Compare / the Shopify App Stack

The Shopify app stack rents you four tools with four data silos. Rehost leases one branded app and loyalty, operated, with the customer data unified in your name.

Shopify is a great store, and its app ecosystem is the best DIY catalog there is. The cost isn't any one app; it's the stack. A loyalty app, an email/SMS app, a retention app, and a separate mobile-app builder each bill monthly, each hold a slice of the customer, and your team stitches them together. Rehost keeps Shopify as the store and replaces the loyalty-and-app add-ons with one custom branded app plus loyalty that a team operates, with the customer data unified and held in your name. This is not a Shopify replacement.

Where the Shopify app stack genuinely wins.

Shopify's app ecosystem is best-in-class for DIY. Smile.io, LoyaltyLion, and Klaviyo are mature, deep, category-leading products, and you can install one this afternoon, configure it yourself, and uninstall it just as fast. If your team likes owning the configuration and wants to mix and match best-of-breed tools, nothing matches the catalog's breadth.

The integrations are also real. These apps talk to Shopify and increasingly to each other: LoyaltyLion pushes loyalty events into Klaviyo, app builders sync the catalog automatically. For a brand with a marketer who lives in these dashboards and wants to A/B test across tools, that depth and self-serve control is a legitimate advantage Rehost doesn't try to match.

The stack, side by side.

Figures below are published list and reported ranges as of mid-2026; what a brand actually pays depends on order volume, email profiles, and in-app revenue. We add the line items the way a real mid-market stack accrues them.

	Rehost	Shopify app stack
Monthly cost	From $950/mo, MAU-based ($950 up to 2K, $1,500 up to 10K, $2,500 up to 50K)	Smile $49–999, LoyaltyLion $199–1,499+, Klaviyo $60–720+, app builder $250–550+; commonly $400–800+/mo combined
What it covers	One custom branded app plus loyalty, operated; Shopify stays your store	Separate apps for loyalty, email/SMS, retention, and the mobile app
Customer data	Unified in one stack, exportable, in your name	Fragmented across each app; you reconcile it
Who runs it	Rehost's team builds and operates; you never log into a builder	Your team configures and maintains each dashboard
Fees	No setup fee, no per-transaction cut; processor settles to your bank	Per-app subscriptions that scale with orders, profiles, and in-app revenue
If you leave	App, domain, App Store account, repo, and unified data stay yours	Cancel each app; the loyalty points, app, and emails live in their systems

Reported ranges as of mid-2026; quotes vary and several apps meter on order volume, active email profiles, or in-app revenue, so the combined bill climbs as you grow. Klaviyo SMS is a separate credit purchase on top of email. Rehost does not replace Shopify; it consolidates the loyalty and mobile-app add-ons that sit on top of it.

Four differences that decide it.

One stack, not four subscriptions. The app-stack model bills per tool: loyalty, email/SMS, retention, app builder. Each has its own plan, its own renewal, its own price that scales as you grow. Rehost folds the loyalty and branded-app jobs into one MAU-based line item from $950/mo, with the team that runs it included.
Unified data vs four silos. When loyalty lives in one app, email in another, and the app in a third, the customer is split across systems your team reconciles. Rehost unifies the customer data in one stack you own and can export, so a member is one record, not four partial ones.
Operated vs configured. The app stack is DIY by design: your team owns the setup, the testing, and the upkeep across every dashboard. Rehost's team builds and operates the app and loyalty for you. You ask for a change, it ships; nobody on your side learns a builder.
We keep Shopify; we replace the add-ons. This isn't a Shopify replacement. Your store, checkout, and catalog stay on Shopify. What Rehost consolidates is the bolt-on layer: the loyalty apps and the separate mobile-app builder that fragment the data and stack up the monthly bill.

Keep the app stack if.

You have a marketer who lives in these dashboards and wants best-of-breed control across loyalty, email, and app, tuned and tested in-house.
Your add-on spend is still low (a single loyalty app on a starter plan) and the stack hasn't fragmented yet.
You want to mix and match from Shopify's catalog and swap tools yourself whenever a better one ships.

Consolidate with Rehost if.

Your add-on bill has crept past $400–800+/mo and the customer data is scattered across four apps.
You want a custom branded app plus loyalty operated for you, not another dashboard your team maintains.
You want the app, accounts, repo, and unified customer data in your name from day one, not living inside each vendor.
You want to keep Shopify as the store while one team owns the retention layer end to end.

Common questions.

Does Rehost replace Shopify?

No. Shopify stays your store: checkout, catalog, and orders run exactly as they do today. Rehost consolidates the layer that sits on top of it, the loyalty apps and the separate mobile-app builder, into one custom branded app plus loyalty that we operate, with the customer data unified and held in your name.

Is Rehost cheaper than my app stack?

Often, once the stack has grown. A single loyalty app on a low plan is cheap. But a real mid-market brand commonly runs Smile or LoyaltyLion, Klaviyo for email and SMS, and a separate app builder like Tapcart, which together commonly total $400–800+/mo and climb with orders, email profiles, and in-app revenue. Rehost is from $950/mo MAU-based with no setup fee and no per-transaction cut, and it includes the team that operates it.

What happens to my loyalty points and customer data?

They come with you. During onboarding we migrate the customer records and loyalty balances into one unified stack you own and can export. The one thing that can't transfer is App Store reviews on any existing builder app.

Who builds and runs the app?

Rehost does. We design the custom branded app, build it, ship it to the App Store under your account, and operate it: changes, loyalty rules, and updates are handled by the team. You never log into a builder. Live in about two weeks.

Do I keep using Klaviyo for email?

You can. Rehost focuses on the branded app and loyalty, and we keep Shopify as the store. If email and SMS are working for you in Klaviyo, that can stay; what we consolidate is the loyalty and mobile-app add-ons, and we wire the unified customer data so your email tool reads from one source instead of a silo.

Related.

Business

Put your app-stack bill next to the lease.

Bring your current add-ons: loyalty, email, retention, app builder, and what each costs. Thirty minutes later you'll have a side-by-side, what consolidates, what stays on Shopify, and a kickoff date.