The fastest way to grow sales is to focus on old customers instead of spending too much effort on finding new customers. Through a subscription business, your store will provide customers with flexible and convenient subscription boxes periodically. But how do I create a subscription on Shopify? That is why the best Shopify subscription apps below are the top picks of the online stores. 

What do you think is that the major chain stores in the e-commerce industry today, such as Sephora, Unilever, P&G, and so on, offer customer registration box options? According to McKinsey, the eCommerce subscription market has grown to 100% over the years. This proves that this is one of the fastest-growing markets worldwide. Why? Let’s dig deeper right below.

What Is A Shopify Subscription App?

Subscription (subscription business model) allows customers to subscribe to a service/product for a specified period, usually monthly or annually. At the end of the subscription period, the customer can cancel or extend the subscription period.

Currently, subscription is one of the models pursued by many e-commerce businesses. Even the COVID-19 pandemic could not stop the growing popularity of this business model. That’s why more and more Shopify apps appear to assist you in managing your subscriptions. 

For example, you may utilize a Shopify monthly subscription app to set up a repeat order that is fulfilled every month for a customer. The frequency of the subscription and product details are maintained and handled by the app when using a Shopify recurring app.

In addition, the three most popular types of selling subscriptions on Shopify include replenishment, curation of products, and membership. 

Related topics:

Review 9 Best Shopify Subscription Apps

App Developer Rating Free Plan Available Free Trial Start price/month
Appstle℠ Subscriptions App Appstle Inc. 4.9⭐ Yes 10-day $10/month
RecurrinGO! Subscriptions App SpurIT UAB 4.7⭐ Yes 14-day $9/month
ReCharge Subscriptions Recharge 4.6⭐ No 30-day $99/month
Seal Subscriptions App Seal Subscriptions 4.9⭐ Yes 30-day $4.95/month
PayWhirl Subscription Payments PayWhirl Inc. 4.6⭐ Yes 14-day $9/month
Ongoing Subscriptions Ongoing Subscriptions 5.0⭐ No 30-day $99/month
Skio Subscriptions (YC S20) Skio 5.0⭐ No No $499/month
Bold Subscriptions BOLD 4.2⭐ No 60-day $49.99/month

#1 Appstle℠ Subscriptions App

Appstle℠ Shopify Subscriptions App

Rating: 4.9⭐

Appstle℠ Subscriptions App is a comprehensive subscription solution that allows you to deliver items and services to your consumers monthly. The app assists you in managing subscriptions by providing valuable merchant options to increase income, such as segmented plans, targeted upselling, etc. The remarkable thing about the application is that it offers a seamless purchase process from product selection and payment to shipping selection, which few Shopify apps provide.

Besides, if only evaluating the subscription feature, the app also offers full options like pausing or skipping upcoming deliveries, refilling or reconfiguring the subscription (swap/add /delete products), including additional products once, and adjusting all shipping dates.

Overall, Appstle℠ Subscriptions will be a worthy option for you to encourage customers to choose to subscribe. From there, easily reach customers and turn them into loyal customers.

Highlight Feature:

  • Provide rich features for subscription customers: pause, cancel, change, and so on
  • Seamless checkout process, allowing customers to checkout for mixed carts.
  • Automatically pay and invoice for registered orders
  • Create and manage multiple shipping profiles for subscriptions
  • Monitor inventory and forecast next period’s demand
  • Set up a questionnaire for canceled applications
  • Powerful subscription widget customization

Pros:

  • Suitable for many models such as subscription, build-a-box, upselling, and more
  • Include full utilities to bring a good experience for registered customers
  • Automatically track, update in real-time, and forecast future demand
  • Powerful customization

Cons:

  • The price of the advanced packages is relatively high
  • Some customers reviewed that the support team was not agile.

Pricing: 10-day free trial.

  • Free to install
  • Starter: $10/month
  • Business: $30/month
  • Business Premium: $100/month.

