Searching "Rivo vs Growave vs Zinrelo" in 2026 returns a comparison that has already changed in one significant way: Zinrelo no longer exists as a standalone product. Its August 26, 2025 merger with TINT created TrueLoyal, a platform with a broader scope that now spans loyalty, community, UGC, and enterprise omnichannel engagement. That shift matters because it widens the gap between the three platforms rather than narrowing it. TrueLoyal is now less of a Shopify loyalty tool and more of an enterprise engagement program. Growave is a bundle that packages loyalty with reviews, wishlists, and referrals for merchants tired of managing separate apps. Rivo is a Shopify-native retention platform built around the idea that loyalty, referrals, memberships, and customer accounts should share one connected architecture.
These are three different answers to three different questions. The merchant who needs to reduce their app count lands on Growave. The enterprise team building loyalty across ecommerce, retail, and community lands on TrueLoyal. The Shopify brand that wants loyalty to connect to checkout, memberships, accounts, and referrals without leaving Shopify lands on Rivo. Rivo says it has driven $1.5B+ in revenue through the platform and is used by over 9,000 Shopify brands, and that depth is why it is the strongest fit for the third buyer.
Key Takeaways
- Rivo is the strongest fit for Shopify brands that want loyalty, referrals, paid memberships, customer accounts, and 8 checkout extensions working together in one Shopify-native retention platform.
- Rivo reports 50+ integrations, 20+ fraud prevention tools, and 100+ product updates per year from a 100% bootstrapped, zero-venture-capital company that has stayed focused exclusively on Shopify retention.
- Growave is the clearest fit for merchants whose immediate problem is too many separate apps, specifically the overhead of managing loyalty, reviews, wishlists, referrals, and UGC through different vendors when all of those could live under one subscription.
- TrueLoyal, formerly Zinrelo, is the specialist choice for enterprise and omnichannel programs that need loyalty connected to community, UGC, gamification, and cross-channel engagement beyond what a Shopify-native tool is designed to support.
- Rivo's Scale plan starts at $49+/month and Plus at $499/month; Growave's tiers start at $49/month (Entry) with a 14-day free trial; TrueLoyal pricing is custom and quote-based per their pricing page.
- The clearest path to choosing between these three is to identify the actual problem first: retention depth, app consolidation, or enterprise omnichannel scope.
Rivo vs Growave vs Zinrelo: Quick Verdict
What makes this comparison unusual is that the three platforms are not really competing for the same buyer. The verdict is less "which is best" and more "which is right for the specific problem at hand."
- Choose Rivo if loyalty needs to expand inside Shopify into memberships, checkout-native experiences, customer accounts, referrals, and developer depth.
- Choose Growave if the priority is reducing vendor count by consolidating loyalty, reviews, wishlists, referrals, and UGC into one subscription.
- Choose TrueLoyal if the program needs to span enterprise omnichannel engagement including community, UGC, gamification, and cross-channel loyalty beyond Shopify.
- Identify the problem before picking a platform because a merchant with an app-sprawl problem and a merchant with an enterprise engagement problem are not shopping for the same thing, even if both search the same keyword.
Quick Overview
Rivo is the retention platform built for Shopify: loyalty, referrals, memberships, and accounts in one Shopify-native platform. It positions itself as the first open platform for Shopify loyalty, with a Developer Toolkit, 20+ fraud prevention tools, 8 checkout extensions, 50+ integrations, and paid memberships that help brands convert one-time buyers into repeat customers.
Growave is a bundled engagement platform that packages loyalty, reviews, wishlists, referrals, and UGC into one Shopify subscription. It is built for merchants who want operational simplicity: one billing relationship, one admin, and one operating layer across several functions they would otherwise manage through separate apps.
TrueLoyal, the platform that emerged from the Zinrelo and TINT merger on August 26, 2025, is an enterprise and omnichannel engagement platform. Its positioning now spans loyalty, community, UGC, gamification, and broader cross-channel program design, which makes it relevant for organizations whose loyalty program is one component of a larger enterprise engagement strategy.
