Best Shopify Subscription Apps (2026): 8 Compared on Price and Fit
Loop, Recharge, Skio, Stay AI, Appstle, Seal, Bold and Shopify Subscriptions compared: verified September 2026 pricing, real monthly costs, and which fits your store.
Table of contents
- The short answer
- Shopify subscription apps at a glance
- What they actually cost each month
- Loop: best for growing DTC brands
- Recharge: best for enterprise tooling
- Skio: best for SMS-led subscription management
- Stay AI: best for retention-led mid-market brands
- Appstle: best value for small to mid stores
- Seal: best for budget stores
- Bold Subscriptions: an established mid-range option
- Shopify Subscriptions: free, with limits
- Loop vs Recharge
- What your email program needs from a subscription app
- How to choose
- Sources
Picking a subscription app is a pricing decision and a retention decision at the same time. The fee structure decides what you pay as you grow. The app’s customer portal, cancellation flow and failed payment recovery decide how many subscribers you keep, and its Klaviyo integration decides whether your email program can see any of it.
Disclosure: Email Optimize is an official partner of Loop Subscriptions. We’ve included it on the same terms as every other app, with its own verified pricing, and we say where others fit better. Every price, plan and rating below was checked on each vendor’s pricing page and Shopify App Store listing in September 2026.
The short answer
- Small stores and tight budgets: Appstle or Seal. Flat monthly fees and no transaction fees.
- Growing DTC brands: Loop. A free plan to start, month-to-month billing, and lower fees than Recharge, Skio or Stay AI.
- Large and enterprise brands: Recharge, Skio (now owned by Recharge) or Stay AI, for the deepest tooling and support.
- Very simple subscriptions: Shopify’s free Shopify Subscriptions app, if you can live with its limits.
Shopify subscription apps at a glance
| App | Best for | Pricing (Sept 2026) | Free plan / trial | Shopify rating | Klaviyo integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loop | Growing DTC brands | Free (50 subs); $99 + 1%; $399 + 0.75%; Enterprise | Free plan; 14-day trial | 5.0 (767) | Yes, built by Loop |
| Recharge | Mid-market to enterprise | $99 + 1.49% + 19¢; $499 + 1.34% + 19¢; Custom | 60-day trial | 4.8 (3,121) | Yes, built by Recharge |
| Skio | Scaling DTC brands | $599/mo ($499 billed annually) + 1% + 20¢; Enterprise | Not listed | 5.0 (241) | Yes, built by Skio |
| Stay AI | Retention-led mid-market | $499 + 1% + 19¢; Enterprise | 30-day trial | 4.9 (148) | Yes, built by Stay AI |
| Appstle | Small to mid stores | Free to $500/mo revenue; $10, $30, $100 tiers; 0% fees | Free plan; 14-day trial | 5.0 (8,822) | Yes, built by Appstle |
| Seal | Budget stores | Free (50 subs); $5.95 to $399 by active subs; 0% fees | Free plan; 30-day trial | 4.9 (3,115) | From the $24.95 Legend plan |
| Bold | SMB to mid-market | $24.99 + 2%; $49.99 + 1%; $74.99 + 0.9% | 30-day trial | 4.0 (380) | Listed |
| Shopify Subscriptions | Simple subscriptions | Free | n/a | 3.7 (825) | No dedicated integration found |
Sources: each vendor’s pricing page and Shopify App Store listing, September 2026. Ratings change often; check before you decide.
What they actually cost each month
Headline prices hide the real cost, because most apps also take a percentage of every subscription order. Here’s the monthly app fee at two sizes, using list prices, a $50 average order and fees applied to subscription orders only. Payment processing is extra on every app.
| App and plan | $50K/month subscription revenue (1,000 orders) | $250K/month (5,000 orders) |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Subscriptions | $0 | $0 |
| Seal (Leader / Mega Star)* | $89.95 | $199 |
| Appstle (Business Premium) | $100 | Custom above $100K/month |
| Bold (Scale) | $524.99 | $2,324.99 |
| Loop (Starter / Pro) | $599 (Starter) | $2,274 (Pro) |
| Stay AI (Pro) | $1,189 | $3,949 |
| Recharge (Starter / Plus) | $1,034 (Starter) | $4,799 (Plus) |
| Skio (Scale, billed annually) | $1,199 | $3,999 |
*Seal prices by active subscriptions; this assumes monthly subscriptions, so active subscriptions roughly equal monthly orders. Loop Pro becomes cheaper than Loop Starter above about $120,000 a month.
Two things stand out. The flat-fee apps (Seal, Appstle) cost a fraction of the percentage-fee apps, and the gap widens as you grow. And among the percentage-fee apps, the spread is large: at $250K a month, Recharge Plus costs more than twice Loop Pro. What you get for the extra money is depth: cancellation tooling, analytics, support and integrations. Whether that’s worth it depends on how much churn it saves you.
