What is a Subscription App for Shopify?
A subscription app for Shopify is a tool you (dear Shopify merchants) can use to offer subscription-based products or services to customers.
Merchants can usually manage subscriptions, track billing, and handle payments using these apps.
A subscription business model in e-commerce is when customers pay a fee to get access to a product or service.
As a result, a regular fee (such as a monthly fee or an annual fee) is charged to the customer to continue using the product or service.
For example, a customer might pay a monthly or annual fee to access a streaming service like Netflix or Disney and/or a monthly fee to receive e-commerce newsletters or consultancy services.
Following this model, you can create a more predictable revenue stream for your business.
Top 16 Shopify Subscription Apps to Use
Here are listed the best and highly recommended subscription apps for Shopify with their key features, top reviews & user ratings, and pricing details.
These apps are great at every scale, so just check them out and choose the one that fits your needs.
1. Smartrr Subscriptions
We’re starting with an effective solution for your search for the best subscription app for Shopify: Smartrr.
Providing clear steps, the possibility of managing all your subscriptions, and ease of use, Smartrr stands out as a successful customer account portal.
Besides, Smartrr offers different kinds of subscriptions for you that aim to contribute to the lifetime value of your business.
To build the relationship between your brand and customer is practical with Smartrr.
If acquisition and is one of the aims, you can start to acquire and organize your subscriptions right away.
User’s review:
“Amazing app that streamlined our subscription service for our loyal customers. Beyond that, the customer service is miles ahead of the competition. Would highly recommend for any entrepreneur”
Shopify Rating: ⭐5 / 5 with 40 reviews
Key Features:
- Elaborate and efficient onboarding process
- Maintaining Email and SMS management
- Customer support that helps setup and migration process
- Advanced analytics for growth potential
- Rewards for subscription loyalty
- Providing referrals for subscriptions
- Mobile-optimized platform access
Pricing: The plans of Smartrr are highly flexible. Launch, the first plan, costs $99 per month with its wide range of features and a 14-day free trial. The next plan is Grow, costing $299 per month, and the last plan is Excel, starting at $499 per month.
2. Bold Subscriptions
With Bold Subscriptions, Shopify merchants can create an account and manage their subscriptions with a customizable customer portal.
In addition, you can set pricing options and track and fulfill orders.
The best part is that customers can adjust subscriptions to fit their changing needs rather than canceling altogether by providing a self-service area.
If you’re one of those users obsessed about every detail in the process, you’ll love this app.
The Bold subscription app for Shopify provides detailed analytics about shopping trends, customer preferences, etc.
A user’s review:
Good customer service! Easy integration. Wish it was a bit more customizable but so far it's going well for us.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4 / 5 with 278 reviews
Key Features
- Assist with full design & language control
- Seamless Shopify integration
- Installs automatically to match your theme
- Offer a 'subscribe and save' discount on all products
- Compatible with Shopify discount codes
- Add both one-time and subscription products to the cart
- Provide robust notifications via emails
- Offers SMS subscription management
Pricing:
- CORE plan: $49.99/month +1% of orders containing subscription products.
3. Subscription App by Recurpay
Another great Subscription App option you can choose is Recurpay.
This Shopify subscription app is so smooth that you can easily set up recurring payments and subscriptions with just a few clicks (Yes, I tried it myself).
This tool allows your customers to manage their subscriptions themselves and reduce support calls with a customizable and multilingual customer portal.
Aside from all these features, their pricing plan is the cherry on top.
It’s completely Free and only starts charging you once you make USD $100 a month from subscriptions.
A user’s review:
Great app, support is super super prompt if there is any issue. The entire integration was fast and easy. Would definitely recommend if your products can be purchases on a periodic manner.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.9 / 5 with 123 reviews
Key Features
- Automatic recurring payments & orders.
- Seamless integration with Shopify Checkout.
- Easy-to-use customer portal for subscription management.
- Support mixed subscriptions at the same time.
- Offer discounts for subscription orders.
- Easy email notifications set up for various events.
Pricing:
- Free subscription until $100 in revenue.
- The basic plan: starts at $9/month.
4. Appstle℠ Subscriptions
Searching for a subscription app with rich features and a low price?
Appstle℠ Subscriptions is a good solution to consider in this regard.
This subscription app for Shopify provides you with a sharp performance tracker, personalized notifications, and automatic churn reduction.
It offers a free plan and there are no transaction or monthly fees for creating and managing up to 50 subscriptions at the same time.
The best part is that They include inventory forecasting to help merchants maintain stock levels for popular items.
This was you can track performance easily with detailed reports on customers and revenue.
A users review:
Overall very good, never as simple as you'd like it to be to implement, but their support is responsive and helpful.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.9 / 5 with 1,803 reviews
Key Features
- Offers personalization features for customers' notifications.
