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Recharge vs. Bold vs. Loop: Which Shopify Subscription App is best? Discover the best alternative

September 10, 2024

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Are you searching for the ideal subscription app for your Shopify store? This blog offers an in-depth comparison of two popular choices: Recharge and Bold. 

Both platforms provide shopify subscription management, catering to both retail and enterprise segments. We'll compare Recharge Subscriptions and Bold Subscriptions, and evaluate their features, pricing, integrations, and support. Also, you’ll learn more about why Loop Subscriptions stands out as the best alternative to these popular apps.

Recharge app for subscriptions

Recharge Subscriptions Features and Functionality

Recharge, a prominent subscription platform, boasts a wide array of features carefully crafted to enhance your Shopify store's subscription capabilities.

With Recharge, you can set up subscription options for a diverse range of products, allowing customers to customize their delivery frequency, add payment preferences according to their needs and allow businesses to track customer data. Recharge also offers bundles and SMS features. Recharge Subscriptions also integrate with other Shopify apps.

Recharge Subscriptions Pricing

Recharge offers couple of plans under its pricing model. It's vital to consider the specific needs and scale of your business when selecting a plan.

Recharge's website features three different plan options, with prices starting at $99. This covers various features offered in various plans. Additionally, their Standard plan has additional charges of 1.25% transaction fees and 19¢ each order.

Recharge Support and Integrations

Check out their Shopify App reviews to learn more about Recharge support. Loop offers good support and more affordable plans with an amazing feature set, which is one of the reasons why brands are moving to Loop.

Recharge works with Shopify as well as apps like Klaviyo, Gorgias, Attentive, TapCart, and others.

P.S Check out Recharge Support: Why High-Quality Support is Important to Grow Your DTC Brand

Recharge Reviews (Effective July 26th, 2024)

Reviews provide a snapshot of an app's performance, reflecting support quality, features, and overall user sentiment. 

Recharge’s reviews on Shopify present a mixed picture. They have garnered over 1,800 reviews, achieving a 4.5-star rating overall.

As per Bewilderment, who have been using Recharge for over 10 years, Recharge’s offerings are not at par with those available in the market.

Recharge reviews

These are some of the points Team Bewilderment have covered in their review:

  • Support team does not offer timely support
  • Lack of easy analytics creates a logistics nightmare
  • Errors have caused a loss of 1K+

Do check out all Recharge reviews here

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Why Loop Subscriptions is considered a great alternative to Recharge Payments?

Loop Subscriptions, a top Bold and Recharge Alternative, is an all-in-one app that helps DTC brands grow, manage and retain their subscribers with ease. Loop Subscriptions has a developed platform designed straight from the DTC community's feedback:

🎮 Gamify subscription with personalized and automated rewards 

Gamification transforms routine interactions with your customers into an engaging and rewarding experience. It’s a playful incentive to retain your customers for a longer time. 

This allows you to create a deeply engaging experience for your subscribers. 

There is another unique advantage, with the amount of data available from user interactions businesses can modify their offerings making the subscribers feel seen and valued. 

🎨 Fully customizable bundles and portal 

Loop subscriptions offer you a seamless bundle builder with different SKUs. You can easily modify your bundle and let your subscribers take actions like add, remove and swap products in the box and allow customers to purchase these bundles as a one-time or a subscription. 

Within just 11 months of implementing Loop’s bundle setup, Lilac St. saw a 72.7% increase in subscriptions revenue.

Loop Subscriptions reviews

P.S. check out the detailed feature review here

đź’ł Integrated smart dunning management solution

Recover lost payments and declined cards, and configure the number of retries on failed and about-to-fail cards just once. Brands can decide when to auto-cancel or pause a subscription after 1, 2 or last attempt. Loop Subscriptions also allow you to export subscribers’ data associated with potential failed payments and can automate SMS or email campaigns to at-risk subscribers. 

‍
🌊 Best-in-class cancellation flows in comparison

Loop Subscriptions’ cancellation flows empower businesses to minimize cancellations and boost the average number of orders. Businesses can build their retention campaign inside the portal where a video/ GIF/ text can be embedded to motivate subscribers to take alternative actions instead of cancelling. Detailed dashboards of cancellation analytics is provided to understand the cancellation reasons and trends for internal analysis.

PS: Beam Supplements witnessed a 30% drop in cancellation rate after implementing their cancellation videos after switching to Loop Subscriptions.

Loop subscriptions cancellation flows

With a price structure that can be tailored to suit the needs of any size brand, Loop Subscriptions is a great choice for both new and established D2C brands.

Livingood Daily, migrated from Recharge, cut churn from 10% to 2% after switching to Loop Subscriptions. How?

  • Gamified Subscriber Journey with the right rewards at the right points
  • Exit Surveys and Analysis of Cancellation Reasons
  • Experimenting with different ways of engaging with subscribers
Customer reviews - Loop subscriptions

We charge a lower transaction fees—0.75% of the total subscriptions value—and there are no other additional charges.

