Square Loyalty Program: Cost, Features, Is It Worth It?

Last updated: May 2026

The Square Loyalty Program is Square’s built-in points-and-rewards system. It works only with Square POS, costs $49 per month per location, and is bundled inside the Square Plus subscription. For businesses already running on Square, it is one of the most natural loyalty options on the market. For everyone else, it is a tied product that forces a far bigger decision than just picking a loyalty platform.

Key Takeaway: The Square Loyalty Program is great if you already use Square POS. If you do not, you are choosing between switching your entire point-of-sale system or paying $49 monthly per location for software you cannot move. Standalone wallet-based loyalty platforms start at $0 and work with any till. We will walk through both routes honestly below.

This is an honest review for the small business owner trying to decide whether Square Loyalty fits, or whether one of the standalone alternatives is a better fit. We will cover real pricing, the features that work, the ones that do not, and five concrete alternatives at the end.

In this review:

• What Square Loyalty actually is
• The real pricing (post-2025 changes)
• Features that work, and the ones that do not
• Who Square Loyalty is for, and who it is not
• 5 honest alternatives with cost and trade-offs
• A decision framework

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What Is the Square Loyalty Program?

The Square Loyalty Program is a points-and-rewards system built directly into Square POS. When a customer pays at your Square terminal, they can enrol by entering their phone number. They earn points (called “stars” in Square’s UI) based on visits, spending, or specific items. Once they hit a threshold, they unlock a reward that is automatically applied at checkout.

Square uses the term “loyalty programme” loosely. It covers three different programme types:

1. Visit-based: one star per visit (e.g. buy 9 coffees, get the 10th free)
2. Amount-based: stars per dollar spent (e.g. one star per $5)
3. Item-based: stars when a customer buys specific items or categories

You can also layer on VIP tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold) that multiply the points earned by 1.5x, 2x, or 3x once a customer reaches a spend threshold.

The programme lives inside the Square POS. Customers enrol at the till. Staff cannot enrol customers outside the Square ecosystem. Every signup must happen during a Square transaction.

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Square Loyalty Program Pricing

Square restructured its pricing in 2025. Loyalty is no longer a standalone add-on with per-visit pricing. It is now bundled into the Square Plus plan.

Square plan	Monthly cost	Loyalty included?
Square Free	$0	No
Square Plus	$49 per location per month	Yes
Square Premium	$149 per location per month	Yes (plus advanced features)

Note the per-location pricing. If you have one cafe, that is $49 per month. If you have three locations, you pay $147 per month for Square Plus and the loyalty programme.

What the $49 actually buys you:

• Loyalty programme (visit, amount, or item-based)
• VIP tiers
• Customer profiles in the Square CRM
• Digital pass that customers can add to Apple Wallet
• Email and SMS marketing tools (Square Marketing)
• Item-level reporting

You cannot buy Square Loyalty separately. To use it, you must commit to Square Plus, which also includes a stack of other features you may or may not need (item-level reporting, customer directory tools, lower payment processing rates on certain transactions, and so on).

The hidden cost: if you use a non-Square POS, you would need to migrate. POS migration is rarely a small undertaking. You retrain staff, reimport menu data, replace card readers, and rewire whatever integrations live around the till. For a single-location independent cafe, that is several days of disruption. For a salon or barbershop tied to a booking system, it can be weeks.

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Square Loyalty Program Features (What Works)

Square Loyalty does several things well, especially for businesses already inside the Square ecosystem.

Tight POS integration

This is the headline. Because loyalty is built into the till, staff do not have to remember a second workflow. Customer enters phone, points get added, reward is offered if available. There is no scanning a separate app, no second device behind the counter, no swapping between screens. For a busy till at peak times, this matters.

Customer enrollment at checkout

Customers do not download anything. They type their phone number on the Square terminal and they are enrolled. This is the fastest signup of any loyalty platform we have looked at, because there is no app install, no QR scan, no account creation. Phone number, done.

Three programme types

Most small businesses only need one of the three (visit-based for daily-visit businesses like cafes, amount-based for variable check sizes like restaurants), but having all three under one roof means you can experiment without changing platforms.

Apple Wallet support

The digital pass works the same way most wallet-based loyalty cards do. Customers tap “Add to Apple Wallet” from their receipt or a QR code, and the card lives next to their credit cards. Square supports the standard PassKit functionality including stamp counting and balance display.

Unified customer data

Because the loyalty system shares a database with your Square POS, you get unified visit history, transaction value, and product preferences in one place. For businesses already using Square Marketing or Square Capital, this consistency is genuinely valuable.

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Square Loyalty Program Limitations (What Does Not Work)

The POS lock-in

This is the biggest issue. Square Loyalty does not work with any non-Square POS. If you change point-of-sale providers, you lose the loyalty programme and the customer data tied to it. You can export the customer list, but the loyalty history and the integration with reward redemption all live inside Square.

For a young business that is committed to Square long-term, this is not a problem. For an established business with an existing POS, switching to Square just to access loyalty is rarely worth the cost.