- Accurate analytics and insights into your subscription products.
- Offers customization with CSS.
- Multi-channel support via chat, email, and phone.
Pricing:
- Free plan: Free forever until your store reaches $500/month in * subscription revenue. 0% transaction fees.
- Starter: $10/month or $96/year and save 20%
- Business: $30/month or $288/year and save 20%
- Business Premium: $100/month or $960/year and save 20%
5. Seal Subscriptions℠ & Loyalty
Seal is another great subscription app that offers advanced tools in a simple and stunning way to scale your business.
The tool offers a free version and a native Shopify checkout option that includes a subscription widget.
Overall Seal subscription app is pretty much an all-in-one platform.
The app only requires you to set subscription rules and start selling immediately after installation.
You will be charged automatically for recurring orders and you access them in your Shopify admin.
A user’s review:
Great support! Apps works super smooth. We are really happy! Thanks Henry for the help with the delivery profils.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.9 / 5 with 581 reviews
Key Features
- Customer invoice automation.
- Mobile-optimized subscription widgets.
- Easy subscription management.
- Customer portal for managing subscriptions.
- Consistent communication with orders.
- Track canceled subscriptions and failed payments.
- Mixed subscriptions in the same cart.
- Performance monitoring with detailed data visualizations.
Pricing:
- Free plan: Up to 150 subscriptions with 0% transaction fee
- SuperSale: $4.95/month or $41.58/year and save 30% with 0% transaction fee
- Rising: $7.95/month or $66.78/year and save 30% with 0% transaction fee
- Star Legend: $20/month or $168/year and save 30% with 0% transaction fee
6. RecurrinGO! Subscriptions
RecurrinGO! Subscriptions is another great Shopify tool that you can use for recurring sales.
The app offers a customer flexible subscription payment plans and
By collecting analytics data early on, you will be able to gain insights into subscription rules and customer subscriptions.
With set up repeat payments, you'll be able automatically to send customers who subscribed a link to pay you in a specified period of time.
A user’s review:
This app is super flexible, very easy to set up and the support team is awesome. Highly recommended.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.6 / 5 with 180 reviews
Key Features
- Automatic charges & recurring invoices.
- Pay-per-delivery & prepaid subscriptions, flexible discount options.
- Intuitive customer portal designed to retain and engage your subscribers.
- Analytics for subscription rules and customer subscriptions.
- Cancellation & dunning management.
- Full customization for all parameters.
Pricing:
- Starter: Free to install with 3% transaction fee of every order containing a subscription item
- Basic: $9/month with 1% transaction fee of every order containing a subscription item.
- Plus: $29/month with 0.5% transaction fee of every order containing a subscription item.
- Pro: $99/month with 0.25% transaction fee of every order containing a subscription item
7. PayWhirl Subscription Payments
PayWhirl is all about recurring payments and is a great option to begin your journey with.
As the only point of contact during the process, the app offers a custom design that matches your brand and white-label widgets that keep your company at the forefront for the customer.
While it doesn't have as many features as Appstle, it will cover all the basic needs of your business.
A user’s review:
This app has been helpful in setting up our subscription. There is room for growth for this app, but that is expected with all things.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.8 / 5 with 178 reviews
Key Features
- Offers discounting options for subscriptions
- Integrates with your Shopify theme
- Unlimited subscriptions on all plans
- One-time and recurring payments
- Multi-language & multi-currency support
- Data exports and subscription analytics dashboards.
Pricing:
- Starter plan:Free with 3% transaction fee
- Pro: $9/month + 2% transaction fee with 14 days free trial
- Plus: $49/month + 1% transaction fee with 14 days free trial
- Ultimate: $249/month + 0.5% transaction fee with 14 days free trial
8. Subify Subscriptions App
Designed for ease of use and seamless integration, the Subify Subscriptions App offers comprehensive solutions for recurring payments, memberships, bundles, and digital/physical products.
This app not only offers a free trial for 14 days, it also provides customizable widget templates that blend perfectly with your store aesthetics.
Subify stands out for its versatility in offering varied subscription models, enhancing customer experience with a seamless portal for subscription management. It also attracts users with its quick setup and auto-adding of widgets.
A user’s review:
It is very easy to use and customize! This is exactly what I was looking for since I needed something with great features to create a membership.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.9 / 5 with 332 reviews
Key Features
- Dynamic, fixed, and recurring payment options.
- Supports a variety of subscription models.
- Offers customization options.
- Quick and responsive customer service.
- Native app for iOS and Android.
- Full freedom over your brand.
Pricing:
- Free: $0, essential features, per-transaction fee.
- Essential: $9/month, expanded features, + transaction fee.
- Basic: $39/month, unlimited subs, + lower transaction fee.
- Subify: $79/month, full suite, lowest transaction fee.
