Best loyalty card app for cafés in the UK (2026): 9 options for your business, priced in pounds

Search for “best loyalty card app UK” and half the results tell you whether Tesco Clubcard beats Nectar. This page is the other half: a café, coffee van or bakery in the UK that wants a loyalty card for its own customers, what people still call a digital stamp card and what we call a loyalty card in the customer’s wallet. Nine tools, compared on the things that matter at the till: the price in pounds, whether your customers have to download anything, whether the card works on iPhone and Android, how staff stamp it, and what UK GDPR asks of you once you collect a name or an email.

Who is writing: Stampioo, which makes one of the nine tools. We have not hidden that. Every price below links to the vendor’s own pricing page with the date we read it, every tool gets a “best for” line and a “where it loses” line, including ours, and we say plainly where a competitor is the better choice for your café. If a figure has changed since we checked, tell us and we will correct it with a new date.

What a UK café actually needs from a loyalty card app

• No app for the customer. A queue of eight at 8.15 on a Tuesday is not the moment to ask anyone to install something. The card should go into Apple Wallet or Google Wallet from a QR code on the counter, or at worst open in the browser.
• iPhone and Android alike. A tool that only offers an Apple Wallet pass, or mentions neither Wallet, leaves half your customers with a weaker card.
• A price you can read in pounds, with VAT stated. Several tools bill in dollars or euros; fine, but know it before the card statement arrives.
• Stamping that works with the till you already have. Most tools stamp with a phone or tablet beside the EPOS; one is locked to Square.
• UK GDPR without a lawyer: a join form that says what you collect and why, consent before marketing, an easy unsubscribe, a data processing agreement from the vendor.
• A card the customer will see again. A Wallet pass sits on the lock screen and can remind the customer near your shop; a browser card has to be found in a text message.

How we compared

• Prices are what each vendor’s own pricing page showed on 3 November 2026, in the currency it showed. No conversions: vendors set regional prices by hand (Stamp Me charges £39 in the UK and $49 in the US for the same plan).
• Entry plan for one café, plus the free plan where one exists.
• Customer app: install an app, create an account, or straight into Apple Wallet, Google Wallet or a browser?
• Apple Wallet and Google Wallet separately, because two tools mention neither and one offers only Apple.
• Trial length, and whether card details are needed to start.
• What we did not do: run all nine for a month, or rank by star ratings (counts are small, some vendor-solicited). Two UK-named tools people ask about, Yollty and CandyBar, refused our request on the day, so they are left out rather than listed with guesses.

The nine tools at a glance

In a hurry? See how a loyalty card for cafés works with Stampioo, or the Wallet card on iPhone and Android. The detail on each tool follows.

The nine tools, one by one

1. Stampioo: best for a Wallet card on both phones with nothing to install or sign up for

Best for: an independent café that wants the loyalty card in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, stamped with the phone already at the till, at a flat price that does not change however many customers join.

Stampioo is the tool we make, so weigh this section accordingly. The customer scans a QR code on the counter, fills in a short form and taps Add; the card is in their Wallet, and from then on stamps, rewards and your messages arrive on the lock screen. Staff stamp with the scanner in the browser on any phone or tablet, no hardware, no POS integration. Starter costs €29 a month excluding VAT, or €23 billed yearly, for one programme, one location and three team members; Pro costs €49 for five locations, ten team members, advanced analytics and ten targeted push campaigns a month. Customers and scans are unlimited. The trial is 30 days without card details. Dashboard and support in 29 languages, which matters when baristas or regulars are not all English speakers.

Where it loses for a UK café: there is no pound price, so you are billed in euros and your card issuer sets the rate; there is no free plan; there is no POS integration and no public API; and the public review count is small (one review on G2 as we write). Stampioo is run by Allvia AB in Sweden and acts as your data processor under GDPR, but the service runs on Netlify, which may process data in the United States under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses, as our privacy policy says. See plans and pricing for what each plan includes.