📌 Check it out: Appstle℠ Subscriptions App

#2 RecurrinGO! Subscriptions App

RecurrinGO Subscriptions App Shopify

Rating: 4.7⭐

One of the essential features of RecurrinGO! Subscriptions App is easy to create and management of subscriptions. Of course, in this list, there is no lousy application in this section. However, RecurrinGO! is more special as it allows you to create and launch a subscription campaign in 2 minutes.

As one of the best Shopify subscription apps, RecurrinGo offers the option to place the subscription widget on the product page, next to the add to cart button, to stimulate an increase in your online store’s subscriptions. Besides, it allows you to automatically charge your customers and is fully integrated with Shopify Checkout.

And yet, the application allows you to generate automatic invoices with a payment link, which makes it great for customers as they can pay at any time and by any payment method. RecurrinGO! also offers comprehensive customization as it allows you to customize invoices and email notifications to match your brand and audience. 

Highlight features:

  • Automatically generate invoices on demand. 
  • Pay-per-delivery and prepaid subscription options. 
  • Option to send a reminder email if the customer does not pay for a subscription. 
  • Offer extensive widget customization options. 
  • Analytics to get insights from subscription rules and customer subscriptions.

Pros:

  • Offer an all-in-one platform for creating and managing subscriptions easily
  • Responsive customer support
  • Provide initial-stage analytics

Cons:

  • Limited customization options

Pricing: 

The app has a 14-day free trial period.

  • Starter: Free to install, 3% transaction fee of every order containing a subscription item.
  • Basic: $9/month + 1% transaction fee of every order containing a subscription item.
  • Plus: $29/month + 0.5% transaction fee of every order containing a subscription item.
  • Pro: $99/month + 0.25% transaction fee of every order containing a subscription item.

📌 Check it out: RecurrinGO! Subscriptions App

#3 ReCharge Subscriptions

ReCharge Subscriptions App for Shopify

Rating: 4.6⭐

It’s no coincidence that ReCharge Subscriptions is the best subscription app for Shopify because it offers a list of outstanding features and the ability to create multiple subscription plans simultaneously. Besides, customers will want a flexible payment system and have to be transparent when paying subscription fees, so this app will help your store build customer trust. How? It provides various payment methods for customers such as Credit cards, Debit cards, ACH or PayPal, etc. All are integrated into the payment page ReCharge to create the most convenience for customers no matter where you are in the world. 

And yet, when you buy online, have you ever wondered where your order is, and when will it arrive? This application will answer those customer inquiries on your behalf by providing order management and purchase history accounts for your customers. And of course, you will also benefit from this because you can also control the number of subscriptions more easily. When needed, you can also send notifications to customers thanks to client information.

Also, ReCharge integrates with a lot of other third-party applications to expand the features of your store. Indeed, that link will help ReCharge’s attitude of improving focus and deep user support

Highlight Feature:

  • Offer a customer portal / RechargeSMS that allows customers to manage their subscriptions.
  • Allow customers to add multiple products at the same time
  • Includes features for customers to skip, schedule delivery, or exchange products
  • Monitor and measure store performance
  • Real-time product performance tracking

Pros:

  • Link with many popular payment methods, suitable for international stores.
  • Optimize your company’s performance by measuring it.
  • With automatic notifications, you can keep everyone up to date.
  • Use our robust APIs to scale your subscription business.
  • Integrate with the best commerce tools (Klaviyo, Gorgias, Avalara, and more)

Cons:

  • There may be additional costs.
  • The premium package is much more expensive than the general.
  • Other underlying concerns were not addressed upfront.

Pricing: 30-day free trial.

  • Standard: $99/month and 1.25% + 19¢ per transaction. 
  • Pro: $499/month and 1% + 19¢ per transaction.

