Rivo, Stamped, and Rise.ai approach Shopify retention from three genuinely different starting points. Rivo is a Shopify-exclusive retention platform built around loyalty points, VIP tiers, referral programs, and paid memberships, with its Scale plan starting at $49+/month on a month-to-month basis. Stamped leads with reviews and UGC, treating loyalty as a complement to its social proof engine, with direct pricing at $199/month for Reviews and $299/month for Loyalty on Stamped's official pricing page. Rise.ai skips points entirely and builds retention around a store credit wallet, covering gift cards, cashback, and refund-to-credit workflows, with its Starter plan at $19.99/month for up to 100 monthly store orders.
Evaluated on pricing, retention model, and Shopify depth, Rivo leads for brands that want a unified loyalty and membership platform. Stamped leads when review-led conversion is the first strategic priority. Rise.ai leads for brands where gift cards, cashback, and refund recovery are the core mechanics.
Each platform in this comparison answers a different retention question. Rivo answers: how do you convert one-time buyers into repeat customers across loyalty, memberships, and checkout? Stamped answers: how do you build trust through reviews and reinforce it with rewards? Rise.ai answers: how do you make refunds, gift cards, and cashback feel like money customers want to spend? Starting from the right question points you straight to the right platform.
Key Takeaways
- Rivo's Scale plan starts at $49+/month (covering 200-2,500 monthly orders) with loyalty points, VIP tiers, referrals, paid memberships, and 50+ integrations. The Plus plan is $499/month (up to 100,000 monthly orders) with 8 checkout extensions, API access, and advanced analytics. All plans are month-to-month with no annual contract.
- Stamped's direct pricing starts at $199/month for Reviews and $299/month for Loyalty on Stamped's official pricing page. Stamped also offers lower-cost self-serve plans via its Shopify App listings for smaller brands.
- Rise.ai's Starter plan is $19.99/month for up to 100 monthly store orders, with an annual billing discount shown on the pricing page. Rise.ai replaces traditional points with a store credit wallet model centered on gift cards, cashback, and refunds-to-credit.
- Rivo is the only platform in this comparison to include native paid memberships as a core retention lever. According to Rivo case studies, Fresh Chile Co. achieved a 156% AOV increase from its paid membership program.
- According to Rivo platform data, VIP tier customers show 73% higher average order value ($435 vs $291) and purchase 3.6x more frequently than non-tier members.
- Rivo serves 9,000+ Shopify brands and has driven more than $1.5B in revenue through its loyalty, referral, and membership programs, per Rivo's homepage.
Why Merchants Compare Rivo, Stamped, and Rise.ai
Most merchants reaching this comparison share common challenges. They're evaluating three fundamentally different retention models: a reviews-first suite, a store-credit wallet, and a Shopify-native retention platform. The question is which model fits how the brand actually sells and retains customers. Four scenarios drive most platform evaluations.
- Separating reviews-led from credit-led retention. Merchants comparing Stamped and Rise.ai are often trying to determine whether social proof or monetary rewards does more of the conversion and retention work for their store. Stamped centers on product reviews and UGC; Rise.ai centers on store credit and gift cards. Neither covers paid memberships, 8 native checkout extensions, or the full Shopify-native retention architecture. Rivo combines loyalty, referrals, paid memberships, and checkout depth in one platform. According to Rivo case studies, Fresh Chile Co. achieved a 156% lift in member AOV.
- Needing loyalty tied to reviews. Retailers that want loyalty rewards and review collection operating from the same data layer, with ratings, UGC, photo and video reviews, and Q&A managed alongside loyalty, find that Stamped is the only platform in this comparison with reviews as its primary product strength. For Shopify brands where review syndication and UGC are a core priority alongside retention, Stamped's combined offering is a genuine differentiator.
