• English
• Español (Spanish)
• Français (French)
• Deutsch (German)
• Italiano (Italian)
• Português (Portuguese)
• Română (Romanian)

Every visible string is translated, not just the headlines. And we did one thing most apps don't: we let your admin language and your storefront language be different. More on that below, because it's the part that matters if you're, say, a Portuguese founder selling into the US.

The storefront: translates with your store

Your shoppers should never see a loyalty widget in a language they don't read. So the storefront side is automatic.

PerkStack's widgets follow the language your shopper is viewing your store in. If a customer switches your store to French, the launcher, the loyalty page, and the review widgets all render in French right alongside your theme. You don't pick a language inside PerkStack for the storefront — it inherits the one Shopify is already serving.

How to turn it on

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings → Languages (or Online Store → Languages).
2. Add and publish the language you want to sell in — for example, Français or Deutsch.
3. That's it. The next time a shopper views your store in that language, the loyalty launcher, loyalty page, and every review element render translated automatically.

If you sell across multiple markets with multiple published languages, each shopper sees PerkStack in their own. There's no per-language setup in PerkStack and nothing to copy-paste — the six new languages ship built in.

One small polish while we were in here: we fixed a grammar bug where the balance label used to glue a translated word onto your points name (things like "Al tău points"). Non-English stores now show your points name cleanly.

The admin: pick your own language

The whole PerkStack admin — settings, loyalty, reviews, customers, onboarding, analytics, integrations, the customize pages, everything — is translated too.

By default, PerkStack follows your Shopify account language. If your Shopify account is set to Italian, PerkStack's admin comes up in Italian without you doing anything.

Running the admin in a different language than your store

Here's the case we really wanted to solve. Say you're based in Portugal, you think in Portuguese, but you sell into the US and run your storefront in English. Your Shopify account might be in English to match the market — but you'd rather manage your loyalty program in Portuguese.

That used to be an either/or. Now it isn't. PerkStack has a per-shop Admin language override that's completely independent of your Shopify account language and your storefront language.

How to activate the manual override

1. In PerkStack, open Settings.
2. On the General tab, find the Admin language card.
3. Pick your language — Português, in our example — from the dropdown.
4. Save. The admin now runs in Portuguese for this shop, regardless of what your Shopify account or storefront are set to.

Leave it on Automatic and PerkStack keeps following your Shopify account language like before. Set it to a specific language and that choice wins everywhere in the admin.

So the Portuguese-founder-selling-to-the-US setup looks like this:

Three surfaces, three independent choices. Your shoppers get a native store; you get a native dashboard.

A note on quality

We didn't want "technically translated." Every language is checked for key parity in our test suite — meaning if a string exists in English, it has to exist, correctly, in all six other languages, plurals included, before the build passes. Romanian, for instance, has its own plural rules that English doesn't; the tests hold each language to its own grammar, not English's.

That's the bar: if you switch PerkStack to Romanian, you should never hit a stray English string or an "N reviews" that doesn't agree with the number in front of it.

The short version

• Storefront translates automatically — just publish the language in Shopify.
• Admin follows your Shopify account language by default.
• Admin language override in Settings → General lets you run the dashboard in any of the seven languages, independent of your store and account.

Publish a language, and if you like, pick your own for the admin. That's the whole thing. More soon.

The short version

Smile is a loyalty and referrals app. PerkStack does loyalty, reviews, and referrals together, with a dashboard that ties them to actual revenue.

So the real question isn't "which loyalty app is better." It's whether you want loyalty and reviews living in one place. If you're already happy with a separate reviews app and only need points, Smile is a solid, proven option. If you'd rather not run two apps and pay two bills, that's the whole reason PerkStack exists.

Side by side

The row that tends to change people's minds is reviews. With Smile you'll pair it with a reviews app and pay for both. With PerkStack, a customer can leave a photo review, earn points for it, and see that review show up on the product page with the markup Google likes, all in the same tool.

Where Smile is the better call

A few cases where we'd point you to Smile without hesitation:

• You love your current reviews app and have no plans to switch. Our reviews engine would just be value you don't use.
• You want the most established name with the deepest partner ecosystem, and that matters to your team.
• You're running a large, very custom loyalty setup and want the most battle-tested option for that specific job.

