Choose a working journey before a long feature list
The best loyalty system is one your staff can operate during service and your guests can understand. A dashboard is useful only if enrolment, points and rewards work reliably at the counter.
This guide helps you plan for 2027 using information checked on October 28, 2026. It makes no claim about future releases. Minerva Flow publishes the guide and appears among the options, so this is a disclosed commercial perspective rather than an independent ranking.
Four options to investigate
| Option | Documented starting point | What to verify for your business |
|---|---|---|
| Square | Earning based on visits, spending or items; in-store and online redemption. | Canadian plan, complete cost and refunds on your account. |
| Loyverse | Loyalty is listed in the free offering; points become discounts at the till. | Required paid add-ons, hardware and your preferred guest journey. |
| Lightspeed | Its French page describes VIP, points and prepaid cards. | Canadian availability, exact restaurant edition and contract. |
| Minerva Flow | Guest portal, points, rewards and order tracking in the app. | Your active till connection and your restaurant’s rules. |
Sources: Square Canada, Loyverse pricing, Loyverse points documentation, and Lightspeed France. A French-market page does not establish Canadian availability. For Minerva Flow, try the fictional interactive experience.
Use the same five questions with every supplier
- Can I keep my till? Ask to see your exact edition connected. A brand in a list is not proof of an active connection.
- Can a guest understand the rule? Have someone enrol, find their balance and locate a reward without coaching.
- Can staff fix an error? Check refunds, cancellations, duplicate scans and who may adjust points.
- What is the full cost? Include subscriptions, messages, equipment, training and rewards in the same currency, before taxes.
- Can I review my records? Confirm reporting periods, exports and access to a guest’s history under the right permissions.
Write down the answers side by side. A busy takeaway counter and a reservation-led bistro may reasonably choose different tools.
Price the reward as well as the subscription
Fictional example, before taxes. A reward costs $2 to produce after ten paid visits. If every earned reward is redeemed, that is $0.20 of direct reward cost per paid visit. Extra labour, software fees and a gift replacing an otherwise paid purchase are separate considerations.
The calculator below lets you change these assumptions. Its contribution figure is a simplified model, not net profit. Two identical subscription prices can lead to different programme costs if the reward rules differ.
Ask for a complete demonstration
Walk through enrolment, an eligible purchase, balance checking, redemption and a refund. Repeat on a guest’s phone and with an authorised employee. Record where either person needs assistance.
Ask for evidence on your settings rather than a general sales-growth promise. Fictional sample data explains how a product works; it does not measure the effect on your customers.
For a coffee shop, use the neighbourhood café guide. To structure an evaluation, use the 30-day loyalty test plan.
Method. Illustrative selection, not a market-wide survey. Supplier pages were checked on October 28, 2026; the three third-party products were not subjected to a complete comparative trial. Criteria are our analysis, numbers are fictional and terms require direct confirmation.