Comparing Loop with?
Remember when you used to go to Toys “R” Us or Walmart to buy a physical product? Those were the days, right? Everything is all about subscriptions now, from Hulu, Netflix, Hello Fresh and the meal kits. You can even get slime on a subscription, who would’ve thought? But having subscriptions all around us makes us think, why is this happening and what are the benefits of subscriptions for e-commerce brands? Let’s dive in and understand the subscription business and choose between a shopify subscription or recharge.
As suggested by this Mckinsey article, the subscription economy grew 300% from 2012 to 2018 and COVID-19 amplified the need for subscriptions. DTC businesses saw an increase in average order value and increased loyalty of consumers. Similarly, customers appreciated the convenience, novelty and curated experience provided by subscriptions.
As the subscription businesses grow, we expect competition between top shopify subscription apps for managing subscriptions and the app that provides comprehensive subscription management with the perfect combination of features, pricing and support will be the winner.
For eCommerce businesses pursuing the subscription route, the best shopify subscription app is essential for the success of this eCommerce business model and eCommerce growth. If you're specifically looking to move off Recharge, see our full breakdown of the best Recharge alternative for Shopify.
Let’s compare Shopify subscriptions and Recharge on their offerings, pricing, and reviews, and check out case studies of their alternative, Loop Subscriptions.
Shopify subscriptions is a built-in app that allows eCommerce businesses to offer subscriptions to their customers. The app provides an easy setup as you can access shopify subscriptions inside your admin portal. The app also offers various subscription frequencies and discount types for individual products or bundled offerings and works with the latest themes.
Key Features:
Pricing: The Shopify subscriptions app is free to install, check out the details here.
Reviews: While features and pricing are important factors in selecting a subscription app, reviews play a big role in influencing your choice. Reviews act as social proof and provide user feedback, giving a real-world experience of app performance, reliability, and support. Let’s check out a few Shopify subscriptions app reviews.
The Recharge Subscriptions app is one of the popular subscription apps in the shopify domain, the app allows merchants to automate recurring payments, track customer data, and manage and scale their subscriptions business. The Recharge app integrates with popular platforms like Shopify so merchants can easily sync customer data across multiple stores.
Key Features:
Pricing: The standard plan of Recharge Subscriptions is $99 per month and 1.25% + 19¢ per transaction. The pro plan is $499 per month and 1% + 19¢ per transaction. For a full breakdown of subscription app pricing tiers and transaction fees, see subscription app pricing compared.
Reviews: Beyond features, pricing and support, customer reviews offer valuable insight on app performance and support. These reviews showcase some of the issues faced by their customers - this can help make a more informed decision.
Loop Subscriptions, a top Recharge Alternative, is an all-in-one app that helps DTC brands grow, manage and retain their subscribers with ease. Loop Subscriptions has developed a platform based on feedback from the DTC community.
A few of the most loved Loop subscriptions include:
Loop Flows: Personalized subscriber journeys through automation and workflows. Fully customised banner inside the portal to communicate awards and upcoming orders.
With the help of Loop Flows, the 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 the full case study here: How Livingood migrated 130K subscribers to Loop Subscriptions.
Loop handles subscription migration end-to-end with zero data loss — see how the process works.
100% Customizable Customer Portal: With Loop Subscriptions, you get an insanely customizable and personalizable customer portal designed with smartphones in mind. You can create and manage new themes for your portal and Customize everything from background, CTAs, text, sidebars, popups and upsell cards with a no-code interface. Highlight customer rewards and other marketing campaigns through banners inside the portal.
Seamless Bundle Builder: Loop offers the flexibility to choose between range-based and fixed-based product offerings. Brands can set up multiple bundles ( different SKUs and categories). Subscribers can add, remove, or swap products in their box. Subscribers also get the flexibility to add one-time products to an outgoing box subscription.
Smart Dunning Management: Handle failed payments and declined credit cards with Smart Dunning Management by Loop. Brands can automatically set the number of retry attempts for failed or about-to-fail cards and choose when to cancel or pause subscriptions. Brands can also opt to skip failed payments or automatically cancel subscriptions after multiple failed attempts, ensuring a reliable and efficient payment process. Loop allows merchants to easily export subscriber data with potential failed payments Automate contextual SMS and emails that inform subscribers about their failed payments.
Cancellation Flows: Build interactive custom cancellation flows with emotions, video/GIFs, surveys, alternative options and features to gift subscribers as an incentive. Build your retention campaign using our rich text editor to make your retention campaign live in minutes instead of waiting for a developer. Use a detailed cancellation analytics dashboard to understand cancellation reasons, the number of cancellation attempts in the last 30 days, the current churn rate, and Average orders before a subscriber cancels.
Is Shopify's native subscription app free?
Yes. The Shopify Subscriptions app is free to install and handles basic recurring billing, subscription management, and delivery frequency options. It's a reasonable starting point but lacks advanced retention features like cancellation flows, dunning management, or subscriber rewards.
What does Recharge Subscriptions cost?
Recharge's Standard plan is $99/month plus 1.25% and 19 cents per transaction. The Pro plan is $499/month plus 1% and 19 cents per transaction. Transaction fees apply on both tiers.
When should a brand move beyond Shopify's native subscriptions?
When retention becomes a priority. Shopify Subscriptions covers the basics but doesn't offer tools to recover failed payments, reduce cancellations, or reward loyal subscribers. Brands that want to actively manage churn typically graduate to a dedicated platform like Loop Subscriptions, which is built around these mechanics.
How is Loop Subscriptions different from Recharge?
Loop offers a comparable feature set — customer portal, bundles, dunning, cancellation flows — at lower transaction fees (0.75% with no per-order charge vs. Recharge's 1.25% + 19 cents). Loop also includes gamified subscriber journeys through Loop Flows, which Recharge doesn't offer natively. Livingood Daily cut churn from 10% to 2% after migrating from Recharge to Loop.
Can I migrate from Recharge to Loop without losing subscribers?
Yes. Loop offers a fully managed white-glove migration at no cost, covering subscriber records, billing cycles, payment methods, and order histories. Livingood Daily migrated 130,000 subscribers without disruption.
Which subscription app is best for a growing DTC brand?
It depends on where you are. Shopify Subscriptions works for early-stage brands testing the model. Recharge suits brands that need a stable, API-first platform with broad integrations. Loop Subscriptions is the strongest fit for growth-stage DTC brands that want lower fees, advanced retention tooling, and hands-on migration support in one platform.
