo or Smile loyalty require to get full functionality.
I've compared both Yotpo and Smile.io across the areas that matter most when choosing a Shopify loyalty app for your store.
Now let's get into the details.
Most loyalty app pricing looks straightforward until you factor in order limits, usage fees as your order volume grows, and which features are actually included at each tier.
Here's the real cost breakdown.
At 500 orders a month, you're paying:
Smile.io and Love Loyalty are close at the entry tier. Yotpo charges over 13 times Love Loyalty's price for the same 500 orders, with VIP tiers unavailable on its Pro plan at any price point.
This is where the value gap gets obvious.
At 2,000 orders a month, you're paying:
Love Loyalty at $79/month gives you 2,000 orders, VIP tiers, paid memberships, B2B loyalty, and POS support, all at a fixed price. Smile.io needs its $199/month Growth plan to unlock VIP tiers, still with no paid membership option on any plan. Yotpo costs more than both at this volume and still doesn't include VIP tiers as standard functionality on any published plan.
At this tier, you're paying:
Love Loyalty's premium tier is the only one with fixed, published pricing at this level: $399/month, unlimited orders, no overage. Smile loyalty and Yotpo both climb well past that once overage or usage fees are factored in, and neither includes paid memberships at any price.
Let's say you're running a growing Shopify store processing 2,000 orders a month, and you want VIP tiers, referrals, and POS support for a physical retail location.
With Love Loyalty: $79/month for 2,000 orders, with VIP tiers, referrals, POS support, and paid memberships all included.
With Smile.io: $199/month for 2,500 orders, with VIP tiers, referrals, and POS support included, but no paid membership option.
With Yotpo: roughly $399/month for the same 2,000 orders, with referrals and POS support included, but VIP tiers still require a separate custom quote on the Premium tier, on top of what you're already paying.
Both platforms cover core points and referral functionality. VIP tiers are the exception: Smile loyalty includes them at $199/month, while Yotpo doesn't include them on any published plan, only as a custom quote on its Premium tier.
Yotpo's Pro plan includes points, referrals with built-in fraud prevention, and social earning campaigns like following on Instagram or leaving a review. Birthday and anniversary rewards are also included at this tier.
VIP tiers aren't available on Pro at any price. To get VIP tiers, a merchant needs Yotpo's Premium tier, which is custom-quoted rather than published, the same custom-quote step LoyaltyLion requires for the same feature.
Smile.io's entry plan at $15/month covers points, referrals, free product redemption, and a dedicated loyalty page.
VIP tiers arrive at the $199/month Growth plan, along with points expiration and VIP tiers synced to Shopify metafields.
Love Loyalty includes VIP tiers, referrals, and paid memberships together starting at $79/month, the price where Smile.io only unlocks VIP tiers and Yotpo still requires a custom quote to get there at all.
At $79/month, you get:
Neither Yotpo nor Smile.io bundles all of that together at a single, published price point.
Yotpo and Smile.io take different approaches to Shopify integration: Yotpo supports Shopify alongside other e-commerce platforms and leans on no-code campaign templates, while Smile.io is built on no-code and Shopify-first with dual Shopify certification.
Yotpo lets a merchant launch a program using ready-made templates without a developer, with brand colors and fonts configurable through the admin. Yotpo also serves brands on other e-commerce platforms, so its deepest integration work isn't built exclusively around Shopify's data model.
Smile.io holds both Shopify's Built for Shopify badge and Shopify Technology Partner certification, and is managed entirely through the Smile dashboard without developer involvement.
Love Loyalty is built exclusively for Shopify. That's a structural choice, and it shows up in how the app performs.
What that means in practice:
Neither Yotpo nor Smile loyalty offers paid membership functionality at any tier. That's the option for a customer to pay upfront for ongoing benefits like free shipping or a standing discount. A merchant who wants that model has to run it through a separate app on either platform.
Yotpo doesn't offer paid membership functionality on Pro, Premium, or Enterprise. A merchant wanting an annual membership program would need a separate subscription app run alongside Yotpo.
