FiveStars Review: Overview, Features, Pricing & Alternatives in 2025

Getting repeat customers feels like an uphill battle.

If you’re struggling to stop one-time visitors from slipping away—or just can’t keep up with daily marketing tasks—you’re not alone in researching FiveStars for help.

My analysis shows that missed repeat visits mean lost revenue every week for busy owners who don’t have time to run loyalty campaigns or chase down reviews.

Here’s what I discovered: FiveStars was built specifically for small business owners who want a “done-for-you” system to automate customer retention, bring back lapsed customers, build online reputations, and even process payments and online orders—without any technical fuss.

In this FiveStars review, I’ll show you how this all-in-one platform actually drives customer loyalty with less manual work, more data, and automation that takes tedious marketing off your plate.

You’ll discover how their integrated loyalty tools, payment processing, and marketing automation stack up so you can make a fully informed choice.

You’ll walk away knowing the features you need to boost repeat business and finally get some hours back in your week—without guessing.

Let’s dive in.

FiveStars Overview

FiveStars has been around since 2011, based in San Francisco. What I like is their direct mission: helping local businesses convert one-time visitors into regulars.

My analysis shows their specialization is serving local brick-and-mortar businesses—think cafes, salons, and independent retail. It’s a “done-for-you” automated system built for busy owners who wear many hats, not large marketing teams.

A key development I noted was their 2021 acquisition by SumUp, a global payments company. This move is a critical point for any FiveStars review.

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Unlike simpler loyalty add-ons from POS systems like Square, FiveStars provides more than just a digital punch card. My analysis shows its true value is the proactive, automated marketing engine that works for you.

You’ll find them working with thousands of independent businesses across the country—the local pizzerias, boutiques, and auto shops that form the backbone of main street commerce and depend on repeat customers.

From my evaluation, their strategic focus is providing you an all-in-one customer engagement platform. This bundles payments, loyalty, and automated outreach, saving you significant time while directly impacting your bottom line by boosting customer retention.

Now, let’s look at their platform.

FiveStars Features

Struggling to keep customers coming back?

FiveStars helps brick-and-mortar businesses turn one-time visitors into loyal customers. These FiveStars features offer an integrated approach to customer retention and marketing automation, simplifying how you engage your patrons.

1. Customer Loyalty Program

Tired of losing customers after one visit?

Many businesses struggle to convert new customers into regulars. This means you might invest heavily in acquisition only to see them never return.

FiveStars’s loyalty program, centered on a POS tablet, makes joining effortless for customers via phone number. It automatically tracks visits and accrues points, eliminating physical cards. From my testing, this core feature really streamlines engagement.

You build a valuable customer database passively, ensuring a frictionless experience for both your customers and your busy staff. This cultivates consistent repeat business.

2. Marketing Automation (AutoPilot)

Need to re-engage dormant customers?

Manually reaching out to customers who haven’t visited in a while is time-consuming. You could be missing opportunities to bring them back.

The AutoPilot marketing automation lets you create behavior-based campaigns, like a “We Miss You” text after 60 days. This feature acts like a tireless marketing employee, sending targeted offers automatically. What I love is the ‘set it and forget it’ nature.

This means you’re proactively driving traffic back, ensuring the right offer reaches the right customer at the perfect moment. Your revenue stream benefits consistently.

3. Reputation Management

Struggling to get positive online reviews?

Generating consistent positive reviews and handling negative feedback can be a huge challenge. This directly impacts your ability to attract new customers.

FiveStars identifies your most loyal customers through the loyalty program, automatically prompting them for reviews on Google or Yelp. It helps capture negative feedback internally, before it goes public. This feature turns happy customers into online advocates.

You systematically improve your online standing, which is crucial for new customer acquisition. It automates a critical task that often gets overlooked by busy owners.

4. Integrated Payments

Are your payments disconnected from marketing?

Without integrated payments, it’s tough to link spending habits directly to loyalty. This prevents you from truly understanding customer value.

Thanks to the SumUp acquisition, FiveStars now offers integrated payment processing. When loyalty members pay, their transaction automatically links to their profile. This key feature provides a comprehensive view of your patrons.

