Friendbuy is sold through a demo, with Shopify prices tied to monthly order volume and no figures shown for any other platform. Teams that want a posted price, a lighter set-up or a narrower tool will find a mix of flat-fee, success-fee, revenue-band and enterprise options below.
Short answer: Challengers take places 1 to 3 here. Big brands follow in the order of our category ranking. For Friendbuy users, the top three picks from our referral marketing software ranking are Referral Rock, ReferralCandy and GrowSurf. Pick Referral Rock if you want a posted monthly price and a person to help set up. Below are 11 alternatives, each taken from the Best Referral Marketing Software in 2026 ranking, with its main difference from Friendbuy.
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Pricing: Sold through a demo; no price list on the site
Established in: United States
Built for: Consumer brands wanting referral, loyalty and creator programs from one vendor
Not for: Buyers who need a public price before talking to anyone
01
Why buyers look past Friendbuy
01
Order-volume tiers with no figures shown
The Shopify pricing page sorts programmes into up to 2,500 orders, 2,501 to 5,000, 5,001 to 7,500 and above 7,500, and publishes no base price for any of them. The estimated total reads as a dash until you build a bundle, and the page says final pricing may vary with programme requirements. A buyer comparing three tools cannot put a number next to this one without booking a meeting.
02
Add-ons start at several hundred dollars a month
Receipt scanning and wallet passes with push notifications each start at $500 a month, the reward store is $500 a month and Shopify cashback is $250 a month. Influencer pricing adds 2.5% of influencer revenue to the monthly fee. A programme that grows beyond the basic referral flow can therefore become a stack of separate line items.
03
Everything outside Shopify is custom
For non-Shopify, headless, subscription, multi-market or advanced-security set-ups the page publishes nothing and speaks only of custom pricing. The integrations page adds that platforms needing server-side order tracking, such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud, involve a developer for the initial event set-up, and Shopify POS and Iterable need a conversation with the sales team. Stripe is listed for referral only.
you have engineers and need programmes across web, mobile and several offers
#12
03
What each one does differently
1
Referral Rock
United States · Published
Referral Rock calls itself independently owned and privately held, and its Operator plan carries a flat monthly price with unlimited referrals. A programme advisor helps you build the first campaign. The limit to check is the number of base members, since extra members, programmes and seats are paid add-ons.
Switch from Friendbuy if you want a posted monthly price and a person to help set up.
Anafore Pte Ltd in Singapore operates ReferralCandy for online shops. Every plan has the same features, billed as a fixed fee plus a percentage of first orders from referred customers, with no contract and a seven-day trial. Run the percentage against your own order revenue before you pick a tier.
Switch from Friendbuy if you want month-to-month billing that scales with referred sales.
GrowSurf counts participants, meaning everyone who refers or is referred, and opens every account with a 14-day trial of the paid features. The API, webhooks and fraud blocking sit in the base tiers. A viral loop that works pushes you into a higher tier, and payout tax-form filings cost extra.
Switch from Friendbuy if your product team wants in-app referrals through an API.
Mention Me Ltd is registered in the United Kingdom and prices by annual online revenue, with bands that start at zero and run past five hundred million pounds. Its pricing page says technical integrations carry no extra charge, which differs from a bill that grows per connection. The price itself comes only through a form.
Switch from Friendbuy if you want a UK-registered vendor and integrations without a separate charge.
Talkable is the trading name of Curebit Inc. and sorts offers by the buyer's annual revenue, with launch support, campaign placements and quarterly service hours rising by tier. The page lists service levels and no amounts. Its lowest revenue band starts at four million dollars, which leaves smaller shops outside the stated range.
Switch from Friendbuy if you want the vendor to run launches and campaigns for an established shop.
ReferralHero puts referral programmes, waitlists and contests in one builder, on two public tiers and a seven-day trial. The cheaper tier allows one campaign and a subscriber cap. Unlimited campaigns, a custom sender domain and extra admins begin on the upper tier, and reward payouts and texts add their own charges.
Switch from Friendbuy if you also run waitlists or contests and want the prices published.
Ambassador, a Seattle company operating as i2H, Inc., lists Professional and Enterprise tiers for referral and a required one-time onboarding fee with each. Its site now frames referral as one part of a lifecycle platform with loyalty and messaging, so the scope is close to what Friendbuy sells, with tier names posted.
Switch from Friendbuy if you want referral, loyalty and messaging from one supplier and accept an onboarding fee.