📌 Check it out: ReCharge Subscriptions

#4 Seal Subscriptions App

Seal Subscriptions App Shopify

Rating: 4.9⭐

Suppose you are looking forward to starting a subscription business model and increasing your store revenue, Seal Subscriptions App is one of the best subscription apps for Shopify with the most valuable features. This app’s unique feature is that it provides a registration utility right next to the shopping cart on the store’s product page, making it easy for customers to see and click. Also, this Shopify monthly subscription app allows customers to make convenient recurring payments with more than 100 payment gateways on Shopify and provides powerful order management for store owners. 

However, a reminder will be automatically sent to the customer’s email when the subscription payment is due. More importantly, customers can view or unsubscribe without registration. Besides, the customization options make it possible to set discounts for early signups or long-term orders. 

Finally, Seal Subscriptions allows your customers to choose how long to subscribe for each different product freely. For example, a customer may customize the subscription period for product A to 1 month and product B to 6 months. This creates convenience for customers, thereby increasing customer experience and satisfaction. 

Highlight features:

  • Auto-charging mode, automatically recalculate shipping costs and automatic product swap.
  • Offer mixed subscriptions in the same cart.
  • Customers can easily view or cancel their recurring subscriptions by clicking on the secure magic link provided in the email.
  • Allow customers can manage their subscriptions directly on the customer site by removing and adding products.
  • Set up a variety of email notifications to keep clients up to date on their active subscriptions.

Pros:

  • Set up numerous subscription intervals, discounts, product swaps, prepaid subscriptions, requirements, and languages to meet your specific demands.
  • Customers can easily view or cancel their recurring subscriptions without the registration needed.
  • Set the weekday/monthly/yearly date for charging your subscribers.

Cons:

  • The payment function not working well
  • Lack of integration with 3rd party platforms

Pricing: 30-day free trial

  • Free Plan: Free 
  • SuperSale: $4.95/month
  • Rising Star: $7.95/month 
  • Legend: $20/month

📌 Check it out: Seal Subscriptions App

#5 PayWhirl Subscription Payments

PayWhirl Subscription Payments

Rating: 4.6⭐

With over 128 reviews and hundreds of trusted Shopify stores, PayWhirl is one of the best Shopify subscription apps offering smooth subscription and payment management options. Like Seal, it integrates with Shopify’s payment system, which supports over 100 different payment gateways. Besides, it also easily integrates with other order management systems on Shopify. That’s why PayWhirl Subscription Payments is excellent if you want to manage and sell subscriptions on Shopify. 

And yet, the app provides freedom and control comfort to your customers by allowing them to purchase and manage their subscriptions easily right from their online store. For example, customers can log in to their accounts and contain their personal information, view payment history make changes according to their wishes, and so on. More importantly, the designs the app offers are also customizable and integrate seamlessly with the Shopify store theme if you want with ease. 

In short, PayWhirl is an application that provides convenience for both you and your customers. On your side, you can manage and create subscriptions quickly and easily. On the customer side, they can track their subscriptions, make quick payments with Shopify payment gateways, and make easy information changes.

Highlight Feature:

  • Customers are automatically billed on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis.
  • Works with Shopify checkout, no off-site redirection
  • Management of rejected payments and automatic dunning
  • Control your branding by white labeling widgets.
  • Compatible with Shopify’s built-in reporting
  • Customers can manage their subscriptions, credit cards, and personal information.

Pros:

  • Support for migration from Shopify Payments, Stripe, Authorize, and PayPal.
  • Support for several languages and currencies
  • All plans offer unlimited subscriptions.

Cons:

  • A transaction fee will be charged.
  • Do not have any reporting or analytics.
  • There is no support for swap products.

Pricing: 14-day free trial.

  • Free: Free to install
  • Pro: $9/month
  • Traction: $29/month
  • Scale: $149/month

📌 Check it out: PayWhirl Subscription Payments

#6 Ongoing Subscriptions

Ongoing Subscriptions Shopify subscription apps

Rating: 5.0⭐

Despite being new software, Ongoing Subscriptions is deserving of the best subscription app for Shopify due to its comprehensiveness, which includes discounted frequency, automatic repeating payments, and valuable reports.