All plans include a 14-day free trial, offering a flexible start to your subscription business.
9. Ongoing Subscriptions
Handing it to the Ongoing Subscriptions, lets Shopify merchants offer savings incentives in a variety of ways, such as a set price, a certain amount off, or a percentage off.
It's hard to resist this kind of discount, isn't it?
After adding it to your store in just one click, customers can set up recurring payments or prepaid subscriptions from a widget that matches your theme.
It's an easy peasy lemon squeezy process for tracking and managing subscription orders, with comprehensive reports and analytics for better business insights.
Lastly, although it provides a free plan, you still have to pay the transaction fee, and maybe the paid plan pricing is high for small and medium-sized stores.
A user’s review:
The app has been great in helping us track our subscribers and identify any profile issues that may occur.
Key Features
- Excellent support system
- Easy customer dashboard portal.
- All-in-one subscription creation & management tools.
- Multiple subscription widgets options.
- Detailed analytics & reports on subscription.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 5 / 5 with 119 reviews
Pricing:
- Starter plan: Free to install with 3% transaction fee
- Pro: $99/month with 2% transaction fee
- Enterprise: $299/month 1% transaction fee
10. Recharge Subscriptions
Next on our list is the great Recharge Subscriptions app, offering tons of handy features to help you increase customer engagement and lifetime value.
Recharge allows you to use custom CSS to ensure everything matches your unique branding.
Using their mobile devices, subscribers can modify and manage their subscriptions quickly and easily—including adding one-time purchases or skipping deliveries.
The tool offers a free plan with basic features to help merchants start a subscription business.
The Pro plan is relatively expensive ($499 per month) compared to the other apps on our list, making it more suitable for larger Shopify stores.
A user’s review:
Easy set-up, simple navigation in the admin portal, great 'help' articles.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.7 / 5 with 1,308 reviews
Key Features
- Smooth & fast set-up.
- Automatic notifications.
- One-time product upsells.
- Performance analytics dashboard.
- Automatic payment retries for failed transactions.
- Compatible with Shopify Payments and Shopify Checkout.
- Seamless integration with top apps like Klaviyo, Yotpo, Gorgias.
Pricing:
- Standard plan: Free to install with 1% + 10¢ per transaction.
- Pro plan: $499/month with 1% + 19¢ per transaction
11. Timo Subscriptions
Timo Subscriptions is another FREE subscription app for Shopify you can use.
Although Timo is relatively new & unknown (Launched on February 15, 2022) compared to other tools we reviewed, it made our list with excellent reviews from users.
Yes, this is the power of social proof!
With a native checkout experience and easy discount control, you can create as many subscription plans as you need and boost customer lifetime value with subscriptions on your product pages!
A user’s review:
I have tried a few apps. This one works very easily and you have a good personal support with the app. Extensions are possible through the programmers.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 5 / 5 with 35 reviews
Key Features
- Flexible subscription options
- Self-managed subscription for both merchants & customers
- Super easy to configure and manage selling plans
- Adjust products/quantities of an existing subscription plan
- Cancel/pause/resume an existing subscription plan.
- Track subscription plans straightforwardly through Customer Portal.
- Effortlessly manage plan status for even non-tech subscribers
Pricing: Timo is 100% FREE while this blog is being written.
12. Rekaching Subscriptions
Rekaching is another free subscription app for Shopify that you can choose and enjoy it’s a user-friendly and clear preview.
With this Shopify app you can smoothly integrate the customer portal to your customer's account, thank you page, and email.
Additionally, it helps you increase LTV and build further relationships with your loyal customers.
The support is multi-language and super responsive and the whole installing process only takes a few minutes.
A user’s review:
Customer support is very responsive. Settings on the app are easy to use. Most features are available on the free plan.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.8 / 5 with 59 reviews
Key Features
- Simple to launch subscription.
- User-friendly customer portal.
- Increase LTV & loyalty.
- Email notification & retry billing for failed payments
- Seamless workflow: use directly in Shopify admin
- Up-to-date tech: works with the latest themes
Pricing: It’s Free to install.
13. Subscriptions Payments
Subscriptions Payments is another free Shopify subscription app with great features.
The support team is responsive, and it’s super easy to ask for help, so you can quickly get the hang of it.
The product is pretty great for a free app, especially if you're just getting started with Shopify.
A user’s review:
It does exactly what I needed it to do, and it's so intuitive. I'm so glad I downloaded this. I highly recommend it!
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.9 / 5 with 41 reviews
Key Features
- Offers to customize the billing frequency.
- Easy to update quantity & variant.
- Update next billing date.
- Cancel & pause anytime.
- Update shipping address.
- Update payment method.
- Multiple language support.
Pricing: It’s Free to install.
14. Subscriptions Recurring Orders
Subscriptions Recurring Orders by Prope provides a variety of powerful tools for a seamless subscription management system.