Smile.io doesn't offer paid memberships either, at any tier, including Plus. Same limitation as Yotpo: a different tool, run alongside Smile rather than through it.
Love Loyalty includes paid memberships starting at $79/month, with a 1.8% transaction fee that drops to 0.8% at $399/month.
A merchant sets the benefits, whether that's a percentage discount, free shipping, early access, or bonus points, and customers pay upfront to unlock them. That's a retention model built around predictable revenue rather than hoping a one-time buyer comes back.
Support structure differs more than support quality here: Yotpo includes 24/7 live chat on its Pro plan, while Smile.io offers 24/7 live chat across all plans, including Free.
Yotpo's Pro plan includes 24/7 live chat support. Lower-tier access isn't published, since Yotpo's entry-level offering doesn't carry the same support commitment as Pro.
Smile.io offers 24/7 live chat support, email/help desk, and a knowledge base on every plan, including Free, with a dedicated Loyalty Program Strategist available to Plus merchants specifically.
Love Loyalty includes live chat and email support on every plan, including Free. On the Growth and Plus tiers, that expands to founder-led onboarding, performance audits, and on-demand development, support that scales with the plan rather than gating basic responsiveness behind a higher tier.
Both platforms are built for no-code setup, but they differ on how much VIP tier configuration costs before you can even start: Smile.io includes it in the Growth plan's price, while Yotpo requires a separate sales conversation first.
Yotpo's setup uses ready-made templates and requires no developer work. Getting VIP tiers live specifically requires going through Yotpo's Premium custom-quote process before configuration can even begin.
Smile.io is designed for a marketing team to launch and adjust without a developer. Reward structures, on-site widgets, and campaign settings are all managed through the Smile dashboard, VIP tiers included once you're on Growth.
Love Loyalty is designed to be configured once and managed easily from there. Because it's built exclusively for Shopify, its settings map directly to Shopify's native functionality rather than translating from a multi-platform system. Adjusting VIP tier thresholds, adding a reward, or changing where a widget appears takes a few clicks, with live chat support available starting on the $12/month Professional plan.
Yotpo and Smile.io both connect to standard Shopify marketing tools, but Smile.io's dual Shopify certification points to deeper native integration depth.
Yotpo connects loyalty data to Klaviyo, Attentive, and Gorgias, letting a merchant trigger emails and texts based on point events and manage loyalty accounts directly from a support admin.
Smile.io connects with Klaviyo, Recharge, and other standard ecommerce tools, with unlimited integrations available from its Growth plan onward. Smile's dual Shopify certification (Built for Shopify and Shopify Technology Partner) reflects a deeper native integration than most multi-platform tools offer.
Love Loyalty stores all loyalty data in Shopify metafields, which makes it accessible to other Shopify apps without a custom API integration. Because there's no external database being queried, integrations like Klaviyo, email marketing, and POS all read from the same native Shopify data rather than syncing between two separate systems.
Neither Yotpo nor Smile loyalty includes VIP tiers, a foundational loyalty feature, at their published entry or mid-tier pricing. Smile loyalty requires its $199/month Growth plan. Yotpo requires a custom quote on top of what you're already paying for Pro.
That's where Love Loyalty outperforms. It includes VIP tiers, referrals, paid memberships, POS support, and B2B loyalty together starting at $79/month, and unlimited orders for only $399/mo. No custom quotes, no sales call required.
Yes. Love Loyalty supports migrating existing customer data, including points balances, at scale, and has handled migrations from other platforms tested at over a million customers.
Yotpo starts at $199/month with VIP tiers requiring a separate custom quote. Smile.io starts at $15/month but needs its $199/month Growth plan for VIP tiers. Love Loyalty includes VIP tiers, referrals, and paid memberships together at $79/month.
Love Loyalty includes paid memberships starting at $79/month. Neither Yotpo nor Smile.io offers paid membership functionality at any tier.
Love Loyalty stores all loyalty data in Shopify metafields and doesn't rely on external API calls to load that data, a structural difference from platforms built to support multiple ecommerce platforms.
Yes. Love Loyalty integrates with Shopify POS for both online and in-store transactions, starting on the $12/month Professional plan.
.avif)