- Wanting wallet-style store credit. Brands that want rewards to behave like spendable money rather than a points currency find Rise.ai's store credit model compelling. The refund-to-credit workflow is especially relevant for brands with meaningful return rates, since it converts refunds into future store credit rather than cash back. Rivo includes store credit and cashback as part of its broader loyalty program, but Rise.ai is purpose-built around that model.
- Comparing store credit economics against broader loyalty. Rise.ai's Starter plan at $19.99/month covers up to 100 monthly store orders, which is accessible but reaches an order cap quickly for growing brands. Stamped's direct pricing at $199/month per product on its official pricing page is materially higher. Rivo's Scale plan at $49+/month covers 200-2,500 monthly orders and includes VIP tiers, referrals, and paid memberships in one stack, making it the most complete option at that price point.
Rivo vs Stamped vs Rise.ai: Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Here's how Rivo, Stamped, and Rise.ai compare across the features that matter most for Shopify merchants in 2026.
- Shopify-native: Rivo is fully Shopify-exclusive. Stamped and Rise.ai are available on the Shopify App Store.
- Free plan / trial: Rivo offers a free plan for stores up to 200 monthly orders. Stamped offers self-serve plans via its Shopify App listing; no public free loyalty tier on its direct pricing page. Rise.ai offers a 7-day free trial; no permanent free plan.
- Paid entry tier: Rivo Scale starting at $49+/month (200-2,500 orders). Rise.ai Starter at $19.99/month (up to 100 orders). Stamped direct pricing at $199/month for Reviews, $299/month for Loyalty.
- VIP tiers: Rivo from $49+/month. Stamped on higher loyalty tiers. Rise.ai centers on credit workflows; VIP tier progression is not a core product focus.
- Loyalty points: Rivo and Stamped both offer loyalty points programs. Rise.ai uses a store credit wallet model rather than traditional points.
- Referral programs: Rivo and Stamped both include referral programs. Rivo includes 20+ referral fraud prevention tools. Rise.ai supports referrals through credit-style rewards.
- Paid memberships: Rivo only, natively. Stamped and Rise.ai do not offer this natively.
- Store credit and gift cards: Rise.ai as its core product focus, including refund-to-credit, cashback, and gift card workflows. Rivo includes store credit and cashback as part of its broader retention stack. Stamped does not center on store credit mechanics.
- Reviews and UGC: Stamped only, as its core product strength with product reviews, photo reviews, video reviews, and Q&A. Rivo and Rise.ai do not include a reviews platform.
- Checkout extensions: Rivo at 8, built natively for Shopify's checkout flow. Stamped and Rise.ai do not highlight checkout extensions as a core loyalty module.
- Shopify POS: Rivo with Apple and Google Wallet integration. Rise.ai with POS support for store credit redemption. Stamped with POS noted alongside its loyalty workflows.
- Integrations: Rivo at 50+, including Klaviyo, Attentive, Recharge, Gorgias, and Okendo. Stamped with Klaviyo, Recharge, Gorgias, Shopify Flow, and Google Shopping. Rise.ai with Checkout, Customer Accounts, Shopify POS, Shopify Flow, Klaviyo, and AfterShip.
- API access: Rivo from $499/month at 100 req/sec with Shopify metafield access. Stamped varies by product. Rise.ai with wallet and workflow automation focus.
- Headless and Hydrogen: Rivo with full support added in Spring 2026. Stamped and Rise.ai have their own integration approaches.
- White-glove migration: Rivo for qualifying brands. Stamped and Rise.ai do not offer this.
- Sub-100ms load times: Rivo confirmed, per Rivo. Stamped and Rise.ai not specified on this metric.
- Contract terms: Rivo month-to-month on all plans, no commission fees. Rise.ai month-to-month. Stamped billing terms should be confirmed directly with the vendor.
- Ownership: Rivo is 100% bootstrapped. Stamped and Rise.ai are VC-backed.
Pricing Comparison
Pricing is where the three platforms diverge most sharply, both in structure and in how costs scale with order volume, program scope, and product mix. The headline monthly fee alone is rarely the full picture.