Bundled pricing

You pay $49 per location for Square Plus even if loyalty is the only feature you need. If you do not use the other Plus features (item-level reporting, advanced CRM, payroll discount), you are paying for capacity you do not consume. This is a Square design choice, not a loyalty product decision, but it shapes the real cost.

Limited reward types

The three programme types (visit, amount, item) are the only options. You cannot run hybrid models, time-limited boosters, surprise rewards, or behaviour-triggered offers without leaving the platform. For most independent businesses this is fine. For a business with a more creative loyalty design, it is a hard ceiling.

No real automation

Square Loyalty earns and redeems points. It does not run automated reactivation campaigns (“haven’t seen you in 30 days, here’s 10% off”), birthday rewards, or behavioural triggers without bringing in Square Marketing as a separate paid add-on. If you want loyalty plus automated lifecycle messaging, you are buying two products.

Card design is locked

Customers see a Square-branded loyalty pass with limited customisation. You can add your logo, but the look-and-feel is Square’s, not yours. For brand-conscious independents this can feel impersonal compared to fully white-label alternatives.

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Who the Square Loyalty Program Is For

A natural fit if:

• You already use Square POS and process payments through Square
• You have one to three locations and the per-location pricing maths still work
• You want loyalty to live inside your existing till, not as a separate workflow
• You are happy with one of the three standard programme types (visit, amount, or item)
• You do not need heavy automation or custom card branding

A poor fit if:

• You use a different POS (Clover, Toast, Lightspeed, Lightspeed Restaurant, etc.)
• You are paper-only and considering digital loyalty without changing your till
• You want a fully branded customer experience (custom card design, your colours, no Square branding)
• You only need loyalty and do not want to pay for the rest of Square Plus
• You have several locations and the per-location pricing becomes prohibitive

For a single independent cafe already on Square POS, Square Loyalty is one of the easiest decisions in this category. For everyone else, the standalone alternatives below are usually better.

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5 Alternatives to the Square Loyalty Program

Here are five honest alternatives, with the trade-offs of each. We have used or studied all of them. Quick side-by-side first, then the detail for each option below.

Platform	Starting price	Works with	Apple Wallet	Free plan
FaveCard	$0 / $19 Pro	Any POS (or none)	Yes (Pro)	Yes, unlimited customers
Loopy Loyalty	$25 per month	Any POS	Yes	Trial only
Stamp Me	$49 per month	Any POS (app required)	No (uses app)	Trial only
Smile.io	$0 / $49+	Shopify, BigCommerce	Limited	Yes, limited
Square Loyalty	$49 per location	Square POS only	Yes	No

1. FaveCard (best for independents who want to avoid POS lock-in)

• Price: Free plan at $0 (unlimited customers, no time limit). Pro at $19 per month adds Apple and Google Wallet passes, push notifications, custom branding, and customer messaging. Every new account starts with 30 days of Pro for free.
• Works with: Any POS (or none); the loyalty card is independent of the till
• Card design: Fully branded, your colours, your logo, no FaveCard branding on the customer card
• Best for: Independent cafes, salons, barbers, restaurants, and any small business that wants loyalty without committing to a payment processor

We built FaveCard so we are biased. The honest pitch: where Square Loyalty is great if you are committed to Square POS forever, FaveCard is built for the independent who wants loyalty that survives a future POS change. The card lives in Apple or Google Wallet, the customer relationship is yours, and you can run it for $0 indefinitely.

Try FaveCard free.

2. Loopy Loyalty (best for clean wallet-only experience)

• Price: $25 per month per location (US pricing)
• Works with: Any POS (independent)
• Best for: Businesses that want a simple Apple and Google Wallet stamp card and nothing else

Loopy Loyalty is a long-standing wallet-based loyalty platform. They were one of the first to use Apple Wallet passes for loyalty cards. The product is focused: stamp cards, wallet passes, push notifications, basic analytics. No POS integration, no automation, no SMS. For the right business, that simplicity is the appeal.

See our Loopy Loyalty alternatives breakdown for a fuller picture.

3. Stamp Me (best for app-based loyalty)

• Price: $49 per month (Pro), with cheaper trial plans
• Works with: Any POS, but customers need to download the Stamp Me app
• Best for: Multi-location businesses willing to ask customers for an app install

Stamp Me uses a dedicated customer app rather than wallet passes. Customers download the Stamp Me app once and can collect stamps from many participating businesses inside it. The trade-off is the app download, which is a serious friction point. Only about 6% of app users are still active after 30 days, according to Adjust’s mobile retention research. For the app friction to be worth it, the customer must be heavily engaged.

See our Stamp Me alternatives review for a deeper comparison.

4. Smile.io (best for Shopify stores)

• Price: Free plan available; paid plans from $49 per month
• Works with: Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix (primarily ecommerce)
• Best for: Online stores running on Shopify or similar

Smile.io is ecommerce-first. If you sell online via Shopify and want a points programme that connects to your store, Smile is the obvious choice. It is not built for in-person retail or hospitality. For a cafe, salon, or barbershop, this is not the right fit. For a small ecommerce brand, it is one of the best in its category.

