Boomerangme Alternative for Wallet Loyalty Cards

Boomerangme is one option for creating wallet loyalty cards, but it is not the only choice. A Boomerangme alternative can give you lower fees, simpler setup, or features that fit your shop type better.

See also: Loopy Loyalty Alternative for Wallet Loyalty Cards · Loyverse Loyalty Alternative for Wallet Cards

This article compares practical alternatives for cafes, salons, retail stores, and other small businesses. You will see how pricing models differ, how much effort each option takes to set up, and which use cases each tool handles best. We also show where PassHive fits well and where it does not, so you can pick the right wallet loyalty card solution without wasting time on features you will never use.

Pricing Model Differences

The way a loyalty platform charges you matters more than the headline price. A flat monthly fee, a per-card charge, a percentage of redemptions, or a setup cost each suit different businesses. You need to match the pricing structure to how your customers actually behave.

A cafe with high footfall and low transaction values will feel a per-card fee very differently than a salon with fewer clients but higher ticket sizes. If you pay for every card issued, a busy coffee shop could see costs climb with every new customer who taps "Add to Wallet." That model rewards volume, but it can punish you for simply being popular. A salon with a steady list of regulars might prefer that approach, because the number of new cards each month is small and predictable.

A car wash or gym often runs on memberships or repeat visits within a short window. For them, a flat monthly fee is easier to budget. You know the cost on the first of the month, whether you sign up ten new members or two hundred. The risk is paying the same amount in a quiet month as in a busy one. That can sting for seasonal businesses, such as an ice cream shop or a Christmas market stall.

Some platforms charge based on campaign performance or redemptions. A restaurant using a "buy five coffees, get the sixth free" card might pay a small fee each time a customer redeems the reward. That sounds fair, because you only pay when the loyalty programme is working. But if your offer is generous and customers redeem often, the cost can grow quickly. You need to calculate whether the extra visits justify the redemption fee.

Setup fees are another factor. Some providers charge to design your card, configure the wallet integration, or train your staff. Others include this in the monthly price. If you run a small salon with one location, a high setup fee can wipe out the savings from a low monthly rate. Ask what the setup fee covers. Does it include changes to your logo or offer later, or will you pay extra for every update?

Boomerangme’s pricing is not listed publicly in a fixed format. The cost depends on your location, the number of locations, and the features you need. You should contact their sales team or check their website for current details. Do not assume the price you see in a third-party review is accurate. Pricing changes often, and a quote for a chain of ten gyms will not match a quote for a single bakery.

When comparing a Boomerangme alternative, ask these questions before signing:

• Is there a monthly minimum, or can I pause during slow months?
• Does the price include unlimited push notifications, or do I pay per message?
• Are there charges for adding a second location or a new staff login?
• What happens if I exceed a card or customer limit?

A simple example helps. Suppose a platform charges £30 per month plus £0.05 per card issued. A cafe issuing 400 new cards a month pays £30 plus £20, so £50 total. A salon issuing 40 new cards pays £30 plus £2, so £32. The same pricing model feels very different to each business. That is why you must run the numbers with your own customer data, not the vendor’s example.

The right pricing model is the one you can explain to your accountant in one sentence. If you cannot, keep looking.

Setup Effort Compared

Setting up a wallet loyalty programme means different things depending on the platform you choose. Some tools are built for marketing teams that want deep control. Others are built for a shop owner who has fifteen minutes between lunch orders. Understanding the real-world effort involved can save you a lot of frustration later.

What Setup Actually Involves

Wallet loyalty cards are not like printing a paper stamp card. You need to prepare digital assets, configure the reward logic, and test how the card appears on a customer’s phone. With Boomerangme, the setup is typically handled as a managed onboarding process. You provide your logo, brand colours, and the basic reward rule, such as “buy nine coffees, get the tenth free.” The platform team then builds the card and helps you connect it to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. This is useful if you do not have a designer on staff or if you want the card to look polished from day one.