Why These Three End Up on the Same Shortlist
A merchant who finds all three platforms in the same search is often in the early stages of figuring out what they actually need. The word "loyalty" connects all three, but the problems they solve are genuinely different.
The Growave buyer is not primarily asking "how do we deepen our loyalty program?" They are asking "why do we have five separate apps for customer engagement when one subscription could cover most of them?" That is an operational question, not a loyalty strategy question. The answer to it might be Growave, but it might also be that loyalty depth matters more than app count, in which case they need to look at Rivo instead.
The TrueLoyal buyer has a different brief altogether. The program is not Shopify-first. It spans retail locations, community participation, user-generated content, and enterprise engagement workflows that a Shopify-native app is simply not designed to serve. For that buyer, the question is not "which Shopify loyalty app is best" but "which enterprise loyalty platform can coordinate all of these channels."
The Rivo buyer is asking the most Shopify-specific question: how do we make loyalty connect to checkout, customer accounts, referrals, and paid memberships inside Shopify without managing multiple tools? That buyer wants retention depth, not breadth across unrelated categories, and not enterprise omnichannel scope.
For this shortlist, the jobs break down to:
- Rivo for Shopify brands that want retention to grow from points into memberships, checkout, accounts, and developer depth.
- Growave for merchants who want loyalty included in a single subscription that also covers reviews, wishlists, referrals, and UGC.
- TrueLoyal for enterprise organizations whose loyalty program spans community, retail, UGC, and cross-channel engagement that no Shopify-native tool can cover.
Rivo vs Growave vs Zinrelo: Feature Comparison
Here is how Rivo, Growave, and TrueLoyal compare across the dimensions that matter most in 2026.
Best-fit positioning
- Rivo: Shopify-native retention platform
- Growave: Bundled engagement suite for app consolidation
- TrueLoyal: Enterprise and omnichannel engagement platform
Core model
- Rivo: Loyalty, referrals, memberships, accounts
- Growave: Loyalty, reviews, wishlists, referrals, UGC in one subscription
- TrueLoyal: Loyalty, community, UGC, gamification, enterprise omnichannel engagement
Starting price
- Rivo: Free plan up to 200 monthly orders; Scale from $49+/month (200 to 2,500 orders); Plus at $499/month (up to 2,500 orders); Enterprise custom; 7-day free trial on paid plans
- Growave: 14-day free trial; Entry at $49/month (500 orders, +$15 per extra 100); Growth at $199/month (1,500 orders, +$15 per extra 100); Plus at $499/month (3,000 orders, +$10 per extra 100); Unlimited at $999/month (no order limits)
- TrueLoyal: Custom and quote-based, tailored to program goals, scale, and integrations per TrueLoyal's pricing page
POS support
- Rivo: Shopify-native stack with Shopify POS integration
- Growave: Shopify POS included on Entry plan and above
- TrueLoyal: Omnichannel and retail program support within broader enterprise architecture
Checkout support
- Rivo: 8 checkout extensions integrated directly into Shopify's checkout flow
- Growave: Checkout extensions available on Plus plan
- TrueLoyal: Not a central part of the Shopify checkout story
Customer accounts
- Rivo: Strong emphasis on Shopify customer accounts
- Growave: Account extensions available on Growth plan and above
- TrueLoyal: Member profiles managed across online and offline engagement channels
Paid memberships
- Rivo: Native paid memberships as a core product area
- Growave: Not a central public differentiator
- TrueLoyal: Not a central public differentiator
Reviews and UGC
- Rivo: Not a core product area; separate stack strategy
- Growave: Core bundle elements equal in priority to loyalty; included from Entry plan
- TrueLoyal: Core part of the post-merger platform story
Developer depth
- Rivo: Developer Toolkit, APIs, webhooks, Shopify-native flexibility
- Growave: API and SDK on Plus plan
- TrueLoyal: Enterprise API and integration framework for cross-channel programs
Contract terms
- Rivo: Month-to-month on all plans, no annual contract required
- Growave: Confirm billing terms directly with Growave
- TrueLoyal: Custom scope; confirm terms directly with TrueLoyal
1. Rivo: Best for Shopify Retention
The comparison Rivo wins in this three-way is not about which platform bundles the most modules or spans the most channels. Rivo wins the comparison that actually matters for Shopify DTC brands: how deeply can loyalty connect to the rest of the Shopify experience? Checkout, customer accounts, referrals, paid memberships, and developer tooling all sit inside one architecture rather than being patched together. That means a customer's VIP status affects what they see at checkout. A membership perk lives in the same account where their referral rewards appear. There is no sync delay between systems because there is only one system.
