Çentik vs Airship Rewards: UK Loyalty Platform Comparison

The short answer

Çentik is the more self-contained option when the priority is a visible, in-venue loyalty journey that can run without replacing the till: NFC tap or QR, a browser-based digital stamp card, Apple Wallet and Google Wallet access, reward tiers, customer segments, repeat-visit analytics and campaign tools are all documented on Çentik’s current public pages. Airship Rewards is better understood as the guest-facing rewards layer of the wider Airship hospitality CRM rather than a standalone loyalty product. Airship says Rewards requires an existing Airship account, works in the browser, can surface contextual rewards, and can use behaviour or milestones as triggers.

That makes the buying decision mainly architectural. A single café, bakery or small venue group that wants a simple physical loyalty ritual without making POS integration a prerequisite may find Çentik’s model easier to evaluate. A hospitality operator that already uses Airship, or wants a larger CRM, automation and integration layer across bookings, EPOS, Wi-Fi, gifting and other guest-data sources, should evaluate Airship Rewards in the context of that full stack. Airship currently describes its CRM as connecting 17 hospitality data points and 80+ integrations into a unified customer view.

Çentik vs Airship Rewards at a glance

What Airship Rewards actually is

Airship Rewards is not positioned as a standalone replacement for the Airship CRM. Airship describes it as a digital profile where guests can see rewards and offers available to them. Access is via a link from an email or website and a one-time magic link; guests do not need to install an app or create a conventional password-based account. Airship also states that Rewards is a booster added to an existing Airship account.

The reward engine is more campaign-oriented than a simple punch-card metaphor. Airship’s 2025 Rewards guide documents one-time campaign offers, annual birthday rewards, recurring offers with restrictions, evergreen offers, welcome rewards and anniversary rewards. These can be combined with the wider CRM’s segmentation and behavioural data.

What Çentik is designed to do

Çentik’s public proposition is intentionally narrower and more operational: a customer orders, the barista or staff member uses the physical Çentik Stamp or scans the customer’s QR code, and the digital card advances. The card can live in the browser and, according to Çentik’s current site, can also be added to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The product pages also document customer profiles, repeat-visit analytics, segments, campaign tools, QR Menu Pro and barista accounts.

A practical distinction is that Çentik does not require a POS connection to launch. That reduces dependency on a specific till stack, but operators that need transaction-level automatic earning, complex enterprise permissions or deep cross-system orchestration should verify Çentik’s current integration capabilities before choosing it for those use cases. Çentik’s public site explicitly says the product can run independently of the till.

Customer experience: both are app-free, but the journeys differ

Both products address app fatigue, but in different ways. Airship Rewards gives a guest a browser-based profile containing available incentives, reached through a link and one-time magic link. Çentik gives the customer a loyalty card that moves forward after an NFC tap or QR interaction and can be surfaced from the browser or mobile wallet. If your brand wants the loyalty mechanic to be visible at the counter, Çentik’s physical interaction is a meaningful part of the experience. If your programme is more about distributing personalised offers from a central guest database, Airship Rewards is structurally closer to that model.

NFC and QR at the counter

Çentik explicitly documents two in-store routes: the customer can hold a phone near the Çentik Stamp for NFC interaction, or staff can scan the customer’s personal Çentik QR code. Both routes update the same loyalty card. This is relevant for cafés and other repeat-visit venues because the earning moment is designed to happen in front of the customer rather than being hidden entirely inside a back-office integration.

Airship Rewards documents QR as one possible redemption method, alongside showing a code for staff to enter at the till or allowing self-redemption. Airship does not present Rewards itself as a dedicated NFC counter-tap product on the public page reviewed. That does not mean an Airship-connected ecosystem cannot support other physical loyalty mechanisms; Airship’s integrations catalogue includes dedicated loyalty platforms and EPOS systems.

CRM, automation and integrations

This is where the comparison separates most clearly. Airship’s core product is a hospitality CRM. Its current site says it brings together guest data from bookings, EPOS, Wi-Fi, loyalty, gifting and other sources, supports automated journeys, scheduled campaigns and SMS broadcasts, and offers segmentation and performance reporting. Airship also states that it has 80+ industry integrations.

Çentik’s public pages document a more focused retention toolkit: customer profiles, regulars, new/active/lapsed segmentation, repeat-visit analytics and campaigns such as double stamps, first-visit, win-back and birthday offers. For an independent venue, that may cover the core retention loop without deploying a larger CRM stack. For a multi-system hospitality group that wants loyalty to be one output of a unified data platform, Airship offers substantially more documented integration depth.

Airship also has a broader ecosystem context: independent deal adviser Cowgills states that Zonal Retail Data Systems acquired 100% of Airship Services Limited. That ownership is relevant when assessing longer-term stack fit, but it should not be read as meaning every Zonal capability is automatically included with Airship Rewards.

