Disclosure: Chargezen sells a Shopify subscription app. This checklist is written to work for any app you evaluate, including ours. Competitor prices come from our comparison pages, with the date each was checked.
Picking a subscription app is harder to undo than most app decisions. Your subscribers' contracts, payment methods and order schedules live inside it, and moving them later takes planning. A feature grid on a vendor's website rarely tells you what matters: what the app will cost at your volume, what your subscribers will see, and how easy it is to leave.
These 15 questions are grouped into five areas. Ask every vendor the same ones, write down the answers, and ask to see each answer in a demo store rather than a slide.
Pricing: what will it cost at your volume?
1. Is it a flat fee, a revenue share or both?
Subscription apps price in three ways: a flat monthly fee, a percentage of subscription revenue (often with a per-order fee), or a base fee plus a percentage. A revenue share looks cheap when you are small and grows with every subscriber you add. A flat fee costs more at the start and stays the same as you grow.
Here is what public prices look like at 5,000 subscription orders a month with a $50 average order, from our comparison pages:
| App and plan | Public pricing | About per year at that volume | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recharge Plus | $499/month + 1.34% + $0.19 per order | $57,588 | October 9, 2026 |
| Skio Scale (annual billing) | $499/month + 1% + $0.20 per order | $47,988 | October 9, 2026 |
| Loop Pro | $399/month + 0.75% per transaction | $27,288 | October 16, 2026 |
| Chargezen Subscriptions | $1,990/year, no commission or per-order fee | $1,990 | Our price |
Run your own numbers in the subscription app cost calculator. Use next year's expected volume, not this month's, because that is what you'll actually pay.
2. What costs extra?
Ask for the full list: higher plans for features like build-a-box or text messaging, per-message fees for SMS, fees for extra team members, charges for migration help, and any minimum contract length. Then add the other apps you'd still need, such as a separate upsell or loyalty app.
3. Which Shopify plans does it support?
Some apps are built for every Shopify plan; others only serve larger stores. Chargezen Subscriptions, for example, is only for Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus. Check before you spend time on a demo.
Checkout and the subscriber experience
4. Does it use Shopify checkout?
Apps that run on Shopify's own checkout let subscribers use Shop Pay and your normal discounts, and keep orders, customers and reports in Shopify. Ask whether one-time items and subscriptions can be bought in the same checkout, and how the subscription shows up in the order.
5. What can subscribers change on their own?
Ask the vendor to show you, as a subscriber, how to skip an order, swap a product, change the frequency, ship now, add a one-time item, update the address and card, pause and cancel. Count the taps. Every change a subscriber can't make alone becomes a support ticket or a cancellation.
6. How do subscribers sign in, and can the portal match your brand?
Password-free sign-in (a link or code by email or text) removes the biggest barrier to using the portal. Ask whether you can change colors, layout and wording without code, whether the portal is translated, and whether it works inside Shopify customer accounts.
7. Which plan types are included?
List the models you sell now and might sell within a year: subscribe and save, prepaid, trials, build-a-box, curated boxes, memberships, gift subscriptions. Then check which plan each one requires. A model locked behind a higher plan changes your cost in question 2.
Keeping subscribers and recovering payments
8. How does it handle failed payments?
Ask how many retries it runs and whether you can change the schedule, whether it tells subscribers by email and text with a link to update their card, whether it warns subscribers before a card expires, and what happens when retries run out (cancel, pause, skip or keep). Ask to see the report that shows recovered revenue.
9. What happens when someone tries to cancel?
A good cancellation flow asks why, offers a fix that matches the reason (skip, swap, pause, change frequency or a discount) and always lets the subscriber finish cancelling. Ask whether you can set different offers for different reasons, and whether the app reports which offers people accepted and whether they stayed.
10. Can you automate what happens after an order?
Look for rules you can build without code: when something happens (a renewal, a skip, a failed payment), for the subscribers who match your conditions, do something (swap a product, add a gift, apply a discount, send a message, tag the order). Ask whether the default emails and texts can be edited and switched off, and whether staff changes are told apart from customer changes.