2. Perkstar: best for a pound-priced Wallet card with a short trial

Best for: a UK café that wants both Wallets, no customer app and a price in pounds from the first month.

Perkstar’s pricing page shows three plans in pounds: Starter £15 a month (stamp and points cards, two staff accounts per location), Growth £30 (all card types, five staff), Scale £65 (ten staff). Each includes one location; extra locations are £10 a month or £120 a year, up to ten. Customers are unlimited, every plan includes Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes added from a QR code or link with no app, staff stamp with a scanner app or a barcode scanner, and NFC tap plates are a one-off £10. The trial is seven days with no card. Where it loses: a short trial, no yearly prices on the page, no statement of where the company is based or data is hosted (it links to a GDPR page and a DPA we did not read), and a small brand with little independent feedback.

3. Loyal Swift: best for the lowest pound price, if a browser card is enough

Best for: a café that wants to spend under £10 a month and does not need the card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.

Loyal Swift’s home page lists one plan, Pro, at £9.99 a month per location, each extra location another £9.99, with a 14-day trial and no credit card. The customer scans a QR code and the card opens in the phone’s browser; staff scan the customer’s QR with a work device, with a cooldown between stamps and a staff PIN option. Where it loses: the site does not mention Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, so there is no pass on the lock screen and the customer has to find the card again in a browser or a message; its pricing page returned “page not found” when we checked; and the company does not say where it is based.

4. Stamp Me: best for tap-to-stamp hardware and SMS, if customers will create an account

Best for: a café that wants a StampPod on the counter, SMS campaigns and games such as Scratch & Win, and is happy to ask customers to sign up.

Stamp Me is the most visible stamp card brand in the UK. Lite costs £39 a month, Pro £49, Elite £129, billed monthly, one location per plan, up to two card programmes, with a 30-day trial and no card details. It ships hardware (StampPod, Stamp Tag), SMS, a birthday club and Zapier links. Where it loses: the customer must create a Stamp Me account, through the web app or the native app, and tap stamping needs the native app; only the member code, a barcode, can be saved to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, and only with the Stamp Business app; the stamps live in the account, not on a Wallet card. If your customers would rather not sign up for anything, read our Stamp Me alternatives first.

5. Square Loyalty: best if your till is Square

Best for: a café on Square POS that wants loyalty tied to the sale with no extra step at checkout.

Square Loyalty is built into Square and is not offered for another till. In the UK it costs £25 a month per location for up to 500 loyalty visits a month, £45 for 501 to 1,500 and £65 above that (a loyalty visit is an enrolment, a point earned or a reward redeemed); the trial is 30 days. Customers enrol with a phone number at checkout, points can follow spend, and the pass goes to Apple Wallet only. Where it loses: it needs Square, the cost rises with your success, there is no Google Wallet pass, and it is a points programme first. A café doing 600 loyalty visits a month pays £45. Our Square Loyalty review goes through the lock-in in detail.

6. Flex Rewards: best for a self-service kiosk on the counter

Best for: a café that wants customers to stamp themselves on a tablet, with single-use codes to stop abuse.

Flex Rewards charges a flat $36 a month, billed as £26 in the UK, for one store with two card slots; an extra store is $14.50 a month and an extra card slot $10. The customer scans a QR code and the card opens in the browser with one-tap sign-in; staff stamp, or a tablet in kiosk mode lets customers do it with a code and a minimum gap between scans. Where it loses: Apple Wallet and Google Wallet are not mentioned on the site, so no lock-screen pass; the 30-day trial needs card details; and the add-ons add up for a second site.

7. Loyalzoo: best for loyalty inside the EPOS

Best for: a café that wants the loyalty programme to live in Clover, Epos Now, Square, Shopify or Sunmi, or sells coffee subscriptions with a card on file.