A boomerangme alternative often takes a different route. You log in, upload your logo, pick a template, and type in your reward rule. The card can be ready in under an hour if you already have a high-resolution logo file and a clear idea of your offer. The trade-off is that you are responsible for checking how the card renders on different phone models. A card that looks fine on an iPhone may have a cropped logo on some Android devices. Testing on two or three phones before launch is a sensible step.

Real-World Scenarios by Business Type

A small cafe with one location.
If you run a single cafe, you probably want the fastest possible path. A self-serve alternative works well here. You can set up a simple “buy five, get one free” card during a quiet afternoon. You will need your logo in PNG format, a short description, and the reward value. The main effort is not technical; it is deciding whether the free item includes any drink or only a regular coffee. Clear rules reduce confusion at the till.

A salon or barbershop.
Salons often want a points-based card rather than a stamp card. For example, every pound spent earns ten points, and five hundred points gives a discount on a treatment. This takes slightly longer to configure because you need to set the points-per-pound rate and the redemption threshold. If you are using a boomerangme alternative, expect to spend part of an afternoon testing the maths. Run a few example transactions to make sure a £40 haircut shows the correct points balance.

A car wash with multiple wash tiers.
Car washes frequently offer different rewards for different services. A basic wash might earn one stamp, while a premium wash earns two. This kind of tiered logic is possible on most wallet loyalty platforms, but it requires more careful setup. You may need to create separate card templates or use a points system instead of stamps. If you are comparing Boomerangme vs a self-serve tool, ask whether the platform supports tiered earning without custom development.

A gym or fitness studio.
Gyms often link loyalty to membership status rather than purchases. You might want a card that shows a member’s class count or unlocks a reward after ten visits. Setup here involves importing member data or connecting your booking system. Some wallet platforms offer direct integrations; others require a manual CSV upload. The manual route is fine for a small studio but becomes tedious if you have hundreds of members.

Time Estimates and Practical Advice

There is no universal setup time. A basic stamp card on a self-serve boomerangme alternative can take under an hour. A managed setup through Boomerangme may take a few days because it involves back-and-forth communication, but it removes the design guesswork. A complex points programme with tiered rewards and a member import can take a week or more on any platform.

Before you start, gather these items:

• A high-resolution logo file, ideally PNG with a transparent background
• Your brand colours as hex codes
• A one-sentence reward rule that staff can explain in under ten seconds
• A test phone for both Apple Wallet and Google Wallet

Do not skip the staff briefing. The best-configured card fails if the person at the counter does not know how to scan it or what the reward actually is. A fifteen-minute team walkthrough after setup prevents most launch-day problems. If you are unsure about pricing or onboarding details for Boomerangme, check the vendor’s site directly.

What Boomerangme Does Best

Boomerangme focuses on wallet-based loyalty cards. The core idea is simple: a customer adds a digital card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, then taps or scans it at your counter. The platform records the visit, updates the points or stamps, and sends a push notification to the customer’s lock screen. No separate app download, no plastic card, no SMS code. For a busy shop owner, that removes a lot of friction.

The strength of this approach shows up in fast-moving retail and hospitality settings. A cafe with a morning rush can process a loyalty stamp in under two seconds. The customer holds their phone near the reader, the cashier sees the name and current balance on the point-of-sale screen, and the transaction moves on. There is no fumbling for a paper card, no searching through an email inbox for a coupon, and no need to ask for a phone number. That speed matters when you have six people in line and two staff on shift.

Salons and barbershops benefit from a different angle. A stylist can check a client’s visit history at the front desk before the appointment starts. If the customer has not been in for eight weeks, the receptionist can mention a rebooking offer or a product restock. Boomerangme lets you attach notes or tags to a customer profile, so you can record things like “prefers silent appointments” or “allergic to ammonia-based colour.” That kind of detail is hard to keep in a paper book and easy to lose in a generic spreadsheet.