The platform is backed by specific outcomes: HexClad's 92x referral ROI, OSEA's 77% repeat purchase rate among redeemers, and Fresh Chile Co's 156% member AOV lift. Rivo is also SOC 2 Type II certified and offers a data processing agreement on every plan. For technical teams, the Developer Toolkit adds APIs, webhooks, metafields access, and Shopify Flow support. Combined with 100+ product updates per year and a 100% bootstrapped, zero-venture-capital operating model, the product stays tightly focused on Shopify retention rather than expanding into categories that benefit other platforms more than Shopify merchants.
Key Features
- Loyalty, referrals, and VIP tiers in one Shopify-native stack so program mechanics share the same customer record rather than syncing across tools.
- Paid memberships as a core product direction, giving brands a recurring revenue layer that neither a consolidation bundle nor an enterprise engagement platform natively prioritizes.
- 8 checkout extensions integrated directly into Shopify's checkout flow, putting loyalty at the moment of purchase rather than in a separate rewards tab.
- Developer Toolkit, 50+ integrations, and webhooks for Shopify Plus teams building beyond standard configurations.
- 20+ fraud prevention tools and white-glove migration for brands replacing an existing loyalty provider.
- SOC 2 Type II compliance and a data processing agreement on every plan.
Strengths
- The only platform in this comparison where loyalty, referrals, memberships, and accounts are designed to share one customer record.
- Paid memberships create a monetization layer that Growave and TrueLoyal do not prioritize, making Rivo the stronger fit once the program evolves beyond points.
- 100% bootstrapped with zero venture capital means the roadmap stays on Shopify retention rather than expanding to satisfy investors or absorb merger complexity.
- Published merchant outcomes give buyers a concrete picture of what the platform has produced for brands like theirs.
Pricing
Rivo lists Scale at $49+/month (200 to 2,500 monthly orders), Plus at $499/month (up to 2,500 orders), and Enterprise at custom pricing on Rivo's pricing page. A 7-day free trial is available on paid plans. All plans are month-to-month. Confirm current details at Rivo pricing.
Best For
Rivo is the right fit for Shopify and Shopify Plus brands that have moved past "should we do loyalty?" and are asking "how do we make loyalty connect to checkout, accounts, memberships, and referrals?" If that progression is already on the roadmap, Rivo is the platform built for it.
2. Growave
Growave's appeal in this comparison has almost nothing to do with loyalty depth and everything to do with admin overhead. The merchant who lands on Growave is not looking for a deeper loyalty program. They are looking at their Shopify admin and counting apps: one for loyalty, one for reviews, one for wishlists, one for referrals, maybe one for UGC. Each has its own billing cycle, its own support contact, its own integration that needs maintenance. Growave's entire value proposition is that all of those can live under one subscription.
That is a legitimate problem. App sprawl creates friction that compounds over time, and for a lean ecommerce team without dedicated resources for each tool, simplifying the vendor map has real operational value. The trade-off is that Growave does not go as deep as a specialist on any individual module. The loyalty features do not match Rivo's checkout extension coverage or membership depth. But for teams where adequate-plus-simple beats deep-plus-complicated, that trade-off is intentional.
Growave's pricing reflects the bundle model: Entry at $49/month includes loyalty, reviews, wishlists, referrals, and POS. Growth at $199/month adds VIP tiers, loyalty pages, and store credit. Plus at $499/month adds checkout extensions and API access. Unlimited at $999/month removes order limits entirely.
Key Features
- Loyalty, VIP tiers, and referrals bundled alongside reviews, wishlists, and UGC, with all modules active under one subscription from Entry.
