Short answer: Most shops should start with a LINE Official Account plus a LIFF member system. With under 30,000 members and interactions centered on notices, points and bookings, the three-year cost is about NT$450,000–650,000, roughly half of a custom app (NT$0.9–1.5 million). Build an app only for offline use or high-frequency interaction.
The pain: a NT$600,000 app that only 10% of members downloaded
A bakery brand with four stores spent NT$600,000 on a member app. A year later, only 2,100 of its 20,000 members had downloaded it and fewer than 600 were active each month. Meanwhile, the brand's LINE Official Account already had 18,000 friends. The problem was not app quality; customers simply did not want another app just to collect points.
Good fit vs poor fit
The deciding question is how often customers open it each month: under four times, choose LINE; over ten, consider an app.
| Fits LINE OA plus LIFF | Fits a custom app |
|---|---|
| In-store points, birthday gifts, coupons | Daily-use services (gym check-in, meal subscriptions) |
| Bookings, queueing, arrival notices | Offline, Bluetooth or deep camera features |
| Chains with under 30,000 members | 100,000+ members and heavy push volume |
| Broad age range that dislikes downloads | Brands that need full control of UI and data |
Alternatives matrix
The four routes differ in how much you can customize and what you pay over three years.
- LINE OA built-in point card: Almost no build cost, but fixed rules and no POS or tier integration.
- Membership SaaS: About NT$1,500–5,000 a month, NT$50,000–180,000 over three years; standardized features and often limited data export.
- Custom LINE plus LIFF member system: NT$150,000–350,000 to build, with POS integration and custom tiers and point rules.
- Native or cross-platform app: From NT$400,000–800,000, plus download marketing and store reviews.
Full process breakdown
A LINE plus LIFF member system goes live in about 8–12 weeks, skipping store review and download campaigns.
- Weeks 1–2, requirements: List tiers, point rules and the POS to connect; deliver a requirements list (Notion).
- Weeks 3–4, flows and screens: Design the LIFF member card, points and redemption pages in Figma; deliver a clickable prototype.
- Weeks 5–10, build and integrate: Laravel back office plus LINE LIFF, LINE Login and Messaging API; deliver a staging site.
- Weeks 11–12, pilot: Two weeks in one store, then all stores; deliver an operations manual.
Full cost breakdown
The three-year gap comes mainly from build and maintenance costs; monthly platform fees are small change.
| Item (3 years) | LINE plus LIFF member system | Custom app |
|---|---|---|
| Build | NT$150,000–350,000 | NT$400,000–800,000 |
| Platform fees | LINE OA high-volume plan, about NT$50,000 | Apple Developer US$99/year plus Google Play US$25 |
| Hosting and SMS | About NT$50,000–80,000 | About NT$60,000–100,000 |
| Maintenance | NT$5,000/month, about NT$180,000 | NT$10,000–15,000/month, about NT$360,000–540,000 |
| Total | About NT$450,000–650,000 | About NT$0.9–1.5 million |
Watch the hidden costs. According to a vendor's summary of the new rates, from November 2026 LINE OA's mid-volume plan becomes NT$1,000 a month and the high-volume plan NT$1,400, with extra messages at about NT$0.2 each. Apps carry the Apple Developer Program fee of US$99 a year plus compatibility work after every iOS release.
Reality vs expectations
The biggest gap is assuming people will use it once it exists.
- Expectation: members download the app once it is live. Reality: without incentives, downloads often stay below 10%.
- Expectation: LINE messages are free. Reality: broadcasts count per recipient, so one message to 10,000 friends uses 10,000 messages.
- Expectation: LIFF is too basic. Reality: member cards, points, bookings and surveys all work; only offline and hardware features are limited.
Common traps and how to avoid them
Most failures come from messaging and data ownership, not technology.
- Blast messaging drives blocks: segment with tags and broadcast no more than four times a month.
- Member data trapped in SaaS: put full member and transaction export rights in the contract.
- POS and points out of sync: run a 50-transaction reconciliation test before launch.
- Long phone-binding flow: use one-tap LINE Login and keep it to three fields.
- Building app and LINE at once: prove engagement on LINE first, then decide on an app with data.
Success metrics and 90-day roadmap
For the first 90 days, watch only three numbers: binding rate, return rate and block rate.
- Day 30: 40% of friends bound as members, block rate under 5%.
- Day 60: segmented broadcast click rate above 8%, point redemption at 20%.
- Day 90: 90-day member return rate up 10 percentage points; then reassess whether an app is needed.
Decision checklist
- ☐ Fewer than 30,000 members?
- ☐ Customers interact fewer than four times a month?
- ☐ Main needs are points, coupons and bookings?
- ☐ Existing LINE OA with over 3,000 friends?
- ☐ Need to connect an existing POS?
- ☐ No offline or Bluetooth features needed?
- ☐ Budget under NT$400,000?
- ☐ Want to launch within three months?
- ☐ Want to own member data yourself?
- ☐ No one dedicated to driving app downloads?
Seven or more checks: start with LINE plus LIFF. Three or fewer: evaluate an app.
FAQ
What is LIFF?
LIFF is a web app that opens inside LINE. Customers tap the menu to see member cards, points and bookings without downloading anything.
How much does the November LINE OA price change matter?
Most shops pay about NT$200 more a month. The real cost to control is overage, and segmented broadcasts save more.
If we build an app later, is the LINE investment wasted?
No, the back office and member database carry over. Only the front end is rebuilt, saving about 30–40% of app build cost.
Is member data safe in LINE?
Member data should live in your own database. LINE handles login and messaging, and data ownership stays with you.
Next step
ScriptWalker (a Taiwan-based Laravel/Flutter custom development studio) builds LINE member systems (LIFF) from NT$80,000 and cross-platform member apps from NT$150,000. Tell us your member count and number of stores, and in 30 minutes we will estimate your three-year total cost:
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 0916-224-047
- LINE: @ufv9089p