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Guide
How much does a digital loyalty program cost?
For one shop, a digital loyalty program costs between €0 and more than €900 in the first year. Among the French publishers who publish their prices, subscriptions run from €29.90 to €58.80 a month including VAT, and some show no price at all. Most of the gap comes from what gets added around the subscription: setup fees, prices shown before tax, messages billed per unit, a lock-in period.
At Cartia, you pay €29.90 a month including VAT, with no entry fee, no pack and no commitment. In this article, we go through what that price includes, what it does not, and what to look for in a pricing grid before you choose.
The four things that inflate the bill
Almost every publisher sells a monthly subscription. Four lines, often in smaller print, change what you actually pay.
Prices before tax
Many publishers show a price before tax. €29 before tax comes to €34.80 with VAT. If you are not VAT-registered, that is the amount you pay.
At CartiaCartia shows prices with VAT included. €29.90 shown, €29.90 charged.
Setup fees
Some platforms charge for installation, sometimes for each location. Zerosix, for example, lists €190 before tax (€228 with VAT) in setup fees per point of sale, on top of the subscription. For a single shop, the first year exceeds €900 with VAT, consumables not included.
At CartiaAt Cartia, you create your card yourself in a few minutes. There is no opening fee.
Messages billed per unit
When reminders go through SMS or WhatsApp, each message has a price. A monthly quota, then packs to buy again or a per-message rate. A shop that reminds 500 customers a month does not pay the same amount from one month to the next.
At CartiaAt Cartia, the reminder is a notification on the customer’s Wallet card. It is included in the subscription, with no counter.
Commitment and the price per shop
Behind a low price, there are sometimes twelve locked-in months, or a rate that doubles from the second address. Read the “commitment” line and the “per location” line before you look at the price.
At CartiaAt Cartia, there is no commitment, and the Business plan covers three shops for €59.90 a month.
Public prices, and offers on quote
For one shop and unlimited customers, here are the prices we found among the French publishers who publish them.
Some offers have no public price. Hey Pongo, for example, shows no rate. The site offers a demo, and the price comes afterwards, on quote. That is common for a broad platform built for chains and networks, with loyalty, CRM, multichannel campaigns and onboarding support. But with no price shown, you cannot compare. If you ask for a quote, get the included messages, the setup fees and the commitment period in writing.
Who Cartia is for, and why €29.90
We built Cartia for the independent shopkeeper: the café, the bakery, the hair salon, the beauty salon, the shop with one or two addresses and no marketing department. That shopkeeper has no time to spend on a contract, and a platform costing several thousand euros a year is not made for them.
So we kept it simple. A free plan, permanent, up to 50 customers, no card required. Beyond that, a single paid plan for one shop, at €29.90 a month including VAT, no commitment, with everything we have shipped. There is no module to add and no message pack, and we do not plan to raise this price.
For one shop, we know of no simpler offer at this price.
By type of business
The same price, whatever the counter
The café, the bakery, the hair salon, the beauty salon: the four businesses we have in mind when we talk about €29.90.
- Coffee shop loyalty cardTen visits a day or a hundred, the price does not move with the number of customers.
- Bakery loyalty cardA QR code on the counter, a card in the phone, nothing to install.
- Hair salon loyalty cardVisits are spaced out, so reminders matter. They are included, with no message pack.
- Beauty salon loyalty cardWith two addresses, Business covers three locations, with no fee per room.
What the €29.90 includes
The Pro plan includes:
The card in Apple Wallet and Google WalletIn your colours, with your logo. The customer gets it by scanning your QR code and filling in a short form, in about a minute, with no app to install and no password.
Unlimited customersYour customer file can be exported at any time. It belongs to you.
Notifications on the cardShown on the phone’s lock screen, with no cost per message. Google limits them to three per card per twenty-four hours.
Automatic remindersTo customers who accepted your offers: the customer absent for thirty days, the message after the first visit, the message around their date of birth.
The counterIn the browser or from the home-screen icon. It keeps counting visits without a network.
Accounts for your teamWith separate rights for the person who scans and the person who manages.
The link to your Google reviewsOn the back of the card, offered to all your customers in the same way.
A fourteen-day trialYou can stop whenever you want.
- Annual payment
- With annual payment, Pro comes to €287.04 for the year, 20% less.
- Two or three shops
- For two or three shops, the Business plan is €59.90 a month, three locations included, then €10 a month for each additional shop.
What the €29.90 does not do
Three limits to know before you sign up.
Cartia is not connected to every till.
Five tills can be connected (SumUp POS Pro, Zettle, Zelty, Square, Tactill), and we develop the connection ourselves, at your request. The SumUp payment terminal, however, is connected: a card payment credits the customer’s Wallet card, once the option is enabled on request. If your till is not on the list, you credit visits with the Cartia counter, by scanning the card on a phone.
Cartia sends neither SMS nor WhatsApp.
If your customers mostly expect conversational messages, a specialised platform will suit you better, at a different budget.
Cartia is not a platform for chains.
There is no white label, no public API and no shared dashboard across twenty stores. Quote-based platforms are built for that.
Who answers when something breaks
Cartia is built by a small team, and Chhaju, our co-founder, writes the code himself. When a shopkeeper reports a problem, they talk to the person who can fix it, with no form and no intermediate department. We do not promise a contractual response time, because we do not sign any. We simply describe how it works today.
In short
For one shop, a digital loyalty program costs from €0 to several hundred euros a year. Before you compare the prices on display, look at the before-tax price, the setup fees, the per-unit messages, the commitment and the price per location. On an equal basis, one shop and unlimited customers, Cartia Pro at €29.90 a month including VAT is the cheapest offer we found among publishers who publish their prices. Start with the free plan. After a week, you will know whether your customers add the card.
FAQ
The price of a loyalty program, in questions
Does a free digital loyalty program really exist?
Yes. Cartia is free up to 50 customers, with no card required and no time limit, with the Wallet card in your colours. Beyond 50 customers, the Pro plan is €29.90 a month including VAT.
Why are prices so often shown before tax?
Because many publishers sell to businesses that reclaim VAT. If you are not VAT-registered, the price with VAT is your real cost: €29 before tax comes to €34.80 with VAT. Cartia shows and charges prices with VAT included.
Are there setup fees at Cartia?
No. You create your card yourself, in a few minutes, and print your QR code. There is no hardware to buy, a phone is enough to scan.
Does the price change if I have many customers?
No. The Pro plan covers unlimited customers for one shop, and notifications on the card are included, with no quota or pack. Only the number of shops changes the price, with the Business plan.
Can I stop whenever I want?
Yes. Pro and Business have no commitment, and the trial lasts fourteen days. Your customer file can still be exported.
Where is my customers’ data hosted?
On Hetzner servers in Germany, with encrypted backups at o2switch in France. The list of providers is in our privacy policy.
Cartia
Try Cartia without paying anything
A free plan, permanent, up to 50 customers, no card required. Then Pro at €29.90 a month including VAT, no commitment, with everything we have shipped.
Free up to 50 customers · Pro €29.90 a month incl. VAT · No entry fee, no commitment