Every subscription app on the Shopify App Store bills a customer on a schedule. That is the easy part, and since Shopify moved subscriptions into the platform’s own checkout and payment APIs, every serious app does it the same way. What separates them is what happens after the first renewal: how easily a customer skips instead of cancelling, what she sees when she tries to cancel, whether the app tells Klaviyo or Attentive what just happened, and whether the portal feels like part of your store or a stranger’s.
We run subscriptions on the stores we build — CocoLash’s Subscribe & Save turns a seven-day lash wear cycle into a delivery cycle — and we optimise existing programmes for brands that already have one. This comparison is written from that work: seven apps, the criteria that decide churn, and the setup that keeps subscribers regardless of which app you pick.
Summary
- Shopify Subscriptions (free, built by Shopify): the right start for a single subscribe-and-save product.
- Recharge: the incumbent, the largest integration ecosystem, the safest migration target.
- Loop: churn tooling, build-a-box and bundles at a lower fee; the one we install most on growing stores.
- Skio: the Plus-grade portal — passwordless, app-like, group subscriptions.
- Appstle: the most features per dollar; strong for smaller stores that need build-a-box.
- Seal: simple, flat-priced, no revenue share; single-product and low-volume stores.
- Bold: the long-standing option, rebuilt on Shopify’s native APIs.
How Shopify subscriptions work in 2026
Subscriptions on Shopify are native objects: a selling plan attached to a product defines the frequency and the discount, the customer buys through Shopify’s checkout, Shopify vaults the payment method, and a subscription contract is created. The app’s job is to manage that contract — schedule the renewals, run the customer portal, handle failed payments, and expose the events to the rest of your stack.
Two consequences. First, every app in this list works in Shopify’s checkout, so “does it support Shop Pay and checkout extensibility” is no longer a differentiator. Second, because the contract and the vaulted payment method belong to Shopify, migrating between apps is possible without asking subscribers to re-enter a card — which was not true a few years ago.
What actually decides churn
Before the app-by-app comparison, the criteria we score on, in the order they matter on live stores:
- The customer portal. Can she skip, swap product, change frequency, change address and pause without emailing you? Does it live inside her Shopify account, or on the app’s domain with a different design?
- Cancellation flow. A real reason-capture step with a targeted offer — skip, swap, discount, pause — and honest reporting on which offers save whom.
- Event integration. Whether “subscription started / skipped / cancelled / payment failed” reach Klaviyo, Attentive or Postscript as events you can build flows on.
- Dunning. Retry schedule for failed payments, and the messages around it.
- Bundles and build-a-box. For coffee, supplements, beauty: can the customer compose the box, and does the app handle the inventory?
- Pricing model. Flat fee, revenue share, or both — and what that costs at your subscription revenue.
The seven apps
1. Shopify Subscriptions
Shopify’s own app is free and does the core job cleanly: selling plans, a portal inside the customer account, basic dunning, and reporting in the Shopify admin. It is the right start for one or two subscribe-and-save products and the cleanest possible data model, because there is no third party between the contract and the store.
Where it runs out: no build-a-box, no cancellation-deflection flow, limited dunning controls, no event integration beyond what Shopify emits natively. Brands that start here typically move once subscriptions pass a few hundred active contracts and churn becomes the number that matters.
2. Recharge
Recharge is the incumbent, and its strengths are the ones an established programme needs: the largest ecosystem of integrations (Klaviyo, Attentive, Gorgias, loyalty apps, ERPs), a mature migration path in from every competitor, bundles, workflows, and a portal that can be themed. Pricing is a monthly platform fee plus a percentage of subscription revenue on the standard tier, with higher tiers for advanced features — check the current numbers on the listing, because they change.
Best for: stores with an existing programme, complex stacks, or a migration from another platform where the payment tokens have to come across intact.
3. Loop Subscriptions
Loop is the app we install most on growing DTC stores. It leads on the churn criteria: a configurable cancellation flow with targeted save offers and reporting, a portal customers actually use, build-a-box and bundles, and Klaviyo events out of the box. The fee structure has been lower than Recharge’s at the same revenue, with a free tier for stores starting out.
Best for: consumables — beauty, coffee, supplements, pet — where skip-and-swap behaviour decides retention and the box changes over time.
4. Skio
Skio is built for Shopify Plus brands and it shows in the portal: passwordless login, an app-like experience, group subscriptions (a household sharing one plan), conditional cancellation flows and one-click reactivation. It sits at the higher end on price — a substantial platform fee plus a percentage — and earns it on stores where the portal is a brand touchpoint and subscription revenue is large enough that fractions of churn matter.
Best for: Plus brands with a large subscriber base and a design standard the default portals do not meet.
5. Appstle Subscriptions
Appstle delivers more features per dollar than anything else on the list: build-a-box, loyalty tie-ins, extensive dunning controls, a capable portal and a free tier, with responsive support. The trade-off is a denser configuration and a portal that takes more work to make feel native. For a store under a few thousand subscribers that needs build-a-box without an enterprise fee, it is often the right answer.
6. Seal Subscriptions
Seal is the simple option: flat monthly pricing with no revenue share, a free tier for a small number of subscribers, magic-link portal access, and the core skip/pause/edit functions. It does not try to be a retention platform. For a single-product store or a side line of subscriptions inside a larger catalogue, that is a feature.
