Top 5 Subscriptions Apps on Shopify in 2024

What are the best subscription apps on Shopify in 2024? In this article, we talk about the top 5 subscription apps available on Shopify, going over their functions and costs so that you can make the best choice for your Shopify website and online store in 2024.

Subscription-based ecommerce businesses has witnessed significant growth in previous years, with even more optimistic trends for growth from $199.41 billion in 2023 to $330.58 billion in 2024.

The upward trend is a testament to the fact that subscription-based ecommerce businesses is a win-win situation for both online stores and customers. As online businesses get to enjoy recurring sales and predictable revenue, loyal customers enjoy the convenience of an ongoing service that brings value to their lives.

While the subscription model began as a strategy used by magazines and newspapers, today, retail brands have hijacked the tried and true tactic, turning subscriptions into a powerful tool to reach wider audiences who sign up for convenience and instant gratification.

From streaming services to Netflix and Hulu, to subscription boxes for coffee, beauty, and even socks, there’s a subscription service for almost every individual. For online businesses that want to capitalize on the recurring business that subscription services bring, running a subscription service with your Shopify online store can be one of the best possible ways to turn one-time shoppers into your repeat loyal customers.

Shopify’s App Store houses over 8,000 apps that help you customize your website or online store however you like, including a myriad of Shopify subscription apps that help you create and run subscription services.

In this article, we’ll delve into subscription services, going over what subscription services are, and the best Shopify apps available on the App Store you can use to build and grow a subscription-based service in 2024 and beyond.

Let’s get started.

What is a Subscription App for Shopify?

Subscriptions have been changing the game for online businesses by offering recurring deliveries of products and services to their customers. Depending on the subscription options you offer, customers who sign up can enjoy services like weekly coffee deliveries, monthly beauty product boxes, or even daily access to exclusive content—all through subscriptions.

Subscription apps on Shopify are apps that allow you to create and manage recurring purchase plans for customers of your Shopify store. Selecting the right subscription apps for your online business is important and should be carefully considered for how they might optimize customer experience, increase revenue, and streamline operations for your online business.

What types of subscriptions can you sell? You can sell everything from physical products, and digital products, to services. Customers receive their items and services automatically, while your online brand earns consistent income.

The reason why subscription services are popular lies in their win-win approach which is both enjoyed by customers and merchants alike:

For Customers:

Convenience: Products and services recur automatically, saving customers plenty of time, thought, and effort.
Personalization: Subscriptions cater to specific needs and preferences customers may have, fulfilling their needs with a personalized touch.
Value: Exclusive and personalized content and deals enhance the experience, making customers come back for the value your subscription services provide.

For Merchants:

Improved Cash Flow: Subscription services provide a source of stable and predictable cash flow for your online businesses.
Increased customer retention & lifetime value: Because subscription services are recurring, customers spend more over time, increasing their CLV.
Competitive advantage: You can more easily stand out in the market by creating unique offerings for your customers to enjoy

Top Shopify Subscription Apps in 2024:

1. Appstle Subscriptions App

Shopify rating: 4.9 stars (2801 reviews) – The top subscription and recurring orders app on Shopify as of January 2024.

Consistently the top-rated subscription service app on Shopify and Shopify Plus, the Appstle Subscriptions App allows brands to create incredible experiences for their customers.

Appstle stands out in the Shopify subscriptions, recurring orders, and recurring payments category as the most powerful solution because of its suite of robust functions, including its easy-to-use admin/merchant dashboard, seamless integration with Shopify’s native and third-party solutions, and the fact that it gives merchants complete control over their customer’s subscriptions and recurring orders experience.

The Appstle Subscriptions app owes its popularity to the fact that it empowers Shopify merchants to easily set up, manage, and optimize their subscription services. The app simplifies creating and customizing subscription plans, handles the recurring billing of the subscribers, provides unlimited email notifications and upsell opportunities, and offers exceptional and intuitive end-to-end customer experiences.

For your brand’s subscribers, the app's comprehensive features include flexible plan and payment options, recurring order management and updates (e.g. product swap, subscription pause, one-time product additions to upcoming deliveries), 1-click checkout, churn control strategies, and build-a-box functionality that repeat customers will certainly appreciate.

The Appstle Subscriptions app includes the following features:

Sell subscriptions with shopper trial, payment options, build a box, and more
Offer tiered discounts, custom shipping, gifts, and more with loyalty features
Present feature-rich customer portal with one-click login and quick action links
Maximize ROI with upsells, bundling, bulk automation, retention tools, and more
Achieve end-to-end efficiency and custom subscriptions flow through features such as inventory notifications, bulk automations, and robust APIs and Webhooks designed for fast scaling and/or enterprise brands
Scale your brand and subscription revenue through highly granular analytics (also provided in easily digestible weekly summary reports)

How much does the Appstle subscription app cost on Shopify?

