How much does a loyalty program cost? (2026)

By Alva Chew · Updated 2026-11-01

In short Loyalty software costs from US$0 to about US$350 a month for a small business, based on vendor pricing pages checked on 1 November 2026. The software is usually the smaller part of the bill. The rewards you give back, for example 5% of member spend, cost more than the subscription for most cafés, so a simple points program with one predictable price keeps the total under control.

How much does a loyalty program cost in total?

A loyalty program has seven costs. Only the first appears on the vendor’s pricing page.

Software subscription. The monthly plan.
Per-member or per-location fees. What the plan charges as you grow.
SMS and messaging. Texts to members, if you send them.
Hardware. A tablet, scanner or stamp device at the counter.
Reward cost. The real value of what you give back.
Staff time. Seconds at the till, plus hours of admin.
Setup. Designing the program, printing QR codes, training staff.

For a single café, the software is often under a fifth of the monthly total. The rewards are the largest line. We work through both examples below.

What does loyalty software cost on vendors’ own pricing pages?

We checked these pricing pages on 1 November 2026. Prices are as each page shows them and can change.

Product	Monthly price as published	Locations	What grows the bill
FaveCard	Free, US$39 Pro, US$59 Business (shown in US$ to a Singapore visitor)	Not stated	Several loyalty cards at once needs Business
Loopy Loyalty	25, 69 or 95 a month (currency not named)	1, 3 or 10 by plan	More locations means a higher plan
Stamp Me	US$49 Lite and US$100 Elite (both limited-time offers), US$79 Pro	Single location on every plan	Extra programs cost a one-time US$15 each after the first two
Kangaroo Rewards	US$79 Core, US$199 Plus, US$349 Elite	Multi-location from Plus	Locations and till integrations by plan
Eber	From US$69 (yearly) or US$89 (monthly), US$299, US$999, US$3,500 Enterprise	Not stated	Plan tier
Smile.io (online stores)	Free, US$15, US$79, US$199, US$999 (yearly)	Online store	Monthly orders, with US$20 per extra 100 orders on Growth
Loyverse	Loyalty free with the Loyverse till	Multi-store included	Optional add-ons at US$9 to US$25 per store a month

Source: each vendor’s pricing page, checked 1 November 2026.

The pattern is clear. Entry plans for one location sit around US$25 to US$80 a month. Plans that cover several locations start near US$95 and run to US$350. Above that you are in enterprise pricing.

A regional example: Singapore and Malaysia

Local vendors price in local currency. Poket lists physical-store plans from S$30 to S$100 a month billed yearly (S$42 to S$150 billed monthly), each for one store, with member caps of 1,000 to 20,000. Pixalink lists RM380 to RM960 a month on a yearly contract, each for one outlet, with additional outlets “scoped separately”. Both checked 1 November 2026.

How do per-member and per-location fees change the price?

None of the pages we checked charges per member on its main plans. Stamp Me’s FAQ says its fee “is not per customer”. The growth costs sit in two other places.

Locations. Loopy Loyalty’s Starter plan covers one location and Ultimate covers ten. Stamp Me lists “Single location” on every plan and does not price a second. Kangaroo’s US$79 Core plan has no multi-location feature, which starts on the US$199 Plus plan. Pixalink and Poket ask you to contact them for extra outlets.

Usage caps. Some plans cap members or orders instead. Poket’s entry plan allows up to 1,000 members. Smile.io’s Growth plan includes 2,500 orders a month and charges US$20 for each extra 100.

Before you sign, price the plan you would need at two outlets and at five, and at double your current member count.

What does SMS and messaging cost?

Wallet and push messages are often included. Loopy Loyalty lists unlimited push messages on every plan. Texts cost extra wherever they appear.

At Twilio’s published US rate, checked 1 November 2026, one outbound text costs US$0.0083 plus a carrier fee of US$0.0035 to US$0.005. Call it US$0.013 a message. Two texts a month to 400 members is about US$10. Two texts to 3,000 members is about US$78. Loyalty vendors that resell SMS usually charge more than the wholesale rate, so ask for their price per message.

Do you need to buy hardware?

Many programs run on a phone or tablet you already own. You pay for hardware when a vendor’s method needs a device at the counter, or when you want a dedicated screen.

A base iPad was US$449 on Apple’s US store on 1 November 2026.
Stamp Me lists stamp devices (Onestamps, StampTag, StampPod) on its pricing page without a price.

For five outlets, one new tablet each is about US$2,245 before cases and stands. That is a one-off cost, but it is often larger than a year of software.

What do the rewards really cost?

This is the line most owners leave out. The reward is a cost every time a member redeems.

Set your earn rate as a share of spend. A program that gives back 5% of spend in reward value costs you up to US$5 for every US$100 your members spend. If your members spend US$8,000 a month, that is up to US$400 a month at menu prices.

Two things bring the real number down. First, a free coffee costs you its ingredients and cup, not its menu price. Second, not every point is redeemed. Two things push it up. Rewards given to members who would have bought anyway are pure cost, and a program that runs several reward types is harder to cost at all.

How do stamps, tiers and vouchers add cost?