Car washes and gyms often use punch-card style rewards. Boomerangme handles those cleanly. A car wash can offer a free basic wash after nine paid visits. The digital card shows the progress bar on the customer’s phone, which acts as a gentle reminder to come back. A gym can use the same wallet card for class check-ins and member discounts at the smoothie bar. Because the card lives in the phone’s wallet, it updates automatically after each scan. The customer sees the new balance without opening an app.

Restaurants and quick-service outlets can use the platform for time-based offers. A burger shop might push a “free fries on your next visit, valid for 48 hours” notification to everyone who scanned in the last week. The offer appears on the lock screen and is stored on the wallet card. When the customer returns, the cashier scans the card and the discount applies. This works without printing vouchers or training staff to remember a promo code.

One practical detail worth noting: Boomerangme works even when the customer’s phone has no signal. The wallet card stores a local copy of the balance and visit data. The point-of-sale system syncs when it reconnects. For shops in basements, thick-walled buildings, or rural areas with patchy coverage, that is a meaningful advantage over app-only loyalty schemes.

You can see how many cards are active, how often people return, and which offers get redeemed. You can export customer lists for your own email or SMS campaigns. But the main selling point remains the wallet card itself: it is always on the customer’s phone, always visible, and requires almost no effort to use.

If you want to know whether the pricing fits your shop size, check the Boomerangme website directly. Costs vary by location and plan, and the company does not publish a single fixed rate. Ask for a demo with your own device and a test card before committing.

Who Should Choose Boomerangme

Boomerangme suits businesses that want a wallet-based loyalty card without building their own app. If your customers use Apple Wallet or Google Wallet daily, this platform can put your card where they already look. That matters for shops where repeat visits depend on convenience, not just discounts.

A busy cafe is a clear example. Your regulars order the same drink, pay with a phone, and leave within minutes. They will not download a separate app or carry a paper punch card. Boomerangme lets you issue a digital card that sits in their wallet. Staff scan it at the till, points update on the spot, and the customer sees the balance without opening anything new. If you run two or three locations, the same card works across all of them. That removes the “I left my card at home” problem and keeps your brand visible every time they open their wallet.

Salons and barbershops fit well too. Appointments are often weeks apart, and clients forget how many visits they have accumulated. You can also use the platform to send a push notification when a loyalty reward is close to expiry. For a salon owner, that means fewer empty chairs on quiet weekdays and more rebookings from clients who want to reach the next reward tier.

Car washes and quick-service restaurants benefit from the same logic. These are high-frequency, low-consideration purchases. Customers choose based on speed and habit. A wallet card that updates after each wash or meal gives them a reason to return to you instead of the competitor across the street. If you run a car wash with a monthly pass or a restaurant with a “buy nine, get one free” offer, Boomerangme can track that without a clunky POS integration in every case. Check its site to confirm which POS systems it connects to before you commit.

Gyms and fitness studios are another strong match. Members already carry their phones during workouts. A wallet card can hold class credits, membership status, or check-in history. If you offer a referral reward or a bring-a-friend bonus, the card makes it visible without printing anything.

Boomerangme is less suited to businesses that rarely see repeat customers, such as a tourist souvenir shop or a one-time event vendor. It also makes less sense if most of your customers pay in cash or do not use smartphones. In those cases, a simple paper stamp card or a basic SMS list may work better.

If you already use a POS system with built-in loyalty features, compare Boomerangme vs your current setup before switching. The main question is whether your customers will actually open their wallet app. If they do, this platform removes friction. If they do not, no digital card will change their behaviour. Ask a few regulars how they would prefer to track rewards before you decide.

How Switching Works

Moving from Boomerangme to another wallet loyalty platform usually takes less time than owners expect. The key is to treat the switch as a data handover, not a rebuild from scratch. Your customer list, visit history and reward balances are the assets you need to protect. Most reputable alternatives understand this and have a process for importing that information.

