Shopkick has shut down, so there is nothing here to sign up for. Shopkick, Inc. filed for relief under chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code on May 29, 2026, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, case number 26-10877. Chapter 7 is a liquidation rather than a reorganization, which means the company is being wound up and is not coming back.
The iOS app has been removed from the App Store and the company website now serves only the bankruptcy notice. This review is kept because people still search for it, but it has been rewritten to say what is actually true today.
Shopkick ran for well over a decade and paid real gift cards, so this is not a scam story. It is a business that ran out of the retail advertising budget it depended on. Here is what it did, what happens to kicks nobody redeemed, and what is worth using instead.
What Shopkick did
Shopkick paid you in points called kicks. You earned them for walking into a partner store with the app open, for scanning barcodes on selected products, for submitting receipts and for buying through a linked card. Kicks converted to gift cards at about 250 kicks per dollar, and the appeal was that you could earn without spending anything at all.
The whole thing was funded by retailers paying for foot traffic. When that spending moved to digital advertising, walk in rewards stopped making sense as a line item, and an app that paid people to stand in a doorway became very hard to fund.
What happens to unredeemed kicks
In a Chapter 7 case the company ceases operating and a trustee sells the remaining assets, paying creditors in an order set by law. Loyalty points are not money held on your behalf. They are an unsecured claim, and unsecured claims rank near the bottom, behind secured lenders, employees and tax authorities. Claimants at that level are rarely paid anything.
So treat unredeemed kicks as lost. The case docket is public under case number 26-10877 in the District of Delaware if you want to track it, but nobody should tell you a recovery is likely.
If you had already converted kicks into a gift card and kept the code, that is different. The retailer owes that balance, not Shopkick, so the code should still work.
The best Shopkick alternatives
No app copies the walk in and scan mechanic, because that mechanic is exactly what failed. Upside is the nearest thing still live and paying, and it rewards you for going somewhere specific rather than for buying a particular brand.
Upside
The nearest thing to the in store half of Shopkick, because it pays you for going somewhere specific rather than for buying a particular brand. It covers gas, groceries and restaurants. Claim the offer in the app before you pay and the cash back arrives once the transaction settles.
Get started with Upside, and if fuel is your main spend our list of cash back apps for gas compares it properly.
If you want earnings rather than cash back
Cash back is limited by how much you spend, which is why Shopkick never added up to much for most people either. These four pay a bonus outright and none of them require a purchase.
| App | Signup bonus | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Bigcash | $15 | Games, offers and surveys |
| Freecash | $10 | Offers and app testing, pays in cash or crypto |
| Testerup | $10 | Paid app and game testing |
| Branded | Varies | Surveys, as seen on CBS |
- Bigcash pays the largest bonus of the four at $15 and has the widest spread of ways to earn
- Freecash starts you at $10 and pays out in cash or crypto with a low withdrawal threshold
- Testerup pays $10 to start and suits anyone who would rather test apps than answer survey questions
- Branded is a survey panel that has been seen on CBS, and is the steadiest option of the four
For a wider comparison see our list of the best money making apps.
Frequently asked questions
No. Shopkick, Inc. filed for relief under chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code on May 29, 2026, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, case number 26-10877. The iOS app has been pulled from the App Store and the company website now shows only the bankruptcy notice.
No. It paid real gift cards for more than a decade. It failed as a business, which is a different thing from fraud, though it leaves anyone holding kicks in the same position either way.
Almost certainly not. Unredeemed points are an unsecured claim in a Chapter 7 liquidation, ranking behind secured lenders, employees and taxes, and unsecured claimants usually recover nothing. A gift card code you had already redeemed should still work, because that balance sits with the retailer. Upside is the closest app still running if you want to be paid for shopping you were doing anyway.
It depends what you liked about it. Upside is the closest, because it pays you for visiting specific gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants rather than for buying a particular brand. If the signup bonus was the appeal, Bigcash pays the bonus we track of $15 with no shopping attached.
Bottom line
Shopkick was a genuinely original app that ran out of the advertising money holding it up, and Chapter 7 means it is finished. Write off any kicks you were holding, keep any gift card codes you already redeemed, and put the habit into something that still gets paid to exist. If gift cards were the point, how to get free Amazon gift cards covers the routes that still work.
