Counter Club is made by the Not a Chain team, so this comparison is our own. Every fact about another product links to that product's own page.
The short answer
The usual reason to look past Stamp Me is the app: its help centre says members download the Stamp Me app and join your programme through it, and some regulars will not. Every tool below works without a customer app, but each puts the card somewhere different. If you want a pass in Apple or Google Wallet, look at Loopy Loyalty, Meed or Brewstamp. If you want the card to open in the phone's browser, look at Brewstamp or Back Again, or My Cafe Loyalty, which runs from a QR with no app or password. If you want the card to be the customer's mobile number, and to text the club from your own number, that is Counter Club. If you would miss Stamp Me's automatic messages, Back Again (email) and My Cafe Loyalty (SMS) are the two here that send them.
The six, side by side
| Tool | Where the card lives | Cheapest paid plan, as published | Free option | Messages to customers | What you give up compared with Stamp Me |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counter Club | The customer's mobile number, confirmed by a texted code | Regulars, A$24 a month, No GST, up to 500 members | Free for 50 members; the price is consent to marketing emails and calls from us and our partners | Email on both paid plans; texts from the shop's own number on Local Favourite (A$69, No GST) | Wallet pass, push, automatic messages, a second card, games, staff logins |
| Loopy Loyalty | Apple Wallet or Google Wallet pass | Starter, $25 a month or $250 a year, one location. Currency and GST not stated | None; 15-day trial | Unlimited push, iOS lock-screen and location-based messages; no SMS or email | SMS, birthday and lapsed-customer messages |
| Meed | Apple Wallet or Google Wallet pass | Pro, $59 a month or $590 a year, two locations included, $39 for each extra. Currency not stated | Free up to 50 members, no card required | Automatic notifications on Free; custom push on Pro. SMS and email not mentioned | SMS, birthday and lapsed-customer messages, games |
| Brewstamp | A browser card opened from a QR, with an optional Wallet pass on every plan | Pro, $12 a month or $120 a year, one shop, one staff login. Currency and GST not stated | Free up to 50 stamps in total, one shop | None mentioned | All messaging, games |
| Back Again | A browser card opened by tapping an NFC sign at the counter | $39 a month. Currency and GST not stated | Free for your first 50 customers | Automatic emails: welcome, birthday, "we miss you" win-back, reward ready, near-full nudges and promotions. No SMS mentioned | SMS, Wallet pass, games |
| My Cafe Loyalty | Opened by QR, "No app or account password required" | Starter, A$49 a month, no SMS. Professional, A$79, 150 SMS credits a month. GST not stated | None; 30-day trial, card required | Professional: 150 SMS credits a month and automatic welcome, reward and anniversary messages. Business (A$169): 400 credits, review requests and win-back | Wallet pass, games, push |
Stamp Me itself, for reference: Lite is A$49 a month ex GST (A$53.90 inc GST) for a single location, Pro is A$79 ex GST (A$86.90 inc GST), and texts on Pro and Elite cost 8 cents (AUD) each once SMS is switched on by request. Counter Club and Stamp Me are compared head to head on Counter Club vs Stamp Me, and the wider field, Square Loyalty included, on the loyalty card apps page.
If you want a Wallet pass
Loopy Loyalty and Meed both issue a pass for Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, so the customer has something to look at on their own phone without installing anything. Loopy's Starter plan covers one location, with unlimited customers, and its higher plans cover 3 and then 10 locations. Meed is free up to 50 members and its Pro plan includes two locations. Neither offers SMS or email on the pages we read; both reach customers through the pass instead. Brewstamp offers a Wallet pass on every plan as well, as an option on top of its browser card.
If you want the card in the browser
Brewstamp and Back Again open the card in the phone's browser, and My Cafe Loyalty runs from a QR with no app or account password. Brewstamp opens from a QR too, and its paid plan is the lowest published price in the table above, at $12 a month with the currency unnamed. Back Again uses an NFC sign instead: every stamp needs a tap on it at your counter, so the sign has to be there and working. My Cafe Loyalty is priced in AUD and "Works with any POS".
If you want the card to be a phone number
Counter Club is the one here where the card is simply the mobile number. A customer scans your QR, types their mobile, enters the code we text, and is in. At the next visit they say the number or their first name and staff press Stamp on their row. Nobody carries a pass or opens a page, and staff do the finding, which is the cost: on a busy morning that is a lookup on the Members page rather than a tap from the customer. That page lists the newest 500 members and has no search box yet.
If you would miss Stamp Me's messages
Stamp Me lists a Birthday Club and Lapsed Customers on its plans. Two tools here send messages on their own. Back Again sends automatic emails, including a birthday message and a "we miss you" email when a regular goes quiet. My Cafe Loyalty's Professional plan sends automatic welcome, reward and anniversary messages and includes 150 SMS credits a month, with extra texts from 10 cents each.
Counter Club does not send anything automatically. Its campaigns are one message you write and send to the club, by email or by text. What it offers instead is volume at a flat price: Local Favourite includes 2,000 campaign messages a month, text or email, with no charge per text. For a shop that texts a few hundred members once or twice a month, that is more texts than the 150 on My Cafe Loyalty's Professional plan, with no per-message bill as on Stamp Me.
Moving off Stamp Me
Stamp Me's pricing page says there is no lock-in and that when you cancel a monthly plan your most recent payment is your last. Your members sit in the Stamp Me app, and whether you can take a list of them with you is not covered on its pricing page. Loopy Loyalty says it can import existing customers through Make. Counter Club cannot import anyone at all: every member joins by confirming their own number, so the club starts again at zero. Plan several weeks of asking at the counter, carry each regular's Stamp Me stamps across by hand with the Stamp button, and read launching the card in week one before you switch.
Where Stamp Me is still the better choice
- Your regulars already have its app and use it. Moving them costs you the cards they have built.
- You want several stamp cards, games such as Scratch & Win, or tap-to-stamp hardware like a StampPod, from one supplier.
- You want automatic birthday and lapsed-customer messages and free push notifications in the same tool as the card.
- You want unlimited staff users and a dedicated account manager, both listed on its plans.
Questions
Which of these is closest to Stamp Me?
In our reading, My Cafe Loyalty: it sends texts and automatic messages and needs no customer app. It has no Wallet pass and no games, and its SMS allowance is 150 a month on Professional.
Which has a free plan?
Meed (up to 50 members), Brewstamp (up to 50 stamps in total) and Back Again (your first 50 customers) say so on their pages. Counter Club is free for 50 members, paid for by a marketing consent rather than money. Loopy Loyalty and My Cafe Loyalty offer trials instead.
Which can text my customers?
On their own pages, My Cafe Loyalty and Counter Club. Stamp Me can too, on Pro and Elite at 8 cents a text.
How we checked
Every price and feature in the table was read on that company's own website in October 2026, and the Stamp Me figures on its pricing page and help centre. Where a page gave no currency code or GST note, the table says so.