The problem nobody mentions until it happens
You install a WooCommerce loyalty plugin, run it for a few months, and then a customer emails: "where did my points go?" After an update the balance changed, or a discount at checkout didn't add up. It is the most common complaint about loyalty plugins - even WooCommerce's own Points & Rewards extension sits at around 2.4 stars, with reviews reporting points that stop deducting after updates. If you are shopping for a WooCommerce loyalty points plugin, the single most important thing to check is not the feature list. It is whether the points math can be trusted.
Two more traps to watch for: plugins that were written for the classic checkout and silently break on the new Blocks checkout (the field where customers spend points simply doesn't render), and plugins that look cheap until you hit the annual subscription renewal.
Why balances "drift" - and how to stop it
Most plugins store a customer's balance as a single number and add to or subtract from it on every event. If any event fires twice, fails halfway, or races another, that number quietly desyncs from reality. There is no way to audit it, so the drift is invisible until a customer notices.
The fix is an accounting one: never store the balance as a mutable number. Store an append-only ledger - one line per movement (earned, redeemed, reversed, expired) - and make the balance the sum of that ledger. It cannot drift, because there is nothing separate to drift. And because every line is visible to the customer in their account, if the math is ever questioned, the ledger answers it. This is exactly how SISL Loyalty is built.
What to check before you install
- Is the balance a ledger or a stored number? A visible, per-order history is the tell.
- Does redeeming work in the Blocks checkout? Not just the old shortcode checkout - the block, natively.
- Is it HPOS-compatible? High-Performance Order Storage is the default now; incompatible plugins throw warnings or misbehave.
- Are refunds handled? Cancel or refund an order and the points should come back automatically, to the exact amount.
- One-time or subscription? Decide whether you want to keep paying every year for the same feature set.
Free core, one-time Pro
SISL Loyalty ships a fully functional free core - earning, redeeming and the transparent ledger - with nothing gated behind a paywall. The Pro add-on layers on VIP tiers with earn multipliers, a referral program, sign-up / review / birthday bonuses, and point expiry with reminder emails.
Pricing is deliberately aggressive and, importantly, one-time: from $35 for a single site, up to unlimited sites - no subscription, no annual renewal to keep the features you already paid for. The official WooCommerce product, by comparison, is a yearly subscription.
If you have been burned by a loyalty plugin that lost points, broke on the Blocks checkout, or kept billing you, this is the alternative built to avoid all three. See SISL Loyalty →