- Shopify POS integration included from the Entry plan for merchants with both online and in-store operations.
- Checkout extensions and API/SDK access on the Plus plan for teams with more advanced storefront requirements.
- A 14-day free trial before any paid commitment, with possible promotional extensions to 30 days per Growave's pricing page.
Strengths
- The most modules consolidated under one subscription in this comparison, which is the entire point for its target buyer.
- Transparent order-based pricing with explicit overage rates makes cost modeling straightforward as volume grows.
- A 14-day trial lowers the cost of testing the full bundle before committing to a plan.
Pricing
Growave offers a 14-day free trial (promotional 30-day extensions may also be available), then Entry at $49/month (500 orders, +$15 per extra 100), Growth at $199/month (1,500 orders, +$15 per extra 100), Plus at $499/month (3,000 orders, +$10 per extra 100), and Unlimited at $999/month (no order limits). Confirm current details directly with Growave.
Best For
Growave fits merchants who need loyalty to be part of a broader engagement stack but do not want to manage that stack across four or five separate apps. It is most valuable when reducing vendor count has more daily operational value than maximizing loyalty depth.
3. TrueLoyal
TrueLoyal is the most changed platform in this comparison. The August 26, 2025 merger between Zinrelo and TINT created a platform whose scope now extends well beyond what either company was doing individually. Loyalty is still part of the product, but so are community mechanics, UGC programs, gamification, and enterprise engagement design across channels. For anyone who evaluated Zinrelo a year ago and is returning to this comparison, the platform has meaningfully expanded.
That expansion makes TrueLoyal relevant for a buyer who is not really asking about Shopify loyalty at all. The enterprise team building a program that spans retail locations, community participation, and user-generated content alongside ecommerce is not going to find what they need in a Shopify-native app or a consolidation bundle. They need an enterprise platform designed for program complexity at that scale. TrueLoyal is now more squarely positioned for that buyer than Zinrelo was. Pricing is custom and quote-based, which reflects the nature of enterprise buying: scope, integration complexity, and program requirements all shape what the engagement looks like.
Key Features
- Loyalty programs connected to community mechanics, UGC, gamification, and broader enterprise engagement across channels.
- Enterprise integration framework supporting cross-channel program design across ecommerce, retail, and community touchpoints.
- Custom onboarding and implementation suited to organizations with complex rollout requirements and multiple stakeholder groups.
- Per TrueLoyal's pricing page, the platform highlights support for loyalty plus UGC, fan communities, and gamified engagement.
Strengths
- The only platform in this comparison designed specifically for programs that span retail, community, UGC, and enterprise engagement simultaneously.
- The post-merger scope positions TrueLoyal for buyers who outgrew standard loyalty tools but have not yet found an enterprise platform that covers everything they need.
- Custom pricing reflects the reality of enterprise buying rather than forcing complex programs into self-serve tier structures.
Pricing
TrueLoyal pricing is custom and tailored to program goals, scale, and integrations, provided via demo-led quotes per TrueLoyal's own pricing page. Confirm current details directly with TrueLoyal.
Best For
TrueLoyal is right for enterprise organizations whose loyalty program cannot be served by a Shopify-native app or a consolidation bundle. Teams whose roadmap is primarily Shopify-first can compare that broader enterprise scope against an enterprise loyalty platform built around Shopify use cases.
Pricing Comparison
The entry prices in this comparison look similar at first glance but scale in completely different ways and reflect different program scopes.
- Early-stage Shopify brands: Rivo's free plan covers up to 200 monthly orders. Growave offers a 14-day free trial before Entry at $49/month. TrueLoyal's custom pricing model is most relevant once enterprise program scope and a scoping conversation are already underway.
- Growth-stage Shopify brands: Rivo's Scale from $49+/month and Growave's Entry at $49/month look identical in entry price but solve different problems. The better question is not which is cheaper but whether the business needs a Shopify-native retention system or a broader engagement bundle. Overage rates on Growave ($15 per extra 100 orders on Entry) should be modeled against expected order volume.