You gain deeper insights into customer spending, enabling more sophisticated and personalized promotions. This empowers you to reward your highest-value customers effectively.

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5. Online Ordering & Promotions

Losing profit to high-commission delivery apps?

Reliance on third-party delivery platforms often means sacrificing significant revenue. You need a direct way to engage your loyal customers for online orders.

FiveStars offers a simple, mobile-friendly online ordering page for your business. You can then use the marketing automation to text loyalty members a direct link, encouraging commission-free orders. This feature is a game-changer.

You capture online orders directly from your most loyal customers, significantly increasing profit margins. This also strengthens your direct relationship, bypassing costly intermediaries.

What I love about these FiveStars features is how they truly work together, creating a seamless customer retention ecosystem for your business. Every module supports the next, from loyalty to re-engagement and reputation building.

FiveStars Pricing

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Worried about opaque software costs?

FiveStars pricing is based on custom quotes tailored to your business, offering a flexible model but requiring direct contact with their sales team to get detailed cost information.

1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors

Understanding their pricing model is key.

FiveStars’s pricing is not publicly listed, meaning you’ll need a custom quote based on your business size, number of locations, and specific features you want. What I found important is their requirement for long-term contracts, often 24 or 36 months, which significantly impacts your total commitment. This approach allows them to tailor pricing to your unique needs.

From my cost analysis, this means your monthly costs are designed for your specific operation, but demand a longer-term budget commitment.

2. Value Assessment & ROI

Is this investment worthwhile for your business?

FiveStars aims to turn casual visitors into loyal customers, offering clear ROI by boosting repeat business and improving online reputation. Their automated system that consistently drives customer retention, which is a critical long-term asset. This proactive engagement directly contributes to revenue growth, helping you understand what makes their pricing a strategic investment rather than just an expense.

Budget-wise, you’re paying for an automated system that consistently drives customer retention, which is a critical long-term asset.

3. Budget Planning & Implementation

Consider all aspects for your budget.

Beyond the monthly fee, remember that FiveStars almost always requires a multi-year contract. From my research, early termination fees can be substantial, so negotiating terms upfront is crucial for your budget planning. The monthly fee typically includes the software and a customer-facing tablet, but payment processing fees are charged separately on a transactional basis.

So for your business, expect an all-in-one solution where the primary additional cost factor will be payment processing fees.

My Take: FiveStars pricing prioritizes a tailored solution for brick-and-mortar SMBs, but be mindful of the long-term contract commitment. It’s designed for businesses seeking comprehensive loyalty automation.

The overall FiveStars pricing reflects customized loyalty solutions for your business growth.

FiveStars Reviews

Real user feedback tells the story.

I analyzed thousands of FiveStars reviews on G2 and Capterra, digging into what actual customers experience. This section offers a balanced perspective to help you understand real-world usage.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

User sentiment is quite mixed.

Overall, FiveStars reviews show a divided user base, averaging 4.1-4.3 stars across platforms. I found this split reflects users who value its core loyalty effectiveness versus those frustrated by its business practices. This mixed sentiment highlights distinct experiences you might encounter, influencing your satisfaction.

This division points to strong core product performance but also significant issues with the sales process and customer support.

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2. Common Praise Points

What users consistently love.

What stood out in customer feedback is the consistent praise for FiveStars’ effectiveness in bringing customers back. The “set it and forget it” AutoPilot feature is frequently lauded for saving time. Customers also love the easy tablet check-in, simplifying the loyalty process for patrons, as many reviews highlight.

These features mean you can expect a truly automated system that drives repeat business with minimal staff effort.

3. Frequent Complaints

Common user frustrations.

Review-wise, the most frequent complaints revolve around aggressive sales tactics and non-transparent, auto-renewing contracts. Many users report significant difficulty reaching customer support for unresolved technical issues or cancellations. The high cost is a frequent drawback, especially for smaller businesses, as I observed in the user feedback.

These often-cited issues suggest potential users should thoroughly review contracts and prepare for potential support challenges.

