Lightspeed Loyalty vs FaveCard (2026): Points in Your Till or a Stamp Card in Apple Wallet

Who each is best for

Lightspeed is a till system (POS) for shops (Lightspeed Retail) and for restaurants and other hospitality businesses (Lightspeed Restaurant). In Lightspeed Retail, loyalty runs inside the till: a customer is enrolled once, and from then on earns points on what they buy, with no membership card needed. Lightspeed Restaurant's loyalty differs by country and product (below). If you already sell through Lightspeed on a plan that includes loyalty, its own program needs no second app at the counter.

FaveCard is a digital stamp card, not a till. It suits a business that wants customers to sign up on their own phone, keep the card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet and see their stamps any time, and, on the Business plan, hear from you on their lock screen. It works for any local business, from a coffee shop or bakery to a hair salon, a barber or a car wash, and next to any till, Lightspeed included.

Which Lightspeed plans include loyalty?

It depends on the product and the country. This is what Lightspeed's own pricing pages showed on 8 November 2026:

• Lightspeed Retail, US. The pricing page (for Lightspeed Retail X-Series) lists Basic, Core and Plus. “In-store and online loyalty” is included in Core and Plus, not in Basic. Core is $149 a month billed yearly or $179 billed monthly; Basic is $89 or $109, Plus $289 or $339. These are the prices shown with Lightspeed Payments; the page shows none without it. Every plan includes one register; extra registers and locations cost more. The page gives no tax note.
• Lightspeed Retail, UK. The UK pricing page has the same plans and the same loyalty split: Core is £149 a month billed yearly, or £189 monthly, with Lightspeed Payments; no price without Payments is shown. It says nothing about VAT.
• Lightspeed Restaurant, Germany. The German pricing page lists Basic €89, Core €159 and Pro €249 a month; “Gutscheine & Loyalty” (gift vouchers and loyalty) is included in Core and Pro and is an add-on on Basic, with no add-on price shown. The page gives no tax note. The UK restaurant page has the same split; we do not quote its prices, because its plan table shows euros while its FAQ gives a starting price in pounds.
• Lightspeed Restaurant, US. The US restaurant pricing page (Starter $69, Essential $189, Premium $399; no billing period or tax note shown) lists no loyalty in any plan, and its restaurant pages point to loyalty apps that connect to Lightspeed.
• Lightspeed Restaurant, Australia. The Australian restaurant pricing page lists loyalty in all three plans (from $79 AUD a month; no tax note).

Lightspeed also sells a more advanced tier, Lightspeed Advanced Marketing (powered by Marsello), with membership tiers, birthday rewards and automated e-mail and SMS. Its page publishes no price; its R-Series help centre says you sign up through your Lightspeed Account Manager, Lightspeed bills the tier and Marsello bills its add-ons separately.

FaveCard has a free plan with no time limit, no credit card and no cap on customers: one stamp card, a card that opens in your customers' phone browser, and stamping with the FaveCard app. The Pro plan adds Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes and your own logo and banner; the Business plan adds offers sent to their lock screen through the Wallet card, a birthday reward sent for you, Google review requests, a tablet at the counter where customers stamp their own card, your customer list as a CSV download and logins for your staff. Current amounts are on our pricing page.

Points or stamps?

Lightspeed Retail gives points. Its loyalty page says points are earned automatically when an enrolled customer buys, whatever they pay with, and can be set per product, with double or triple point events. Lightspeed's developer documentation describes the balance as a store currency that is spent as a payment on a later sale, and its R-Series help centre calls the built-in program cash back: a share of spend returned as store dollars. Lightspeed Restaurant K-Series has a different module: VIP, gift and punch cards. Lightspeed Support adds a batch of cards to your account, either online cards you e-mail to customers or physical cards you export from Back Office and print, and customers can keep punch, VIP and gift cards in Apple Wallet. A punch card gives a free item after a set number of purchases of one product.

FaveCard gives stamps. You choose how many stamps the card has and the rewards along the way, each in your own words: a free coffee at 8 stamps, a free haircut at 10. Stamps do not depend on the size of the bill, which makes the card easy for customers to follow.

How customers join and collect

With Lightspeed Retail R-Series, staff enrol the customer at the till with a Loyalty button on the sales screen; after that the till adds points to each sale, and once registered the customer can view their balance on their phone. Lightspeed's X-Series help centre did not open for our checks, so we do not describe how X-Series customers join. Lightspeed's Australian restaurant loyalty page describes a newer program built into Lightspeed POS and Payments: staff are prompted to ask for the guest's name and mobile number, the guest gets an SMS receipt, spend is tracked through the guest's payment card, and guests can also join by QR code or link and on Lightspeed Kiosk.