BuyaPowa Limited licenses its managed reward platform for a fixed annual sum sized by brands, products and territories, and says it takes no commission on rewarded acquisitions. It lists offices in London, Vancouver, Paris and Berlin. A single-brand shop would be paying for capacity across markets it does not serve.
Switch from Friendbuy if you run several brands or countries and want a flat licence with no commission.
Kiflo is registered in Paris and tracks introductions from business partners, with HubSpot and Salesforce syncing and automatic commission sums. Its Core tier is capped at 50 partners and three partner managers, while Plus and Premier are annual plans priced after a call. Customer refer-a-friend campaigns are outside its scope.
Switch from Friendbuy if your referrals come from B2B partners and agencies, not shoppers.
Prefinery is made for pre-launch waitlists and beta access, using referral links, vanity codes and queue positions as rewards. Tiers follow user count, every plan has a 14-day trial, and import and export of data are in all of them. Its pages describe invitation campaigns, not purchase tracking.
Switch from Friendbuy if you are launching a product and want a viral waitlist first.
Extole, Inc. of San Francisco runs referral, loyalty and reward programmes on one offer-management platform with a Flow Builder, a full API and mobile and web SDKs. It shows no price list and offers a demo or sales call. The tool rewards engineering time, which suits banks and telecoms more than a small online shop.
Switch from Friendbuy if you have engineers and need programmes across web, mobile and several offers.
Referral Rock: The Operator plan is flat monthly with unlimited referrals, and an advisor sets the programme up with you.
02
You want to pay only when referrals bring first orders
ReferralCandy: Every plan carries the same features, with a fixed fee plus a percentage of first orders and no contract.
03
You build a SaaS product and want referrals through an API
GrowSurf: Billing is by participant, and the API, webhooks and fraud blocking come in the base tiers.
04
You sell in the United Kingdom and want integrations without a fee
Mention Me: The pricing page states that technical integrations come at no extra charge, with price set by online revenue.
05
You introduce customers through business partners
Kiflo: It syncs with HubSpot and Salesforce and calculates partner commission, with a Core tier up to 50 partners.
04
When Friendbuy is still the right choice
Friendbuy remains a sound choice when you run on Shopify, Shopify Plus, Adobe Commerce or commercetools and want referral, loyalty and influencer programmes from one supplier. The pricing page says launch strategy, custom design and implementation with QA are included, and the integrations list names Klaviyo, Attentive, Braze, Recharge and Ordergroove among its connections. If you want the vendor to do the build, a quoted price may be a fair trade.
05
What moving off Friendbuy involves
01
Loyalty and influencer programmes have no equal everywhere
Several alternatives cover referral only. If you use Friendbuy's tiers, receipt scanning or wallet passes, list those first and check each new tool for them, since a referral-only move would drop that part of the programme.
02
Reconnect the email and subscription tools
Friendbuy talks to Klaviyo, Recharge and similar tools through its own connectors. Plan time to rebuild those triggers, and expect advocate links already shared by email to be re-issued or redirected before the old programme is switched off.
06
Questions about replacing Friendbuy
6 answers
What does Friendbuy cost?
Friendbuy publishes order-volume tiers for Shopify but no base prices, and the estimated total stays blank until a bundle is built.
Add-ons are listed from $250 to $500 a month. For other platforms the page gives no figures, so a quote is the only way to learn the price.
Does Friendbuy have a free trial?
The pricing page we read mentions talking to the team or booking a meeting and does not mention a free trial. Among the alternatives, GrowSurf and Prefinery list 14-day trials, and ReferralCandy and ReferralHero list seven days.
Which tools publish a price I can check today?
Referral Rock, GrowSurf, ReferralCandy and ReferralHero post tiers on their sites, and Prefinery posts user-count tiers. Talkable, Mention Me, Buyapowa, Extole and Friendbuy ask you to talk to them or fill in a form.
Is there a European option?
Kiflo is registered in Paris and Mention Me and Buyapowa are British companies, and Buyapowa lists offices in Paris and Berlin. Kiflo handles partner referrals for B2B, not customer campaigns.
Can I move away if I use Friendbuy for loyalty too?
Only some alternatives pair referral with loyalty. Ambassador and Extole describe loyalty alongside referral. Others are referral tools, so you may end up with two suppliers.
Do I need a developer to switch?
For a Shopify shop with a prebuilt app, often not. Platforms that need server-side order events, and tools with an API-first design such as Extole and GrowSurf, usually call for developer time.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 6 November 2026. How we review.