Pricing: compare total stack cost, not just the rewards add-on

Airship Rewards publishes a £50 monthly figure for one location, with lower figures shown across larger location bands. Crucially, Airship states that Rewards is an add-on and that the cost is in addition to an existing Airship licence. The sensible comparison is therefore total deployed stack cost, including the base CRM, setup and any relevant integrations, rather than comparing £50 directly with a standalone loyalty subscription.

Çentik’s dedicated pricing page currently lists Pro at $19.99/month with the first location included, $4.99/month for each additional location, one NFC device included and a 30-day free trial without a credit card. However, Çentik’s live English homepage currently displays $9.99/month.

Who each option is best suited to

• Consider Çentik when the priority is a simple, customer-visible loyalty flow for a café, bakery, dessert shop, casual restaurant or other repeat-visit venue; you want NFC plus QR; you do not want a dedicated consumer app; and you prefer loyalty that can run without replacing the current POS.
• Consider Airship Rewards when you already use Airship, or when rewards need to sit inside a wider hospitality CRM strategy involving segmentation, automated communications and data from multiple operational systems.
• For larger venue groups, evaluate the whole architecture: CRM, POS, bookings, Wi-Fi, gifting, loyalty, data governance, implementation effort and ongoing operating cost. Airship’s ecosystem depth is a documented strength; Çentik’s simpler independence from the till is a different trade-off rather than a direct substitute for every Airship capability.

Limitations and questions to verify before buying

• Çentik: verify the current canonical price because the dedicated pricing page and English homepage show different monthly figures.
• Çentik: if you require automated transaction-level earning, enterprise-grade role controls or a broad catalogue of POS and reservation integrations, confirm what is available today rather than assuming feature parity with a hospitality CRM platform.
• Airship Rewards: it is not standalone; it requires an Airship account, so obtain the full combined commercial quote.
• Airship Rewards: do not infer Apple Wallet or Google Wallet support from the phrase digital profile. The reviewed Rewards page confirms browser access and home-screen saving, not native wallet support.
• Airship: because the value proposition depends on connected guest data, map the systems you actually use and confirm the relevant integrations and implementation scope before purchase. Airship’s public integrations directory is broad, but not every connector should be assumed to provide the same data depth.

Migration considerations: Airship Rewards to Çentik

Neither public site reviewed documents a guaranteed one-click Airship-to-Çentik migration, so a responsible migration plan starts with a data audit rather than a promise. Confirm what Airship can export and what Çentik can import before committing to a cutover. At minimum, map customer identifiers, current reward entitlements, expiry dates, redemption status, visit or earning history where relevant, and each contact’s marketing-permission state.

Keep loyalty state and marketing consent as separate fields. In the UK, electronic direct marketing is governed by PECR alongside UK GDPR where personal data is used. ICO guidance says organisations normally need consent for unsolicited electronic marketing to individual subscribers unless an applicable exception such as the soft opt-in applies, and consent must be specific, informed and based on positive action. Preserve consent source, timestamp and opt-out history during migration rather than treating an email address as permission to market.

• Run a field-by-field export/import test with a small sample before the full transfer.
• Reconcile active rewards, expired rewards and already-redeemed rewards so value is not accidentally duplicated or lost.
• Preserve the provenance of email/SMS permissions and suppression records; do not silently convert database membership into marketing consent.
• Decide whether legacy Airship reward types map to Çentik stamp tiers, campaign rewards or a manual credit process; document any mechanics that do not have a direct equivalent.
• Communicate the change to customers in plain language, including how they will access their new loyalty card and what happens to existing rewards.
• Keep a rollback snapshot and reconciliation report until balances and customer access have been verified.

Decision checklist for UK hospitality teams

• Do you want loyalty to work independently of your existing till, or do you want it deeply connected to your wider hospitality data stack?
• Is the core customer behaviour a repeated counter visit and a visible stamp progression, or targeted offers issued from a central CRM?
• Do you need Apple Wallet and Google Wallet for the loyalty card, or is a browser profile sufficient?
• How important are automated email/SMS journeys, advanced segmentation and cross-system customer data?
• What is the full first-year cost after base licences, rewards add-ons, setup, hardware and integrations?
• Which customer and consent fields can be exported, imported and audited if you later change platform?

FAQ

Final comparison

Çentik and Airship Rewards overlap on app-free customer access and retention, but their centres of gravity are different. Çentik is built around an in-store loyalty interaction and a digital stamp card that can work independently of the POS. Airship Rewards is the customer-facing rewards layer of a broader hospitality CRM with deeper documented automation and integration coverage. The right fit depends on whether you want a lightweight loyalty product or a CRM-led guest-data stack; evaluate the implementation model, integration requirements, total cost and data-migration path rather than choosing on a single feature.