Here is a detailed comparison of Loop vs Recharge ↗️ ‍

Bold app for subscriptions

Bold Subscriptions Features and Functionality

Bold is a formidable subscription platform that has garnered widespread popularity among Shopify store owners

  • Recurring Billing & Subscription Management: Whether it's a monthly or a weekly charge, Bold makes it possible for store owners. It's a hub where merchants can oversee and adjust customer subscription details without delay.
  • Subscription Widgets: Brands can start offering subscriptions to new visitors by having a widget on their product page
  • Subscriber Retention: Bold Offers discounts and trials to your subscriber base.
Bold Reviews (Effective 29th July, 2024)

Bold Subscriptions also reflects diverse user experiences. The app has received over 386 reviews on Shopify, achieving a 4.3-star rating overall.

Despite having over 272 5-star reviews, there are also 41 1-star reviews, resulting in an approximate 1:7 ratio of 1-star to 5-star reviews (as against Recharge's 1:15 ratio). This indicates a slightly higher dissatisfaction level compared to Recharge.

Here are a few reviews of Bold.
Bold reviews

Some major issues flagged by Little Creek Lamp and Southern Elegance is the deterioration in customer service quality, integration issues and the scope of customer services.

Bold Subscriptions reviews

Bold Subscriptions Pricing

Bold Subscriptions has a CORE plan. They charge 1% of all orders containing subscription products on top of their existing monthly pricing.

Bold Subscriptions Support and Integrations

For information about Bold Subscriptions support, read through their Shopify App reviews.

Bold Subscriptions is designed to integrate smoothly with other Shopify apps and services. This includes integrations with popular payment gateways, shipping and fulfilment solutions, and even customer relationship management (CRM) tools- Klaviyo, Attentive, Zapier, Checkout and PayPal express.

For a super-quick support system, advanced feature set and optimal price structures are among the factors driving brands to migrate to Loop ↗️

Why is Loop considered a great alternative to Bold Subscriptions?

Loop Subscriptions is an all-in-one app that helps DTC brands grow, manage and retain their subscribers with ease. Loop Subscriptions has a developed platform designed straight from the DTC community's feedback:

🎮 Gamify subscription with personalized and automated rewards 

Gamification transforms routine interactions with your customers into an engaging and rewarding experience. It’s a playful incentive to retain your customers for a longer time. 

This allows you to create a deeply engaging experience for your subscribers. 

There is another unique advantage, with the amount of data available from user interactions businesses can modify their offerings making the subscribers feel seen and valued. 

With the help of Loop Flows, Livingood Daily team set up a rewards system to give an additional 5% on top of the existing subscription discount of 15%- that is, a total of 20%. Read full case study here: How Livingood migrated 130K subscribers to Loop Subscriptions.

🎨 Fully customizable bundles and portal 

Loop subscriptions offer you a seamless bundle builder with different SKUs. You can easily modify your bundle and let your subscribers take actions like add, remove and swap products in the box and allow customers to purchase these bundles as a one-time or a subscription. 

‍💳 Integrated smart dunning management solution

Recover lost payments and declined cards, and configure the number of retries on failed and about-to-fail cards just once. Brands can decide when to auto-cancel or pause a subscription after 1, 2 or last attempt. Loop Subscriptions also allow you to export subscribers’ data associated with potential failed payments and can automate SMS or email campaigns to at-risk subscribers. 

🌊 Best-in-class cancellation flows in comparison

Loop Subscriptions’ cancellation flows empower businesses to minimize cancellations and boost the average number of orders. Businesses can build their retention campaign inside the portal where a video/ GIF/ text can be embedded to motivate subscribers to take alternative actions instead of cancelling. Detailed dashboards of cancellation analytics is provided to understand the cancellation reasons and trends for internal analysis.

‍
Loop Subscriptions' pricing structure is designed to accommodate businesses of all sizes, making it an excellent option for DTC growth and established brands alike.
We charge only 0.75% transaction fees and no additional charges - 0¢ per order

Here is a detailed comparison of Loop vs Bold Subscriptions ↗️

Also compare Ordergroove vs Recharge Payments ↗️

Recharge vs. Bold vs. Loop Comparison Table

Feature Recharge Bold Subscriptions Loop
No-code bundle builder ❓ ❌
Different App
âś…
Advanced Cancellations Analytics ❌ ❌ ✅
Includes bar trends of the last 6 months of cancellation reasons, Average orders before cancellation ❌ ❌ ✅
Add A Free Merch (Product) On 5th (Any) Order ❓ ❌ ✅
Gamify customer portal by adding a banner - "X orders away from free merch". Increases LTV âť“
Not possible without developer
❌ ✅
Gifts for subscriber segments in exit survey [No coding required] ❓ ❌ ✅
Fully customizable subscription widget with 200+ design options ❓ ❌ ✅
Condition Based Bulk Actions ❓ ❌ ✅
*Last updated in October 2023 as per the information on their website and Shopify app store listing.

