Loylap Alternative: The Best Loylap Alternatives for Restaurant Loyalty and Ordering
What is Loylap?
Loylap is an Irish company that sells loyalty programmes and online ordering to restaurants, cafés and retail businesses. You get a points-based loyalty scheme, a branded app and online ordering. Its customers are mostly independents and small chains.
People start looking for a Loylap alternative for a handful of reasons. They've opened a second or third site and running each one separately has become a chore. They want marketing that reacts to what customers actually do, not just a points balance sitting in an app. Or the POS doesn't talk to the loyalty scheme, so someone on the team ends up typing the same order in twice.
If that sounds familiar, the five options below are worth a look. Some replace Loylap outright. Others only cover one piece of it, and you'll need to pair them with something else.
The best Loylap alternatives
1. Flipdish
Flipdish is the best Loylap alternative for restaurants and restaurant groups in Ireland and the UK. It does what Loylap does - loyalty, online ordering and branded apps - and adds a lot on top: an integrated restaurant POS, self-service kiosks, AI marketing automation, AI phone ordering and a kitchen display system. It all runs on one platform, so there's one login and one set of customer data.
Flipdish was founded in Ireland and works with Irish restaurants, takeaways and restaurant groups. It's used across thousands of sites in Ireland, the UK and continental Europe.
Loylap suits independents running a basic loyalty scheme. Flipdish is aimed at operators who want more of their orders to come direct, want to own the customer relationship, and plan to add locations.
Here's what that looks like against Loylap in practice:
- The POS and online ordering share one system, so an online order lands in the kitchen without anyone copying it from a tablet.
- Flipdish AI Marketing sends re-engagement campaigns based on how a customer behaves. A customer who used to order every Friday and has gone quiet gets a nudge. A points balance alone can't do that.
- Kiosks take orders in store, which shortens queues and gives customers a menu that prompts add-ons.
- The AI Phone Agent answers the phone and takes the order. Anyone who has tried to take a phone order during a Friday dinner rush will see the point.
- Menus, promotions and customer data are managed centrally across sites.
- It's built with the Irish market in mind, including VAT and local payment set-ups.
Best for Irish and UK restaurants, takeaways and groups that want loyalty, ordering and operations in one place.
2. Stampede
Stampede is a UK customer loyalty and marketing platform for hospitality. It captures customers through WiFi and pairs that with stamp card-style loyalty.
It's pitched at independent venues and has no online ordering platform. So if direct ordering is on your list, you'd need a second supplier alongside it.
A fit for independent UK operators who want simple loyalty capture and nothing more.
3. Loyalzoo
Loyalzoo is a digital loyalty programme for independent restaurants and retailers. Points and rewards run through a mobile app or through the merchant's POS.
It only does loyalty. There's no online ordering, no POS and no marketing automation. For some places that's exactly right: you want to retire the paper stamp card and nothing else. For anyone planning to grow direct orders, it leaves most of the work undone.
A fit for independent restaurants that want a digital replacement for the stamp card.
4. Airship
Airship is a hospitality CRM and marketing platform used by UK restaurant chains and pub groups. It centres on customer data, email marketing and segmentation.
It isn't an ordering or loyalty platform. Operators tend to run it next to a separate ordering system, which means two sets of customer records to keep in sync.
A fit for mid-size and larger UK groups that already have a customer database and want to use it for email and SMS campaigns.
5. Como
Como is a loyalty and marketing platform for restaurants and cafés, with global reach. It supports more complex loyalty set-ups: points, tiers, cashback and vouchers.
It integrates with a range of POS systems and is used by multi-site operators who want to design a detailed loyalty scheme.
A fit for multi-site groups that care most about loyalty mechanics.
Loylap vs Flipdish: direct comparison
| Feature | Flipdish | Loylap |
|---|---|---|
| Online ordering website | ✓ | ✓ |
| Branded mobile app | ✓ | ✓ |
| Loyalty programme | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrated POS | ✓ | Limited |
| Self-service kiosks | ✓ | ✗ |
| AI marketing automation | ✓ | Limited |
| AI phone ordering | ✓ | ✗ |
| Kitchen Display System | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi-site management | ✓ | Limited |
| Irish market track record | ✓ | ✓ |
The first three rows are the same on both sides. The gap opens up further down, where Flipdish covers the in-store and kitchen side of the business and Loylap is limited or absent. If you only ever want a points scheme and an app, that gap may not matter to you. If you're running a kitchen and a till as well, it will.
What to look for when choosing a Loylap alternative
Start with how the loyalty scheme actually works. Points, stamps, tiers, vouchers and cashback all get different behaviour out of customers. A stamp card suits a coffee shop with daily regulars. Points suit a takeaway where order values vary a lot. Whatever you choose, check that you can set up and change a promotion yourself without waiting on a developer.
Then look at the POS. Loyalty points need to be earned and spent at the till as well as in the app, otherwise half your customers never see the benefit. Ask how the platform connects to the POS you have now, or the one you're planning to buy.
Marketing automation is where platforms differ most. A scheme that only rewards what customers already do is passive. A better one notices when a regular stops ordering, remembers birthdays and reacts when someone crosses a spending threshold. Ask to see a lapsed-customer campaign running, not a slide about one.
Online ordering matters too. If you want loyalty and direct ordering together, and you should, find out whether the loyalty tool includes ordering or needs a separate integration. Integrations break, and they cost money to maintain.
Pricing is the last check. Most platforms charge per location per month, so the bill climbs with every site you add. Compare the total cost, including onboarding and integration fees, not just the headline monthly price.
A short list of questions to take into any demo:
- Does a customer earn and spend rewards on every channel I sell through?
- Can I change an offer on Monday morning without contacting support?
- What happens to my customer data if I leave?
- How many sites do you run today, and in which countries?
- What is the full monthly cost for three locations?
Switching from Loylap without losing your customers
Moving platforms is the part people put off. It's less painful than it sounds if you plan it around your existing members.
Ask Loylap what customer data you can export before you do anything else. Names, email addresses, points balances and order history are the useful fields, and you should only use contact details in line with the consent customers gave you. Then ask the new provider how balances get carried over. If members lose their points, tell them what they'll get in return, because a customer who sees a zero balance usually stops caring.
Run the two systems side by side for a short while if you can. Pick one site, move it first, and see how staff cope at the till before you touch the rest. A lunchtime rush is a bad time to find out the staff don't know how to apply a reward. Brief the team a few days ahead, put a note on the menu and on your social channels, and keep the old app available until most members have moved.
For groups, the order matters. Move your quietest site first and your busiest last.
Why loyalty works better inside the ordering flow
The loyalty schemes that get used are the ones built into ordering. A customer orders from your branded site, their points update on their own, and the next reward shows up at checkout. Nobody has to remember anything.
When loyalty sits in a separate app, customers have to download it, log in and sometimes hold up a code at the counter. Plenty won't bother. The programme then reaches only the most committed fraction of your customers, which are the ones who'd probably have come back anyway.
Flipdish builds loyalty into its online ordering and branded app products. An order placed through the website, the app or a kiosk all adds to the same loyalty balance.
How Flipdish helps Irish restaurants grow
Restaurants and groups across Ireland use Flipdish to cut their reliance on marketplaces, grow direct order revenue and build a customer list they own. The platform is used by independent restaurants, fast casual chains and multi-location groups.
For Irish operators weighing up Loylap alternatives, Flipdish covers loyalty, ordering and in-store operations in one product. Pricing is at flipdish.com/pricing-online-ordering, or you can contact Flipdish directly at flipdish.com.
For more restaurant technology comparisons, visit restauranttech.co.uk.