7 Best Growave Alternatives for Growing Shopify Stores in 2026

Growave combines loyalty, reviews, and wishlists into a single Shopify app. But you may not need all three tools in one platform.

This guide compares 7 Growave alternatives, including dedicated loyalty apps and other all-in-one options. We look at pricing, features, and what each app is best for, so you can find the right fit for your store.

Why look for a Growave alternative

Growave covers the core parts of a loyalty program: points, rewards, referrals, VIP tiers, and ways for customers to earn points. It also adds reviews and wishlists, making it a broad retention platform rather than a loyalty-only app.

The trade-off is that some stores may need more control over specific parts of their loyalty program. You may want more flexible ways to create earning and reward rules, more advanced program controls, or a loyalty experience built around a specific customer journey.

This is where a dedicated loyalty app can be a better fit. Instead of combining loyalty with reviews and wishlists, these platforms focus more on building and managing the loyalty program itself.

How we picked these 7 alternatives

We compared each app across five areas that matter when choosing a loyalty platform:

• Pricing: Is the price clear, and what do you get at each plan level?
• Flexibility: Can you customize earning rules, rewards, and VIP tiers to fit your program?
• Integrations: Does it work with the other tools in your store, such as email, SMS, reviews, and customer support?
• Reporting: Can you track loyalty performance, repeat purchases, revenue, and customer activity?
• Support: What support options are available, and when can you get help?

We checked these details against each app's own pricing page and Shopify App Store listing in August 2026. This keeps the comparison focused on the features and plans you can actually get, rather than claims from other comparison articles.

The 7 best Growave alternatives

1. Joy: best overall

Joy is a loyalty and rewards platform for Shopify stores built around flexibility, social engagement, and brand-focused design. You can customize how customers earn and redeem rewards, turn social actions into loyalty rewards, and shape the look of your loyalty experience to match your brand. As your store grows, you can also add VIP tiers, deeper integrations, and more advanced customization.

Key features:

• Customers can earn points from purchases, sign-ups, and social actions, including Instagram follows, mentions, tags, TikTok follows, story shares, and UGC
• VIP tiers can be based on points, spending, or order count
• You can add loyalty elements across 30+ onsite touchpoints and create a dedicated loyalty page
• Shopify Flow and Metafields are available on every plan, with 30+ integrations for connecting other store tools
• Advanced reporting tracks retention, repeat purchases, customer lifetime value, ROI, and orders influenced by the program

Pricing: Free up to 250 orders a month. Essential is $29/month, Advanced is $129/month, and Ultimate is $499/month for up to 7,000 orders.

Best for: Stores that want to build a more customized loyalty program, especially around social engagement, VIP tiers, and loyalty performance.

Why choose Joy over Growave: Choose Joy if loyalty is your priority and you do not need reviews or wishlists in the same app. Its feature set is centered on loyalty, giving you more ways to customize how customers earn, interact with, and use rewards.

2. Smile.io: best for multi-platform reach

Smile.io is a strong choice for stores that sell on both Shopify and BigCommerce. It lets you run your loyalty program across both platforms, so you do not need to find a separate loyalty app for each store.

Key features:

• Points, referrals, and VIP tiers
• Shopify and BigCommerce support
• A Loyalty Hub inside customer accounts for viewing and using rewards
• Loyalty analytics with performance benchmarks
• Social earning actions for Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok
• Product review rewards from Essential when connected to a supported review app

Pricing: Free up to 200 orders a month. Essential is $15/month, Standard is $79/month, Growth is $199/month, and Plus is $999/month for up to 7,500 orders.

Best for: Stores that sell on both Shopify and BigCommerce and want a single loyalty platform across both platforms.

The trade-off: If you only use Shopify, Smile's multi-platform support may not offer much extra value. Growave may be more useful if you want loyalty, reviews, and wishlists all in one place.

Why consider it over Growave: Smile is the better fit when platform coverage matters. You can keep the same loyalty setup across Shopify and BigCommerce instead of finding a separate loyalty solution for your second store.

3. LoyaltyLion: best for a wider free plan

LoyaltyLion is a dedicated loyalty platform with a strong set of tools for managing points, referrals, and customer rewards. Its free plan also supports up to 400 orders a month, giving smaller stores more room to test a loyalty program before moving to a paid plan.

Key features:

• Points and referrals, with VIP tiers available on Advanced
• 50+ integrations across email, SMS, reviews, and customer support tools
• Referral fraud protection with IP detection, pending points, and referral caps
• Shopify POS support

Pricing: Free up to 400 orders a month. Classic costs $199 a month but does not include VIP tiers. VIP tiers are available on Advanced with custom pricing.

Best for: Smaller stores that want to test a loyalty program for longer before paying, or stores that need stronger referral controls.

The trade-off: VIP tiers are not included in Classic, and Advanced uses custom pricing. If VIP tiers are important from the start, you may need to move beyond the standard paid plan.

Why consider it over Growave: LoyaltyLion offers a larger free tier and places greater emphasis on loyalty-specific tools, such as referral fraud protection. It is worth considering if you want to test loyalty at a lower upfront cost or need tighter control over referral abuse.

4. Yotpo: best if you're already using Yotpo Reviews

Yotpo Loyalty is a good fit for stores that want loyalty to work alongside other retention tools, especially reviews and SMS. You can use it on its own, but its biggest advantage comes from bringing more of your customer engagement tools into the same Yotpo ecosystem.

