Compare Shopify subscription apps for 2026, from the free native Shopify Subscriptions app to Recharge, Skio and Loop, with published pricing and fees.
Shopify subscription apps turn one-time buyers into recurring revenue, and in 2026 the choice is wider and more confusing than ever. Shopify now has its own free Subscriptions app, the category leader has bought one of its fastest-growing rivals, and pricing ranges from free plans with zero transaction fees to enterprise platforms that start at several hundred dollars a month plus a percentage of every order.
Because subscriptions run through Shopify’s native checkout, the basic mechanics are similar across apps: customers pick a delivery frequency, get charged automatically, and manage their plan from a portal. The real differences are in what happens around that loop. How easy is it for a customer to skip or swap instead of cancel? How well does the app recover failed payments? Can it run build-a-box offers, prepaid plans or memberships? And how much of your revenue does it take as a fee once you scale?
This guide compares the best Shopify subscription app options for different stages, from a coffee roaster testing subscribe and save to a supplement brand with tens of thousands of active subscribers. Every app below was checked on its Shopify App Store listing for current plans, fees and features.
Shopify Subscription Apps At A Glance
App
Best For
Starting Price
Standout
Shopify Subscriptions
Simple subscribe and save at no cost
Free
Native to Shopify checkout, customer accounts and POS
Recharge
Established brands wanting the category standard
$25 per month for small subscriber counts
60-day free trial, bundles, loyalty and SDK access
Skio
High-volume DTC brands
$599 per month plus 1% + $0.20
Build-a-box and passwordless portal, now a Recharge company
Loop Subscriptions
Growing brands focused on retention
Free, Starter $99 per month plus 1%
Personalized cancellation flows and 35+ integrations
Shopify launched its own Subscriptions app in January 2024, and for many stores it is now the sensible starting point. It is free, it is built by Shopify, and it works directly with Shopify’s checkout, customer accounts, POS and admin, so there is no separate portal to theme and no extra vendor to manage.
The feature set covers the essentials. You can offer auto-billed subscriptions with weekly, monthly or yearly renewals, attach subscription discounts, and let customers skip, pause or cancel on their own. It supports both physical and digital products, includes customizable email templates for confirmations and payment reminders, reports on subscription performance, and can sell subscriptions in person through POS. There are also migration tools for importing existing subscription contracts.
The tradeoff is depth. The app’s rating on the App Store is noticeably lower than most third-party options, and it does not offer the build-a-box flows, advanced cancellation offers, loyalty programs or detailed retention analytics that dedicated platforms sell. For a store adding subscribe and save to a handful of consumables, that may not matter at all. For a brand where subscriptions are the business model, it is usually a stepping stone.
Services and expertise: auto-billed recurring orders, subscription discounts, skip, pause and cancel controls, email templates, reporting, digital and physical products, POS subscriptions, contract migration.
2. Recharge — Category Standard Since 2014, With A 60-Day Free Trial
Recharge has been on the Shopify App Store since 2014 and remains the default choice for a large share of subscription brands. It has thousands of reviews, a strong rating, and an ecosystem of agencies and integrations built around it, which makes hiring help and connecting marketing tools straightforward.
The app includes a subscription-first product page widget, a no-code customer portal, smart cancellation prevention, automated failed payment recovery, bundles with tiered discounts, and loyalty and referral programs. Analytics include industry benchmarks so you can see how your churn and retention compare. For brands with developers, Recharge offers a JavaScript SDK and Storefront API access for custom experiences.
Pricing on the listing starts at $25 per month for stores with a small number of subscribers. The Starter plan is $99 per month plus 1.49% + $0.19 per transaction, and Plus is $499 per month plus a scalable fee starting at 1.34% + $0.19. Every plan comes with a 60-day free trial, the longest in this comparison.
Services and expertise: subscription widgets, customer portal, cancellation prevention, payment recovery, bundles and tiered discounts, loyalty and referrals, benchmark analytics, SDK and API access.
