Smile vs BON: 2026 Comparison

Most Shopify store owners think loyalty programs are all the same. They're not. The difference between Smile.io and BON Loyalty can mean the difference between a loyalty program that feels like an afterthought and one that drives measurable revenue growth.

Both platforms are Shopify natives with solid feature sets. Both offer points, referrals, and VIP tiers. But they approach the problem differently, and that matters more than you'd think. Understanding where they diverge helps you pick the platform that actually works for your store—not just in theory, but in practice.

I've watched merchants struggle with the wrong choice. Some picked the fancier option only to hit a ceiling when scaling. Others chose the cheaper platform and discovered critical features locked behind paywalls they didn't budget for. This comparison cuts through that confusion.

TLDR: Quick Comparison Overview

Smile.io excels at premium aesthetics, robust Shopify POS integration, and enterprise-grade features for large stores, but VIP features sit behind expensive plans and multi-language setup is painful. BON Loyalty delivers better value for small-to-mid-size businesses with unlimited members on all plans, built-in multi-language support, and easier migration from competitors, though its dashboard lacks visual polish and third-party integrations are fewer. Choose Smile for high-volume, established brands prioritizing design and retail. Choose BON for growing stores seeking features-per-dollar and rapid deployment.

Introduction: Choosing Your Shopify Loyalty Powerhouse

Loyalty programs have become non-negotiable for Shopify store owners. The data is clear: acquiring a new customer costs 5-7 times more than retaining an existing one. A well-built loyalty program closes that gap, turning one-time buyers into repeat revenue streams.

But choosing the right platform is harder than it should be. The Shopify app ecosystem is crowded, and the two platforms dominating conversations are Smile.io and BON Loyalty. Both have solid track records. Both integrate with Shopify. Both promise to increase customer lifetime value.

The problem? They do it differently. And those differences cascade through your entire loyalty strategy.

Start with understanding what a customer loyalty program is before evaluating specific platforms. That foundation helps you assess whether Smile or BON actually fits your business model.

This comparison gives you the objective breakdown you need. We'll look at core mechanics, pricing, integrations, customer support, and real merchant feedback. By the end, you'll know exactly which platform aligns with your growth goals.

1. What is Smile.io: Loyalty Program Rewards?

Smile.io is the established player. Over 100,000 commerce brands use it, including recognizable names like Polaroid, Liquid Death, and Hush Puppies. It's been in the space longer than most competitors, which shows in the polish.

The platform combines points-based rewards, referral programs, and VIP tiers into a unified system. Customers earn points for purchases, social actions, and referrals. They redeem points for discounts, products, or gift cards. For Shopify Plus users, there's even direct points redemption at checkout—a feature that simplifies the friction at purchase.

Smile also layers in bonus events, subscription rewards, and gift card integration. The product design is explicitly led by reward psychology experts, meaning every interaction is calibrated to maximize engagement. That shows in their interface design and redemption flow.

The typical Smile customer is either an established brand that's already scaled or a growing store with premium positioning. The platform rewards stores that have traffic to optimize for.

2. What is BON Loyalty Program & Rewards?

BON Loyalty is the newer challenger with momentum. It targets a different customer segment: small-to-mid-size businesses and growing stores that need robust features without enterprise-level pricing.

The core offering mirrors Smile's: points, referrals, and VIP tiers. But BON adds specific touches for its audience. Guest points (rewarding non-account customers for actions), Order Booster features, and a focus on simplicity make it more accessible for merchants setting up their first loyalty program.

BON also positions itself differently on language and currency support (250+ languages out of the box), making it genuinely useful for merchants with international ambitions. And it's explicit about B2B tiering, acknowledging that not every loyalty program is built for direct-to-consumer models.

The philosophy is different: feature-rich, affordable, and built for growth-stage stores rather than mega-brands.

3. Side-by-Side Comparison: Smile vs BON

3.1. Core Loyalty Program Mechanics

Points-Based Systems

Both platforms let customers earn points for purchases. The standard rate hovers around 1 point per $1 spent, though you customize the ratio.

Where they diverge is in non-purchase earning. Smile.io emphasizes bonus events and subscription rewards—time-limited campaigns that spike engagement during specific windows. BON emphasizes consistent earning across more action types and includes guest points, which rewards customers who haven't created accounts yet.

Redemption is straightforward on both. Customers can redeem for percentage discounts (10% off), fixed amounts ($10 off), free products, or gift cards. Smile adds the option for Shopify Plus merchants to redeem directly at checkout without a code. That's convenient for large stores with sophisticated POS setups.

