Guides

How to choose a Shopify subscription app: a checklist

The questions worth asking before you commit, and why each one matters.

1. Where does billing happen?

Some apps bill through Shopify, with subscriptions stored as Shopify subscription contracts and checkout through your Shopify checkout. Others run their own checkout or keep cards with a separate payment processor. Billing through Shopify keeps orders, customers, and payments in one place, and makes switching apps later much easier.

2. What can subscribers do themselves?

Look for skip, pause, reschedule, frequency changes, swapping products, and order now, in a portal linked from your store and Shopify's customer accounts. Every action subscribers can't take themselves becomes a support ticket or a cancellation.

3. How are failed payments recovered?

Ask how many retries there are, over how many days, what customers are told, and how they update their card.

4. What happens when someone cancels?

Check whether you can capture a reason and show an offer that fits it, and whether you can win customers back later.

5. Will customers want to stay?

Features that keep subscriptions fresh, like letting customers choose upcoming products or receive recommendations, matter more over a year than any single checkout feature.

6. Does it change your theme?

Apps that use theme app blocks add their pieces without editing your theme's code, so removing the app later doesn't leave code behind.

7. Can you bring your existing subscribers?

If you're switching, ask how subscribers are imported, whether you control the first charge date, and what happens to cards stored outside Shopify. How switching to us works →

8. How is it priced?

Most apps combine a monthly fee with a percentage of subscription revenue. Model it at today's volume and at the volume you're aiming for, and check what counts as a chargeable transaction. Our pricing calculator →

9. Can it connect to your other tools?

Webhooks for subscription events let your email, SMS, and data tools react to skips, cancels, and failed payments.

10. How does it handle your data?

Ask which customer data it stores, how it's protected, who can access it, and how long it's kept. A clear security page and a data processing agreement are good signs. Ours →

11. Who answers when something goes wrong?

Ask how support works, how fast replies come, and whether someone will help with setup and migration.