If you already take payments on Square, Toast, Clover or Lightspeed, the quickest loyalty program to start is usually the one your point of sale sells you. It sees every sale, it runs on the terminal your staff already know, and there's no second system to set up. The differences are in how customers join, what earns a point and what the plan costs.
A word before the comparison: we make Smartbills, whose loyalty program runs on the digital receipt and is described at the end of this page. The facts about each point-of-sale program were read on the vendor's own pages on October 21, 2026, and those pages are listed under Sources. Plans and prices change. Check with the vendor before you decide.
What a POS loyalty program is
A POS loyalty program is a loyalty program built into the point-of-sale system. The customer is recognized at checkout, usually by phone number or email, points are added from the sale, and rewards are redeemed at the same terminal. Because the program lives inside the POS, it only sees the sales made on that POS.
What to compare
- How customers join. A phone number at the terminal, a link, the receipt or an app. Every extra step at the counter loses people when there's a line.
- What earns points. Visits, dollars spent, or specific items and categories. Item rules let you reward the products you want to sell more of.
- What customers redeem. A discount, a free item or cash back.
- What it costs. Included in your plan, sold as an add-on, or priced per location.
- Where it works. Some programs are limited to one country or one product line.
Square Loyalty
Square says customers can sign up at the point of sale, on a Square Online site or through an invoice, and earn points on purchases made through Square POS, Square Invoices or Square Online, cash included. You choose whether points come from visits, from the amount spent, or from the items and categories bought. Rewards are things like a dollar amount off or a free item, redeemable in store or online. Customers get a text when they earn points or a reward and can add a loyalty pass to Apple Wallet. Square has also added VIP tiers that multiply points by 1.5, 2 or 3.
In the US, Square lists its loyalty rewards program as part of Square Plus, at $49 a month per location, with a 30-day free trial. Square's Canadian pricing page lists loyalty on its own, starting at $60 a month. Suits: cafés, shops and service businesses already on Square that want item rules without a second vendor.
Toast Loyalty
Toast Loyalty is built for US restaurants on the Toast POS. You choose whether guests earn points from dollars spent or from the number of visits, set the value of a point and a minimum spend, and pick rewards anywhere from a free item to cash back. Guests can enroll at the register, through a digital receipt, when ordering online or with a sign-up link, and points are tracked automatically with no card to carry. Toast also offers day-and-time bonuses such as double-point Tuesdays, dining-option bonuses, and birthday and welcome perks.
Toast sells loyalty as part of its Marketing Suite, alongside email marketing and gift cards. Its loyalty page doesn't list a price. Suits: US restaurants already running Toast, especially those taking online orders.
Clover Rewards
Clover's help pages say its rewards program is included in select service plans at no additional fee. Customers join with a phone number or email address and earn 1 point for every pre-tax dollar they spend. You decide how many points each reward costs, rewards can be discounts, free items or services, or add-ons, and you can offer a sign-up bonus. Rewards sync across your Clover devices and eligible locations.
Two things to know before you start. Clover doesn't import points from another loyalty platform, and if you deactivate rewards, customers can no longer redeem what they earned. Suits: Clover merchants who want a simple points-per-dollar program at no extra cost.
Lightspeed Loyalty
On Lightspeed Retail, loyalty comes built in. Lightspeed says you can enroll customers at the point of sale, award points automatically on each purchase, set points on specific products and run double- or triple-point events. Customers can collect points with their credit card, with no membership card, and there's no limit on the number of tiers. Lightspeed Advanced Marketing adds segmentation, birthday perks and email and text messages, and existing points balances can be imported from a CSV file.
Lightspeed Restaurant is different: its page lists loyalty programs among the tools you connect to it rather than describing one of its own. Suits: shops on Lightspeed Retail. Restaurants on Lightspeed will be choosing a connected program.
Side by side
- Joining. Square: at checkout, online or on an invoice. Toast: at the register, on a digital receipt, online or by link. Clover: phone number or email. Lightspeed Retail: at the point of sale, or with a credit card.
- Earning. Square: visits, spend, or items and categories. Toast: dollars spent or visits. Clover: 1 point per pre-tax dollar. Lightspeed Retail: purchases, with points set by product.
- Price on the vendor's page. Square: in Square Plus, $49 a month per location (US), or from $60 a month (Canada). Toast: part of the Marketing Suite, no price listed. Clover: included in select plans. Lightspeed Retail: built in, with more in Advanced Marketing.
- Where. Square: Square's markets. Toast: US restaurants. Clover: Clover merchants. Lightspeed: Retail, not Restaurant.
Choosing a loyalty program for a restaurant
Restaurants face two problems shops don't. The lunch line is where enrollment dies: nobody wants to type a phone number while ten people wait. And a points-per-dollar program rewards a big table the same way whatever it ordered, which makes it hard to push a new dish or fill a slow afternoon. Look for enrollment that happens away from the terminal, such as a receipt, a link or online ordering, and for rules that can target items, days or times.
Choosing a loyalty app for a small business
For a single shop or café, the simplest start is often the program your POS already includes, because it costs little or nothing extra to try. A standalone loyalty app makes sense when you sell through more than one system or the POS program can't do what you need. Whatever you pick, ask whether customers have to download anything. An app is a big ask for a café someone visits twice a month.
When a receipt-based program fits better
Every program above runs inside one point of sale. Smartbills Loyalty starts from the digital receipt the point of sale sends instead. Customers join by saying yes on that receipt, by SMS, by email or from the QR code at the terminal, with no app to download. Points are counted from the items on the receipt. That lets you reward a product, a category, a time of day or a basket size, and leave gift cards or alcohol out. The reward arrives on the customer's next receipt with a single-use code the terminal redeems. It works with Square, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed and Shopify POS, and one program covers every location on that system. See how Smartbills Loyalty works.
Which one fits
- On Square and happy with visit, spend or item rules: Square Loyalty.
- A US restaurant on Toast: Toast Loyalty.
- On Clover and after points per dollar at no extra cost: Clover's rewards program.
- A shop on Lightspeed Retail: its built-in loyalty.
- Customers who should join on the receipt, without an app, and earn on specific items: Smartbills Loyalty.
Still deciding between a paper card and a digital one? See digital loyalty card vs punch card.