Referral Programs

Both platforms make referral setup easy—define your reward structure (e.g., $10 store credit for both referrer and referee), and the platform handles the mechanics. Customers get unique referral links and see real-time tracking of successful referrals.

Smile has invested heavily in referral psychology, with optimized landing pages and share links that drive higher conversion rates than generic referral systems. The downside: Smile lacks native anti-fraud rules, requiring manual monitoring if you're concerned about referral abuse. BON includes migration tools that make switching from Smile straightforward, handling the data transfer in roughly 10 minutes.

VIP Tiers

This is where strategic choice becomes obvious. Both let you create tiered loyalty levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc.) with accelerated point earning and exclusive perks.

Smile gates many VIP features behind high-tier plans ($199+/month). That's intentional—it nudges larger stores toward enterprise pricing. BON offers robust VIP functionality at $25-$79/month, making tiered programs accessible to growing stores. BON also includes B2B tiering capabilities, letting you create wholesale-specific tiers if you sell to businesses alongside consumers. Create exclusive VIP tiers that reward your highest-value customers and drive meaningful engagement.

3.2. Customization & Branding

Customization matters because your loyalty program is a brand touchpoint. A loyalty interface that looks out of place damages trust.

Smile.io emphasizes design aesthetics. The platform is built to feel premium, and that shows in customizable widgets, loyalty page layouts, and email templates. Merchants consistently praise how polished the loyalty experience feels—it genuinely looks like part of the brand, not a third-party tool bolted on.

BON offers customization, but the visual polish is less pronounced. The dashboard and customer-facing widgets are functional rather than beautiful. For brands where aesthetic matters (luxury, high-end lifestyle), this is a real difference. For value-oriented brands, it's barely noticeable.

Both let you customize email notifications when customers earn or redeem points. Smile offers slightly more control over email design and psychology (which reinforces their reward-psychology focus). BON's emails are clean and clear but less sophisticated in behavioral design.

3.3. Pricing Plans & Value Proposition

This is where the comparison becomes concrete.

Free Plans:

• Smile.io: Up to 200 monthly orders. No credit card required, but limited features.
• BON Loyalty: Up to 250 monthly orders, plus automated email marketing on the free plan.

If you're under 200 orders/month, either platform's free tier works. BON's inclusion of email automation on the free plan is a meaningful advantage for early-stage stores.

Paid Tiers:

• Smile.io: Starter ($49-$99/month for 500-1,500 orders), Growth ($199/month for 2,500 orders), Plus ($999/month for 7,500+ orders).
• BON Loyalty: Basic ($25/month for 500 orders), Standard ($79/month for 2,500 orders), Professional ($349/month for unlimited).

Here's the crucial difference: BON's Professional plan at $349/month gets you unlimited orders. Smile.io tops out at 7,500 orders/month for $999. For stores running 10,000+ orders monthly, Smile becomes noticeably expensive relative to features.

BON also unlocks Hydrogen/Headless support on the Professional plan, which matters if you're running a custom storefront.

Value Analysis:

• Small stores (under 500 orders/month): BON wins on value. The free tier includes email automation, which Smile doesn't.
• Growing stores (500-2,500 orders/month): Roughly equivalent. BON's Standard plan ($79) is cheaper than Smile's Growth tier ($199), but Smile's design might justify the premium.
• Large stores (2,500+ orders/month): BON wins decisively. You get unlimited orders and advanced features for $349. Smile's equivalent tier costs $999.

3.4. Ease of Use & Setup

Smile.io dashboard is intuitive. Setup is quick—choose your loyalty structure, define point values, customize colors, and go live. The interface guides you through decisions rather than forcing you to know exactly what you want upfront.

BON's dashboard is similarly functional. Setup is slightly faster because there's less granular customization to muddle through. Both have good Shopify integration; changes in your Shopify admin sync instantly to the loyalty program.

A critical point for omnichannel retailers: both integrate with Shopify POS. Achieve a unified loyalty experience across online and offline channels where in-store purchases earn the same points as online orders. Smile.io has more robust retail-specific features, including a dedicated POS interface for staff. BON's integration is solid but less refined.

Mobile responsiveness is baseline adequate on both. Neither platform impacts store performance negatively. Smile's mobile UI is slightly more polished; BON's works fine but feels more utilitarian.