Rivo Pricing
Rivo offers a free plan for up to 200 monthly orders. The Scale plan runs from $49+/month and covers 200-2,500 monthly orders, including full loyalty, referrals, VIP tiers, and 50+ integrations. The Plus plan is $499/month for up to 100,000 monthly orders and unlocks 8 checkout extensions, API access at 100 requests per second, paid memberships, and advanced analytics. Enterprise pricing is custom for unlimited orders. All plans are month-to-month with no annual contract required. Current plan details should always be confirmed at Rivo pricing.
One pricing note worth flagging: the jump from the Scale tier to the Plus tier has no mid-tier option, which creates a gap for brands between those thresholds.
Stamped Pricing
Stamped's direct pricing starts at $199/month for Reviews and $299/month for Loyalty on its official pricing page. Reviews and Loyalty are separate product tracks, so the cost picture depends on which combination a brand needs. Stamped also offers lower-cost self-serve plans via its Shopify App listings for smaller brands, though specific self-serve amounts should be confirmed directly on the Shopify App listing. Teams should confirm total pricing across the products they need directly with Stamped before committing.
Rise.ai Pricing
Rise.ai's Starter plan is $19.99/month for up to 100 monthly store orders, with an annual billing discount shown on the pricing page. Higher tiers extend into larger wallet and enterprise use cases covering expanded store credit functionality, gift card tools, and workflow automation. Teams evaluating refund workflows or higher-volume credit issuance should confirm final plan structure directly with Rise.ai.
TCO at Scale: What You Actually Pay
At the entry tier, Rivo's Scale plan (starting at $49+/month) covers 200-2,500 monthly orders and includes the full DTC retention stack: loyalty points, VIP tiers, referrals, and paid memberships. Rise.ai's $19.99/month Starter is the lowest published entry point but caps at 100 monthly store orders, limiting its reach for growing brands. Stamped's direct pricing at $199/month per product is the highest published paid entry for a single product in this comparison, and needing both Reviews and Loyalty expands cost significantly. Rivo and Rise.ai both offer month-to-month billing. Stamped billing terms should be confirmed directly before committing.
Platform Reviews
Rivo: The Retention Platform Built for Shopify
Rivo is a retention platform built for Shopify, not a general-purpose loyalty tool that happens to support Shopify. Every feature, every checkout extension, and every integration is purpose-built for the Shopify stack, which means Rivo can go deeper on native integrations than multi-platform competitors.
Over 9,000 Shopify brands use Rivo to convert one-time buyers into repeat customers. According to Rivo, the platform has driven more than $1.5B in revenue through its loyalty, referral, and membership programs, with a reported 52x median ROI based on weighted case studies across its merchant base, and 100+ product updates shipping per year.
Rivo is also 100% bootstrapped with zero venture capital, which has a practical implication for customers: pricing decisions are customer-first rather than investor-driven. No board targets. No product sunset risk. That structure shows in the monthly billing model and the weekly shipping cadence.
Key Features
- Native paid memberships offer recurring membership fees for exclusive perks, a capability not offered natively by Stamped or Rise.ai.
- 8 checkout extensions on the Plus plan ($499/month, up to 100,000 monthly orders), capturing loyalty interactions at the moment of purchase inside the Shopify checkout flow.
- Loyalty points and referral programs available on all paid plans, including the Scale entry tier starting at $49+/month.
- Up to 5 configurable VIP tier programs starting at $49+/month. Per Rivo platform data, VIP customers average 73% higher AOV ($435 vs $291) and purchase 3.6x more frequently.
- 50+ integrations covering email, SMS, subscriptions, review platforms, and more, including Klaviyo, Attentive, Recharge, Gorgias, and Okendo.
- 20+ referral fraud prevention tools covering IP abuse, self-referrals, and suspicious payout pattern flagging.
