An app can do far more than a wallet pass. The question is not capability, it is how many of your customers will ever have it installed — and for most independent businesses that answer decides the comparison before any feature does.
| Wivly | Branded app | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| What the customer installs | Nothing; the wallet is already there | An app, from a store, with an account | Wivly |
| Time to join at the counter | About 5 seconds | Minutes, and often abandoned | Wivly |
| Design freedom | The wallet's pass layout | Anything you can build | Them |
| Ordering and payments | Not included; runs beside your till | Possible | Them |
| Push notifications | Lock-screen updates on the pass | Full push, if the customer allows it | Them |
| Build and maintenance | None | Ongoing, plus two app-store review cycles | Wivly |
| Cost | A monthly plan, free to start | Build cost, then maintenance | Wivly |
| Re-engaging someone who deleted it | Not possible | Not possible | Even |
| Works on any phone | iPhone and Android from one link | Two builds, two stores | Wivly |
They support updates to the pass, which surface on the lock screen. It is a narrower channel than app push, and it needs no phone number or email address.
Yes. Your member list and visit history export as a machine-readable file at any time, so nothing is trapped here.
They are gone, with no way to re-subscribe. That is true of an uninstalled app too, and it is why frequency caps and quiet hours matter more here than in email.
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