Shopify merchants shopping for a loyalty and retention app may compare Yotpo Loyalty and Growave. Both offer points, VIP tiers, and referral programs, with availability depending on the plan. Yotpo offers loyalty alongside separate reviews and AI-visibility products, while Growave bundles loyalty with reviews and wishlists, adding Instagram UGC on higher plans. Retention platforms serving Shopify Plus brands, such as Rivo, are another option for merchants evaluating loyalty, referrals, and customer accounts together.
A StoreInspect study found covered loyalty or rewards signatures on 7.25% of 541,271 eligible Shopify domains in its April 24, 2026 extraction. This is a detection result from stored snapshots of varying ages, not a measure of all Shopify stores or proof that unmatched stores lack rewards. This comparison breaks down what each platform does, what it costs, and what published research and operators say about running each one.
Yotpo vs Growave: Key Takeaways
- Yotpo sells Loyalty & Referrals, Reviews & UGC, and Discover as distinct products; Growave combines loyalty, reviews, and wishlists, with VIP tiers and Instagram UGC on Growth and higher plans.
- Both offer free plans. Yotpo Pro starts at $199/month with 500 orders included; Growave Entry starts at $15/month with 500 orders included.
- TechnologyChecker reports detecting Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals on 9,741 domains in October 2026; detection does not establish paid subscriptions.
- Growave includes reviews and wishlists even on its free plan; referral features start on Entry.
- A small survey reported 98% continued usage across 46 respondents, mostly Smile users. It does not establish a retention rate for either product.
- Yotpo Pro and Growave's metered paid plans add usage charges. Growave Unlimited is an exception.
- Rivo serves Shopify and Shopify Plus merchants, offers several retention products, and documents migrations from Yotpo and Growave.
What Is Yotpo? Loyalty, Reviews, and AI Visibility
Yotpo is an ecommerce marketing platform with separate Loyalty & Referrals, Reviews & UGC, and Discover products. Its loyalty tools let merchants reward purchases, reviews, referrals, and other configured actions. VIP tiers are listed on Premium and Enterprise, rather than the entry plans.
Yotpo's reviews product collects and displays customer feedback. Its separate AI Visibility product, Yotpo Discover, tracks how products surface in AI answers. These capabilities should not be treated as included features of a Loyalty & Referrals subscription; review the product pricing and any bundle offer.
An October 2026 crawl reported Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals on 9,741 domains. The source's 98.09% Shopify figure comes from its separate stack analysis of 9,512 live domains, so it should not be applied directly to the headline count.
Key Features
- Points and referrals for purchases and other configured customer actions, with earning options varying by plan
- VIP tiers on Premium and Enterprise
- Connections to external marketing tools for loyalty communications
- Separate Reviews & UGC and Discover products for reviews and AI visibility
- A company-wide integration catalog; confirm support for the specific Yotpo product and plan
Pricing
According to Yotpo pricing, Pro starts at $199/month, including 500 orders. Its calculator adds graduated charges of $0.20 for orders 501–1,000, $0.10 for orders 1,001–3,000, and $0.05 for orders 3,001–10,000. These are additions to the base price, not an extra fee on top of a second volume-priced subscription. Premium and Enterprise require quotes. The Shopify listing limits Free to stores with fewer than 100 monthly orders. It also describes Pro overages differently from the website calculator, so confirm the applicable billing terms before subscribing.
What Is Growave? Loyalty, Reviews, and Wishlists in One App
Growave is a retention platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus brands combining loyalty, reviews, and wishlists in one app. Referrals begin on Entry; VIP tiers and Instagram UGC begin on Growth. Its Shopify listing distinguishes these features by plan.
Growave describes a shared customer view across its programs. Cross-program outcomes depend on the configured rules and integrations: a review does not automatically guarantee a VIP upgrade. Merchants should configure earning actions, tier criteria, notifications, and connected marketing flows for their own program.
Growave supports Shopify and Shopify POS, while Hydrogen, headless commerce, API, and SDK access are listed on Plus. Its integration directory includes marketing, support, subscription, mobile-app, and page-builder connections; plan limits apply.
Key Features
- Points, referral rewards, and configurable earning actions, depending on plan
- VIP tiers and additional loyalty benefits from Growth
- Referral fraud protection from Entry
- Reviews and wishlists, with Google Shopping reviews and Instagram UGC from Growth
- Wishlist alerts and registry functionality; confirm the required plan and implementation
- Checkout extensions from Growave Plus; extensions on Shopify's information, shipping, and payment steps require Shopify Plus
Pricing
Growave's pricing page lists four paid plans: Entry is $15/month for 500 orders, Growth $199 for 1,500, and Plus $499 for 3,000. Additional blocks of 100 orders cost $20, $15, and $10 respectively. Unlimited is $999/month with no order limit. Integration allowances are one on Entry, three on Growth, and unlimited on Plus.
The Shopify listing also offers Free for 200 monthly orders, with points, reviews, wishlists, Growave branding, and 48-hour email support. Paid listings advertise a 14-day trial, while the website also displays a promotional 30-day trial. Check which offer applies at signup.
How Do Yotpo and Growave Compare on Loyalty Features?
Both platforms offer points, referrals, and VIP tiers, but plan requirements differ. Growave's reviews and wishlists are bundled; Instagram UGC and VIP tiers start on Growth. Yotpo offers reviews and Discover separately, with loyalty VIP tiers on Premium. For additional context, Smile pricing places VIP tiers on Growth at $199/month, not Essential.
- Entry paid pricing: Yotpo Pro and Growave Entry each include 500 orders; their base prices differ substantially. Both also offer free plans.
- Bundled tools: Growave combines reviews and wishlists with loyalty. Yotpo offers distinct product subscriptions and bundle options.