With FaveCard, the customer scans your QR code, enters at least an e-mail and first name, and adds the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet (Pro plan and up) or opens it in the browser. Staff give stamps by scanning the card's QR code with the FaveCard app on any phone; on the Business plan a phone or tablet on the counter lets customers stamp their own card. If a customer changes phone, they open your page, enter their e-mail and a one-time code, and get their card back.

A card on the customer's phone

For shops, Lightspeed Retail's loyalty page says customers need no membership card to collect points. In R-Series, its help centre says a registered customer can view their balance on their phone; with Advanced Marketing, the balance is not printed on receipts but staff can look it up during a sale. For restaurants, Lightspeed's K-Series help centre says customers can keep punch, VIP and gift cards in Apple Wallet, added from a QR code you e-mail them, and the Australian restaurant program offers Apple or Google Wallet passes. Lightspeed's UK restaurant loyalty page (Restaurant L-Series only) describes rewards in person or through a web app, with SMS, e-mail or push messages; its L-Series help centre says that program is no longer available to new customers.

A FaveCard card shows the stamps whenever the customer opens it, in Apple Wallet, Google Wallet or the browser.

Reaching your customers

Lightspeed's loyalty page advertises e-mail and SMS messages; segments, automated flows, tiers, abandoned-cart e-mails and Google Reviews prompts are part of Advanced Marketing. In R-Series, the built-in loyalty also runs campaigns on its own: a VIP status that multiplies points, a birthday reward and a reward for customers who have not bought for a while, with automatic e-mails and SMS. Its help centre adds two limits: customers must give explicit consent to e-mails and SMS, and verifying your Marsello account can take up to 6 weeks; the built-in R-Series program may not offer SMS marketing in North America. FaveCard's Business plan sends offers to the customer's lock screen through the Wallet card, a reward on their birthday, and a Google review request after a reward, on their card and by e-mail to customers who agreed to e-mails. FaveCard sends no SMS or e-mail campaigns.

When to choose Lightspeed instead

• You want loyalty on the sale itself. Points are added by the till, so staff use no second app and customers need no membership card. FaveCard does not connect to Lightspeed or any other till.
• You want the reward to grow with the bill. Points follow what the customer spends and can be set per product. FaveCard stamps do not depend on the bill.
• You want e-mail and SMS marketing tied to purchases. Advanced Marketing builds automatic e-mail flows from customer behaviour, such as a first purchase, a birthday or an abandoned cart, with tiers. FaveCard sends offers through the Wallet card only.
• You are moving from another program. Lightspeed Advanced Marketing imports point balances by CSV, and Lightspeed's UK Retail loyalty page says it will port over an existing program's balances. FaveCard cannot import customers or stamps today.
• You want one system for the whole counter. Lightspeed also does sales, card payments (Lightspeed Payments) and an online store (Lightspeed eCom), and its integrations directory lists 26 loyalty partners.

Running FaveCard next to Lightspeed

Lightspeed's loyalty works only inside Lightspeed POS; FaveCard works next to it. If your plan has no loyalty, or you want a card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, keep Lightspeed as your till: ring up the sale as usual, then scan the customer's FaveCard card with the FaveCard app, or let them stamp their own card at a counter tablet on the Business plan. If you also run Lightspeed's points, tell customers clearly which program they are collecting in.

How we compared

How we verified this: We make FaveCard. Every Lightspeed fact comes from Lightspeed's own pages, checked on 8 November 2026: its Retail pricing pages for the US and UK, its Restaurant pricing pages for the US, the UK, Germany and Australia, its Retail and Restaurant loyalty pages, the Advanced Marketing page, its Retail (R-Series), Restaurant (K-Series and L-Series) and developer help centres, and its integrations directory. Lightspeed's prices differ by product and country; we quote each with its page. Its X-Series and O-Series help centres did not open for our checks, so we did not use them. FaveCard's plans were checked against our released product (release 14) on 7 November 2026. FaveCard's business numbers come from our own records (FaveCard in numbers): 2,000+ counts the businesses that gave stamps to at least two different customers in the last 30 days (22 September – 21 October 2026), and 80+ the countries where those businesses are based (the country in each business's FaveCard profile; countries, not territories). As of October 2026. We did not sign up for Lightspeed or ask for a demo; where its public pages say nothing, we say “not found”. Prices and plans change: check each source before relying on it, and if you see an error, tell us through our contact page and we will correct it. Lightspeed, Marsello, Apple Wallet and Google Wallet are trademarks of their owners; FaveCard is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by any of them.

Update log

• 8 November 2026: page written; every Lightspeed fact checked on its own pages on 8 November 2026.
• 8 November 2026, after an independent check: corrected how Lightspeed customers see their balance and which cards they can carry (K-Series punch, VIP and gift cards, e-mailed, printed or in Apple Wallet), added the R-Series built-in campaigns (VIP multiplier, birthday and time-away rewards), how you start (free trial or contact sales), and that its pages say there is no non-integrated version; removed claims about X-Series we could not check.