Joy and Keystone end up on the same shortlist often enough that it's worth laying out where each one honestly wins - including the places where Joy is the better buy.
Joy has been in the App Store since 2021, carries the Built for Shopify badge, and holds a 4.9 rating across roughly 1,690 reviews as of July 2026. Keystone Loyalty Rewards launched in 2025 and has a 5.0 rating from 4 reviews. Those two numbers tell you something real before any feature table does, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.
Here's the rest of the picture. All pricing is as of July 2026.
The Plan Ladders Side by Side
Joy: Starter (free, 250 monthly orders), Essential $29, Advanced $129, Ultimate $499.
Keystone: Free (250 monthly orders), Starter $14.99 (500 orders), Standard $69 (1,250 orders), Growth $129 (2,000 orders).
Both free plans cover 250 monthly orders, so the comparison only gets interesting once you outgrow that. The question is which feature you hit the wall on first.
Where Joy Wins: Integrations and Flow Come Cheap
This is the clearest win on the board, and it isn't close.
Joy's Essential plan at $29 includes 30+ integrations such as Klaviyo and Recharge, Shopify Flow automation with 22+ triggers, a dedicated loyalty page, point expiration rules, and analytics. On Keystone, native integrations and Shopify Flow triggers sit on the Growth plan at $129.
If your retention runs through Klaviyo and you want loyalty data flowing into it from day one, Joy gets you there for a hundred dollars a month less. That's the honest answer.
Joy also puts referrals - with fraud prevention - on its free plan, while Keystone's referrals start on Starter at $14.99. A small gap, but a real one.
Where Joy Wins: Depth at the Top
Joy's Advanced plan carries features Keystone doesn't have an equivalent for: Apple and Google Wallet passes, paid membership programs, redemption in the cart drawer, B2B and wholesale tiers alongside consumer VIP tiers, and a loyalty rule engine. Ultimate adds checkout UI extensions, a developer toolkit with JS SDK, REST API access, and headless support for Hydrogen or Next.js.
If you need wallet passes, paid memberships, or a headless build, that's Joy. Keystone isn't competing for that job.
Where Keystone Wins: The Cost of VIP Tiers
VIP tiers are the feature most stores upgrade for, and the two apps price them very differently.
Joy puts VIP tiers on Advanced at $129. Keystone includes them on Standard at $69, along with advanced points and discount rewards, the Thank you page block, and done-for-you setup where our team builds the program with you.
If tiers are the reason you're upgrading and you don't need Joy's wallet passes or rule engine, you're paying $60 a month for the difference.
Where Keystone Wins: POS and Order Volume
Keystone's Starter plan at $14.99 includes POS rewards for in-store customers, gift card rewards, points expiry with notifications, referrals and campaigns, and 500 monthly orders. Joy's POS extension arrives on Advanced at $129.
For a store with a physical location and moderate volume, that's a significant gap. The same holds on pure order allowance: Keystone's $69 Standard covers 1,250 monthly orders, and Growth includes 2,000 at $129.
Where Keystone Wins: Languages
Keystone supports 20 languages; Joy's listing shows 6 as of July 2026. Keystone's multi-language and multi-currency storefront sits on Growth at $129.
If you sell across several European markets, that difference shows up on the storefront rather than in a settings panel.
The Honest Recommendation
Choose Joy if you want a proven app with well over a thousand reviews behind it, you need integrations or Shopify Flow at a low monthly price, or you need wallet passes, paid memberships, B2B tiers, or headless support.
Choose Keystone if VIP tiers or POS rewards are your reason for upgrading and you'd rather not pay $129 to reach them, you sell in multiple languages, or you want a team to build the program with you instead of handing you a blank dashboard.
Both have real free plans at 250 monthly orders. The genuinely low-risk move is to run one for a month before committing to either ladder.
Want to try it on your own store?
Install Keystone Loyalty Rewards for free right now.
Related reading
- Smile.io vs Keystone: Which Shopify Loyalty App Fits Your Store?
- LoyaltyLion vs Keystone: Pricing and Feature Comparison for Shopify
- The 7 Best Shopify Loyalty Apps in 2026 (Honest Comparison)
Ready to compare on your own numbers? Keystone Loyalty & Rewards includes VIP tiers from $69/month, POS rewards from $14.99, and a free plan to start.