- Integrations: Compare the connections needed and their plan eligibility, rather than treating a company-wide catalog as an allowance.
- Shopify POS: Both support POS. Yotpo's pricing page places POS under Premium, while its POS documentation lists broader plan support; confirm entitlement. Growave lists POS from Entry.
- Smile context: Essential includes 500 orders and one integration at $15/month; VIP requires Growth.
How Does Pricing Compare: Yotpo vs Growave?
At published entry paid pricing, Growave starts below Yotpo Pro. However, comparing those prices alone misses differences in included tools, free-plan limits, and the tiers required for a particular loyalty program.
Total cost depends on what a merchant needs. Growave bundles reviews and wishlists; Instagram UGC requires Growth or higher. Yotpo Reviews is a separate product, so include its price or an applicable bundle quote in the comparison.
Yotpo Pro and Growave's metered paid plans add usage charges as described above. Growave Unlimited instead uses a fixed monthly price. Model expected order volume and required features together, including any external email or SMS provider costs.
How Do Reviews, UGC, and Integrations Compare?
Reviews and integrations are where the products diverge most visibly. Yotpo offers a standalone reviews product alongside Loyalty and Discover. Growave includes reviews with its loyalty app and adds Instagram UGC on Growth. Both publish integration catalogs, but individual connections and available data vary by product and plan.
For merchants weighing SMS and email, Growave lists connections such as Attentive and Postscript. Yotpo announced Email and SMS retirement for December 31, 2025. Its former standalone messaging products should not be presented as current 2026 offerings; distinguish them from loyalty notifications and third-party integrations.
What Analytics Does Each Platform Offer?
Both vendors document loyalty reporting. Yotpo's Loyalty Performance Dashboard compares active and inactive members and includes purchase and program-performance measures. Growave's VIP analytics covers tier distribution, transitions, and AOV. Discover's AI visibility metrics are a separate product capability, not a substitute for Yotpo's loyalty analytics. Confirm access to required reports on the selected plan, and avoid interpreting cohort differences alone as proof of incremental revenue.
How Easy Are Yotpo and Growave to Set Up?
Support varies by plan. Growave Free lists 48-hour email support; Entry adds 24/7 email, Growth adds live chat, and Plus adds phone support and a customer success manager. Yotpo Pro lists chatbot and email support, while Premium adds dedicated onboarding and customer success management.
For setup, check the specific integrations and implementation requirements before choosing a tier. A vendor's total integration count does not establish that every connection is included or available for its loyalty product.
Which Platform Is Better for Scale and Enterprise?
Growave lists Hydrogen, headless commerce, API, and SDK access on Plus, which matters for custom storefronts. Its Unlimited plan removes order-volume charges. Obtain a quote for the intended volume and implementation, and confirm any upgrade requirements directly.
Yotpo's Pro plan includes the first 500 monthly orders with usage-based overage rates at higher volumes, and very high-volume programs may move to Enterprise or custom pricing.
Migrating between platforms requires planning; see the FAQ below for details on what that process involves.
What Do Merchants Say About Yotpo and Growave?
A survey of 46 operator reviews reported 54% “Very Satisfied” and 98% still using their chosen app. The sample contained 30 Smile users, 10 Yotpo users, and six Growave users. These pooled figures describe a small, uneven sample, not product-specific satisfaction or category-wide retention.
TechnologyChecker reported 9,741 detected domains in October 2026. StoreInspect's separate April extraction recorded 5,172 Yotpo matches, or 13.2% of its covered loyalty-signature group. Different dates, coverage, and detection methods make these counts unsuitable for direct growth comparisons or estimates of paying customers.
How Rivo Approaches Retention for Shopify Plus Brands
Merchants comparing Yotpo and Growave may also be evaluating accounts and memberships. Rivo serves Shopify and Shopify Plus brands, with custom retention plans combining selected Loyalty, Referrals, Memberships, Cashback, and Accounts products. These products are not automatically included in every subscription.
Rivo documents platform migrations from Smile.io, Yotpo, Stamped, LoyaltyLion, Growave, Rise, and Inveterate. Its HexClad case study reports over $450,000 in referral revenue during the first 90 days. HexClad's Director of Retention also reported referred customers with more than $100 higher lifetime value than typical customers. These are attributed customer results, not expected outcomes for every merchant.
Rivo says its analytics dashboard is included on every plan. It compares account-enabled and account-disabled customers across AOV, repeat purchase rate, purchase frequency, and lifetime value, helping retention teams assess customer behavior. Those comparisons do not by themselves establish causation.
Request a demo to see how Rivo's loyalty, referral, and account tools work together on one platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Yotpo and Growave?
Yotpo offers Loyalty & Referrals, Reviews & UGC, and Discover as distinct products. Growave combines loyalty, reviews, and wishlists in one app, with referrals from Entry and VIP tiers and Instagram UGC from Growth. The practical difference depends on the features and plans a merchant needs.
Is Growave cheaper than Yotpo?
Growave's Entry plan has a lower base price than Yotpo Pro. Both offer free plans, and their paid tiers include different capabilities. Compare the required feature tier and expected usage charges before deciding which is cheaper for your store.
Does Yotpo integrate with Shopify?
Yes. Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals has an official Shopify app listing. For other integrations, confirm the specific product, plan, and data supported rather than relying on a company-wide integration count.
Does Growave include reviews and loyalty in one app?
Yes. Growave includes points, reviews, and wishlists on Free, with referrals from Entry and VIP tiers and Instagram UGC from Growth. These features are not all available on every plan.
Does Yotpo have a free plan?
Yes. Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals offers a free basic points and referral program for stores with fewer than 100 monthly orders, according to its Shopify listing.