Overall, FiveStars reviews present a picture of an effective loyalty tool hampered by business practice concerns. For your decision, review credibility truly matters here to balance expectations.

Best FiveStars Alternatives

Unsure which loyalty platform truly fits?

Finding the best FiveStars alternatives means carefully considering your specific business needs. The market offers strong competitors, each with distinct strengths for different use cases and budgets, ensuring a good fit for your operations.

1. Square Loyalty

Already on Square POS?

Square Loyalty integrates directly into the Square ecosystem, making it a simpler, more affordable add-on if you’re already a Square user. What I found comparing options is that this alternative greatly simplifies loyalty for existing Square businesses, offering core functionality without FiveStars’ aggressive marketing automation features or advanced segmentation.

Choose Square Loyalty when you already use Square POS and prioritize a straightforward, budget-friendly loyalty program over FiveStars’ broader marketing suite.

2. Toast Loyalty

Running a restaurant business?

Toast Loyalty is purpose-built for restaurants, deeply integrating with the Toast POS to offer industry-specific features like tying rewards to menu items. From my competitive analysis, this alternative offers unparalleled restaurant-specific integration, which can be far more valuable for your operations than a generic system.

You’ll want to choose Toast Loyalty if you run a restaurant, as its specialized integration and features perfectly align with your unique industry needs.

3. AppCard

Prioritizing deep customer analytics?

AppCard excels as a standalone loyalty platform with a stronger emphasis on data analytics and AI-powered recommendations for deeper insights. My analysis shows that AppCard provides more granular customer data analysis, making this alternative ideal for multi-location businesses seeking sophisticated personalization and targeted campaigns beyond FiveStars’ standard automation.

For your specific needs, choose AppCard when your multi-location business requires advanced data analytics and more detailed customer segment targeting.

4. Kangaroo Rewards

Need omnichannel loyalty integration?

Kangaroo Rewards positions itself as a modern, omnichannel loyalty solution, with features like branded mobile apps and sophisticated tier-based rewards. Alternative-wise, I found it excels when your business has a strong online/e-commerce component, providing a single program across both physical and digital channels.

You should choose Kangaroo Rewards if your business operates both online and brick-and-mortar, needing a unified loyalty experience across all touchpoints.

Ultimately, selecting the best FiveStars alternatives comes down to your unique operational context. The right choice depends on your specific business model and strategic priorities, not just feature lists.

Setup & Implementation

Implementation can feel overwhelming.

For a FiveStars review, understanding its implementation process is crucial. While guided, it requires your commitment. Here, I’ll break down what it practically takes to get FiveStars up and running in your business.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Expect a guided, hands-on setup.

Your FiveStars implementation begins with a remote session where a representative configures rewards and imports customer lists. This hands-on approach is incredibly helpful for non-technical users. What I found about deployment is that it simplifies initial system configuration, allowing you to focus on your business rather than complex technical details.

You’ll need to prepare your existing customer data for import and define your loyalty program structure clearly before this initial session.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Hardware and Wi-Fi are key.

The core technical requirement is the provided FiveStars tablet, which needs dedicated checkout counter space, power, and a stable Wi-Fi connection. Integration with your existing POS system can be variable; sometimes it operates standalone. From my implementation analysis, a reliable internet connection is non-negotiable for smooth operations and data synchronization, crucial for your daily tasks.

Ensure you have a designated spot for the tablet and a robust Wi-Fi signal. Confirm any POS integration needs upfront.

3. Training & Change Management

Staff training drives customer adoption.

Staff training is paramount; your team must comfortably explain the program and encourage customer sign-ups at the point of sale. Managers will also learn the dashboard for campaign adjustments and results viewing. Implementation-wise, the learning curve for core tasks is moderate, but consistent staff engagement is vital for driving customer participation.

Plan for ongoing staff reinforcement and make sure your team understands the benefits. Enthusiasm from staff directly impacts customer enrollment.

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4. Support & Success Factors

Support quality impacts long-term success.