A points-based program has one rule: spend, earn, redeem. Each extra mechanic adds something to buy, set up or explain.

Several cards at once. FaveCard runs one loyalty card at a time on its Free and US$39 Pro plans. Running several at once needs the US$59 Business plan.
Extra programs. Stamp Me includes two published programs and charges a one-time US$15 for each one after that.
Stamp devices. Physical stamp methods are extra hardware at every counter.
Tiers and vouchers. Each tier needs thresholds and benefits you design and staff explain. Each voucher type needs an expiry and a redemption rule. That is admin time, and it changes your reward cost in ways that are hard to predict.

Points cover the same ground with less. A drink that earns a fixed number of points does what a stamp does, and a bigger bill earns more without a second card.

How much staff time does a loyalty program take?

Count two kinds of time.

At the counter. If adding points takes 10 seconds and you record 600 member visits a month, that is 100 minutes.
Admin. Checking reports, answering questions, updating rewards. Allow about two hours a month for one outlet.

At an assumed wage of US$15 an hour, that is about US$55 a month for one café. Use your own wage rate.

What does setup cost?

Setup is mostly time. You choose the reward, set the earn rate, print a QR code for the counter and brief your staff. Allow half a day, plus about US$50 of printing as an assumption. Some vendors add onboarding fees on larger plans. Stamp Me’s FAQ says its monthly plans have no setup costs, and Pixalink quotes implementation separately.

Worked example: a single-outlet café

Assumptions: 400 members, 600 member visits a month, US$8,000 member spend a month, 5% of spend back in rewards, two texts a month, an existing phone at the counter.

Cost	Monthly (US$)	Basis
Software	0 to 79	Free plans to Stamp Me Pro, from the table above
Per-member or per-location fees	0	One location
SMS	10	800 texts at about US$0.013
Hardware	0	Existing phone (US$449 one-off if you buy an iPad)
Rewards	Up to 400	5% of US$8,000 at menu value
Staff time	55	About 3.7 hours at US$15
Setup	About 50 one-off	Printing, plus half a day
Total	About 465 to 545 a month

The software is at most about a seventh of that total. The rewards are three quarters of it or more.

Worked example: a five-outlet chain

Assumptions: 3,000 members, 3,000 member visits a month, US$40,000 member spend a month, 5% back, two texts a month, one new tablet per outlet.

Cost	Monthly (US$)	Basis
Software	95 to 349	Loopy Ultimate (10 locations) to Kangaroo Elite
Per-location fees	Ask	Stamp Me lists single location, Pixalink and Poket quote extra outlets
SMS	78	6,000 texts at about US$0.013
Hardware	2,245 one-off	Five base iPads
Rewards	Up to 2,000	5% of US$40,000 at menu value
Staff time	275	About 18 hours at US$15
Setup	About 250 one-off	Printing for five outlets, plus training
Total	About 2,450 to 2,700 a month, plus about 2,500 one-off

Sources for both tables: vendor pricing pages, Twilio and Apple, all checked 1 November 2026. Member numbers, spend, wage and time are our assumptions.

Two lessons come out of the numbers. Your earn rate decides most of the cost, so set it carefully. And the software line is where outlet count can quietly double or triple the price, so look for a plan that stays flat as you grow.

How do you keep loyalty program costs down?

Choose points over stamps, tiers and vouchers, so there is one reward rule to cost.
Set the earn rate first and work out the reward cost at your real member spend.
Use the phones you already have where the vendor allows it.
Skip SMS unless you have a reason to text. Wallet cards show the balance without a message.
Price the plan at five outlets before you sign for one.

If you are comparing no-cost options, our guide to free loyalty program apps shows what each free plan leaves out. For menu-specific advice, see loyalty programs for cafés and coffee shops. New to the idea? Start with what a loyalty program is.

Where Gimify fits

Gimify is free for one outlet with unlimited members, and US$99 a month for unlimited outlets, with no per-member or per-location fees. Staff add and redeem points on any phone, so the five-outlet chain above would pay US$99 a month for software and nothing for new hardware. Start free.

Questions owners ask

How much does loyalty software cost per month?

On the pricing pages we checked on 1 November 2026, plans for small businesses ran from free to about US$350 a month, with enterprise plans from about US$1,000 to US$3,500 a month. Most entry plans cover one location.

What is the biggest cost of a loyalty program?

For most cafés and shops it is the rewards themselves. If you give back 5% of member spend, a café whose members spend US$8,000 a month gives away up to US$400 of menu value a month, more than most software plans cost.

Why does a loyalty program cost more with more outlets?

Many vendors gate locations by plan. On the pages we checked, Loopy Loyalty includes 1, 3 or 10 locations by plan, Stamp Me lists a single location on every plan, and Kangaroo offers multi-location only from its US$199 Plus plan.

Do I need special hardware for a loyalty program?

Not always. Many programs run on a phone or tablet you already own. If you buy a tablet for each counter, budget for it as a one-off cost, for example US$449 for a base iPad at Apple's US price on 1 November 2026.

How much do SMS messages add to a loyalty program?

At Twilio's published US rate, one text costs about US$0.012 to US$0.013 including carrier fees. Two texts a month to 3,000 members is about US$78 a month.