7. Bold Subscriptions
Bold has been on Shopify longer than most and was rebuilt on the native subscription APIs. It is solid and familiar, with a flat fee plus a percentage. We see it most on stores that adopted it years ago and have no reason to move; for a new programme, Loop or Appstle usually offers more at the same price.
Quick comparison
| App | Pricing model | Cancellation flow | Build-a-box | Portal | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Subscriptions | Free | No | No | Inside the Shopify account | One or two subscribe-and-save products |
| Recharge | Platform fee + % of revenue | Yes | Yes (bundles) | Themeable, hosted | Established programmes, complex stacks, migrations |
| Loop | Free tier, then fee + small % | Yes, with save-offer reporting | Yes | Themeable, strong mobile | Growing consumables brands |
| Skio | Higher fee + % | Yes, conditional | Yes | Passwordless, app-like, group plans | Plus brands with large bases |
| Appstle | Free tier, then low flat fee | Yes | Yes | Capable, needs styling | Feature-heavy needs on a budget |
| Seal | Flat, no revenue share | Basic | Limited | Magic links | Simple, low-volume programmes |
| Bold | Flat fee + % | Basic | Limited | Standard | Existing Bold stores |
Pricing tiers move; treat the model column as durable and check the current fee on each listing before you decide.
The setup that keeps subscribers
The app is perhaps a third of the result. The rest is how the programme is built into the store, and it is the same on every app:
- Make subscribe the default selection on the product page, with the saving visible and one-time purchase one tap away. Stores that default to one-time and hide the subscription in a dropdown convert a fraction of the subscribers.
- Match frequency to real use. Lashes worn for seven days, a 30-serving supplement, a 250 g bag of coffee at two cups a day: set the default to the true cycle, slightly before it runs out.
- Give the programme a page. Why subscribe, the plans, how it works, the FAQ. CocoLash’s programme is a page, not a widget, and the flows link to it.
- Make skip easier than cancel. Skip is one tap in the portal and in the renewal reminder email; cancel goes through the reason-capture flow with an offer matched to the reason.
- Wire the events. Started, upcoming renewal, skipped, payment failed, cancelled — each becomes a flow in Klaviyo or Attentive. The renewal reminder three days out, with skip and swap links, is the single most valuable message in the programme.
- Report on the cohort, not the app dashboard. Subscriber count by month of first order, and the share still active at 3, 6 and 12 months. That is the churn number; attributed revenue in the app is not.
Subscription apps and Shopify Plus
On Plus, subscriptions gain checkout extensibility and Shopify Functions: a subscription-only discount enforced in checkout, a free gift on the third renewal, tiered pricing by subscription length, member pricing across the catalogue. None of that needs the app to do it, and it is where a mature programme goes next. Our subscriptions agency work is largely this layer, on top of whichever app the brand already runs. For which plan you actually need, see Plus vs Advanced.
Common mistakes
- Launching the programme with no cancellation flow, then discovering churn in the third month.
- A portal on the app’s domain that looks nothing like the store; customers assume something is wrong and cancel.
- Dunning left on defaults: three retries in three days, then a silent cancel.
- Subscription discount so deep that the subscriber is worth less than the one-time buyer until month four.
- Two subscription apps installed at once during a migration, both writing selling plans.
Launch checklist
- Selling plans on the right products, subscribe default-on, frequency set to real use.
- A programme page linked from the product page and the footer.
- Portal styled to the store; skip, swap, pause and address change tested on a phone.
- Cancellation flow with three reasons and an offer per reason.
- Five flows live: welcome, renewal reminder, skipped, payment failed, cancelled.
- Dunning schedule set; the failed-payment message tested.
- Cohort report built before the first renewal.
If a programme already exists and churn is the problem, our free CRO audit covers the subscription path — product page, portal, cancellation flow, events — with the fixes in priority order, and the email tool comparison helps if the flows side is undecided.
FAQ
Is Shopify’s free Subscriptions app good enough?
For a single subscribe-and-save product with simple frequencies, yes, and it is the cleanest option because it uses Shopify’s native subscription contracts. It runs out when you need build-a-box, cancellation-deflection flows, dunning controls or deeper analytics — the features that decide churn at scale.
Which subscription app is best for Shopify Plus?
Recharge, Skio and Loop are the three we see on Plus stores, and all three use Shopify’s native checkout and subscription APIs. Skio for a passwordless, app-like portal and group subscriptions; Recharge for the largest integration ecosystem and migrations; Loop for churn tooling and build-a-box at a lower fee.
How do I migrate subscribers between subscription apps?
Export the subscription contracts and payment tokens through the apps’ migration tooling; Recharge, Loop and Skio all support migrations in from competitors and Shopify can transfer the vaulted payment methods. Plan a dunning-free window, tell subscribers what changes, and test the first billing cycle on a subset.
What subscription churn rate is normal on Shopify?
Consumables such as beauty, coffee and supplements typically lose 5–10% of subscribers a month; the setup — default-on subscribe option, easy skip, a real cancellation flow, replenishment timing that matches use — moves that more than the choice of app.
