Short answer. Points platforms and PerkClub reward opposite halves of the relationship. A points platform (Square Loyalty, Loyalzoo, Fivestars, Yotpo, and the loyalty module bundled into most tills) rewards spending after it has happened: the customer identifies themselves at checkout, points accrue automatically, and a reward unlocks on a later visit. Nothing is asked of the customer and nobody has to be sold anything. PerkClub sells a paid membership instead: the customer pays monthly up front, gets a specific entitlement such as one coffee a day, and redeems it at the counter against a cap you set. Pick a points platform for an automatic thank-you with no counter conversation, especially where it is bundled into software you already pay for. Pick PerkClub if the problem is cashflow rather than appreciation.
Who are points platforms for?
A points platform rewards spending after it has happened, and the mechanic is near-identical across the category: the customer identifies themselves at checkout, usually with a phone number, points accrue on what they spend, and a reward unlocks once the balance crosses a threshold you set. Square Loyalty, Loyalzoo, Fivestars, Yotpo, Toast Loyalty and the loyalty modules inside Loyverse and Booksy all work this way.
The business it suits wants a thank-you running quietly in the background. No script for staff to learn, no price to justify, no sign-up conversation. If you are already on Square, Loyverse or Booksy, switching the module on is a settings change rather than a project, which is why many independents end up with points by default rather than by decision.
The honest framing is that points are retroactive. The customer spends first and the reward follows. That will nudge a repeat visit, but it is not a revenue instrument, and nothing about a points balance changes what lands in your account on the first of the month.
Who is PerkClub for?
PerkClub is for the café, bakery, barber, salon, florist or pet groomer that wants a Pret-style monthly membership under its own brand. The job is booked recurring revenue: 100 members at £40/month is £4,000 of MRR, or £48,000 a year, usually enough to cover rent on a B-grade UK high street unit.
The product is white-label and POS-agnostic. Members join your club, in your name, billed monthly through Stripe in GBP. The membership arrives as an Apple or Google Wallet pass and the perk is redeemed at the counter by scanning it, with the daily, weekly or monthly cap you set applied in real time. Nothing has to integrate with your till, though the optional Square integration logs kiosk redemptions as Square orders. See what's included.
The honest framing here is that a membership is a sale, and somebody has to make it: one sentence at the counter, once, from a member of staff who understands the offer. If nobody in your building will say that sentence, a points programme that asks nothing of anybody is the better buy. Membership is open to everyone from their first visit. Your regulars and a first-time visitor see the same offer, and what it asks for is an explanation, not a qualification.
Where a points platform is the stronger pick
Accrual is automatic. This is the genuine operational advantage and it is not a small one. The customer taps a phone number into the terminal and the points look after themselves. Nobody has to remember anything, nobody has to be persuaded, and your staff never have to have the conversation on a Saturday morning with six people in the queue. A membership cannot match that, because it has to be explained once before it works at all.
It asks nothing of the customer. No price to justify, no objection to handle, nothing to cancel. Joining is free, so the join rate is high and the awkwardness is zero. A paid membership is a commitment, and a share of your customers will say no to it however good the offer is.
Bundled, the marginal cost is nothing. Loyverse gives away its till app and its points module, and Booksy includes loyalty cards in its base subscription. If you already pay for the software the points programme is a free feature, and nothing changes operationally: no second device, no new flow at the counter, no training beyond "ask for their number".
Where PerkClub is the stronger pick
It books the revenue before the visit. Everything else follows from this. Points are settled out of future margin on a date you cannot predict. A membership is paid into your account in advance, every month, whether the member comes in twice that month or ten times.
The perk is concrete. "One coffee a day" needs no arithmetic. A points balance has to be converted mentally into something worth having before it motivates anybody, and most people never do that conversion.
The entitlement is enforceable. A points platform has no concept of "one a day, four a week", so a generous perk on a points-shaped system is either unlimited or policed by hand. PerkClub applies caps at the moment of redemption, which is what makes a daily perk safe to offer. See PerkClub vs Loyalzoo for how that plays out against a platform that bills memberships but cannot redeem them.
Margin is predictable. At £40/month, with roughly 14 redemptions a member at about £0.45 of marginal cost per drink, contribution lands near £33 per member per month. A points liability is harder to plan around: you know what you have promised but not when it will be claimed.
Which should you pick by scenario?
"I want something running by Friday with no staff training." A points platform, particularly if your till already includes one.
"My problem is January, not appreciation." PerkClub. Points do not move cashflow timing. Only money taken in advance does.
"I want to give a daily perk without giving away the shop." PerkClub. A capped entitlement is the only safe way to offer one.
"I already pay for Square and want rewards at the till." Square Loyalty, but read PerkClub vs Square Loyalty before assuming it covers memberships too. It does not.
"My customers will not install another app." Check first. Points schemes that live behind an app download tend to stall; a wallet pass needs no install.
"I want a simple visit nudge, not a programme." Probably neither. A digital stamp card is cheaper and does that one job, which is the ground covered in PerkClub vs stamp cards.
The forgotten-balance problem
The weakness of points is not the economics, it is attention. In Bond Brand Loyalty's 2017 Loyalty Report, a survey of more than 28,000 consumers in the US and Canada, 57% of loyalty programme members did not know their points balance and 38% did not know what their points were worth. That is a 2017 US and Canadian figure rather than current UK data, but it describes a pattern every operator recognises: a balance nobody is tracking cannot influence a decision. A membership has the opposite property. The member knows what they get because they paid for it, and the pass sits in the wallet they open to pay for everything else.
Pricing: how do they actually compare?
Points pricing is mostly per location per month. Square Loyalty in the UK is banded by loyalty visits: £25 for 0 to 500, £45 for 501 to 1,500 and £65 for 1,501 or more, with a 30-day free trial (Square Loyalty UK, as of August 2026). Loyalzoo publishes GROW at £57 + VAT a month and SMART at £127 + VAT. Loyverse charges nothing for its loyalty module. Most of the market sits inside that band, and the coffee shop loyalty scheme roundup has the full list.
PerkClub charges a flat monthly platform fee plus standard Stripe processing on what you bill members. The fee does not scale with member count or locations, so cost per member falls as you grow. See the pricing page.
The fee comparison is not the interesting one. Both numbers are small next to a day's takings. What matters is the other side of the ledger: a points platform spends margin to encourage a visit that may happen, and a membership collects cash for visits that have not happened yet.
Running both: how it actually works
These are not mutually exclusive, and the pattern that works is points at the till for everybody with a membership as the paid tier above it.
Points stay switched on as the default thank-you, so nobody has to do anything and nobody is excluded. The membership is the deliberate choice above it, explained once by a member of staff, for the customer who would rather pay £40 on the first of the month than full price every time. If you are on Square the two coexist without integration work: Square runs the till and the points, PerkClub runs the membership rail. The detail is in memberships on Square.
Bottom line
A points platform is the right answer when you want appreciation on autopilot, and close to unbeatable when it is already bundled into software you pay for. Its limit is that it books nothing in advance and relies on a balance most customers are not tracking. PerkClub is the right answer when the problem is cashflow: money taken monthly, a concrete capped perk redeemed at your counter, your own brand on the pass. If you would like to work out which one your numbers call for, the PerkClub team is happy to go through them with you.