5. Stay with Square (sometimes the right call)

If you already run Square POS and are happy with it, Square Loyalty is genuinely the easiest path. The integration tax is real with every alternative: you will be reconciling two systems instead of one. For a single-location independent already on Square Plus, the loyalty bundle is a reasonable use of the existing subscription. The honest answer is sometimes “stay where you are.”

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Decision Framework

Use this short decision flow to pick the right path.

Do you currently use Square POS?

• Yes → Square Loyalty is the simplest choice. Confirm the Plus tier maths still work for your number of locations, then enable loyalty inside your existing subscription. Skip the alternatives unless you have a specific reason to add a second system.
• No → Continue below.

Are you locked into a non-Square POS by contract or operational need?

• Yes → Square Loyalty is off the table. Pick a standalone wallet-based platform that works with any till. FaveCard’s Free plan is the lowest-friction starting point. Loopy Loyalty if you want paid wallet-only.
• No, you are flexible → Continue below.

Would you be willing to migrate your entire POS to Square just to use Square Loyalty?

• Yes → Make sure the broader Square offering (payments, payroll, capital, marketing) is also a good fit. Loyalty alone is not a reason to migrate a working POS.
• No → Standalone is the right path. Start free, add paid features only when the programme proves itself.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Square Loyalty cost in 2026?

Square Loyalty is bundled into the Square Plus plan at $49 per month per location. The free Square plan does not include loyalty features. For three locations, that is $147 per month. Pricing was simplified from the older per-loyalty-visit model in 2025, but the per-location structure remained.

Does Square Loyalty work without Square POS?

No. Square Loyalty only works inside the Square POS ecosystem. If you use Clover, Toast, Lightspeed, or any other till, you cannot run Square Loyalty. You would either need to migrate your entire POS to Square or use a standalone loyalty platform that works alongside any till.

What types of loyalty programmes can you build with Square?

Three: visit-based (one star per visit), amount-based (stars per dollar spent), and item-based (stars on specific products or categories). You can layer in VIP tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold) with point multipliers of 1.5x, 2x, or 3x. You cannot build hybrid programmes or non-Square reward types.

Is the Square Loyalty Program worth it?

If you already use Square POS, yes. The integration is tight and the cost is reasonable inside an existing Square subscription. If you do not use Square POS, the answer is almost always no, because the $49 monthly cost plus POS switching cost is too much to take on just for a loyalty programme.

Does Square have a customer loyalty program?

Yes. The Square Loyalty Program is built into Square POS and bundled inside the Square Plus subscription at $49 per month per location. Customers enrol by tapping their phone number on the Square terminal at checkout. They earn points (called “stars” inside Square’s UI) on visits, dollar amount spent, or specific items, and the reward applies automatically when they hit the threshold.

How do customers redeem Square loyalty rewards?

Automatically at checkout. When a customer reaches a reward threshold, the discount or free item applies to their next purchase at the till. Staff do not need to do anything manually; Square’s system flags the reward in the POS interface. Customers can also see their current point balance and pending rewards inside their Apple Wallet pass.

Can I move my loyalty data to another platform if I leave Square?

Partially. You can export customer contact details from Square. The loyalty visit history, point balances, and reward redemption logic do not export cleanly into other platforms. Practically, leaving Square means starting your loyalty programme over.

What is the best free alternative to Square Loyalty?

FaveCard’s Free plan is the only platform we know of that is permanently free with unlimited customers and no time limit. Every new account also gets 30 days of Pro for free, which adds Apple and Google Wallet passes and push notifications.

Can customers add a Square loyalty card to Apple Wallet?

Yes. Square supports a digital loyalty pass that customers can add to Apple Wallet. They scan a QR code or tap a receipt link, then tap to add the pass. The card updates as they earn points or visits.

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The Bottom Line

Square Loyalty is genuinely good software, and for the right business, it is one of the easiest loyalty decisions you can make. The right business is one that already uses Square POS, has one to three locations, and wants loyalty to live inside the same dashboard as everything else. For those businesses, the $49 monthly bundle is reasonable and the integration is best-in-class.

For everyone else, Square Loyalty asks too much. The POS lock-in is real, the per-location pricing scales fast, and the bundled cost includes features you may not need. The standalone wallet-based platforms (FaveCard, Loopy Loyalty) get you the same customer outcome without the dependency.

If you are not sure, start free with a standalone platform. You can always migrate to Square later if you fall in love with the rest of their stack. The reverse path, leaving Square Loyalty for a standalone, is much harder.

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Looking for a Square-free way to run loyalty?

• FaveCard Free: Digital stamp card, unlimited customers, no time limit, no credit card
• 30 days of Pro on signup: Apple and Google Wallet passes, push notifications, custom branding
• Works with any till: No POS lock-in, ever
• 5-minute setup: Your first card live by the end of your next coffee break

Create your free loyalty card or browse the best free digital loyalty card apps for a wider comparison.

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Pricing and features were accurate as of May 2026. Square Loyalty pricing references the bundled Square Plus plan ($49 per location per month) per Square’s pricing page and verified via Merchant Maverick and UpMenu’s 2026 Square pricing breakdown. App retention statistics from Adjust mobile retention research.