The Best Membership Platforms for Shopify Brands in 2025
Use the strategy of Nike, Target and Amazon to increase CLV with your own membership program. We tested Rivo, Appstle, Inveterate and BOLD.
By Andrew Costaris · · 6 min read
We do not accept sponsorship in return for higher placement — our reviews, opinions, and ratings are our own.
Memberships are a relatively new phenomenon as far as eCommerce offerings go. They're an incredible tool to connect your most loyal customers to benefits that keep them engaged for a longer period of time.
Options are few at this time, but thankfully, quality in this space appears to prevail over quantity.
Why memberships? A few quick reasons:
- Memberships are a great way to offer exclusive benefits to dedicated followers and advocates of your brand.
- Memberships can distinguish your brand from competitors and make your lineup a preferred choice based on the benefits in your program.
A general caveat with launching a membership program, though, is that educating customers on the benefits of a digital subscription can, at times, be an uphill battle. However, if your team is able to work the upsell into automations across your email and SMS stack, you'll find that with a well-defined program, growth can come quickly.
Our pick: Rivo
From our testing, Rivo strongly outshines the competition with a platform built from the ground up to emulate (as closely as possible for a plug-and-play Shopify app) the top branded program offerings across eCommerce. Optional program features include free shipping, store credit, price discounts, renewal offers, signup gifts, and much more. This allows for the creation of a program that resonates most with your customers, and the modularity allows for long-term development.
We've found that the tools work exactly as described, with little-to-no required team intervention — and if you find yourself needing assistance, their customer support is among the best.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Powerful tools to craft a bespoke membership program for your brand | Barrier to entry (i.e. price) can be high for lower-volume brands |
| Fast, easy setup | |
| High-quality customer service and white glove onboarding | |
| Membership plan includes the full suite of Rivo offerings (referrals, accounts, and traditional loyalty) |
Pricing: Pricing varies depending on needs, but seems to start in the low thousands per month, with negotiation possible.
So, who's it for? We feel Rivo is the best option for brands with annual eCommerce revenue of $1.5M+ looking to offer their customers a high-quality membership product.
Budget choice: Appstle Memberships
If you're looking to just get started with memberships, but aren't interested in a potentially high platform fee, Appstle is a great alternative to consider. It provides a suite of membership tooling that is surprisingly customizable. Top features include automated renewal billing, tiered perks, localization, and built-in email.
In our experience, though, there will be times you feel slightly hamstrung by some of the more rudimentary elements of the platform, like limited membership portal design options or the back and forth with their support team that may be required to fix issues. However, we don't feel that's reason enough to throw the platform out of the running.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Lightweight, easy to get started | Slower, less responsive customer support |
| Plenty of membership perk options to offer customers | Limited design options |
| Very affordable for those just getting started | Slightly confusing interface in both the admin and customer side |
Pricing: As a standard plug-and-play, set-it-up-yourself Shopify app, pricing is very affordable for brands of all sizes: Starter $19/mo · Business $39/mo · Enterprise $79/mo.
So, who's it for? We wouldn't recommend this platform for brands who can afford the more premium Rivo experience, but it is a great option if you're launching a membership for the first time.
Other considerations
While we highly recommend choosing one of the platforms above, we did review and speak to brands using the options below.
Inveterate
Inveterate was an early provider of memberships for eCommerce brands; however, a lack of iteration combined with a high monthly premium has hurt the competitiveness of their product. Rivo offers similar pricing with a far more fleshed-out product, along with included features like accounts, referrals, and traditional loyalty.
BOLD Memberships
As with most BOLD platforms, BOLD Memberships is heavyweight, clunky, and lacking in innovation. If you're considering BOLD, it's better to go with Appstle and enjoy a fuller suite of tools for a lower price.