Start by exporting your data from Boomerangme. You typically get a CSV or Excel file with names, email addresses, phone numbers, join dates, points and stamps. Download every report you can, including campaign history if available. Keep a copy on your own computer before you close the account.

Next, map your loyalty rules to the new platform. A cafe that gave a free coffee after nine stamps should keep the same threshold unless you deliberately want to change it. A salon that rewarded a discount after five visits should not suddenly require eight. Customers notice when the goalposts move. Write down your current rules for each location, service or product category before you start configuring the new system.

Then import the customer data. Many wallet loyalty platforms let you upload a CSV file directly. Check how the new system handles existing points. Some will let you set a starting balance per customer. Others require you to create a one-time “welcome back” bonus that matches the old balance. For example, if a customer had 120 points on Boomerangme, you might add 120 points manually or via import. If the new platform cannot import balances automatically, plan a short window where staff honour old balances from a printed list or a spreadsheet on the till.

Communicate the change before it happens. Put a sign at the counter for two to three weeks: “We’re upgrading our loyalty card. Your points are safe.” Send an email or SMS to your most active customers. Tell them to expect a new card or app link. If you run a car wash or gym where customers visit weekly, a simple notice near the entrance works. If you run a restaurant where visits are less frequent, email matters more.

Finally, run both systems briefly if you can. Keep Boomerangme active for a week or two while the new wallet cards go live. This lets staff check balances in both places if a customer shows an old pass. Once the overlap ends, export one final backup and close the old account. The goal is that no customer loses a single stamp or point during the move.

Where PassHive Is Not the Right Fit

A wallet loyalty platform is a specific tool. It solves a specific set of problems: replacing plastic cards, reducing friction at the till, and sending push notifications to customers who already have your card in their phone wallet. If your business does not have those problems, PassHive is the wrong tool for the job. Here are the situations where you should look elsewhere.

You Do Not Have a Reliable Customer Identity

Wallet loyalty cards work because the phone is linked to a person. The customer taps “Add to Apple Wallet” or “Save to Google Wallet,” and from that moment you have a persistent identifier. But some businesses do not operate that way.

Think of a busy car wash where most customers pay cash and never give a name. Or a market stall where the same person buys from you every Saturday but you only know them as “the lady who buys the sourdough.” If you cannot get customers to install the card in the first place, no wallet platform will help. The value comes from the install. Without it, you are just selling a product that sits unused.

In these cases, a simple stamp card on paper or a phone number lookup at the counter is more practical. You are not losing data because you never had a way to collect it. Start with a basic CRM or even a spreadsheet before you pay for a wallet loyalty tool.

You Sell Low-Frequency, High-Consideration Items

Wallet cards reward repeat visits. A coffee shop sees the same customer three times a week. A salon sees them every six weeks. A gym sees them three times a week. Those are good fits.

But a furniture store, a bridal boutique, or a car dealership does not have that rhythm. A customer buys a sofa once every eight years. A bride buys one dress. A car buyer might return in five years for a service, but that is not a loyalty loop; it is a separate purchase decision.

If your average customer visits less than once a quarter, a wallet card adds little. The card sits in their phone, forgotten. The push notification you send about a spring sale is no more effective than an email. You would be better off spending that budget on local SEO, a referral program, or a simple email list.

Your Customers Are Not Smartphone-First

This is a hard truth for many small businesses. Wallet loyalty assumes the customer has a modern phone, keeps it updated, and is comfortable scanning a QR code or tapping a link. In some neighbourhoods, that is true for 90% of customers. In others, it is true for 40%.

A diner in a retirement community, a laundromat in a low-income area, or a hardware store serving tradespeople who use old phones will struggle. The customer does not want to install a card. They want to pay and leave. If you force a wallet card on them, you create friction at the counter. The line slows down. Your staff have to explain how to install a pass. That is the opposite of loyalty.

A better fit here is a simple points system run through your POS, or even a physical punch card. You can always add a wallet option later when your customer base shifts.

