Loyalty Interchange Protocol

Loyalty Interchange Protocol (LIP) is an open-source loyalty platform and transaction protocol for restaurant technology teams. It suits teams that can own POS and ordering integrations and self-host the software; restaurants seeking a turnkey marketing service should look elsewhere.

Overview

LIP covers the loyalty transaction lifecycle, from member lookup and enrollment through earning, redemption, reversals, and refund adjustments. Its vendor-neutral approach and restaurant-specific order model make it a foundation for teams building loyalty into their own systems, rather than a ready-made campaign tool for nontechnical operators.

The order model accounts for items, modifiers, discounts, fees, taxes, tips, tenders, and totals across drive-thru, kiosk, web, mobile, pickup, delivery, and catering. That breadth matters when a restaurant needs loyalty calculations to follow orders across channels, though the integration work remains with the team adopting it.

Key features

Programs can use points, visits or stamps, wallet credit, paid membership, or hybrid multi-account structures. The checkout lifecycle includes balances and ledger history alongside accrual, redemption, reversal, and refund-safe adjustments, supporting more than a simple points balance.

The /platform/v1 API also covers customer profiles, consent, behavioral events, segments, campaigns, connectors, imports, analytics, and attribution. A typed Square Orders adapter includes webhook signature verification and synthetic certification fixtures. These capabilities give integrators useful building blocks, but they do not turn LIP into a no-code marketing product.

The reference guest wallet uses OIDC Authorization Code with PKCE and keeps access tokens and merchant credentials server-side. Customer sign-in itself is external: a backend-for-frontend validates OIDC and maps identities to opaque LIP member IDs. Implementations must use TLS, authenticate non-health endpoints, avoid direct customer identifiers in logs or idempotency keys, and encrypt sensitive identity claims at rest. Teams should treat these as implementation requirements, not security work done on their behalf.

The Apache-2.0 reference stack can run with Docker Compose or Node.js 22 and newer. Storage options include SQLite for local use and normalized, tenant-scoped PostgreSQL for multi-instance deployments. CSV member imports through the platform API are capped at 1 MiB and 1,000 rows.

Pricing

Loyalty Interchange Protocol: free. The free plan is the Apache-2.0 open-source stack, self-hosted, and includes tiered rewards, lifecycle automation, a customer portal, and API access. It avoids a software subscription, but the team must provide the integration work and operate its own deployment. The import limit of 1,000 rows and 1 MiB is relevant for larger migrations.

Platforms

LIP is available as an API, for Linux, as self-hosted software, and on the web. Its documented Docker and Node.js deployment paths suit technical teams that want control over the runtime; it is not positioned as a plug-and-play hosted service.

Who it's for

LIP is aimed at POS and ordering products, restaurant integrators, and multi-unit technical teams that can own identity, deployment, and system integration. Its pre-1.0 status—LIP 0.2.0—and the maker’s warning that repository tests and fixtures do not establish independent adoption or production SLO attainment make it a cautious choice for teams needing proven production reliability. It is a poor fit for restaurants without an integration team seeking turnkey marketing automation.

Pros and cons

• Pros: The restaurant-focused order model spans major ordering channels and accounts for transaction details that can affect loyalty outcomes.
• Pros: Multiple program types and a broad engagement API let integrators shape loyalty around their own products.
• Pros: The Apache-2.0 self-hosted stack and SQLite/PostgreSQL options give technical teams deployment choices without a software subscription.
• Cons: Customer authentication is external, and teams must implement the stated security controls and identity mapping.
• Cons: It is pre-1.0 infrastructure, not a turnkey restaurant marketing service, and production reliability is not established by its tests and fixtures.
• Cons: CSV imports stop at 1,000 rows and 1 MiB per import.

Alternatives

For an open-source, self-hosted restaurant loyalty foundation, LIP is the specialized option. Consider meed instead if a freemium product across Android, iOS, and web with a free allowance of up to 50 members better suits your needs. LoyaltyLion offers a free plan for stores processing 400 orders or fewer per month and a free trial, making it an option for web/API stores assessing a freemium service.

Smile.io may suit web/API users who want a free plan capped at 200 monthly orders with points, referrals, and discounts or free-shipping rewards. Yotpo Loyalty is another freemium web/API option, with a free basic points campaign and referrals. For a web-based product centered on Facebook Pages and subscriber limits, compare ChatWhale; its Everything You Need plan is $29 a month for up to 500 subscribers and three Facebook Pages.

Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service is a paid alternative spanning Android, iOS, Linux, self-hosted, web, and Windows. Comarch Accounts Payable Automation is a paid Android, API, iOS, and web option with custom pricing. Como is another paid option across Android, API, iOS, and web.

For category browsing, see Loyalty Program Software and Restaurant Loyalty Software.

Verdict

Choose LIP if your restaurant technology team wants an open-source foundation for cross-channel loyalty and can own identity, integrations, and self-hosting. Its transaction model and program flexibility are the main reasons to choose it; its pre-1.0 maturity and lack of turnkey operation are the reasons to look elsewhere when reliability evidence or a ready-to-run marketing service matters more.