Loop: best for growing DTC brands
Loop is built for Shopify brands moving past basic subscriptions: bundles and build-a-box, prepaid and gifting on Pro, a customer portal with skip and swap, cancellation flows with reasons and offers, and failed payment recovery with up to 15 retries. Loop says 2,400+ Shopify subscription brands use it.
- Pricing: Free for up to 50 active subscriptions; Starter $99 a month + 1%; Pro $399 + 0.75%; Enterprise custom. Month to month, 14-day trial, and Loop says there are no setup or migration fees.
- Klaviyo: built by Loop. It sends 28 events (upcoming order, failed billing with retries left, marked for cancellation, and more) and 18 profile properties, plus pre-authenticated quick action links for emails. Our Loop and Klaviyo guide covers the flows.
- Watch for: cancellation A/B testing and prepaid are Pro features.
Recharge: best for enterprise tooling
Recharge is the longest-established Shopify subscription platform and the default for many large brands. In April 2026 it acquired Skio.
- Pricing: Starter $99 a month + 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction; Plus $499 + 1.34% + 19¢; Custom volume-based pricing. Plus and Custom run on 12-month terms. The Shopify App Store listing also shows a $25 plan with no transaction fees for your first 50 subscribers, and a 60-day free trial.
- Plus adds: hands-on implementation, custom bundles and tiered discounts, Concierge SMS ($0.03 per US message segment) and loyalty and referrals.
- Klaviyo: built by Recharge, with quick action links for Klaviyo emails.
- Watch for: the highest fees in this list at most volumes, and annual contracts on the higher plans.
Skio: best for SMS-led subscription management
Skio’s standout is letting subscribers manage their subscription by text, with passwordless login and a multi-step cancellation flow builder. Its listing now reads “Skio, a Recharge Company”, and Recharge says both products will keep operating as they have.
- Pricing: Scale plan $599 a month, or $499 billed annually, plus 1% + 20¢ per subscription order; Enterprise custom.
- Klaviyo: built by Skio.
- Watch for: no published free trial, and the long-term roadmap now sits under Recharge.
Stay AI: best for retention-led mid-market brands
Stay AI leans on prediction: its RetentionEngine flags subscribers likely to churn, and its cancellation and win-back flows adapt to them. It includes A/B testing and says migration takes up to two weeks with no implementation fees.
- Pricing: Pro $499 a month + 1% + $0.19 per order; Enterprise custom; 30-day trial on the App Store.
- Klaviyo: built by Stay AI.
Appstle: best value for small to mid stores
Appstle has the most Shopify reviews of any app here, a free plan, and no transaction fees. It covers passwordless portal login, build-a-box, prepaid, memberships and loyalty.
- Pricing (from its App Store listing): Free up to $500 a month in subscription revenue; Starter $10 up to $5,000; Business $30 up to $15,000; Business Premium $100 up to $100,000; custom above that. 14-day trial. Migration support is available even on the free plan.
- Klaviyo: built by Appstle.
Seal: best for budget stores
Seal prices by active subscriptions, with no transaction fees at any tier, which makes it the cheapest paid option for most small stores.
- Pricing: Free (50 subscriptions); Supersale $5.95 (100); Rising Star $9.95 (250); Legend $24.95 (500); Leader $89.95 (2,000); Mega Star $199 (50,000); Superstar $399 (150,000). 30-day trial.
- Klaviyo: included from the Legend plan up. Cancellation flows also start at Legend.
Bold Subscriptions: an established mid-range option
Bold offers prepaid and pay-as-you-go subscriptions, dunning, cancellation flows and an upsell suite, and it is Shopify Plus certified.
- Pricing: Launch $24.99 a month + 2%; Grow $49.99 + 1%; Scale $74.99 + 0.9%; Enterprise custom; 30-day trial, with transaction fees still applying during it.
- Watch for: the lowest rating in this list among dedicated apps (4.0 from 380 reviews). Read recent reviews before committing.
Shopify Subscriptions: free, with limits
Shopify’s own app is free and fine for a single, simple subscribe-and-save product. Its limits, per Shopify’s help centre:
- No bundles.
- Only certain payment gateways (Shopify Payments, PayPal Express, Authorize.net, Adyen or Stripe, depending on region).
- Customers are billed the day after the subscription is due, at 10am store time.
- Gift cards and Shopify Scripts discounts apply to the first payment only.
It’s rated 3.7 from 825 reviews, with common complaints about charge dates and changing products in an active subscription.