You Need Deep Analytics or Complex Segmentation

PassHive is built for clarity and speed. It tells you who has your card, how often they visit, and what offers they redeem. That is enough for most shops, cafes, and salons.

But if you run a multi-location restaurant group and you need cohort analysis, churn prediction, or integration with a full marketing automation stack, you will hit a wall. Wallet platforms like Boomerangme and PassHive focus on the card and the visit. They are not full CRM replacements. If you already use a tool like HubSpot or Klaviyo and you need your loyalty data to flow into complex drip campaigns, check the integration list carefully. If the integration is not there, you will end up exporting CSV files every week. That manual work defeats the purpose.

In that case, look for a loyalty module inside your existing POS or CRM. Or accept that you will run two systems and manage the overlap yourself. But do not buy a wallet platform expecting it to replace your marketing stack.

You Are Not Willing to Promote the Card

This is the most common reason wallet loyalty fails. The platform is not a magic box. Customers do not discover your wallet card by accident. You have to tell them about it. At the counter. On your receipts. On a sign by the door. In your Instagram bio.

If you are not prepared to train your staff to say “Would you like to add our loyalty card to your phone? It takes ten seconds,” then do not buy the tool. The install rate will be near zero.

PassHive works when the owner or manager makes it part of the daily routine. The barista asks every customer. The receptionist adds the card during checkout. The nail technician mentions it while the polish dries. If that feels like too much effort, you are not ready for any wallet loyalty platform, including Boomerangme. Start with a simpler system you will actually use.

Wallet Loyalty Card Features

A wallet loyalty card replaces the plastic punch card or the app that customers never open. It lives in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, the two places people already check for payments, tickets and boarding passes. For a shop owner, that means the card is one tap away instead of buried in a folder full of unused apps.

The core features matter because they change daily routines at the counter. A cafe can issue a digital stamp card that updates after each purchase. The customer pays, the cashier scans a QR code or taps an NFC tag, and the card shows a new stamp on the lock screen. No plastic card to lose, no manual hole punch, no paper tracking sheet.

Salons and barbershops use a points-based setup instead of stamps. A client earns points per visit or per dollar spent, and the wallet card displays the running balance. The owner can set a reward threshold, such as ten points for a free treatment or a discount on the next booking. Because the balance is visible every time the customer opens their wallet, the card acts as a quiet reminder to rebook.

Car washes and quick-service restaurants often run time-limited promotions. A wallet card can carry a limited-time offer, such as a free upgrade after three washes within a month. The expiry date shows on the card itself. When the offer lapses, the card updates automatically. Staff do not need to explain expired deals or handle disputes about old paper vouchers.

Gyms and fitness studios can use wallet cards for membership check-ins and class credits. A member’s card can show remaining sessions, renewal dates or a simple barcode for front-desk scanning. This removes the need for a separate membership app and reduces front-desk friction during busy morning hours.

Push notifications are a key difference between wallet cards and ordinary loyalty apps. A wallet card can send a lock-screen update when a customer is near the shop, when a reward is close to being earned, or when a new offer starts. For example, a coffee shop can trigger a notification when a regular customer is one stamp away from a free drink. The message appears without the customer opening any app.

Location-based updates work through the wallet’s existing infrastructure. A restaurant owner can set a card to appear on the lock screen when the customer walks within a certain distance of the venue. This is useful for lunchtime foot traffic, but it requires the customer to have allowed location access for the card.

Another practical feature is the ability to update card content without asking customers to download anything new. The change reaches every customer’s wallet automatically on their next refresh.

For businesses comparing a boomerangme alternative, the checklist should cover stamp cards, points balances, push notifications, location triggers, expiry handling and bulk updates. Test each feature with a real customer flow: order, scan, update, reward. If the card does not update within a second or two at the till, staff will stop using it.