Specifically, the app increases your revenue and motivates customers to place repeat orders on products customers love with savings by offering subscriptions with flexible delivery options such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly (or a combination of options).

Besides, like the others in the top 7+ best subscription apps Shopify, Ongoing offers a series of automatic registration utilities, saving both you and your customers time and effort. It also provides subscription discounts that are used to incentivize pricing.

Highlight Feature:

  • PCI and GDPR compliance
  • Recurring Payments on Autopilot
  • Make a subscription plan for any product you choose.
  • History of subscription orders and management
  • Provide revenue reports
  • Customers can select from a variety of delivery options and billing cycles.

Pros:

  • Excellent support
  • Include robust subscription widgets
  • Able to customize your discount based on how frequently the customer orders the items.

Cons:

  • A transaction fee will be charged.

Pricing: 30-day free trial

  • Pro: $99/month
  • Enterprise: $499/month

📌 Check it out: Ongoing Subscriptions

#7 Skio Subscriptions (YC S20)

Skio Subscriptions YC S20 - Best subcription app for Shopify

Rating: 5.0⭐

Skio is one of the best Shopify subscription apps built on the success of ReCharge and other established platforms to improve the user and customer experience. Customer accounts are generated automatically with each subscription order, allowing them to log in without a password, and removing the need to manage angry emails citing forgotten credentials.

Skio Subscriptions also supports group subscriptions and discounts, which increases customer retention by exploiting the natural urge to not raise costs for others after agreeing to join up. Additionally, The transition from ReCharge is painless, with no interruptions to customer subscriptions or loss of payment method data.

Overall, Skio’s most significant advantage? It combines contemporary frameworks and React/Next.js technologies to construct and update subscriptions much faster than competitors.

Highlight Feature:

  • You may easily transition from ReCharge.
  • Offer PayPal to be used as a payment method for subscriptions.
  • Allow for password-free access (4-digit code by SMS and email).
  • Provide a ready-to-use headless subscription portal with pages that load rapidly.
  • Increase referrals by offering a group discount on all orders to friends who subscribe together.
  • Discounts for group subscriptions also enhance retention.

Pros:

  • Use current technology such as React/Next.js, which allows the app to be built 100 times faster than ReCharge.
  • Editing takes only 10 seconds, thanks to Skio’s rapid loading.
  • Instead of updating the customer’s address in both ReCharge and Shopify, you can do it once.
  • Increase referrals

Cons:

  • Expensive, a transaction fee will be charged.
  • A free plan is not available.
  • Do not support all themes.
  • Not support multi-language.

Pricing:

  • Dog Plan (Standard): $399/month (annually) or $499/month (month-to-month). 1% + 20¢ transaction fee
  • Cat Plan (Custom): Design a custom package for your business.

📌 Check it out: Skio Subscriptions

#8 Bold Subscriptions

Bold Subscription Shopify Subscription App

Rating: 4.2⭐

Bold Subscription is a Shopify recurring app trusted by more than 20,000 brands worldwide.

First and foremost, this app improves the speed of the checkout page. With the most popular payment options, your clients can quickly select the appropriate payment gateway and make a payment. Furthermore, it enables your consumers to create accounts, update their information, and view their purchase history. Your store may quickly examine shopping trends and product orientation for each customer based on the information provided by customers.

Most notably, Bold Subscription allows for customizable registration in three ways: subscribe to each product, subscribe to the full shopping cart, or subscribe to a combination of shopping carts. Even better, this is the first Shopify app that enables you to sell Build-a-Box or Meal-Plan subscriptions.