3. Skio — Build-A-Box And Passwordless Portal, Now A Recharge Company
Skio built its reputation by winning high-growth DTC brands away from older platforms, and its App Store listing now names it “Skio, a Recharge Company.” It still operates as its own app with its own pricing and product, but buyers comparing the two should know they now sit under the same parent.
The product focuses on a polished subscriber experience. It offers a no-code customer portal with passwordless login, a build-a-box feature for customizable bundles, a multi-step cancellation flow builder, automated lifecycle journeys, smart payment recovery, and real-time analytics and segmentation. Skio also advertises zero-downtime migration support, which matters when you are moving thousands of active subscribers from another app.
Skio is priced for brands with meaningful volume. The Scale plan is $599 per month or $5,988 per year, plus 1% + $0.20 per transaction. The listing says more than 1,000 subscription brands use it, naming IM8, Grüns and Everyday Dose among them.
Services and expertise: passwordless customer portal, build-a-box bundles, cancellation flow builder, lifecycle journeys, payment recovery, analytics and segmentation, subscriber migration.
4. Loop Subscriptions — Personalized Cancellation Flows With A Free Plan And 35+ Integrations
Loop Subscriptions, built by Loop Solutions, has become one of the most popular alternatives to Recharge, with a near-perfect rating on its listing. Its emphasis is retention: personalized cancellation flows and offers, a mobile-friendly self-service portal, and smart dunning to recover failed payments.
Loop supports a wide range of subscription models, including replenishment, curated boxes, access-based subscriptions, memberships, flexible bundles and build-your-own offers, with pricing models from simple recurring payments to usage-based pricing. For operations teams it adds team permissions, bulk actions and automated workflows, and it connects to more than 35 marketing and loyalty apps.
There is a free plan. Starter costs $99 per month plus 1% per transaction, and Pro costs $399 per month plus 0.75%, with a 14-day free trial on both paid tiers. The falling transaction fee on Pro makes the math favorable once subscription revenue reaches a certain level.
Services and expertise: cancellation flows and offers, customer portal, dunning, bundles and build-your-own boxes, memberships, usage-based pricing, analytics, team permissions, bulk actions, 35+ integrations.
5. Stay Ai — RetentionEngine Forecasting And Churn Prevention For Enterprise Brands
Stay Ai targets larger brands that treat retention as a discipline in its own right. Its product is split into named engines: ExperienceEngine runs promotions across the subscriber journey, and RetentionEngine handles revenue forecasting and churn prevention, backed by what the company describes as proprietary AI analytics.
The customer portal is no-code with full design and copy customization, and the platform integrates with Klaviyo, Gorgias, Attentive and other tools subscription brands tend to rely on. Stay Ai also sells a high-touch customer success team as part of the package, which is a real difference from self-serve apps where you are on your own after setup. For a wider look at the options, see our guide to the best Klaviyo alternatives.
Pricing is a single plan at $499 per month plus 1% + 19 cents per transaction, with a 30-day free trial. That puts it in the same bracket as Recharge Plus and Skio, so it is best compared against those two rather than against the low-cost options further down this list.
Services and expertise: customizable no-code portal, subscriber journey promotions, revenue forecasting, churn prevention, AI analytics, customer success support, Klaviyo, Gorgias and Attentive integrations.
6. Smartrr — Subscriptions, Loyalty And Memberships In One App
Smartrr combines subscriptions with loyalty, rewards, referrals and memberships, which can replace two or three separate apps for brands that want a single retention program. It also includes SMS and email automation and an AI-powered Klaviyo integration, so subscriber messaging can be driven from the same data.
Other features include a branded checkout and customer portal, replenishment and curated subscriptions, bundles and upsells, and advanced analytics and reporting. Reviews on the listing frequently praise the responsiveness of its support team, which matters when you are configuring loyalty rules and subscription logic together.