While initial setup support is strong, ongoing technical support can be slow and unresponsive based on user feedback. You might rely heavily on their knowledge base for common issues. What I found about deployment is that proactive problem-solving is key post-launch, as direct help can be challenging to obtain quickly for urgent matters.

Be persistent when issues arise and leverage the knowledge base. Consistent communication with customers about rewards ensures continued engagement.

Overall, the FiveStars implementation process is guided and manageable for most businesses, especially with its remote setup assistance. For success, prioritize staff engagement and consistent customer communication. Being prepared for technical and support nuances will make your journey smoother.

Who’s FiveStars For

Does FiveStars align with your business?

This FiveStars review dives into who the platform serves best, helping you quickly assess if its features, scale, and use cases match your unique business needs and operational goals.

1. Ideal User Profile

Perfect for local brick-and-mortar owners.

FiveStars is ideal for single-location or small-chain service and retail businesses like cafes, salons, or independent shops. From my user analysis, time-poor business owners who value automation and customer retention without manual effort are the perfect fit. You’ll appreciate its “set it and forget it” marketing approach.

These users thrive with FiveStars because it automates a critical function, allowing them to focus on daily operations rather than complex marketing.

2. Business Size & Scale

Small-to-medium operations seeking growth.

Your business should be a local establishment, not an enterprise, typically generating enough repeat business to justify a significant monthly investment. What I found about target users is that smaller, local brick-and-mortar operations often see the greatest value, leveraging the system to cultivate loyal customers without needing extensive marketing teams.

You’ll know you’re the right size if your focus is on driving consistent customer returns within a specific local footprint.

3. Use Case Scenarios

Automated loyalty and repeat customer engagement.

FiveStars excels when your primary goal is to increase the visit frequency of existing customers through automated loyalty programs and targeted messaging. From my analysis, the software works best for consistent customer retention strategies that run in the background, minimizing your daily management time and effort.

You’ll find this system effective if your aim is to effortlessly convert casual visitors into valuable, recurring patrons.

4. Who Should Look Elsewhere

Businesses with tight budgets or complex integrations.

If you’re on a very tight budget or highly sensitive to long-term contracts, FiveStars might not be the best option due to its pricing structure. From my user analysis, primarily e-commerce-based businesses or those with a strong, integrated POS loyalty system already in place will likely find it redundant or misaligned.

Consider alternative marketing platforms if your business model is primarily online or requires extensive, custom POS integrations for a cohesive solution.

This FiveStars review clarifies that your success depends on aligning your business model with its automation strengths.

Bottom Line

FiveStars: A loyalty powerhouse for local businesses.

Based on my comprehensive FiveStars review, I’ve assessed its capabilities and limitations to provide a clear, actionable recommendation. Here’s my take on its overall value.

1. Overall Strengths

It excels at customer re-engagement.

FiveStars truly shines in driving repeat business and customer loyalty through its effective, automated programs. The tablet-based, phone number entry system is simple and fast for patrons. From my comprehensive analysis, the ‘set it and forget it’ AutoPilot feature significantly boosts customer retention and saves busy owners time.

These core strengths directly translate into higher customer lifetime value and reduced marketing effort for your brick-and-mortar business.

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2. Key Limitations

Understand its significant drawbacks.

However, my FiveStars review reveals significant issues, primarily around aggressive sales tactics and non-transparent, auto-renewing long-term contracts. Based on this review, poor customer support is a major ongoing concern, often leading to unresolved technical problems for users trapped in agreements.

These limitations are not mere inconveniences; they demand careful consideration as they can become costly and frustrating long-term liabilities.

3. Final Recommendation

My recommendation comes with a strong caveat.

You should consider FiveStars if you’re a brick-and-mortar SMB primarily focused on automated customer retention and are willing to scrutinize contracts. From my analysis, it delivers loyalty program effectiveness but only for businesses prepared for its aggressive sales and long-term commitments.

Your decision should weigh the proven loyalty benefits against the high cost and contractual rigidity. Proceed with caution and due diligence.

This FiveStars review provides a balanced perspective, showing a powerful loyalty tool alongside critical business practice concerns. I have high confidence in this assessment for your decision-making.