Wallet cards also reduce printing costs and waste. A cafe issuing 500 plastic cards per quarter can replace that with a single digital template. Reprints for lost cards disappear. The environmental angle is a side benefit, not the main selling point, but it matters to some customers.

The practical test is simple: ask a staff member to issue a card, earn a stamp, redeem a reward and explain the process to a customer in under thirty seconds. If any step requires a second app, a login or a manual entry, the wallet card is not doing its job.

Customer Engagement Approach

A wallet loyalty card only earns its place on a phone screen if it gives customers a reason to open it. The engagement model matters more than the card design. Boomerangme and similar wallet loyalty platforms typically focus on the pass itself: a customer adds the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, then the shop updates points, stamps, or offers through push notifications and lock-screen messages.

That approach works well for simple, repeat-purchase habits. A car wash can send a lock-screen reminder when a customer is nearby or when a free wash is one visit away. A gym can update a membership pass with class credits without asking the member to open an app. The card sits quietly in the wallet until the business pushes a relevant update.

What to Look for in an Engagement Model

If you are evaluating a Boomerangme alternative, ask how the platform handles three practical situations.

Re-engaging a lapsed customer. A salon wants to reach someone who has not booked in eight weeks. Some wallet platforms let you send a time-limited offer directly to the pass, which appears on the lock screen. Others require the customer to open an app or check email. The wallet route tends to get seen faster because it does not compete with an inbox.

Rewarding a visit without slowing the queue. A busy cafe needs the loyalty step to take under five seconds at the till. The customer taps their phone, the staff member scans the pass, and the points update. If the alternative requires logging into a tablet, searching for a name, or asking for a phone number, it will fail during the morning rush.

Handling a multi-location business. A restaurant group with three sites wants one customer record across all branches. Check whether the alternative syncs points in real time or only at end of day. A customer who earns a free coffee at lunch and tries to redeem it at dinner will not accept a delay.

Practical Engagement Tactics

Whichever platform you choose, the tool only matters if you use it consistently. A wallet pass with no updates for six weeks becomes invisible. A pass that updates every visit stays on the front of the wallet stack.

For a car wash, send a reminder after heavy rain or road salt. For a salon, update the pass with a booking link two days before a client’s usual rebooking window. For a gym, push a class credit reminder on Sunday evening when members plan their week. These are small, specific actions that turn a static card into an active channel.

The goal is not to send more messages. It is to send fewer, better-timed ones. A wallet card that only appears when it is useful earns trust. A card that buzzes with generic promotions gets deleted.

When comparing Boomerangme with other wallet loyalty platforms, test the notification controls. Can you set quiet hours? Can you segment by visit frequency or last visit date? Can you see which messages led to a redemption? These details determine whether the engagement tool fits your shop’s rhythm or forces you into someone else’s.

Platform Limitations to Consider

Every loyalty platform makes trade-offs. Boomerangme is built around Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes, which is a specific design choice with real consequences for how you run campaigns day to day. Before you commit, test these scenarios against how your shop actually operates.

Design and content updates take planning. A wallet pass is not a webpage you can edit in seconds. When you want to change a stamp card from “buy 8 get 1 free” to “buy 10 get 1 free,” you typically need to push an update through the platform and wait for the pass to refresh on each customer’s phone. If a customer has not opened their wallet or has notifications disabled, the old design may sit there until they do. For a cafe running a weekend-only promotion, this means you must schedule changes well ahead. You cannot decide on Friday morning to tweak the offer and expect every phone in your queue to show it by lunch.

Offline behaviour depends on the point-of-sale setup. Wallet passes work well when your staff can scan a barcode or QR code at the till. There is no paper fallback built into the wallet pass itself. A busy car wash with gloved, wet-handed staff may find it easier to keep a laminated card system than to handle a phone scan for every visit. This is not a flaw in Boomerangme; it is a mismatch between the tool and the physical workflow.

