Blog
Choosing a loyalty card, and running it well
Apps compared on the questions owners ask first, with every fact dated, and guides to the everyday parts: stamps, rewards, reviews and wallet cards.
Comparisons
Loyalty apps side by side, taken from each company’s own pages, with the day we checked them.
- ComparisonsSix digital stamp card apps compared for 2026What each app asks of your customers and your team, how stamps get on the card, whether it works with your till, and where its prices start. · 9 min read
- ComparisonsSquare Loyalty alternatives: five options compared for 2026Why owners look past Square Loyalty, and five loyalty apps that work beside any till, compared on what customers install, how stamps are given and price. · 7 min read
- ComparisonsStamp Me alternatives: five loyalty apps compared for 2026Why owners look beyond Stamp Me, from the customer app to one location per plan, and five alternatives compared on the same questions. · 6 min read
- ComparisonsHow we compare loyalty appsWhere our facts come from, why the apps appear in alphabetical order, how we treat our own product, and how to tell us when we get something wrong. · 3 min read
Guides
Running a loyalty card well, whichever app you end up choosing.
- GuidesHow to stop loyalty card fraud, on paper and on phonesThe ways stamp cards get cheated, by customers and now and then by staff, and the checks that stop it without slowing the queue. · 6 min read
- GuidesHow to ask customers for Google reviews without breaking the rulesWhat Google and the law let a small business do when it asks for reviews, what gets reviews removed, and a way of asking that customers don’t mind. · 6 min read
- GuidesApple Wallet and Google Wallet loyalty cards: a guide for small businessesWhat a stamp card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet can do, what it can’t, what issuing one yourself takes, and how to get customers to add it. · 6 min read
- GuidesHow many stamps should a loyalty card have? A simple way to decideA simple way to set your card’s length from how often a steady customer visits and what the reward costs you, with examples for cafés, salons and shops. · 6 min read
More guides
Longer reads on starting a loyalty programme, reward ideas, tiers, card expiry and what to measure.
- How to start a loyalty programmeSeven steps from the first decision to launch day, and the mistakes that sink new schemes.
- Loyalty reward ideasReward ideas for cafés, bakeries, restaurants, salons, barbers and shops, and where each one fits on a card.
- Tiered loyalty programmesHow tiers sit on top of a stamp card: levels reached by lifetime stamps, a reward at each, and a badge regulars can see.
- Do loyalty cards work?What published studies say about loyalty cards, when they bring customers back, and when they don’t.
- Measuring a loyalty programmeThe loyalty numbers worth watching in a small business, what each one means, and how to act on them.
- Loyalty card expiryWhether stamps should expire, the ways a card can reset, and how to set expiry without catching out your regulars.