All plans carry a 1% fee on subscriber GMV. Launch costs $99 per month, Grow costs $299 and Excel starts at $499, each with a 14-day free trial. The review count is smaller than the category leaders, so ask for references in your vertical before committing.
Services and expertise: subscriptions, loyalty and rewards, referrals, memberships, branded portal, bundles and upsells, SMS and email automation, Klaviyo integration, analytics.
7. Appstle Subscriptions — Zero Transaction Fees On Every Plan, With Thousands Of Reviews
Appstle, based in Menlo Park, California, has one of the largest review counts of any Shopify subscription app and a near-perfect rating. Its pitch is feature depth without percentage fees: every plan, including the free one, has a 0% transaction fee.
The app handles subscription boxes, replenishment, curated subscriptions and memberships, with build-a-box functionality, loyalty features, an advanced customer portal with passwordless login, and support for Shopify Checkout and POS. Support is available around the clock, which is unusual at this price point.
Plans are tiered by subscription revenue rather than by transaction fee. The free plan covers up to $500 per month in subscriptions. Starter is $10 per month, Business is $30 and Business Premium is $100, with annual discounts and a 14-day free trial, and the top tier covers up to $100,000 per month in subscription revenue. For a growing brand, that flat structure can be far cheaper than paying a percentage of every renewal.
Services and expertise: subscription boxes, replenishment, curated and membership subscriptions, build-a-box, loyalty, passwordless portal, Checkout and POS support, 24/7 support.
8. Seal Subscriptions — Free Plan For Up To 50 Subscriptions, Paid Tiers From $5.95
Seal Subscriptions has been on the App Store since 2020 and is one of the easiest ways for a small store to launch a subscription offer without monthly costs. The free plan supports up to 50 subscriptions with 0% transaction fees, auto-charging, tiered discounts, multi-language support and full API access.
The app supports classic and prepaid subscriptions, subscription boxes with discounts, free trials, custom shipping and loyalty incentives. Customers get a self-service portal accessed by magic link, so there is no password to forget, and the paid tiers add renewal reminders, delivery profiles, price syncing, a payment calendar and custom cancellation flows.
Paid plans are priced by subscriber count: Supersale at $5.95 per month for 100 subscriptions, Rising Star at $9.95 for 250, and Legend at $24.95 for 500, with larger plans available. Each includes a 30-day free trial, and transaction fees stay at 0% across the board.
Services and expertise: classic and prepaid subscriptions, subscription boxes, tiered discounts, free trials, magic link portal, renewal reminders, cancellation flows, API access, 17 languages.
9. Recurpay — Unlimited Subscriptions And 0% Fees From $9 A Month
Recurpay, based in Dubai with US operations, is the budget pick for stores that expect to grow past the subscriber caps on other low-cost plans. Its Launch plan costs $9 per month and includes unlimited subscriptions with no transaction fee, which is a rare combination at that price.
The app covers product subscriptions, replenishment plans and curated boxes, with a self-serve portal where customers can skip, pause, swap or cancel. Smart dunning handles failed payments, and analytics track MRR, churn and lifetime value. Widgets are customizable, and API and webhook access is available for custom work. Recurpay also offers white-glove migration support and advertises human support that replies within minutes.
The Growth plan, at $19 per month, adds an AI widget builder, advanced analytics and more than 20 integrations. Both paid plans include a 14-day free trial, and the free plan is limited to development stores.
Services and expertise: subscriptions, replenishment and curated boxes, self-serve portal, smart dunning, MRR, churn and LTV analytics, custom widgets, API and webhooks, migration support.
10. Bold Subscriptions — Convertible Subscriptions And Bulk Price Updates With A 30-Day Trial
Bold is a long-established Shopify app developer, and Bold Subscriptions makes the most sense for merchants who already use other Bold products such as Bold Upsell. It supports flexible schedules, prepaid options, convertible subscriptions that switch products after a set number of orders, and dynamic discounting.
