Which Shopify app combines loyalty, referrals, and customer accounts?

Short answer: Most stores stitch together three apps for loyalty, referrals, and customer accounts, with three bills and three dashboards. Lantern Loyalty & Rewards puts all three in one app that embeds on your storefront and in checkout, with a no-code editor. Free to install, 5.0 stars across 4 reviews.

Here is a setup almost every growing Shopify store ends up with by accident. One app for the points program. A second app for referrals. A third for the customer account page. Each has its own login, its own monthly charge, and its own idea of what a “customer” is, and none of them talk to each other cleanly. The shopper feels the seams, and so does whoever has to run all three.

Lantern’s whole pitch is to collapse that stack. So the question worth answering is not “is it a good loyalty app,” it is “does putting all three in one app actually solve the fragmentation, and what do you give up to get it?” Let’s go through what it does, what it costs, and who it fits.

In this post

• What is Lantern Loyalty & Rewards?
• Why put all three in one app?
• What Lantern actually does
• How much does Lantern cost?
• Is Lantern right for your store?
• FAQ

What is Lantern Loyalty & Rewards?

Lantern is a Shopify app that runs loyalty, referrals, and customer accounts as one connected system rather than three bolted-on tools. It is built by Lantern, a team based in Portland, Oregon, and the listing notes it was built by a former head of front-end design and front-end development at Shopify, which shows in how much of it embeds directly into the storefront and checkout instead of living in a popup. It launched in January 2024 and currently holds 5.0 stars across 4 reviews.

That review count is small, and it is worth being upfront about: this is a newer app than the loyalty veterans with thousands of reviews. What it trades that history for is architecture. Because loyalty, referrals, and accounts share one data model, a customer’s points, referral status, and rewards wallet all live in the same place, and the shopper sees one branded experience instead of three. If you want the full field first, our best Shopify loyalty and rewards apps roundup ranks the established options too.

Why put all three in one app?

Because the seams between separate apps are where loyalty programs quietly leak value. A shopper earns points in one widget, but the referral link lives in a different popup, and the account page is a third thing that does not show either. Every extra surface is another place to drop off. Consolidating them means one wallet the customer actually finds, in the account and at checkout, where a reward is most likely to get used.

There is an operational side too. Three apps is three subscriptions, three support queues, and three things to re-check every time you change your theme. One app is one bill and one editor. Whether that math favors you depends on your size, which is exactly what the pricing section below gets into. If store credit specifically is your angle, we compare the native and third-party routes in the Shopify store credit apps guide.

What Lantern actually does

The program types cover the range most stores need: points programs, memberships, VIP tiers, referrals, wishlists, gift cards, cashback, digital wallets, and custom programs. On the reward side you can hand out points, discounts, coupons, gift cards, cashback, store credit, POS rewards, free shipping, free products, early or exclusive access, and membership perks. The pieces worth calling out:

• A wallet that shows in the account and at checkout. Rewards, discounts, and gift cards sit in one place the shopper can see while they are buying, not buried in an email.
• Automatic, codeless discounts. Rewards apply without a copy-paste code, which the app frames as a way to cut the discount-code sharing that leaks margin.
• A no-code account editor. You brand the customer account with preset blocks rather than editing theme files.
• Integrations through Shopify Flow. It connects to any app with a Shopify Flow connection, and names Gorgias, Klaviyo, and Recharge specifically, plus Shopify POS for in-store rewards.
• A developer path. For teams that want to go further, there is custom development with Liquid, metafields, CSS, and a GraphQL API. Its help center documents loyalty, referrals, accounts, wishlists, POS, and analytics setup.

Doing this the manual way, three apps wired together with Flow rules and theme edits, is possible, but it is fragile and it is a lot to maintain. If a single connected system is what you are after, Lantern runs loyalty, referrals, and accounts from one place with a 30-day free trial to test it. One merchant described the switch:

“When the app we previously used on Shopify shut down, Lantern proved to be an excellent alternative. The setup was quick and straightforward, and their team worked closely with me to customize our referral program exactly how we needed it. We’re now exploring additional features like loyalty and wishlists, and everything looks just as easy to implement.”