3.5. Customer Support

Smile.io offers email, live chat, and extensive documentation. Response times are generally 24 hours for standard questions, though performance degrades during peak season (Black Friday/Cyber Monday, holiday sales). Merchants report support is helpful when you reach them, but the queue can be long.

BON offers email, live chat, and documentation as well. The response times are comparable, though merchants report BON's support team is more responsive during peak periods. This might be selection bias (BON's smaller user base), but it's worth noting.

Both have knowledge bases and onboarding support. Smile invests more in educational content and advanced guides. BON's documentation is thinner but covers the essentials clearly.

3.6. Integrations & Compatibility

Key E-commerce Tools:

Both integrate with Klaviyo (email marketing), Omnisend (email + SMS), Postscript (SMS), and Judge.me (reviews). This is table stakes.

Where they diverge: Smile has integrations with Fera, LAI, Gorgias, and additional apps that let you orchestrate more sophisticated loyalty workflows. For example, Klaviyo integration on Smile lets you segment customers by loyalty tier and earn rate, creating hyper-targeted campaigns. BON's Klaviyo integration works similarly, but the ecosystem of supporting tools is smaller.

Achieve seamless integration with popular marketing tools like Klaviyo to automate loyalty communications and segment customers based on engagement.

Shopify POS & Omnichannel:

Both support Shopify POS with online-offline loyalty syncing. Smile's retail features are more extensive; BON's are functional. If you're running a high-touch retail operation with 20+ staff, Smile's POS UI saves time. For 3-5 checkout lanes, both work fine.

Multilingual Support:

BON: 250+ languages simultaneously.

Smile.io: 20+ languages.

If you're serving international customers, BON is objectively better. Setting up a multi-language loyalty program on Smile.io requires manual workarounds, which is frustrating. BON includes it natively on all paid tiers.

Hydrogen/Headless:

BON Professional ($349/month) supports Hydrogen storefronts. Smile.io does not explicitly offer headless support. For brands running custom frontends, BON is the better choice.

3.7. Analytics & Reporting

Both track customer activity (points earned, redeemed, tier progression), redemption rates, and basic ROI metrics.

Smile emphasizes CLV reporting and cohort analysis, showing you how different customer segments behave over time. This is useful if you're optimizing loyalty mechanics.

BON offers solid analytics but less behavioral segmentation. You can see what happened (redemption rates, engagement), but less prediction of what's likely to happen.

Maximize customer lifetime value (CLV) by analyzing loyalty program performance and optimizing reward structures based on actual customer behavior.

4. Pros and Cons: A Detailed Look

4.1. Smile.io: Loyalty Program Rewards

Pros:

• Features market-leading design aesthetics that make the loyalty program feel like a premium part of the store
• Product design is led by experts in 'Reward Psychology' to ensure the highest possible customer engagement
• Provides the most robust Shopify POS integration with a dedicated UI for physical retail locations
• Maintains an extensive 'Point of Sale' UI that is intuitive for retail staff to use during checkout
• Proven to drive high conversion rates for referrals through optimized landing pages and share links

Cons:

• Setting up a multi-language program is notoriously difficult and often requires manual workarounds
• Many of the most desirable VIP features are gated behind high-tier plans that cost $199+ per month
• The customization options for B2B or Wholesale merchants are limited compared to niche competitors
• Customer support can be slow to respond to low-tier tickets during major sales events like BFCM
• Does not currently include native anti-fraud rules for referrals, requiring manual monitoring for abuse

4.2. BON Loyalty Program & Rewards

Pros:

• Includes multi-language and multi-currency support by default on all paid tiers
• Generally offers a much better price-to-feature ratio for brands that want VIP tiers on a budget
• Allows for an unlimited number of loyalty members even on the $25/month 'Basic' plan tier
• Includes automated email marketing features on the free plan, which is rare in the loyalty space
• Provides easy-to-use migration tools that make switching from Smile or Yotpo a 10-minute process

Cons:

• The administration dashboard and customer widgets have less visual 'polish' than the market leader
• The ecosystem of third-party integrations is smaller, meaning fewer apps 'talk' directly to BON data
• Has lower overall brand recognition among customers, which may impact trust for very new stores
• Lacks the advanced AI and predictive customer segments found in expensive enterprise platforms
• The customer-facing mobile experience is basic and offers fewer styling options for the loyalty panel

5. What Merchants Are Saying: Reviews & Ratings

Third-party ratings give you unfiltered feedback. Here's what the data shows:

Overall Satisfaction:

• BON Loyalty: 4.9/5.0 user satisfaction on G2, with 5.0/5.0 on the Shopify App Store (1,682 reviews)
• Smile.io: 4.6/5.0 user satisfaction on G2, with 4.9/5.0 on the Shopify App Store (4,124 reviews)

BON's higher score is interesting given its smaller user base. It suggests merchants are more satisfied per capita, though Smile's larger review count reflects broader adoption.