Where we think PerkStack wins

• Reviews and loyalty in one app, one dashboard, one bill, with reviews that actually feed your points program.
• A home screen that opens with one number: roughly how much money the app made you this month, split across repeat buyers, review-influenced first orders, and referrals.
• Automation that's ready on day one. 19 Flow triggers and 14 actions, with a kill switch so nothing fires when you don't want it to.
• You can run the whole thing from Claude or ChatGPT through our built-in MCP server, with scoped tokens and an audit log for every action.
• Light storefront widgets (under 15KB gzipped) so your theme stays fast.

If you're worried about losing your review history, don't be. PerkStack imports from Judge.me, Loox, and Yotpo, so moving doesn't mean starting your social proof over.

How to actually decide

Three questions usually settle it:

1. Do you want reviews and loyalty from one vendor? If yes, PerkStack saves you a second app and bill.
2. Do you need to show someone (a founder, a finance lead) that this is paying off? The revenue dashboard was built for that exact conversation.
3. Are you happy with your reviews app and only need points? Smile is a great fit, go with it.

There's no single right answer. There's just the one that matches how your store is set up.

Try them both

Honestly, the fastest way to choose is to install both on a dev store and run the same loop: a purchase, a review, a redemption. You'll feel which one takes fewer clicks pretty quickly. PerkStack has a free plan with unlimited reviews, so you can poke at the reviews side without spending anything.

The difference in one line

Judge.me is a reviews app. PerkStack is a loyalty and reviews app, where leaving a review can hand a customer points, and those points pull them back for the next order.

If reviews are all you need, Judge.me is a great choice, and we actually sync with it (more on that in a second). If you want reviews that feed a loyalty program, that's where we come in.

Side by side

We work with Judge.me, not just against it

Most comparison posts skip this part, so here it is up front: PerkStack has a live two-way Judge.me sync. You can publish, reply, and import reviews without leaving PerkStack. If you've spent years building up Judge.me reviews, you don't have to walk away from them to add loyalty.

There's also a one-click CSV import from Judge.me, Loox, and Yotpo, so the social proof you've already earned comes with you.

Where Judge.me is the better pick

• You only want reviews and have no plans for a loyalty program. A focused tool is less to think about.
• You're deep into review-specific integrations that matter to your workflow.

Where we think PerkStack wins

• Reviews that pay customers back. A photo review can earn points, and points are a reason to come back and spend them.
• One vendor and one bill for reviews, loyalty, and referrals.
• A dashboard that shows how much of your revenue reviews actually influenced, instead of leaving you to guess.
• You can even moderate pending reviews from Claude or ChatGPT through our MCP server, if that's how you like to work.

A review on a product page is social proof. A review that earns points is the start of a second order. That second order is the whole point of PerkStack.

Our honest take

If you're reviews-only and content, stay on Judge.me, and connect it to PerkStack later if you ever add loyalty. If you're trying to build something where reviews and points feed each other, start with PerkStack and bring your Judge.me history with you.

We started PerkStack because splitting loyalty and reviews across two apps, two dashboards, and two bills always felt like a tax on growth. They're really the same loop: a good review brings in a new buyer, points bring that buyer back, and the next visit is another chance for a review. This blog is where we write about building that loop.

What we'll write about

• Comparisons. Straight, specific breakdowns like PerkStack vs Smile.io and PerkStack vs Judge.me, including the cases where the other tool is the better fit.
• Playbooks. Real guidance on points structures, VIP tiers, when to send review requests, and referral mechanics that actually move repeat purchases.
• Product notes. How features like the revenue dashboard, Cap-Recovery, and our MCP server work, and how to get more out of them.

What we won't do

No guilt-trippy copy, no fake countdown timers, no rewarding people specifically for five-star reviews. That stuff is bad for shoppers, and on Shopify it's against the rules anyway. We hold the blog to the same bar as the app.

The number we care about is revenue. Every post here comes back to one question: did this make the store more money?

Where to start

If you're sizing up loyalty apps, the comparison posts are the quickest way to get your bearings. If you already run PerkStack, the playbooks will help you squeeze more out of it.

Thanks for reading. More soon.