- Sub-100ms load times with no site speed impact, per Rivo.
- Developer API toolkit at 100 requests per second with custom Shopify metafield access and full Hydrogen support, available from $499/month.
- Free white-glove migration for qualifying brands switching from Stamped, Rise.ai, or other platforms.
What Works Well
Rivo is Shopify-exclusive with deep native checkout integration. Paid memberships are available as a native feature, not offered natively by Stamped or Rise.ai. The referral fraud prevention suite includes 20+ tools. The platform ships 100+ product updates per year. Sub-100ms load times mean zero performance penalty. Month-to-month pricing with no annual contract and no commission fees on any plan.
Things to Consider
The jump from the Scale tier to the Plus tier ($499/month) has no mid-tier option, which creates a pricing gap for brands between those thresholds. Rivo is Shopify-only and is not an option for merchants on WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or Magento.
Best For
Growing Shopify brands that want VIP tiers, referrals, and loyalty starting at $49+/month. Especially strong for brands planning to launch a paid membership program alongside traditional loyalty, merchants who need checkout extensions that capture loyalty interactions at the point of purchase, and Shopify Plus brands building headless or Hydrogen storefronts.
According to Rivo case studies: HexClad achieved 92x referral ROI and $450K in referral revenue within 90 days. OSEA Malibu reached a 77% repeat purchase rate among loyalty redeemers. Fresh Chile Co. saw a 156% AOV increase from its paid membership program. BERO generated 1 billion impressions via omnichannel membership.
Stamped
Stamped is a reviews-led customer marketing platform that pairs ratings, UGC, and social proof workflows with loyalty capabilities. Its core value is review collection and social proof, with loyalty layered around that foundation. For brands where reviews influence acquisition and conversion, and loyalty drives the second and third purchase, Stamped offers both workflows under one vendor.
Stamped's direct pricing starts at $199/month for Reviews and $299/month for Loyalty on its official pricing page. Self-serve plans via the Shopify App listing are also available for smaller brands.
Key Features
- Product reviews, ratings, photo reviews, video reviews, and Q&A for social proof collection.
- Loyalty and rewards capabilities that extend the product beyond review collection.
- Referrals and VIP tiers available on loyalty tiers.
- Integrations including Klaviyo, Recharge, Gorgias, Shopify Flow, and Google Shopping.
- Review display widgets and rich snippets for conversion-focused social proof on product pages.
What Works Well
Reviews and loyalty operating from the same vendor reduces tool stack complexity for brands where social proof and retention strategy overlap. The reviews engine is the strongest in this comparison for brands where customer content drives a large share of acquisition and conversion. Loyalty can be layered alongside reviews without managing separate systems, simplifying vendor and billing management for the team.
Things to Consider
Stamped's direct pricing starts at $199/month per product on its official pricing page, and Reviews and Loyalty are separate product tracks. Teams should confirm total pricing across the products they actually need directly with Stamped before committing.
Best For
Brands that already treat reviews and UGC as a major conversion asset and want loyalty in the same vendor orbit. It makes the most sense when the team prefers one customer marketing vendor relationship and wants reviews, ratings, and loyalty managed together. Merchants whose near-term roadmap centers on review collection and social proof, with loyalty as a supporting layer.
Rise.ai
Rise.ai takes a fundamentally different approach to retention: instead of points, it builds retention around a unified store credit wallet. Customers accumulate store credit through purchases, referrals, cashback campaigns, gift card purchases, and even refunds. The credit lives in a single wallet customers can spend across visits, with a dollar value that is straightforward to understand.
This model works particularly well for brands where traditional points programs feel transactional, or where high return rates make cashback more compelling than points-based rewards. Rise.ai's refund-to-credit workflow converts returns into retained revenue rather than cash back. Rise.ai starts at $19.99/month for up to 100 monthly store orders, with an annual billing discount shown on the pricing page.