Operationally, it includes dunning management, cancellation flows, a customer portal, API and developer tools, and bulk price and product updates, which is handy for merchants who adjust pricing across many subscription products at once. It supports replenishment and subscription boxes for both physical and digital products.
Plans are Launch at $24.99 per month plus 2%, Grow at $49.99 plus 1%, and Scale at $74.99 plus 0.9%, each with a 30-day free trial. Its App Store rating is lower than most apps on this list, so read the recent reviews and test the portal with real orders during the trial.
Services and expertise: flexible and prepaid subscriptions, convertible subscriptions, dynamic discounts, dunning, cancellation flows, customer portal, API tools, bulk updates, Bold Upsell integration.
How To Choose A Shopify Subscription App
Is the free Shopify Subscriptions app enough?
If you are adding a simple subscribe and save option to a few consumable products, start with Shopify’s own app. It is free, native to checkout and POS, and easy to set up. Move to a dedicated app when you need build-a-box offers, cancellation offers, loyalty tied to subscriptions, or retention analytics, or when subscriptions become a core part of revenue rather than an add-on.
How do the fees compare as you grow?
Subscription pricing comes in three shapes: flat monthly fees with 0% transaction fees (Appstle, Seal, Recurpay), a monthly fee plus a percentage (Recharge, Loop, Bold, Skio, Stay Ai), and a percentage of subscriber GMV (Smartrr). Model your costs at your current subscription revenue and at three times that number. The best Shopify subscription app on day one can become the most expensive one at scale, and the reverse is also true.
What will stop subscribers from cancelling?
Retention features are where the premium apps justify their price. Look for skip, swap and pause options in the portal, cancellation flows that offer a discount or a delay before the customer leaves, and smart dunning that retries failed cards. A few percentage points of churn saved each month usually outweighs the difference in app fees.
Which subscription model fits your products?
Replenishment of a single consumable, such as coffee, vitamins or pet food, is supported by every app here. Curated boxes, build-your-own bundles, prepaid plans, memberships and digital access are where the apps diverge. Loop, Appstle and Skio are strong on bundles and build-a-box offers, Seal and Bold both list prepaid subscriptions, and Smartrr and Loop cover memberships. Write down the exact offer you want to sell, including how customers change flavors or sizes, and confirm on the trial that the portal lets them do it without contacting support.
How hard is it to switch later?
Migrating active subscribers means moving payment methods, schedules and discounts without double charging or losing customers. Most of the larger Shopify subscription apps offer migration support, and Skio and Recurpay specifically advertise it. Ask how migration works before you commit, and prefer apps that use Shopify’s native subscription contracts so you are not locked into one vendor.
Do you need an agency to set this up?
Many brands launch subscriptions themselves. Where help pays off is in the offer design, the lifecycle emails and SMS that keep subscribers engaged, and custom portal or bundle work. For food, coffee, wine and supplement brands, the top Shopify agencies for food and beverage brands include teams with subscription builds in their portfolios, such as Realm, a Shopify-only agency. For retention marketing, compare the top Shopify marketing agencies, and for gift boxes and consumables see the Shopify agencies for consumer goods and gift brands.
Conclusion
The right choice among Shopify subscription apps depends on how central subscriptions are to your business. Shopify Subscriptions is free and native, and it is enough for simple subscribe and save. Seal, Recurpay and Appstle keep costs low with 0% transaction fees, and Appstle offers the deepest feature set of the three. Loop and Recharge are the mainstream choices for growing brands, with Recharge offering the longest free trial and Loop pairing a free plan with strong cancellation tools.
At the top end, Skio, now part of Recharge, and Stay Ai compete for high-volume brands that want advanced retention tooling and hands-on support, while Smartrr suits brands that want loyalty and subscriptions under one roof. Whichever of these shopify subscription apps you shortlist, run a real trial with test orders, model the fees at your future volume, and confirm the current plans on each App Store listing, since subscription pricing changes often.
