The best loyalty apps for coffee shops in the UK, compared (2026)

We should say this upfront: we make Spark, one of the apps in this comparison. You should read anything a maker writes about its rivals with that in mind. What we can promise is that every price and feature below was checked against each company's own UK pricing page on 3 August 2026, and where a competitor beats us, we have written it down. Prices change, so check before you buy.

The quick comparison

What actually matters at a coffee counter

Before the one-by-ones, the four tests that decide whether a loyalty scheme works in a real café, rather than in a features list.

How fast can someone join at the till? Every second of sign-up costs you members. A card that needs an app download loses most people before the download finishes. A card that needs a form loses the queue. The best schemes get a customer from "go on then" to card-in-pocket in a few seconds.

Can your team run it on a Saturday? Whatever the mechanic, your team needs one rule they can apply without thinking while the milk steams. Complexity that demos well on a laptop dies at a busy counter.

Can you see your regulars? The entire advantage of digital over paper is that your loyalty stops being anonymous. You should be able to see who comes back, how often, and who has gone quiet, without exporting anything into a spreadsheet.

Do your messages actually get seen? A loyalty scheme you cannot message through is a points calculator. Wallet notifications land on the phone's screen rather than in an inbox, which is why they get read. How many messages you can send, and who writes them, varies more between these tools than any other feature.

Spark

Ours, so judge accordingly. The card lives in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet on every plan, joining is a scan and a tap, and there is nothing for your customers to download or fill in. Every plan has unlimited members, which matters because a member cap punishes you precisely when the scheme works. Stamps, visits and points run on one engine, and from the Growth plan, Push Agent writes your messages for you: you type "quiet Tuesday, fresh batch at 3", it picks the audience and writes the notification. Plans are £19, £49 and £99 a month, about a fifth less billed annually, with a 30 day free trial and no card details asked for.

Where we lose, honestly: there is no free-forever tier, Perkstar matches our annual entry price, and if you want scratch-card games or point-of-sale integrations, look below.

Best for: cafés that want wallet cards, no member limits, and messaging that writes itself.

Perkstar

The strongest direct rival in this list and priced to prove it: £15, £30 and £65 a month billed yearly, with wallet cards, unlimited members and unlimited push notifications on every plan. Google review collection on the entry plan is a genuinely useful touch. Each plan covers one location, with extra locations at £10 a month each, which is worth modelling if you run more than one site. The trial is 7 days, which is tight for judging a loyalty scheme, since a fortnight is barely one visit cycle for a weekly customer.

Best for: single-site cafés that want the most features per pound at the entry price and can evaluate quickly.

FaveCard

The free-forever plan is real and genuinely free: unlimited customers on a web-based card with a QR scan at the counter. The catch is that Apple and Google Wallet passes start on the £29 Pro plan, so the free tier's card lives in the browser rather than the wallet, which costs it the lock-screen presence that makes wallet cards work. Campaigns and win-back messaging need the £49 Business plan. Kiosk mode on Business, where customers stamp themselves, is clever for counters with no spare hands.

Best for: trying digital loyalty at zero cost before committing, if you accept a browser card until you upgrade.

Paperless Perks

The cheapest paid entry here at £6.99 a month, wallet-native, with a free tier to start. The economics work through meters: the free tier caps at 50 stamps and 20 active members, the £6.99 plan at 1,000 stamps and 100 members, and £19.99 at 2,000 and 200. A busy café will hit those ceilings, and a growing scheme means a growing bill, so read the meters against your expected volume before choosing it. Notifications are metered too, from 2 to 30 a month below the top plan.

Best for: very small or seasonal operations where the meters stay comfortable.

Stamp Me

The polished veteran of the category with one structural difference: your customers' cards live in the Stamp Me app, which they must download, with wallet storage still listed as coming soon. If your customers will take an app, it rewards them with the most playful feature set here, scratch-and-win games, birthday clubs and lapsed-customer campaigns. Plans are £39, £49 and £129 a month with a 30 day trial.

Best for: businesses that want gamification and are confident their customers will download an app.

Loyalzoo

A different shape of product: customers join with a phone number or email at the till, no app and no smartphone needed, with wallet passes available on top. That makes it the only option here that fully serves customers without smartphones. It leans into memberships and paid subscriptions as much as loyalty, and it is priced accordingly at £57 and £127 a month plus VAT, the top plan including 5,000 messaging credits and tiered loyalty.

Best for: businesses whose customers skew away from smartphones, or that want paid memberships alongside loyalty.

Squid

The biggest network in this list and the most different in shape. Squid runs Ireland's largest digital loyalty network, around a million members, now reaching cafés, restaurants and salons in the UK. Stamps are collected by tapping the phone on a tag at the till, and members earn a universal points currency alongside your stamps. The trade-offs: your customers need the Squid app, cards live in Squid's own in-app wallet rather than Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, and pricing is not published, you talk to their sales team. Joining a network also means your card sits alongside everyone else's, which is reach if you want footfall from the network, and noise if you want your loyalty card to be unmistakably yours.

Best for: cafés that want to plug into an existing loyalty network with big-brand tie-ins, rather than run their own branded card.

Embargo

A hospitality CRM with loyalty inside it rather than a loyalty card tool. Customers need the Embargo app, and pricing is quote-only, there are no public numbers to compare. If you want ordering, CRM and loyalty in one platform and are happy to take a demo call, it is a different conversation to the rest of this list.

Best for: venues shopping for a full hospitality CRM rather than a loyalty card.

How to choose

• Want to spend nothing while you decide? FaveCard's free plan, then judge the upgrade against this table.
• Tightest budget for a real wallet card? Paperless Perks at £6.99, if your volumes fit its meters.
• Most features per pound at entry? Perkstar, with the location fee in mind.
• Customers without smartphones? Loyalzoo.
• Gamification, and an app download does not scare you? Stamp Me.
• Want to join a big existing network rather than run your own card? Squid, if you are comfortable with its app and quote-only pricing.
• Wallet cards, unlimited members, a proper month to decide, and messages that write themselves? That is the corner we built Spark for.

Whichever you pick, the mechanics of a good café scheme stay the same: eight to ten stamps to a free drink, a reward worth wanting, and one rule your team can run without thinking. The tool matters less than the consistency.