Loop vs Recharge
This is the comparison most growing brands are actually making.
| Loop | Recharge | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Free (50 subs), then $99 + 1% | $99 + 1.49% + 19¢ |
| Growth plan | $399 + 0.75% | $499 + 1.34% + 19¢ |
| Contract | Month to month | 12-month terms on Plus and Custom |
| Cost at $50K/month | $599 | $1,034 |
| Cost at $250K/month | $2,274 | $4,799 |
| Migration | Free, Loop says typically about 2 weeks | n/a |
| Klaviyo integration | Built by Loop | Built by Recharge |
Loop markets itself as about 40% cheaper than Recharge. On list prices at the sizes above, the gap is 42% at $50K a month and 53% at $250K. Recharge’s case is breadth: a larger ecosystem, Skio under the same roof, and enterprise services on Plus and Custom. If your team uses those, the premium can pay back. If you mainly need a solid portal, dunning and cancellation flows, Loop covers them for less.
What your email program needs from a subscription app
This is our part of the stack, so it’s where we’ll be most opinionated. Whatever app you pick, check four things:
- A Klaviyo integration built by the app vendor, with events for upcoming order, failed payment (ideally with retries left), skip, pause and cancellation. Without these, your most valuable subscription emails can’t be built in Klaviyo.
- Pre-authenticated links for updating payment details and managing the subscription from an email, with no login. Every login step loses people in a dunning flow.
- The ability to switch off the app’s own emails one by one, so Klaviyo can take over each one without customers getting two.
- Profile properties such as active subscriber status and next billing date, so you can stop sending first-order discounts to people already paying monthly.
For the strategy behind the flows, read subscription retention for Shopify brands and our Klaviyo integrations guide.
How to choose
- Under about $15K a month in subscription revenue: Appstle or Seal. The transaction fees on other apps cost more than the features are worth at this size.
- $15K to $250K a month: Loop, or Bold if price matters most. Model your own volume with the table above.
- Above $250K a month, or complex enterprise needs: get quotes from Recharge, Skio and Stay AI as well as Loop Enterprise, and weigh the fee difference against the retention tooling each one adds.
Switching apps, or not sure your subscription flows are pulling their weight? Book a free audit. We’ll review your subscription app’s Klaviyo setup, dunning recovery and cancellation flow, and send you the fixes in writing.
Sources
- Loop pricing, Loop on the Shopify App Store, Loop vs Recharge
- Recharge pricing, Recharge on the Shopify App Store, Recharge welcomes Skio
- Skio pricing, Skio on the Shopify App Store
- Stay AI pricing, Stay AI on the Shopify App Store
- Appstle on the Shopify App Store
- Seal pricing, Seal on the Shopify App Store
- Bold Subscriptions on the Shopify App Store
- Shopify Subscriptions on the Shopify App Store, Shopify Help Center, Shopify Subscriptions considerations
- Klaviyo Marketplace listings for Loop, Recharge, Skio, Stay AI and Appstle (who built each integration)
/ Frequently Asked Questions
Q.01 Which subscription app is best for Shopify? +
/ Answer
It depends on size. For small stores, Appstle and Seal are the cheapest serious options, with flat fees and no transaction fees. For growing DTC brands, Loop combines a free plan, month-to-month billing and lower fees than Recharge. For large and enterprise brands, Recharge, Skio and Stay AI offer the deepest tooling. Shopify's free Shopify Subscriptions app suits simple subscriptions only.
Q.02 Does Shopify have a subscription feature? +
/ Answer
Yes. Shopify's own Shopify Subscriptions app is free and handles basic recurring products. It has real limits: it doesn't support bundles, works only with certain payment gateways such as Shopify Payments, PayPal Express, Stripe, Adyen or Authorize.net depending on region, and bills customers the day after a subscription is due. Most growing subscription brands move to a dedicated app.
Q.03 How much does Recharge cost? +
/ Answer
As of September 2026, Recharge's Starter plan is $99 a month plus 1.49% and 19 cents per transaction, and Plus is $499 a month plus 1.34% and 19 cents, with custom pricing above that. Plus and Custom run on 12-month terms. Recharge's Shopify App Store listing also shows a $25 plan with no transaction fees for the first 50 subscribers.
Q.04 Is Loop cheaper than Recharge? +
/ Answer
At list prices, yes. At $50,000 a month in subscription revenue and a $50 average order, Loop Starter costs about $599 a month against $1,034 for Recharge Starter, around 42% less. At $250,000 a month, Loop Pro costs about $2,274 against $4,799 for Recharge Plus. Payment processing is extra on both.
Q.05 Did Recharge buy Skio? +
/ Answer
Yes. Recharge announced it had acquired Skio in April 2026, and Skio's Shopify listing now reads Skio, a Recharge Company. Recharge says both products will continue to operate as they have.
Q.06 What is the cheapest Shopify subscription app? +
/ Answer
Shopify Subscriptions is free. Among dedicated apps, Appstle is free up to $500 a month in subscription revenue and $100 a month up to $100,000, and Seal is free up to 50 active subscriptions with paid plans from $5.95 a month. Neither charges a transaction fee. Loop has a free plan for up to 50 active subscriptions.
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