Index

âś… Feature Available
❌ Feature Unavailable
âť“ Could not find data. Please check the respective companies' websites for more information.

Choosing Between Recharge, Bold and Loop for Your Shopify Store

The setup and detailed requirements of subscription management apps are a little time-consuming and technically demanding. The complexity of navigating the interface along with the need for seamless integration with other shopify tech-stacks, amplifies the importance of having a robust subscription management app that tackles all of the challenges faced by the subscription model successfully. Features, pricing, and reviews are some important factors in deciding the best subscription app for your business. 

P.S. Check out this 10-step guide to choosing the best Shopify subscription app for your business.

Both Recharge and Bold are well-respected subscription platforms, each offering a unique set of strengths. To make the best choice for your Shopify store, carefully consider the level of flexibility, customization, and integration that your business requires.

To make an informed decision you can also check the Shopify app store reviews from actual users giving real-world feedback on support, the app’s performance and features.

Hundreds of brands have migrated from Shopify apps like Recharge & Bold subscriptions to Loop.  

We offer all the features as Recharge vs. Bold, same set of integrations, better customization, lower transaction fees, and exceptional customer support (see our reviews for best DTC subscriptions app)

This makes us an ideal choice for any online DTC brand looking to supercharge their eCommerce subscriptions.

Summing up the main reasons why you should also choose Loop over Recharge vs Bold

The subscription industry is vast and finding a perfect fit depends on your needs. However, selecting the more suitable subscription app for your business is important to ensure smooth operations, seamless subscription management and deliver an exceptional customer experience - There's no one-size-fits-all answer.

Loop Subscriptions stands out for its commitment to offering superior value and efficiency to businesses. By switching from platforms like Recharge Payments and Bold Subscriptions to Loop, brands can save nearly 40% in subscription app costs due to our significantly lower transaction fees.

Now, let's delve into the key reasons why Loop surpasses its competitors:

  1. Automated Subscriber Journey: Loop Subscriptions introduces Loop Flows, a groundbreaking feature that revolutionizes subscription programs by gamifying the subscriber journey and rewarding customer engagement. This innovative approach not only enhances customer satisfaction but also boosts retention rates and revenue generation.
  2. Modern UI & Interface: Built on a modern tech stack, Loop Subscriptions boasts the most user-friendly and intuitive interface available. Whether managing bundles or navigating the customer portal, businesses find it effortless to scale their subscription programs with Loop. The sleek design and streamlined functionalities ensure a seamless experience for both businesses and customers alike.
  3. Lower Cost & around 40% Cost Reduction: Loop brands save nearly 40% in subscription app costs by switching from legacy apps like Recharge Payments & Bold Subscriptions because our transaction fees is much less

By choosing Loop Subscriptions over Recharge and Bold, businesses can optimize their subscription models and unlock a wealth of benefits that empower growth and success in the competitive eCommerce landscape.

Recharge Vs Bold Vs Loop: Common FAQs

What features are important when choosing a shopify subscription app?

  • Model Support: Does the app handle the required subscription model you need? (e.g, recurring orders, membership access, payment schedules)
  • Customer Portal: Does the app offer a self-service portal for customers to check and handle their orders, including pausing, modifying, or cancelling them? 
  • Integration: Does the app integrate with your existing tech stack? Consider compatibility with CRM, inventory management apps and payment gateaways. 
  • Analytics and Reporting: Does the app provide analytics and reports on customer journey, churn rate and cancellations? 
  • Features: What upselling, cross-selling, cancellation reduction, and retention campaign features are provided by the app? 

What else should I consider while choosing a subscription app? 

  • User Interface: How easy it is to use and navigate through the app and its features, especially for non-tech users. 
  • Reviews and ratings: Go through their shopify app store reviews to check what their existing users are saying about their app’s functionality and support. You can also check their G2 reviews as G2 verifies all reviews to ensure they come from real users. It provides a transparent rating system that allows you to easily compare products based on various factors. 
  • Free Trials: Do they offer free trials so you can check them out before committing? 
  • Comprehensive Help Centre: A comprehensive help centre ensures merchants find answers to their queries easily, minimizing their frustration. Check out how Help Centres are essential support options for subscription management.

Additional Tips

  • Recommendation: Consult other merchants, agencies or online forums to get firsthand insights about the performance, features and reliability of the shopify subscription app that you are considering. 
  • Customized Pricing Options: Does the app provides customised pricing depending on your shopify store’s requirements and subscription business model? This can include volume discounts, Dedicated support channe and tailored plans. 

Also, compare:

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Written by
Emma Johnson
Head of Marketing

Emma Johnson is celebrated for her strategic brilliance and innovative flair. By seamlessly blending creativity with data-driven insights, she has propelled Loop’s brand to new heights, establishing it as a formidable force in the Shopify Subscriptions space.