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Restaurant loyalty with Lightspeed: what to ask before choosing

Using Lightspeed? What its Canadian page says about loyalty, what is not published, and another route that keeps your register.

Minerva Flow editorial teamLoyalty and guest experience
Updated November 14, 20266 min read

This guide is also available in French: Read the guide in French

The short answer

If you take payments with Lightspeed, look at its loyalty programme first: it is presented as integrated with your register. Before you decide, two things are missing from the pages we checked: the price and a confirmed offer for a Canadian restaurant.

Minerva Flow is a different route. It does not connect to Lightspeed and has no partnership with it. It runs beside your register: QR-code or counter sign-up, a card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, a visit added at the counter by your staff. See Without changing your register.

Minerva Flow publishes this guide and is one of the options described.

What Lightspeed describes (checked November 14, 2026)

ItemWhat Lightspeed's pages say
OfferLightspeed Loyalty for restaurateurs, with a custom app guests download to collect points
RewardsPoints are exchanged for rewards, for example a free drink
Link with the registerThe Canadian French page speaks of a programme "integrated with your Lightspeed register" (our translation)
PriceNot published on that page. The restaurant page says pricing varies by subscription
Canadian availabilityThe restaurant page does not confirm it; the loyalty page exists in a Canadian French version

We name no specific register edition or version, because the pages we read do not.

What is not published

  • The loyalty price. Ask for it separately from the register plan, with the term and renewal conditions.
  • The eligible register edition. Ask in writing whether your exact edition qualifies.
  • The limits. Number of rewards, refund rules, staff permissions: none of this is detailed on the pages we checked.

What Minerva Flow offers beside Lightspeed

  • No register change. Your staff finds the guest by code, phone or name, then adds the visit. At the rush, that is one more step than an integrated programme.
  • No app to install. The card lives in the phone's wallet. See Minerva Flow loyalty.
  • Public prices. Flow Core: $149 a month for one location, $129 each for 2 to 5, $109 each for 6 to 15, with a 14-day trial and no credit card. A free plan with no time limit includes a basic loyalty card. Plans with a team start at $749 a month. Details on Pricing.

What Minerva Flow does not do

It does not read your Lightspeed sales and does not credit points automatically. If your priority is that nobody on staff has an extra step, a register-built programme meets that need better, provided you know its price.

Five questions to ask Lightspeed, in writing

  1. What is the monthly loyalty price, separate from the register plan?
  2. Does my exact register edition qualify, and since when?
  3. Are the app and guest messages available in French?
  4. What happens to my guest history if I leave the service?
  5. What are the renewal conditions?

Comparing without an overall score

Write the answers side by side and run a short trial. The grid in the 2027 comparison and the 30-day test plan will guide you.

Sources

Method. We read the two official pages above. We found no Lightspeed loyalty price and state none. Minerva Flow publishes this guide and has a commercial interest.

Try your own numbers

Margin and loyalty calculator

Open full page

Four steps, with your numbers. The result updates as you type, with no sign-up. Editable examples in Canadian dollars, before sales tax.

All calculations run in your browser. Financial inputs and results are excluded from session replay.

Your business (optional)

  1. Step 1 of 4

    Your dish

    The price and what the dish costs you. The margin shows right away.

    Your dish
    example

    Exclude sales tax and tips.

    example

    Include ingredient losses and yields.

    example

    Per serving. Zero for dining in.

    example

    As a percentage of the price. Your fee statement gives the real figure.

    example

    The portion of labour you assign to this serving.

    Margin of the dish
    $9.46
    Share of selling price
    52.6%
    Cost of the dish
    $8.54
    Ingredient cost
    30%

    Formula. Margin = $18.00 − ($5.40 + $0.60 + $0.54 + $2.00) = $9.46

    Assumptions
    • This is a contribution before fixed costs: rent, overhead, financing and taxes still have to be covered. It is not profit.
    • Payment fees are calculated as a percentage of the price. Adjust them to your statement.

  2. Step 2 of 4

    Your reward

    What you give, and after how many paid visits.

    Your reward
    Reward type

    Counted at its cost, not its price.

    example

    The free visit is not one of them.

    Cost of one reward
    $8.54
    Cost per paid visit
    $0.85
    Share of one visit’s margin
    9%

    Formula. Cost of the free item = ingredients + packaging + fees + labour = $8.54. Cost per visit = $8.54 ÷ 10 = $0.85

    Assumptions
    • A free item is counted at its actual cost. It does not include the full-price sale it might replace, or capacity limits.
    • A discount is counted at the amount you give up.
    • This assumes every customer who reaches the reward redeems it: the most expensive case.

  3. Step 3 of 4

    What a returning customer is worth

    Your scenario for one returning customer: what they leave you once their rewards are paid.

    What a returning customer is worth
    example

    What you see with your regulars. Decimals are allowed (1.5).

    example
    example

    Leave blank to keep rewards out of the break-even.

    Margin kept per returning customer
    $314.94
    3 reward(s) earned
    For 100 customers
    $31,494
    For your 100 customers
    $31,494

    Your scenario, calculated with your assumptions. It is not a forecast.

    Formula. 36 visits × $9.46 − 3 × $8.54 = $314.94

    Assumptions
    • This counts all of a loyal customer’s margin, whether or not they would have come back without a programme. It does not measure sales the programme adds.
    • Margin is a contribution before fixed costs.
    • The number of rewards is rounded down: a reward not yet reached is not counted.

  4. Step 4 of 4

    Your break-even

    How many extra visits a month cover a Minerva Flow plan.

    Your break-even
    Plan to cover

    Price per location, per month, before tax. Flow Core is $129 each for 2 to 5 locations. Growth and Partner start after a call, by written agreement. Setup ($0 to $1,990) is not included.

    Extra paid visits per month
    43
    About 0.43 more visit per customer, per month
    Monthly cost to cover
    $405.20
    of which $256.20 in rewards redeemed

    With each plan

    • Flow Core · $14943 visits
    • Flow Growth · $749107 visits
    • Flow Partner · $1,490185 visits

    Formula. Break-even = $405.20 ÷ $9.46 = 43, rounded up

    Assumptions
    • Only visits the programme adds count. Visits you would have had without it cover nothing.
    • Rewards redeemed each month = active customers × visits per month ÷ visits to earn one, if all of them take part.
    • The plan is its monthly price only, with no setup and no tax.
    Start from a target margin

    Choose the margin you want to keep. The calculation shows what the reward can cost, or the price it would take.

    example

    As a percentage of the price, after the reward cost per visit.

    Maximum cost of one reward
    $4.60
    That is $0.46 per paid visit, at the current price.
    Price for the target, no reward
    $17.02
    −$0.98 compared with the current price
    Price for the target, reward included
    $18.84
    +$0.84 compared with the current price

    The reward from step 2 is above this maximum.

    Formula. Price = costs before payment fees ÷ (1 − target margin − payment fees − reward share), all as a fraction of the price

Keep your scenario

Get the report with your numbers, their formulas and a link to change them, or talk it over with the team.

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Minerva Flow editorial team, author

Loyalty and guest experience

The Minerva Flow team in Montréal writes these guides from the questions independent café and restaurant owners ask.

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Cite this guide

Use this reference when sharing the guide:

Minerva Flow editorial team. (2026). Restaurant loyalty with Lightspeed: what to ask before choosing. Minerva Flow. https://minervaflow.app/en/blog/restaurant-loyalty-lightspeed-without-changing-register

Topics:LightspeedLoyaltyRegisterQuebec

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