Key Features
- Unified store credit wallet with dollar-equivalent credit customers can spend across visits, with no points-to-dollar conversion required.
- Automatic refund-to-credit conversion that converts returns into store credit automatically, keeping revenue in the ecosystem.
- Gift card infrastructure including bulk card creation, scheduled sends, expiration reminders, and physical and digital card support.
- Shopify POS integration allowing store credit to be redeemed in-store and online.
- Basic referral support available through credit-style rewards.
- Integrations with Shopify Checkout, Customer Accounts, POS, Flow, Klaviyo, and AfterShip.
What Works Well
The store credit wallet model drives clear redemption behavior: customers hold actual dollar-equivalent value they understand, which removes the friction of points calculations. The refund-to-retention conversion is a practical revenue protection tool for brands with meaningful return rates. Gift card tooling is well-developed for brands where gift cards are a significant purchase category. The $19.99/month Starter plan is the lowest visible entry price in this comparison.
Things to Consider
Rise.ai's Starter plan covers only up to 100 monthly store orders, which limits its initial scope for growing brands. The platform does not include native paid memberships or VIP tier progression as core features. Brands that want points-based gamification, advanced referral mechanics with 20+ fraud prevention tools, or checkout extension customization will need a separate platform for those capabilities.
Best For
Shopify brands where store credit, cashback, gift cards, and refund-to-retention are central to the retention strategy. Particularly strong for brands with return rates above 15% who want to convert refunds into future purchases. Emerging brands on a constrained budget testing store-credit-based retention. Brands with both online and physical retail that need a unified wallet working at POS.
Which Platform Has the Deepest Shopify Integration?
Where a loyalty platform connects to the Shopify stack determines how much of the purchase journey it can actually influence. Platforms that are Shopify-native can shape behavior at checkout, inside accounts, and after the order. Platforms that integrate with Shopify can still deliver value, but within a narrower set of touchpoints., and it matters because loyalty and referral programs drive the most value when they can intercept the purchase journey natively at cart, at checkout, and post-purchase.
Rivo is built exclusively for Shopify. No other ecommerce platform is on the roadmap, which means every engineering investment deepens Shopify-specific functionality. That focus produces:
- 8 checkout extensions that capture loyalty interactions across multiple distinct touchpoints in Shopify's purchase flow, including point balances at cart, redemption options at checkout, tier progress post-purchase, and referral prompts in the order summary, all running natively through Shopify's checkout infrastructure without redirects or JavaScript injection.
- Sub-100ms load times with no measurable impact on Shopify store speed scores. Page speed directly affects conversion rates, and a loyalty app that adds load time carries a real operational cost on every page view.
- Native Shopify Flow integration for automating loyalty triggers inside Shopify's own automation layer with no third-party middleware required.
- Developer API toolkit at 100 requests per second with custom Shopify metafield access and full Hydrogen support, letting Shopify Plus merchants build loyalty logic directly into custom storefronts and headless builds.
Stamped's primary Shopify integration centers on review collection, ratings display, and social proof workflows rather than loyalty checkout depth. Rise.ai's integration is centered on wallet mechanics, POS credit redemption, and refund workflows rather than native loyalty checkout extensions or VIP tier mechanics.
Paid Memberships: A Feature Rivo Includes Natively
Paid memberships are available through Rivo only. Neither Stamped nor Rise.ai includes them as a native product feature. This is one of the most consequential capability gaps in this comparison for brands thinking about long-term retention architecture.
Store credit and reviews both react to what customers have done. A paid membership asks customers to invest in what they'll do next. That upfront financial commitment changes the dynamic: a customer who pays a recurring fee for access to perks has a built-in reason to return before their next purchase impulse arrives. The result is measurably higher order frequency, stronger AOV, and churn rates that credit wallets and review programs rarely match on their own.