Feature-Specific Scores (G2):

BON Loyalty:

• Loyalty engine: 9.2
• Customer support: 9.9
• Personalization: 9.2
• Ease of use: 9.1

Smile.io:

• Loyalty engine: 9.0
• Customer support: 9.4
• Personalization: 7.8
• Ease of use: 9.2
• Setup: 9.2

BON scores higher on support and personalization. Smile edges out on ease of use and setup. Both are strong on the core loyalty engine—neither is functionally deficient.

6. Target Audience: Who is Each Platform Best For?

Smile.io is Best For:

• Established brands with 2,500+ monthly orders
• High-touch retail operations with multiple physical locations
• Merchants prioritizing design and brand aesthetics
• Shopify Plus users needing enterprise-grade features
• Stores where referral psychology and conversion optimization are competitive advantages

BON Loyalty is Best For:

• Small-to-mid-size stores (500-2,500 monthly orders)
• Growing e-commerce brands bootstrapping early
• Merchants needing multi-language/multi-currency support immediately
• B2B or wholesale-focused businesses
• Stores migrating from another loyalty platform and wanting a smooth transition
• Budget-conscious merchants seeking features-per-dollar

Explore the benefits of a B2B loyalty platform if you're selling to both direct consumers and businesses, as BON's tiering capabilities support both models.

The scalability question: BON scales well to 10,000+ orders/month at a fixed $349/month. Smile demands you pay premium pricing as you grow. For pure volume, BON wins. For brand experience, Smile has the edge.

Conclusion: Making Your Choice for 2026

Here's the distilled version: Smile.io is the premium design leader. It excels at aesthetics, retail integration, and behavioral optimization. It costs more and requires more setup complexity (especially internationally). It's built for brands that have already proven product-market fit and are optimizing unit economics.

BON Loyalty is the value champion. It delivers advanced features—VIP tiers, multi-language support, email automation, B2B tiering—without the premium pricing. Setup is faster, migration is smoother, and it won't penalize you for growth. It's built for merchants in the growth phase who need a reliable tool that doesn't constrain their ambitions.

Neither is objectively "better." Better depends on your store's maturity, geography, retail footprint, and budget.

Make the decision this way:

1. Check your monthly order volume. Under 2,500? BON likely wins on value. Over 5,000? Smile's premium features justify the cost.
2. If you need multi-language support, BON saves you months of workaround headaches.
3. If you operate retail locations and want staff to intuitively use the POS interface, Smile has a clear advantage.
4. If you're migrating from another platform, BON's 10-minute migration tool is genuinely valuable.
5. If brand aesthetics and referral conversion are critical competitive advantages, Smile's design polish pays for itself.

Both platforms have free trials. Use them. Configure your actual reward structure, invite a few test customers, and see which interface feels more natural to your team. That 30-minute test run often reveals more than specs ever will.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I migrate my existing loyalty program data to Smile or BON?

A: Both platforms support migration from other loyalty apps. BON explicitly offers a 10-minute migration tool for switching from Smile or Yotpo, handling data transfer automatically. Smile's migration process is manual and requires support team involvement, which takes longer. If migration is urgent, BON is the faster path.

Q: Do both platforms offer a free trial or free plan?

A: Yes. Smile.io offers a free plan for up to 200 monthly orders. BON Loyalty offers a free plan for up to 250 monthly orders and includes automated email marketing, which Smile's free tier doesn't. Both let you test core features without a credit card.

Q: Which platform is better for small businesses just starting out?

A: BON Loyalty. The free tier includes email automation (unusual in the loyalty space), paid plans start at $25/month, and unlimited members across all tiers keep costs predictable. Smile.io is also solid, but BON's pricing and feature inclusion favor early-stage stores.

Q: Can these loyalty programs integrate with my email marketing software?

A: Yes. Both integrate with Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Postscript. Smile.io has a slightly larger ecosystem of supported integrations, but both handle the major email and SMS platforms that most ecommerce stores use.