Burlap & Barrel, United States, September 2025, Lantern on the Shopify App Store

How much does Lantern cost?

Lantern is free to install, but the free plan is for building and testing; you pick a paid plan to go live. Pricing is based on your monthly order volume, and every paid tier includes loyalty, referrals, and customer accounts together, a no-code editor, email and live chat support, and a 30-day free trial.

Plan	Price	Included orders	Overage	Notable
Free to develop	$0	Test only	n/a	Build and preview before going live
Starter	$75/mo	500 orders	$0.15 per extra order	All three products included
Momentum	$325/mo	2,500 orders	$0.13 per extra order	Lower per-order rate
Growth	$625/mo	5,000 orders	$0.12 per extra order	Dedicated account manager

Read that as a bundle price, not a loyalty-app price. Going live starts at $75 a month, which is more than a bare points widget, because you are paying for three products in one. The way to judge it honestly is to add up what you currently pay for a separate loyalty app, a separate referral app, and a separate customer-account app, then compare. For a store already running all three, one bill can come out ahead. For a small store that only wants a simple points program and a free live tier, a single-purpose app may be the cheaper fit. A merchant on the Starter plan put the value plainly:

“Great loyalty app for a fair price. Installation and customizing is very straight forward and easy. On top, their support is very helpful and make all changes you need.”

Baumann (Welt der Weine), Germany, January 2025, Lantern on the Shopify App Store

Is Lantern right for your store?

It fits best if you are already paying for loyalty, referrals, and a customer-account app separately and you are tired of the seams between them, or if you care about the reward showing up on the storefront and in checkout rather than in a detached widget. The Shopify front-end pedigree shows up exactly there, in how natively it embeds.

It is a weaker fit if you want only a basic points program on the cheapest possible plan, or if a long public track record matters more to you than architecture, because with 4 reviews Lantern is early compared with the loyalty apps that have been around for years. Both of those are fair reasons to look elsewhere, and the honest move is to run the 30-day trial on your own store before you commit. See it on the Shopify App Store listing.

Frequently asked questions

Does Lantern really do loyalty, referrals, and customer accounts in one app?

Yes. All three run inside a single Shopify app on one shared data model, and every paid plan includes all three. That is the core difference from stacking a separate loyalty app, referral app, and account app, which keep their data and their billing apart.

Is Lantern free?

It is free to install and there is a free plan for building and testing, but going live requires a paid plan starting at $75 a month for up to 500 orders. Every paid plan comes with a 30-day free trial, so you can run it live before paying.

Does Lantern embed on the storefront and in checkout?

Yes. The rewards wallet displays in the customer account and at checkout, and the branded account is built with a no-code block editor rather than theme edits. Embedding natively rather than in a floating popup is one of the things Lantern leans on, given it was built by a former Shopify front-end lead.

What does Lantern integrate with?

It connects to any app with a Shopify Flow connection, and names Gorgias, Klaviyo, and Recharge specifically, plus Shopify POS for in-store rewards. Teams that need more can build custom experiences with Liquid, metafields, CSS, and a GraphQL API.

Is Lantern a good choice given it has few reviews?

It launched in January 2024 and has 5.0 stars across 4 reviews, so it is newer and less proven than loyalty apps with thousands. Its case rests on the three-in-one architecture and native embedding rather than track record. The safe way to decide is to use the 30-day free trial on your own store.

Related reading

• Best Shopify loyalty and rewards apps 2026
• How do I add a loyalty program to Shopify?
• Best Shopify store credit apps in 2026
• Add color swatches to your Shopify product pages
• Shopify combined listings explained

If you already run three apps for this, add up their bills this week and compare the total to Lantern’s one plan. That single number, not a feature list, is what tells you whether consolidating is worth it for a store your size. Then take the 30-day trial for a real test.