According to Rivo case studies, Fresh Chile Co. achieved a 156% increase in average order value following its paid membership launch. BERO leveraged Rivo's omnichannel membership capabilities to generate 1 billion impressions at launch.
Neither Stamped nor Rise.ai includes paid memberships natively. For brands planning to generate direct revenue through their loyalty program or diversify into subscription-tier retention, Rivo is the only platform in this comparison with a native capability built for that use case.
Final Verdict
The right platform depends on which retention mechanic your store actually needs to move. There is no universal answer across these three.
For Shopify merchants wanting loyalty, referrals, and paid memberships in one platform, Rivo delivers the strongest combination of Shopify-native depth, feature breadth, and competitive pricing in this comparison: starting at $49+/month, month-to-month, no annual contract, no commission fees, 8 checkout extensions, and a reported 52x median ROI based on weighted case studies across 9,000+ brands.
For brands where reviews, UGC, and social proof are central to acquisition and conversion, Stamped is the right fit. It is strongest when the team already treats customer content and retention as one connected motion and wants reviews, ratings, and loyalty managed in the same vendor relationship. Confirm total pricing across the products needed directly with Stamped before committing.
For merchants where store credit, cashback, refunds-to-credit, and gift cards are the core retention mechanic, Rise.ai leads with its purpose-built wallet model. It is especially relevant for brands with meaningful return rates who want to convert refunds into future purchases. Brands that also need VIP tiers, referral programs, or paid memberships will require additional tools alongside it.
For Shopify brands at any growth stage where retention is a strategic priority, Rivo's month-to-month pricing, 100+ annual product updates, and the full retention stack in one Shopify-native build make it the strongest default choice in this comparison.
Acquiring new customers costs 5 to 25x more than retaining them. The platform you choose for loyalty has a direct line to your revenue, and it's worth choosing the one built specifically for the platform you run on.
Request a demo to see how Rivo can help you build a higher-performing loyalty program on Shopify.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Rivo, Stamped, and Rise.ai?
Rivo is a Shopify-exclusive retention platform with loyalty points, VIP tiers, referral programs, and paid memberships, with its Scale plan starting at $49+/month for 200-2,500 monthly orders. Stamped is a reviews-first platform with loyalty as a companion feature, with direct pricing at $199/month for Reviews and $299/month for Loyalty on its official pricing page. Rise.ai is a store-credit platform centered on gift cards, cashback, and refunds-to-credit, with its Starter plan at $19.99/month for up to 100 monthly store orders.
Is Rise.ai a traditional loyalty program?
Rise.ai is not a traditional points-based loyalty program. It operates on a store credit wallet model where customers accumulate dollar-equivalent credit rather than points. This makes it a strong fit for brands focused on refund-to-retention conversion and gift card programs, but a narrower fit for brands wanting VIP tier gamification, advanced referral mechanics, or paid memberships.
Which platform is best for refund-to-credit retention?
Rise.ai leads on refund-to-credit retention because store credit is its core model. Its automatic refund-to-credit workflow converts returns into future store credit rather than cash back, keeping revenue in the ecosystem. For brands with return rates above 15% where this mechanic is central, Rise.ai is the most purpose-built option. Rivo supports store credit and cashback as part of its broader retention stack but centers its product around loyalty, referrals, memberships, and checkout engagement.
Which platform offers paid memberships?
Rivo includes native paid membership functionality, allowing Shopify brands to charge a recurring membership fee for exclusive perks. According to Rivo case studies, Fresh Chile Co. achieved a 156% AOV increase from its paid membership program. Neither Stamped nor Rise.ai includes this capability natively.
Does Rivo work with headless Shopify and Hydrogen?
Yes. Rivo added full Hydrogen and headless Shopify support in its Spring 2026 update cycle. Brands running custom storefronts or Shopify's Hydrogen framework can integrate Rivo's loyalty, referrals, and membership features without compatibility limitations. The developer API toolkit runs at 100 requests per second with custom Shopify metafield access.