Appstle provides 5 plans. All plans operate on flat fees with 0% transaction fees or other hidden costs.

Free subscription plan: Free forever until your store reaches $500/month in subscription revenue. 0% transaction fees.
Starter plan: $10/month or $96/year and save 20%. 0% transaction fees.
Business plan: $30/month or $288/year and save 20%. 0% transaction fees.
Business Premium: $100/month or $960/year and save 20%. 0% transaction fees.
Enterprise Plan: Custom fee based on brand size and custom needs. 0% transaction fees.

Learn more about how you can boost your business with Appstle Subscription plans here!

2. Recharge Subscription App

Shopify rating: 4.6 stars (1615 reviews)

The Recharge subscription app, a close second, is a popular Shopify app that streamlines and supercharges the subscription offerings of your online store. The app seamlessly integrates with your Shopify store, allowing you to build and offer subscription plans to your customers, including weekly deliveries, monthly boxes, and even daily access to services.

Recharge is known for being quick to set up, and you can even launch subscription plans in 15 minutes or less upon downloading the app.

With Recharge, you can think beyond simple recurring subscription payments as well; this top Shopify app lets you create product bundles, offer exclusive rewards, benefits, and experiences to loyal customers, as well as personalize the customer journey with Recharge Flows. Plus, the Recharge app boasts robust reporting and analytics, giving you invaluable insights into your subscribers’ behavior and revenue trends.

Merchants who are using the Recharge app have praised it for helping them increase customer lifetime value, its ease of use in managing their subscriptions, and the invaluable help of a responsive customer support team.

Recharge subscription app features include:

Customer Portal - Customize the interface of the store's customer portal.
RechargeSMS - Allow customers to manage their subscriptions via SMS.
Robust and Flexible API - Fully customize your subscription experience.
Build a box - Leverage Recharge Bundles for cross-sells and upsells.
Unified Checkout - Single checkout process no matter the contents of the cart.

How much does the Recharge subscription app cost on Shopify?

FREE TRIAL: 30 DAY FREE TRIAL
STANDARD: $99/month 1.25% + 19¢ per transaction
PRO: $499/month 1% + 19¢ per transaction
You can receive external charges from Recharge separately from your Shopify bill. Find out more

3. Smartrr Subscriptions

Shopify rating: 5 stars (40reviews)

With its solid 5-star ranking, Smartrr is a top choice for Shopify subscription apps in 2024. What makes Smartrr subscriptions unique is that the app goes beyond your run-of-the-mill subscription management services, focusing squarely on customer satisfaction.

Designed to maximize your customers’ lifetime value, Smartrr empowers brands to craft their own unique subscription experiences that build on customer loyalty, drive repeat purchases, and elevate business performance.

With Smartrr, you get a beautifully branded subscriber account portal, crafted to match the merchant's website aesthetic, all of which provides a seamless and personalized experience for subscribers. Top it off with native loyalty features, flexible subscription management options, loyalty rewards, member-only benefits, customer referrals, gifting, and so much more to help incentivize customers to stay engaged and actively promote your brand.

The Smartrr app includes the following features:

Set up tailored out-of-the-box subscription programs in a few minutes.
Optimize For LTV with an enhanced customer account portal.
Personalize your customer experience with Smartrr’s first-of-its-kind Bundle Builder.
Reward customers with a loyalty program built-in to the customer account portal.
Partner with a dedicated customer success manager on migrations & setup.

How much does the Smartrr subscription app cost on Shopify?

FREE TRIAL: 14-DAY FREE TRIAL
LAUNCH: $99/month + 1% subscriber GMV
GROW: $299/month + 1% subscriber GMV
EXCEL: Starting at $499/month + 1% subscriber GMV

4. Recurpay Subscriptions

Shopify rating: 4.9 stars (348 reviews)

One of Shopify’s top-performing subscription apps, Recurpay is built with simplicity and scalability to help businesses of all sizes. With powerful subscription APIs and webhooks, big businesses can build custom integrations and reporting.

With its user-friendly interface, merchants can seamlessly configure ongoing or prepaid subscriptions tailored to their business needs. Their free-to-install plan is great for online businesses that are starting out, allowing merchants to enjoy the full suite of the app’s capabilities without worrying about a hole in their pocket.

The pricing structure makes the Recurpay Subscriptions App accessible for both new and established businesses. The application streamlines the process of crafting and tailoring subscription plans, efficiently manages recurring billing cycles for subscribers, and delivers limitless email notifications and upsell opportunities, all while ensuring exceptional and intuitive end-to-end customer experiences.

Recurpay Subscriptions App is also convenient for subscribers, as the app allows them to freely manage their subscriptions through a convenient self-service portal, reducing support queries for businesses and improving the overall satisfaction of their customers.

