Start with the uncomfortable recommendation: for a large share of brands, the free native option is correct and the app store exists to obscure that.
Shopify Subscriptions (free)
Native, no app fee, works inside Shopify Checkout without a redirect. Handles interval-based replenishment and a customer portal.
If your product ships on a predictable cycle and the customer does not need to change what is in the box, this is enough. Coffee, single-SKU supplements, pet food, refills.
Recharge
The established leader and genuinely capable. Product swaps, build-a-box, sophisticated dunning that recovers meaningfully more failed payments, and purpose-built cohort reporting.
Costs a platform fee plus a share of subscription revenue, so it scales with the thing you are trying to grow. Worth it when you use the flexibility; expensive when you do not.
Skio
Newer, built for Shopify Checkout from the start, and positioned against Recharge on price and migration ease. Strong on passwordless customer portals and cancellation flows. Worth quoting if Recharge is your default assumption.
Loop
Focused on retention tooling — cancellation flows, win-back offers, analytics. The pitch is that churn is the problem worth paying to solve, which is correct.
Awtomic
Strong on build-a-box specifically. If curated or customisable boxes are the offer rather than a feature, look here.
| Best for | Watch | |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Subscriptions | Straightforward replenishment | No swaps or build-a-box |
| Recharge | Flexibility and dunning | Revenue-share cost at scale |
| Skio | Recharge alternative, cleaner portal | Smaller ecosystem |
| Loop | Churn-focused tooling | Another layer to run |
| Awtomic | Build-a-box as the core offer | Narrower fit |
No app fixes the thing that actually kills subscription programmes. Most churn happens before the second delivery, and that is an interval and expectation problem set at signup.
Talk it through
Tell us what you sell and how often people reorder.
We will tell you which of these fits — including when the free one does, which is more often than the category would suggest.
Ask usA real read within one business day — not a sales call.
About the author
Manpreet Singh
Manpreet Singh is the founder of Proscube, an ecommerce growth studio. He leads the studio's Shopify and Shopify Plus engineering, headless builds, CRO, and its work on AI engine optimization, and writes its guidance on how to grow a DTC brand without wasting money. He works directly with founders — no account-manager layers between you and the people doing the work — and would rather tell a client not to build something than sell them work they don't need.
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