Where Gift Up is stronger
Gift Up’s strength is what it connects to: Shopify, WooCommerce, Square and Lightspeed tills, the Apaleo hotel system, Eventbrite, Zapier and Mailchimp, with about a dozen payment processors. It describes itself as working in any country and currency that the connected processor supports.
If gift cards must sit inside an existing online shop or be redeemed at a Square or Lightspeed till, Gift Up does things Bronora does not do today. High-volume sellers can also buy prepaid bundles, which Gift Up says can reduce its fee by up to 45%; at that point Gift Up may cost less than Bronora’s 3%.
Where Bronora is different
Bronora is built for Irish independent businesses that want a branded voucher shop without an ecommerce stack, linked from its website or social pages. Payments settle to the business’s own Stripe account, and the voucher is emailed immediately or on a chosen date with a personal message and a downloadable PDF.
At the counter, staff scan a QR code or type a short code on an enrolled phone or tablet and can redeem part of a balance. The owner sees sales, redemptions and the value still outstanding. Paid vouchers default to five years’ validity, and terms are shown before payment.
The fee difference on its own is modest. On €20,000 of voucher sales a year, 3% is €600 and 3.49% is €698, a difference of about €98 before card processing, which you pay on either platform. Choose on the workflow first and the fee second.
Questions to settle before you choose
- Must vouchers sell inside an existing Shopify or WooCommerce shop?
- Will staff redeem at an integrated POS till, or on a phone at the counter?
- How many low-value vouchers do you sell? The USD 0.50 minimum applies to cards below about €12.
- Do you issue many free or complimentary vouchers? Gift Up charges 1.99% of the balance after the first five each month.
Bronora does not offer physical cards or POS integrations at launch. If those are essential, Gift Up or another provider in the comparison list may be the better fit.