The Recurpay Subscriptions app includes the following features:

Easily configure ongoing subscriptions or prepaid subscriptions on your store
Renew all subscriptions on a specific day or date of the month, offer free trials
Let customers edit, skip, reschedule & cancel subscriptions from the customer portal
Automatically syncs the latest product price from the store for subscription orders
Supports PayPal subscriptions, Stripe subscriptions, Shopify Subscriptions, etc.
Incentivise customers with free gifts, and extra discounts to reduce churn and increase revenues.
Choose from vast suite of features built specifically to increase subscription revenue

How much does the Recurpay Subscription app cost on Shopify?

Free to install: FREE until $100 in subscription revenue every month.
Paid plan: Starts at just $9/month.

5. Bold Subscriptions

Shopify rating: 4.3 stars ( 362 reviews)

Bold Subscriptions is a Shopify subscription app that forges forward, boasting a stellar 4.6 rating. What sets Bold apart is its flexibility and customer-centric approach to ecommerce subscriptions. With the Bold app, your customers can easily manage their subscriptions: pause, swap, skip, snooze, and even edit their ongoing subscriptions. Bold caters to your diverse needs: craft weekly, monthly, and even pre-paid subscription plans!

Merchants can also fully customizable subscription pages and customer portals, fostering engagement and the sense of value your brand delivers.

Bold boasts helpful support, ensuring a smooth subscription journey that doesn’t stop once the migration is complete. They assist merchants with their subscription programs whenever you need them.

When it comes to price and budget, Bold is an easy-to-use Shopify app and budget-conscious solution for running a subscription-based Shopify store.

The Bold Subscription app includes the following features:

Get subscriptions running in minutes! Core features available out-of-the-box.
Powerful customer portal with Passwordless login available to reduce support.
Powerful APIs and Developer tools to build ANY subscription experience you like.
Cancellation flows and automatic dunning management help you retain subscribers.
We support SAME-DAY migrations from other subscription apps on and off Shopify.

How much does the Bold Subscription app cost on Shopify?

FREE TRIAL: 30 DAY FREE TRIAL
CORE: $49.99/month +1% of orders containing subscription product

Have a question in mind about Shopify and the best options for your subscription service? Reach out to us for expert advice on Shopify and Shopify Plus.

Conclusion

The growth of subscription ecommerce remains promising in 2024 and beyond, and Shopify is keeping up by providing its merchants with all the tools they need to grow their subscription-based businesses through a vast array of subscription apps.

In this article, we’ve given you the top 5 subscription apps on Shopify in 2024, and choosing the right app hinges on your brand’s needs and priorities, from factors like budget, features, level of customization, and focus on customer experience.

With the level of choice on the Shopify App Store, the top 5 subscription apps like Appstle Subscriptions App, Recharge Subscriptions App, Smartrr Subscriptions, Recurpay Subscriptions and Bold Subscriptions all make a solid choice that you can rely on in turning one-time customers into loyal, repeat buyers in 2024 and beyond.

Shopify Subscription Apps FAQ

Q: What are subscription apps, and how do they work on Shopify?

A: Subscription apps on Shopify are apps that allow you to create and manage recurring purchase plans for customers of your Shopify store. Customers subscribe to these plans and receive products or services automatically at set intervals, whether monthly, bi-monthly, bi-annually, or every day. Think of them as allowing customers to sign up for automated, recurring orders!

Q: How to select the best Shopify subscription app for my store?

A: Consider your needs (budget, features, customization), desired customer experience, and read app reviews. Explore free trials when you can and compare features before settling on a subscription app for your Shopify business. You can also consult Shopify Experts for the best Shopify subscription apps for your online business.

Q: Why do you need Shopify Subscription apps?

A: Subscription apps simplify managing subscriptions, boost customer lifetime value, and provide valuable insight through analytics for data-driven decisions.

Q: How to install a Shopify Subscription app?

A: Find the app on the Shopify App Store, click "Add app," and follow the on-screen instructions. Each app may have slightly different steps. For a seamless app install, you can work with the app developers or hire a Shopify Expert.

Q: How much does a Shopify subscription app cost per month?

A: Prices for Shopify Apps can vary depending on the app and plan. Some apps offer free plans for a limited time or a limited amount of subscribers, while others have paid tiers with different features and functionalities. Pick a subscription plan based on your needs and budget.

Q: What are the payment methods that support Shopify subscription apps?

A: Most apps support all major and emerging forms of payment, including credit cards, PayPal, and Shopify Payments.

Q: Does Shopify have a native subscription app?

A: Yes! Shopify launched its very own Shopify Subscriptions app in January 2024. Relatively new, the app is free and offers basic subscription management features.

To access more valuable resources regarding ecommerce and the latest Shopify news and advice, check out the Ecommerce Pro Blog.

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