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Bottom line: Loyalty only earns its keep if it moves repeat-visit frequency by at least half a visit per member per quarter. Toast Loyalty is the right default for a single-brand Toast operator under 20 units. Thanx belongs in a mid-market group that wants clean guest analytics. Punchh only makes sense at 50 units and up with a real CRM budget.
- The loyalty ROI test is simple. Enrolled guests should visit at least 20 percent more often than non-enrolled guests inside 90 days. If they do not, cut the discount rate, not the software.
- Toast Loyalty is the cheapest and the shallowest. It handles points and rewards, and it stays inside the Toast wall. Fine for a small operator.
- Thanx sells clean segmentation and a real mobile app. The price is worth it if you plan to run monthly campaigns and can staff the marketing.
- Punchh is enterprise scale. The tooling is deep, the price is deep, and the internal ownership required is deeper than most operators think.
- Never buy loyalty without agreeing on the reward budget cap in writing. Free food is a line on your P&L.
Loyalty software is the category where the ROI (return on investment: profit divided by what you spent) story gets fuzziest and the vendor pitches get slickest. Here’s the operator’s version: a loyalty program has to move repeat-visit frequency in a measurable way, and the platform has to cost less than the incremental margin that frequency produces. Everything else is marketing.
Punchh (now PAR Punchh), Thanx, and Toast Loyalty are the three most common names in restaurant loyalty in 2026. They aim at different sizes of operator, and the wrong pick can either overspend or fail to move the metric.
Pricing at a glance (Aug 2026)
| Platform | Model | Typical spend | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punchh (PAR) | Quote-based, per location | Starts around $500/loc/mo; enterprise custom | Multi-year typical |
| Thanx | Quote-based | Enterprise custom, no public pricing | Multi-year, with technical support fees |
| Toast Loyalty | Bundled with Toast Marketing | ~$185/mo (Marketing Essentials bundle) | Month-to-month standard Toast terms |
Punchh and Thanx are quote-only. Toast Loyalty pricing verified against Toast Marketing Essentials pages, August 2026.
Feature grid
| Feature | Punchh | Thanx | Toast Loyalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points / visit-based rewards | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Card-linked / receipt-based | Yes | Yes, native | Requires Toast POS |
| Custom offers / segmentation | Deep | Deep, receipt-level | Basic to moderate |
| Native mobile app | Yes, customer-branded | Yes, branded | Toast TakeOut app or basic |
| Multi-brand / franchise support | Strong | Yes | Limited |
| Best fit | Multi-unit chains, franchises | Multi-unit with digital-first strategy | Toast operators, small-to-mid |
Punchh: the enterprise chain default
PAR Punchh runs loyalty for a long list of national chains and franchisor groups. If your operation looks like a franchisor with 100+ units, or a growing chain that’s serious about a customer-facing app, Punchh is often the safest pick because it’s been through that scale before. Custom offer engines, cross-brand functionality, and integration depth are all real.
The pricing reality: expect enterprise contracts starting around $500 per location per month with meaningful implementation and services attached. Not for the 3-unit operator.
Our take: right choice for 50+ location groups, franchisors, and operators building a proprietary loyalty app.
Thanx: the receipt-based challenger
Thanx built its early reputation on card-linked and receipt-based loyalty, which meant customers didn’t have to remember to swipe a card or scan a QR to earn points. That’s still one of the cleanest customer experiences in the category. In 2026 they’ve expanded into deeper CRM and offer management for multi-unit operators who take digital seriously.
Pricing is enterprise-quote and multi-year, often with separate line items for technical support and customer success. The total-cost-of-ownership can rival Punchh once you turn on the modules that make it work.
Our take: strong choice for 20+ location groups that want a modern CRM experience and are willing to invest in the digital side of the business.
Toast Loyalty: the affordable bundled option
Toast Loyalty is bundled into Toast’s Marketing Essentials at roughly $185 per month, which includes gift cards and email marketing. For an operator already on Toast POS, that’s an honest price for a competent basic loyalty program.
Where it falls short is depth. Segmentation, custom offer construction, and cross-brand support are all lighter than Punchh or Thanx. If your loyalty strategy is “give customers a reason to come back a bit more often,” it’s fine. If it’s “we’re going to run receipt-level cohort analysis and lifecycle marketing,” it isn’t.
Our take: default choice for 1-20 unit operators already on Toast who want a working loyalty program without an enterprise contract.
Who this is for
- 1-20 unit operator on Toast POS: Toast Loyalty. Cheap and integrated.
- 20-50 unit chain, non-Toast or mixed POS: Thanx if the digital experience matters, Punchh if the operational maturity matters.
- 50+ unit chain / franchisor: Punchh. It’s the scale-tested pick.
- Under 5 units: reconsider whether you need a loyalty platform at all versus a good email tool.
The number to actually watch
Repeat-visit frequency by enrolled member versus non-member. Every loyalty platform will show this in a dashboard. If the delta is under 15%, the program isn’t earning its keep. Anything above 30% is genuine business impact.
Next step
The RBL Toolkit has a customer-lifetime-value worksheet that helps size the incremental margin you’d need loyalty to produce before signing a $500/loc/mo contract.
Related comparisons
Signed, The Pragmatic CFO
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