Installing this app on your Shopify store allows you to add a subscription widget to any product or service.
Additionally, you'll generate steady recurring revenue by automatically processing customer payments.
A user’s review:
So far so good. It was easy for me to set up. I did a mock subscription and it worked seamlessly. The chat feature is helpful too.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.8 / 5 with 175 reviews
Key Features
- Easy subscription setup and management.
- Seamless integration with Shopify Checkout.
- Customizable subscription widget to match your store's theme.
- Subscription management portal for customers.
- Manage subscriptions and payments automatically.
- Easily send personalized & customized emails to customers.
Pricing:
- Free: Free up to $200/mo. revenue
- Starter: $9.95/month or $77.61/year and save 34%
- Business: $19.95/month or $155.61/year and save 34%
- Enterprise: $49.95/month or $389.61/year and save 35%
15. Skio Subscriptions (YC S20)
Skio is a premium subscription app, and it’s relatively expensive compared to the rest of the list.
However, it takes the best features of ReCharge a step further and enhances them to create a greater user and customer experience.
That’s why if you’re searching for a ReCharge app alternative, you might want to consider Skio.
You can use this tool to create accounts for your customers with each subscription order automatically, so they can log in without a password.
A user’s review:
The Skio team is a collaborative partner, willing and eager to work together to ensure our customers have a seamless experience.
Shopify Rating: ⭐ 4.9 / 5 with 106 reviews
Key Features
- Easy switch from Recharge/Bold at $0 cost.
- Offer group subscription discounts (like Sprint/Spotify).
- Dashboards are intuitive and buttery smooth (no frizz).
- No longer charge 1% transaction fees on solo subscriptions.
- Great No-Code Theme Editor for a/b testing.
- Send SMS notifications (0% markup).
Pricing:
- DOG PLAN: $399/month or $3,588/year and save 25% with 1% + 20¢ transaction fee
16. SubBox: Subscriptions
Last but not least on our list, we have SubBox: Subscriptions.
A robust subscription app with a FREE plan that simplifies the process of adding subscriptions to existing businesses.
Using this app, you can harness your customers' purchasing power, boost LTV and enhance loyalty in a sustainable manner.
It is a good app to start with, whether you want to do replenishment, curation (subscription box), or membership.
A user’s review:
It is very easy to set up and navigate. Help is always there if I needed it and customer service is wonderful.
Shopify Rating: ⭐5 / 5 with 12 reviews
Key Features
- Source products with dropshipping, print-on-demand, wholesale, and suppliers.
- Offer various subscription types: Pay as you go, Prepaid, Prepaid, Auto Renewed.
- Auto-create orders and process pre-paid & recurring payments, hassle-free.
- Manage subscribers and subscriptions on their behalf. Full control & adjustment.
- Support customers with help centers, chat, wishlists, FAQs, and loyalty programs.
Pricing:
- FREE: Free to install 0% transaction fee
- BASIC: $5/month 0.75% transaction fee
Why Do You Need Shopify Subscriptions Apps?
Well, subscription apps not only allow customers to receive their favorite products regularly, but they also let merchants manage and track their subscriptions easily.
It's a win-win for both parties!
I mean, who doesn’t like to pay monthly or yearly in return for great services & products, and who doesn’t like steady revenue?
The approach is already legit; these apps are simply additional tools that help you grow your business.
Not to mention that utilizing these tools saves merchants tons of time and effort, allowing them to focus on other aspects of their business.
Plus, offering additional features such as customizable subscription plans and the customer's account management feature is the cherry on top.
Choose the Best Subscription App for Your Shopify Store
That's it for our list of the 16 best apps for Shopify.
As you can see, the wide variety of options and features that can be incorporated into your store by using a third-party subscription app will make promoting your business easier than ever.
No matter what your objectives are, you can use these innovative apps to take your business to a new level of success.
All in all, whether you're in the market for a new subscription app or need to update your current subscription app, these services have you covered.
Just remember that with such an extensive marketplace, it's up to you to decide what is best for your business and shopping experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Add a Subscription App to Shopify?
Go to the Shopify app store, select the subscription app you want to use, and then click on the “add app” button to add the tool to your Shopify store.
How Can I Manage My Shopify App Subscriptions?
Just go to your Shopify admin, and click Customers. Click More Filter> Subscriptions under the filter section. Then you can filter your customers based on their subscription status.
Additionally, take a look at the list below; you might also find these related blogs helpful:
- 15 Best Shopify Trust Badge Apps : Review & Comparison
- Shopify Checkout Optimization Checklist (20+ Easy Tips)
- 10 Best Shopify Abandoned Cart Apps to Recover Your Business
- 10 Best Shopify Low Stock Alert Apps to Use in 2024