Customer discovery is not automatic. A wallet pass sits quietly in a customer’s phone. It does not remind them to visit unless you set up location-based or time-based notifications, and those require the customer to have allowed them. Many users turn off lock-screen notifications for wallet passes to reduce clutter. A restaurant that relies on walk-in traffic may find that a pass only helps regulars who already know about it. You still need a sign at the counter, a QR code on the receipt, or a link in your booking confirmation to get the pass onto new phones.

Segmentation and messaging are more limited than a full CRM. Boomerangme focuses on the pass itself: points, stamps, offers, and basic updates. If you want to send a targeted message to “customers who visited twice in the last month but not in the last three weeks,” you may need to export data and work it out in a spreadsheet or connect a separate email tool. A gym with a strong email newsletter may find the wallet pass is a good companion, but not a replacement for the segmentation they already use.

Design flexibility is bounded by the wallet format. Apple and Google control how passes look and behave. You can choose colours, images, and text fields, but you cannot redesign the layout freely. A fashion boutique that wants a highly branded, custom loyalty screen inside its own app will not get that from a wallet pass. The pass is a standardised rectangle with limited space. Long offer terms or multi-step instructions get truncated or require the customer to tap through to a linked page.

None of these points mean Boomerangme is a poor choice. They mean you should walk through your busiest hour, your slowest Tuesday, and your most complicated promotion before deciding. If the wallet-first workflow fits, it can be very clean. If it does not, you will feel the friction every single day. Check Boomerangme’s current feature list and support documentation on their site to confirm how each of these areas works in the latest version.

Why shops look at PassHive instead of Boomerangme

Some shops start with Boomerangme because they want wallet-based loyalty cards without building their own system. That makes sense. Apple Wallet and Google Wallet cards sit on the phone, not in an app drawer, so customers actually see them.

When a shop compares Boomerangme with PassHive, the questions usually come down to cost structure, control, and how the card behaves day to day. This site is published by the team that builds PassHive, so we will be direct about what PassHive does and does not do.

There is no limit on the number of cards or customers. A single-location cafe pays $10 per month whether it has 80 customers or 8,000. Yearly billing gives two months free.

This is different from platforms that charge a base fee and then add a per-pass or per-customer fee. For example, PassKit starts at $39.50 per month for 250 passes, then charges extra per pass beyond that. A cafe with 1,000 customers would pay roughly $73 per month on PassKit, compared with $10 on PassHive. We do not state Boomerangme's prices here because they can change; check its site directly.

What the card does

PassHive supports two card types: a stamp card, such as buy nine get the tenth free, and a points card. The card carries the shop's own name, colour and logo. When a customer earns a stamp or points, the card updates itself on their phone. There is no app download for the customer. They scan a QR code at the counter or open a link.

Shops can send push notifications to saved cards, for example an offer or a note that a reward is ready. Google limits this to roughly three messages per card per day. PassHive can also set location-based lock-screen reminders near the shop. Apple supports up to 10 locations per card with a radius of about 200 metres; Google uses merchant locations. The phone decides when to show the reminder, so we phrase it as "can remind".

Control and integration

A shop can turn any branch off at any time, and its cards stop immediately. There is a public REST API with API keys, so a developer or agency can create cards, add stamps, add points and send messages from their own POS, app or website. Documentation is public.

PassHive is not a POS, not an e-commerce plugin, and has no named integrations with Shopify, Square, Toast or similar systems.

You can design the card and preview it on iPhone and Android for free. You pay only when you go live. If you want to see how the card looks before committing, start designing your card free.

PassHive is a flat monthly plan for the whole business, not a fee per branch. The plan sets the maximum number of active branches you can run: $10 a month for up to 100 branches, $25 for up to 275, $50 for up to 600 and $100 for up to 1,250. Yearly billing gives two months free ($100, $250, $500 or $1,000 a year). A cafe with one branch pays $10 a month in total, whatever the number of cards or customers. That is what "pay for your branches, not your customers" means: the plan size follows how many branches you run, never how many people save your card.