Migration and data ownership
11. How do your current subscribers move over?
Ask exactly how subscriptions move from your current app: a direct import with your old app's API token, a CSV import, or a team that does it for you. Ask what happens to subscribers who can't be moved automatically, such as those without a saved Shopify payment method, and how the app makes sure nobody is charged twice during the switch.
12. Can you get your data out if you leave?
On Shopify, subscription contracts and payment methods are stored in Shopify, which makes moving between apps easier. Still ask what you can export (subscriptions, order history, cancellation reasons, notes) and in what format. The answer tells you how the vendor thinks about lock-in.
Integrations, API and AI
13. Does it work with the tools you already use?
List your email and text platform, help desk, reviews, loyalty, shipping and analytics tools. For each, ask what data flows and which way. "Integrates with Klaviyo" can mean a full set of subscription events and profile details, or a single tag.
14. Is there an API and webhooks for your developers?
If you run a headless store, a custom portal or internal reports, ask for the API documentation before you sign. Check whether webhooks cover the events you care about.
15. What can AI do, and with what limits?
Many apps now offer AI that answers subscribers or helps your team. Ask what it can actually change (skip, swap, reschedule, cancel), which channels it works on (chat, text, email, phone), when it hands off to a person, and whether consequential changes need approval. If you want to manage the business from an AI assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude, ask whether the app offers an MCP server. Our guide to AI agents and subscriptions lists the safety questions to ask.
A simple scorecard
Score each app from 1 to 3 on every question, then weight the areas by what matters most to you. A fast-growing brand may weight pricing heavily; a brand with a complex catalog may weight plan types and bundles.
| Area | Questions | Example weight |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | 1 to 3 | 30% |
| Checkout and subscriber experience | 4 to 7 | 25% |
| Keeping subscribers | 8 to 10 | 25% |
| Migration and data | 11 and 12 | 10% |
| Integrations, API and AI | 13 to 15 | 10% |
Red flags in a demo
- The vendor won't give you a written price at your expected volume.
- Core features (the portal, payment recovery or cancellation offers) need a higher plan.
- Cancelling is hidden or requires contacting support.
- The demo shows the admin but never the subscriber's view on a phone.
- Migration answers are vague about who does the work and what happens to subscribers who can't be moved.
- Integrations are listed but nobody can say what data actually syncs.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Shopify subscription app?
It depends on your volume, your plan types and the tools you already use. Answer the 15 questions above for two or three apps, and compare the total cost at the volume you expect next year. Our comparison pages lay out features and public prices side by side.
Are transaction fees worth it?
A revenue share can make sense for a small store that wants a low starting cost. As volume grows, the percentage usually becomes the biggest line on the bill. Work out the year-one and year-three cost both ways before you decide.
Is it hard to switch subscription apps?
It takes planning but it's routine. Create matching plans in the new app, import subscribers, follow up with anyone who couldn't be moved, then stop billing in the old app before the next charge date. See our migration guides.
How Chargezen answers these questions
Chargezen is the revenue platform brands run on, and Subscriptions is one part of it. In short, against the questions above:
- Pricing (1 to 3): $199 a month or $1,990 a year, with no commission or per-order fee, for Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus stores. No per-seat charges. See pricing.
- Subscriber experience (4 to 7): Shopify checkout; a portal with password-free sign-in and no-code branding; subscribe and save, prepaid, trial, build-a-box and mystery box plans.
- Keeping subscribers (8 to 10): Failed payment recovery, cancellation flows and workflows with 18 subscription events.
- Migration (11 and 12): A direct import from Recharge with an API token, and a checked CSV import for Skio, Loop and other apps. See migrations.
- Integrations and AI (13 to 15): Klaviyo and Stripe among the Subscriptions integrations, AI agents with Concierge, and an MCP server for ChatGPT and Claude.
Keep reading: How to start selling subscriptions on Shopify, Shopify subscription apps with no transaction fees and Recharge acquired Skio: what merchants should do. Terms used here: take rate, recurring billing and customer subscription portal.