Highlight Feature:

  • Add subscribe and save choices to a single product, a specific collection, or your entire store with ease.
  • Offer robust APIs, developer tools, and webhooks to tailor your subscription business.
  • Customers may manage their subscriptions, payments, and personal information in their native language.
  • Allow your team to use vital customer management tools to edit and manage subscriber accounts and log in as a customer.
  • Set buffer days between your billing and fulfillment cycles to prevent a subscriber’s first and second orders from occurring too close together.

Pros:

  • Access to over 3,000 apps that may be integrated to automate your marketing, reporting, and customer management operations.
  • Shopify discount codes are seamlessly integrated.
  • Dunning management automatically reduces unsuccessful credit card transactions.

Cons:

  • There is no free plan.
  • Expensive
  • This app is currently suffering a slew of troubles due to changes made by Shopify in November.

Pricing: 60-day free trial.

  • Core: $49.99/month + 1% of orders containing subscription products
  • Premium: Contact Bold Subscription (including advanced customization).

📌 Check it out: Bold Subscription

You may concern: Top 14+ Profitable Subscription Business Ideas Worth Considering

How To Choose The Best Shopify Subscription Apps

Rating

One of the top criteria for choosing an app is rating. There is nothing more accurate than the customer reviews who have used the app. We have gathered all our customer reviews for the best Shopify subscription apps below. Of course, no app is perfect, but all of these apps have a 4-star or higher rating with more than 100 customer reviews. We recommend these are the best and most popular ones.

Ranking

In addition to customer reviews, we also rate these apps based on the search page’s ranking. In fact, to get high rankings on the Shopify Appstore, the application must converge many other factors, not only the high rating but also the features, content, and installation amount of the applications. Therefore, this is also a factor worth considering when we choose the top 5 applications below.

Feature & Price

You will probably be interested in how the app can help your Shopify store. That is why we especially carefully selected the applications with the most comprehensive and powerful subscription features. The most prominent features of the applications such as:

  • Increase the number of registrations. 
  • Build customer trust. 
  • Powerful customization. 
  • Other advanced features like email and customer notifications; creating A/B test campaigns; other automation and synchronization features; etc. 

Besides, you should consider your budget before deciding to use any paid apps. We have reviewed and found the apps below have free trials and that the monthly price is well worth the feature it offers. So, depending on the purpose of use, you should choose your online store’s best application.

Provider’s Reputation

In fact, this is also an essential factor as well as the above three factors. Many people often do not care about the provider when choosing applications. However, to minimize the risks during use, the supplier’s reputation is also worth considering. Besides, you can know if the application’s customer support service is good thanks to finding out the provider.

Benefits of Using Subscription Apps for Shopify Stores

We all know that one of the most effective ways to retain customers is by establishing a subscription model. However, Shopify does not provide the features to handle the recurring charges available. In particular, the biggest problem when creating frequent customers in a Shopify store is that Shopify doesn’t automatically store customer billing information. With each purchase, the customer will have to re-enter the data, and this is a considerable nuisance to even the most easy-going customers. But all these problems will be solved once you use the best Shopify subscription apps mentioned above. 

Specifically, these applications help your customers sign up quickly while also tracking sales performance and automating some operations to save you time and effort. In other words, it is a beneficial choice for both you and the customer. Also, these applications allow customers to give payment information and automatically save them for later payments. 

How Do The Best Shopify Subscription Apps Help Your Store?

In short, the best subscription apps for Shopify will enable your store to do the two most important things to retain customers and manage revenue: easy recurring orders increased long-term value customers, and easy future cash flow prediction.

Final Verdict

In this article, BSS Commerce Shopify compares the best Shopify subscription apps and provides the information required if you want to start a subscription business model. Frequently asked questions have been summarized and answered here.

So, We hope this article will help you understand the methods, pros, and cons of subscription. Then consider using the apps above to improve your online store sales and customer experience. On the current Shopify app store market, there are not too many good subscription apps so we believe these are the applications worth experiencing.

Wishing you success with starting this model!