Replace a subscription · every price cited

The self-hosted Smile.io alternative

Loyalora: Self-hosted points register with a ledger you can replay: no stored balance, no order ceiling, no monthly fee. Own it once, run it on your own server, and stop paying Smile.io every month.

Own Loyalora for $59 Try the live demo

Stop renting Smile.io.

Rented Smile.io Essential $15 per month (Standard $79/mo, Growth $199/mo, Plus $999/mo annual, Enterprise on request); a free tier covers 200 monthly orders ^[1] billed every month, for as long as you use it; your data in their cloud

Yours

Loyalora

$59 once · self-hosted · your data on your server

4 months of Smile.io costs what Loyalora costs once.

Buy once

How we counted: Flat monthly, metered by order volume rather than by seat: Free covers 200 monthly orders, Essential 500, Standard 1,000, Growth 2,500. The $15 figure is the first paid tier - a shop under 200 orders a month should compare against the free plan first. Loyalora is bought once and has no order ceiling of any kind. Plus carries 7,500 monthly orders; the page prints monthly rates only, with no annual figure beside them.

How Smile.io pricing grows

Smile.io prices by how many orders the store takes each month, so the plan you need is decided by your own growth and the bill climbs with it.

“Usage 1 integration 500 monthly orders 15 specialized reports”, their own page, read 2026-08-22

What Smile.io does that we don't

Smile.io runs points, referrals and VIP tiers as a hosted storefront app with branded on-site widgets and multi-language support.

“Points & referrals Discounts & free shipping rewards Full branding customization Multi-language support”, their own page

Who should stay with Smile.io

If you run a Shopify or BigCommerce store and need the loyalty widget embedded in the storefront, awarding points on orders automatically, stay with Smile.io - Loyalora is a counter-side register with no e-commerce integration and no storefront widget.

What Loyalora deliberately doesn't do is on its product page.

Why owning beats renting Smile.io.

One payment

No monthly, per-seat or per-location fees. The license is perpetual.

Your data stays on your server

It never lives in Smile.io's cloud.

No plan ceilings

Records and users are limited by your hosting, not by a pricing tier.

It keeps working if the vendor doesn't

Self-hosted software can't be sunset or repriced out from under you.

The fair trade-offs: you host it, back it up and apply updates yourself. See the product page for its limits, and the full Loyalora vs renting comparison.

Questions about moving off Smile.io.

Why is there no balance column?

Because a stored total is a second source of truth, and it starts lying the first time anything fails between writing the entry and updating the total. The balance is SUM(points) over the ledger, so the number and its explanation are the same object.

Can it send campaigns or a newsletter?

No, and it is not going to. There are no campaigns, no lists, no segments and no send-to-all. The only message it produces is one customer's own balance, to that customer, when you press Email balance on their card after switching it on. A test greps the whole product for a mail-in-a-loop and for campaign, broadcast, bulk-send and segment symbols.

Does it connect to my till or take payments?

It holds no card numbers and processes no payments. Your till can send each sale through the API, once per sale, and Loyalora's own rate decides the points; a refund takes them back. It integrates with no e-commerce platform.

What stops two people redeeming the same points at once?

The redemption opens a write transaction and re-reads the balance inside the lock before committing. Checking first and writing after loses that race silently; this does not, on SQLite and on MySQL/MariaDB alike.

Related on this site

Front-office software Loyalora vs SaaS pricing What's new in Own It 3.3 What's new in Own It 3.2 Retail Suite

Sources

Smile.io: price checked 2026-09-03, source“Essential For stores gaining traction and growing loyalty $15 per month, monthly billing”

Competitor prices change, so always confirm on the linked page. We only print figures we could verify on the date shown. This vendor is tracked in the Price Observatory: every figure verbatim, dated, re-checked quarterly.

Replace Smile.io with Loyalora.

Open the live demo first; it costs nothing.

See Loyalora Loyalora vs renting All alternatives