Loyalzoo is a UK company with native POS integrations (Clover, Square, PAX, GoDaddy Poynt, Epos Now, Shopify, Sunmi), which no Wallet-based tool here offers. Grow costs $77 a month and Smart $167, in dollars with no pound selector; the trial is seven days. Customers are identified by phone number or email at the till, with an optional branded web app, and the pricing table lists Apple and Google Wallet passes. Where it loses: the highest entry price here, a seven-day trial, and nothing on the customer’s lock screen between visits.

8. Loopy Loyalty: best for a mature Wallet card with an API, priced in dollars

Best for: a café owner who is comfortable with dollar billing and wants Zapier, Make or an API behind the card.

Loopy Loyalty costs $25 a month or $250 a year for one card design, one location and three staff logins, with unlimited customers and push, both Wallets and data export on every plan; the trial is 15 days. Where it loses for a UK café: no pound price, a jump to $69 for a second location, and a dashboard whose languages the pricing page does not state. We compared it with ten other tools in Loopy Loyalty alternatives.

9. BonusQR: best for a free Wallet card with no time limit

Best for: a very small café or coffee van that wants a Wallet card for nothing and can do without push messages and staff logins.

BonusQR is the only tool here with a free plan that never expires: one manager login, no employee logins, no push or email news, but Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes included. Basic costs $22 a month at list price or $20 billed quarterly, Premium $79 or $71. Where it loses: billing in dollars, extra locations as an add-on whose price is not shown, and a habit of publishing rankings that place itself first, so read its own comparisons with that in mind.

How many stamps for a UK café

The big UK chains sit between eight and ten stamps per free drink, and nine stamps with the tenth free is the most common pattern on the high street. For an independent café the right number depends on how often your regulars come: two or three visits a week means eight to ten stamps gives a reward every three to five weeks, which is often enough to keep the card alive on the phone. A brunch place that sees people fortnightly should go lower, five or six, or the card is forgotten before it is full. Reusable cups are the easy UK twist: double stamp for a cup from home. The reward calculator shows what each number of stamps costs you per visit, and the stamp count is the one thing most tools, Stampioo included, lock once the first cards are out, so decide it before launch.

UK GDPR when you collect names and emails

A card that only counts stamps collects almost nothing. The moment you ask for a name, an email or a phone number, UK GDPR applies: you are the controller, the loyalty tool is your processor. None of this needs a lawyer for a café, but it needs four habits.

• Ask only for what you will use. No birthday offers, no birthday field.
• Say why on the join form, in one line: “We use your email to send your rewards and, if you tick the box, our offers.” Marketing needs that tick; a reward notification does not.
• Make leaving easy: an unsubscribe in every marketing message, and delete the data when a customer asks.
• Know where the data goes. Ask the vendor for its data processing agreement and hosting. Stampioo’s privacy policy, for example, says the service runs on Netlify, which may process data in the United States under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses; Perkstar links to a DPA; several others say nothing on their pricing pages.

Our pick for most independent cafés

Pick by the one thing you will not compromise on:

• A Wallet card on both phones, no app, no account, no hardware: Stampioo (euros, 30-day trial), Perkstar (pounds, 7-day trial) or Loopy Loyalty (dollars, 15-day trial). Stampioo is our recommendation here, with the caveats above about euro billing and the lack of a free plan.
• Already on Square POS and happy with an Apple-only pass: Square Loyalty, and nothing else will be as seamless at the till.
• Under £10 a month and a browser card is fine: Loyal Swift.
• Hardware stamping, SMS and games, and customers who will sign up: Stamp Me.
• Loyalty inside Clover, Epos Now or Shopify, or paid subscriptions: Loyalzoo.
• A self-service tablet on the counter: Flex Rewards.
• Free, for as long as you like: BonusQR, with no push messages.

Whatever you choose, run it for a month before you print the counter sign in colour. Every tool here has a trial or a free plan; the cost guide for digital loyalty programmes lists the hidden extras (per-visit bands, per-location fees, card slots) that only show up after the trial.