CHCKN vs. Toast Loyalty
Starting a loyalty program is a big step for your business, and finding the right fit can save you time, money, and frustration. Square Loyalty is well-known but has limitations—especially if you’re not already using Square. CHCKN, on the other hand, offers a flexible and affordable way to build loyalty without tying you down. Let’s compare.
Which fits your shop better?
If you run a café, barbershop, bakery, or small eatery, loyalty isn’t optional. It’s how you turn casual visitors into regulars. But not all loyalty tools are built the same. Toast Loyalty, part of the Toast POS ecosystem, has some powerful features. Still, for independent shops, those features come with trade-offs. Here’s how CHCKN stacks up.
What Toast Loyalty brings to the table
Toast’s loyalty program integrates tightly with their POS system, giving shop owners a unified view of orders, guests, and rewards. Their platform offers:
Customizable rewards and point systems
Integration with online ordering and marketing
Guest profiles and purchase history
If your restaurant already uses Toast for everything—from POS to payroll—adding loyalty can feel seamless.
Where Toast Loyalty shows its limits
1. You’re tied to their ecosystem
Toast Loyalty only works if you’re using Toast’s POS. That’s fine if you’re fully committed to their hardware and software stack, but a deal-breaker if you’re not. Switching POS systems later often means losing your loyalty data and starting from scratch—a painful reset for any small business.
2. The customer experience is hidden
Toast’s loyalty happens mostly inside its own system. Customers rarely see or remember they’re part of it, because there’s no digital card or visible reminder. Your shop becomes a quiet entry in a black box—out of sight, out of mind.
CHCKN flips that. Every member gets a digital loyalty card right in their phone wallet, sitting next to the cards they use daily. Your brand literally stays in front of them—between their credit card and their coffee punch card. That visibility keeps your shop top-of-mind, even on the days they’re not visiting.
3. Too much software, not enough simplicity
Toast’s strength—its all-in-one platform—is also its weakness. Many independent shops don’t need a full-scale POS system with kitchen routing, team management, and integrated ordering. They just need to keep customers coming back. For smaller operations, Toast’s setup can feel bloated, expensive, and overengineered.
4. Restaurant-first by design
Toast’s loyalty system was built for restaurants, not neighborhood shops. If you’re a barbershop, boutique, food truck, or café, it’s easy to get lost in settings and reports that don’t apply to your business.
How CHCKN differs—and often wins
1. Works with any setup (or none at all)
CHCKN isn’t tied to a POS system. You can run it alongside your current setup or even without one. Whether you’re using a Square terminal, a vintage cash register, or a simple iPad, CHCKN fits in cleanly—and your data stays yours if you ever switch systems.
2. Designed for real small business life
CHCKN is built for brick-and-mortar owners, not corporate tech teams. Setup is quick, training is minimal, and everything revolves around one goal: helping your regulars come back more often. No modules to ignore, no dashboards to decode.
3. More than points: real customer connection
CHCKN combines loyalty, CRM, and automated marketing in one tool. You get customer insights, visit tracking, and simple automations that send birthday rewards or win-back offers when someone’s overdue for a visit. It’s not just about points—it’s about building relationships.
4. Pricing that makes sense
CHCKN keeps costs predictable. There are no hidden tiers, no “enterprise” upgrades, and no surprises when you grow. The idea is to help your shop scale loyalty, not your expenses.
5. Your brand in their pocket, every day
CHCKN’s digital cards live in Apple and Google Wallets—where customers see them daily. That constant visibility keeps your shop relevant between visits. Toast’s loyalty, by contrast, stays buried in their POS, where your customers rarely engage. CHCKN gives your brand a presence that lasts longer than a single transaction.
When CHCKN is the better fit
Scenario | Toast Loyalty might make sense | CHCKN is likely the better pick |
|---|---|---|
You already use Toast POS and want everything tightly integrated | ✅ | — |
You run a full-service restaurant with complex POS needs | ✅ | — |
You’re a café, barbershop, boutique, or small shop | — | ✅ |
You want a loyalty program that works without switching POS systems | — | ✅ |
You want visibility—your brand in customers’ wallets, not hidden in software | — | ✅ |
You prefer simple pricing and fewer moving parts | — | ✅ |
The takeaway
Toast Loyalty is a strong option for shops already using Toast’s system. But for most independent shops, it’s too complex, too closed off, and too invisible.
CHCKN’s approach is the opposite: keep it simple, keep it visible, and keep you connected. Your loyalty card lives where your customers live—their phones—and your brand stays right beside the cards they reach for every day.
Start your loyalty
program today
With CHCKN, rewarding your regulars has never been easier. Whether you’re running a cafe, bakery, or small business, we have the tools to help you build loyalty and grow your community.