- Brands evaluating bundle vs depth: Growave's Plus at $499/month adds checkout extensions and API access alongside its full module bundle. Rivo's Plus at $499/month delivers deeper Shopify retention architecture with memberships, accounts, and 8 checkout extensions. At the same price point, the choice is between consolidation breadth and retention depth.
- Enterprise and omnichannel programs: TrueLoyal's custom pricing reflects program complexity rather than a self-serve tier. Organizations evaluating TrueLoyal are not comparing monthly costs with Rivo and Growave in the same way; they are scoping a program that operates at a different scale entirely.
Who Should Choose Rivo
Choose Rivo when loyalty needs to grow inside Shopify into something more connected than a points program. It is the strongest fit when memberships, checkout-native loyalty, customer accounts, referral programs, and developer customization all need to share one Shopify-native architecture. Month-to-month pricing, SOC 2 compliance, and 100+ annual product updates make it particularly well suited to growth-stage and Shopify Plus brands planning for a longer retention roadmap.
Who Should Choose Growave
Choose Growave when the primary operational problem is managing too many separate apps for loyalty, reviews, wishlists, referrals, and UGC. It is the right choice when consolidating those functions under one subscription creates more daily value than going deepest on any individual retention mechanic. Model overage rates against expected order volume before committing to a plan.
Who Should Choose TrueLoyal
Choose TrueLoyal when the loyalty program genuinely needs to span community participation, UGC, retail, gamification, and enterprise engagement beyond what any Shopify-native tool is designed to support. The custom pricing model and demo-led buying process reflect the nature of the programs it is built for.
Final Verdict
This comparison resolves more cleanly than most once the actual buying problem is identified.
- Merchants who need loyalty to go deeper inside Shopify, connecting to memberships, checkout, accounts, referrals, and developer tooling, should choose Rivo because that Shopify-native depth is exactly what the product is built around.
- Merchants whose primary frustration is managing five separate apps for customer engagement should choose Growave because consolidation under one subscription is the entire value proposition.
- Enterprise organizations whose loyalty program spans retail, community, UGC, and cross-channel engagement should choose TrueLoyal because no Shopify-native tool or consolidation bundle was built for that scope.
For Shopify brands asking how loyalty can connect to more of the customer journey without leaving Shopify, a Rivo demo is the fastest way to see what that looks like in practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Zinrelo the same as TrueLoyal in 2026?
No, and the distinction matters. Zinrelo merged with TINT on August 26, 2025 to form TrueLoyal, a platform with a broader scope that now spans loyalty, community, UGC, gamification, and enterprise engagement. A merchant evaluating Zinrelo in 2026 is evaluating a significantly different product, and one that has moved further from a Shopify-native loyalty tool toward enterprise omnichannel engagement.
Does Growave have a free plan?
Growave does not list a free plan on its own pricing page. It offers a 14-day free trial before paid plans begin at Entry ($49/month). Promotional 30-day trial extensions may also be available. The Shopify App Store listing may display different entry options, so confirming current details directly with Growave is recommended.
Which platform is best for Shopify Plus brands that want paid memberships?
Rivo is the strongest option. Paid memberships are a core product direction at Rivo and connect directly to loyalty, referrals, and Shopify customer accounts rather than operating as a separate layer. Neither Growave nor TrueLoyal positions memberships as a central part of their loyalty offering.
How does Growave's overage pricing work?
Growave's Entry and Growth plans charge $15 per additional 100 orders above the included monthly allowance (500 orders on Entry, 1,500 on Growth). The Plus plan charges $10 per additional 100 orders above 3,000. The Unlimited plan at $999/month removes order limits entirely. Merchants expecting significant order growth should model these rates before choosing a plan.
When does TrueLoyal make more sense than Rivo or Growave?
TrueLoyal makes sense when the loyalty program operates at a scale and across channels that Shopify-native tools and consolidation bundles are not designed for: retail locations, community programs, UGC, gamification, and enterprise cross-channel engagement simultaneously. For brands whose growth runs primarily through Shopify, Rivo's depth in checkout, accounts, memberships, and referrals is the stronger fit. For brands whose main concern is app sprawl, Growave's consolidation model is more practical than TrueLoyal's custom enterprise scope.