Key features:

• Points, referrals, and VIP tiers, with VIP tiers available from Premium
• Eight reward types, with most available on Premium or Enterprise
• Four referral fraud controls managed from one place
• Integrations with other Yotpo products and third-party tools
• 24/7 chat and email support from Pro; the free plan uses an AI chatbot for support

Pricing: Free for stores with fewer than 100 orders a month. Pro costs $199 a month for up to 500 orders. VIP tiers require Premium, which uses custom pricing.

Best for: Stores that want loyalty as part of a wider retention stack, especially if they use or plan to use Yotpo Reviews, SMS, or other Yotpo products.

The trade-off: Yotpo makes the most sense when you want several customer retention tools working together. If you only need a loyalty program, a dedicated loyalty app may give you a more focused feature set.

Why consider it over Growave: Yotpo gives you another route to an all-in-one retention stack. Growave combines loyalty with reviews and wishlists, while Yotpo connects loyalty with a broader set of retention products, including Reviews and SMS. If those channels are important to your store, Yotpo can be a stronger long-term fit.

5. Rivo: best for a paid membership tier

Rivo is a strong choice if you want to combine a traditional loyalty program with paid memberships. Alongside points, referrals, and VIP tiers, it lets you charge customers for a membership that comes with ongoing perks.

Key features:

• Native paid membership from Plus
• VIP tiers included from Scale, $49 a month
• 11 referral fraud mechanisms in one place
• 24/7 support from Essential, $15 a month
• Shopify POS from Scale, 3 locations included

Pricing: Free up to 200 orders a month. Essential is $15 a month for up to 500 orders. Scale is $49 a month and adds VIP tiers. Plus is $499 a month and adds a paid membership and a developer toolkit.

Best for: Stores that want to earn from loyalty in two ways: rewarding customers with points and tiers while also offering a paid membership with exclusive perks.

The trade-off: Paid membership is only available on Plus. If you only need points, referrals, and VIP tiers, the lower Rivo plans may be enough.

Why consider it over Growave: Rivo gives you a loyalty model that Growave does not: customers can pay for membership and receive ongoing benefits. That makes Rivo worth considering if you want to build a paid loyalty program rather than rely only on points and rewards.

6. BON: best for B2B tiers

BON is a strong fit for stores that sell to both retail customers and wholesale buyers. It supports consumer VIP tiers and B2B loyalty tiers in the same loyalty program, so you can reward different customer groups without running separate apps.

Key features:

• Consumer VIP tiers and B2B tiers from Growth
• Shopify POS from Basic, with a $29 monthly plan
• Anti-cheat protection for referrals on the free plan
• Live chat and email support with human agents from the free plan

Pricing: Free up to 150 orders a month. Starter is $15 a month for 300 orders. Basic is $29/month for 500 orders and includes POS. Growth is $129 a month and adds VIP and B2B tiers.

Best for: Stores that serve both consumers and wholesale customers and need different loyalty structures for each group.

The trade-off: B2B tiers are only available from Growth. If you only sell to consumers, this feature may not offer much additional value.

Why consider it over Growave: BON makes B2B loyalty more accessible. Its B2B tiers are available on the $129-a-month Growth plan, while Growave puts its B2B Points feature on the $499-a-month Plus plan. If B2B loyalty is a key requirement, BON gives you a lower-cost way to add it.

7. Casa: best for a zero-budget start

Casa is the option to consider if you want to launch a loyalty program without adding another monthly software bill. Its free plan includes points, referrals, VIP tiers, and several ways for customers to earn more rewards.

Key features:

• Points, VIP tiers, referrals, store credits, and gift cards on the free plan
• Point multipliers and birthday rewards as standard earning options
• Social media actions for earning points
• Shopify POS integration
• Support for 35+ languages, including Vietnamese
• 24/7 founder-led support

Pricing: Free, with no paid tier.

Best for: Stores that want to launch a loyalty program with points, VIP tiers, referrals, and social earning without paying a monthly subscription.

The trade-off: Casa is a simpler option than broader platforms such as Growave. If you need reviews, wishlists, or a larger retention stack in the same app, Growave covers more use cases.

Why consider it over Growave: Casa keeps the decision simple: its loyalty features are available without a monthly fee. That makes it a practical option for smaller stores that want to prioritize loyalty and keep software costs at zero.

How to choose between these 7 alternatives

The right Growave alternative depends on what you need most from your loyalty program. Use the points below to narrow down your options:

• Loyalty depth matters more than bundling: Joy, for flexible earning rules, social engagement, and reporting that isn't split across three products.
• You sell on more than just Shopify: Smile.io, the only app on this list that reaches BigCommerce, too.
• Order volume is tight, and you need runway: LoyaltyLion, 400 orders a month free, the widest on this list.
• You're already paying for Yotpo Reviews: Yotpo, one account instead of two.
• You want a paid membership tier: Rivo, a subscription customers pay for directly, on top of points and VIP tiers.
• You sell wholesale alongside retail: BON, B2B tiers from Growth, $129 a month.
• Budget is the only thing that matters: Casa, the entire feature set costs nothing.

If none of those reasons stand out, the real decision might not be about any single app on this list. It might be whether a bundle like Growave still makes sense, or whether a dedicated loyalty platform fits better now.

Conclusion

Growave is a good fit if you want loyalty, reviews, and wishlists in one app. If you want to focus more on loyalty, these alternatives give you different options.

Choose Joy for deeper loyalty customization, Smile.io for Shopify and BigCommerce, LoyaltyLion for a wider free plan, Yotpo for a broader retention stack, Rivo for paid memberships, BON for B2B tiers, or Casa for a free loyalty program.

The right choice comes down to the features your store needs most.

Frequently asked questions