Today, we’re diving into the world of the best subscription recurring revenue payment processing apps. Sounds like a mouthful, right? We’ll be exploring the top contenders for your subscription box business.
If you’re on Shopify and wondering, “How do I set up recurring revenue payments – the lifeblood of subscription boxes? How do I get customers and have them automatically charged each month via autopay?” worry no more, this post has got you covered!
Let’s simplify things for you! I’m going to walk you through two excellent subscription apps. We’ll explore them together, comparing their pricing, features, and key differences. Then, to help you gain valuable insights, we’ll look at some subscription boxes using each app.
I’ll show you a powerful tool that lets you analyze your competitors’ setups – essentially, spy on them (in a good way!). Imagine finding a subscription box you admire and instantly understanding what makes it tick! This awesome app helps you identify the technology powering any website. So, discover if they’re using Shopify or other subscription apps.
When you’re looking for the best app – and this goes for any app, not just Shopify – but for this example, let’s focus on finding an app for a subscription service. This also works if you have an ecommerce business with recurring payments. For instance, if you sell scrunchies and want to offer customers monthly auto-pay, this app would be perfect.
However, if you operate a subscription box and use your own Shopify store (not platforms like Squarespace or Cratejoy), you’ll need an app to handle recurring payments. Shopify itself doesn’t offer this functionality, making it crucial for subscription-based businesses. Recurring payments are the essence of subscription boxes – customers pay at regular intervals, whether monthly, bi-monthly, etc. My goal is to save you time and frustration by helping you avoid testing countless apps before finding the right one.
Finding a payment processing app you love is crucial. Switching later can be a nightmare. I once worked with a client who was using Payworld, and they didn’t like it. They wanted to change to something else, but migrating all their customers to a new app was a huge headache. So, find one that you like and stick with it!
Okay, I’m going to recommend two reputable options for you, not 20 or 10, just two! Choose one and run with it. The first is Recharge, and the second is Bold Subscriptions. Both have excellent reputations in the online space and great reviews. They’re known to be really good options.
There are other apps with subscription functionalities, like Yopto. However, Yopto is mainly used for things like customer loyalty. While it does handle subscriptions, if you’re specifically creating a subscription box service, it’s best to look for a payment processor designed for that purpose, like Recharge Subscription
- Recharge Subscription
Let’s explore different payment processing apps to see which one would be the best fit for my subscription box business.
The first thing is just kind of look at the basics up here, skim through. But, in the end, when you’re a new business, the price is one of the most important factors. You don’t need all the bells and whistles; you just need not to spend a bazillion dollars. So, off the bat, this feels a little high to me if you’re a new business not quite making a lot of money yet. 99 bucks off the bat is kind of a lot to spend. So, let’s just keep that in the back of our head and have an objective mind.
Whatever the charge is, there’s then a plus 19 cents per transaction fee. So, this is a sort of hefty amount of things they’re going to charge you for. But you know, just keep that in mind. Then obviously, the pro version is $500 a month. Unless you are a very experienced store, this is obviously not going to be relevant for you.
Sometimes, when you’re looking at apps, they don’t always give you the cheap option first. So, always click on ‘See all pricing options’.
If you come here, you can see that that is all their options. And if you want to look here, you can look at all the things it includes.You know, the basic things that you’re looking for are subscription payments (which they all include that you’re looking at). I would say if there’s any customer service in here.
I really like “churn prevention tools with passwordless login, pause, skip subscriptions. Pausing and skipping subscriptions is super important. So, whatever payment processor you choose, make sure they can pause and skip subscriptions.
Another important feature is a unified Shopify checkout. You’ll definitely need that for a smooth customer experience. Secure and reliable payment analytics are also essential. Basically, these are all basic functionalities you wouldn’t want to miss. Scrolling down, you can see some more advanced features to play around with, like churn prevention tools, which can be quite valuable.
I really like “churn prevention tools with passwordless login, pause, skip subscriptions. Pausing and skipping subscriptions is super important. So, whatever payment processor you choose, make sure they can pause and skip subscriptions.
Another important feature is a unified Shopify checkout. You’ll definitely need that for a smooth customer experience. Secure and reliable payment analytics are also essential. Basically, these are all basic functionalities you wouldn’t want to miss. Scrolling down, you can see some more advanced features to play around with, like churn prevention tools, which can be quite valuable.
Anyway, they offer a 30-day trial. The next crucial step is always looking at reviews before signing up with any app. What are people complaining about? What are they praising? Customer service is a huge factor for me. There’s nothing more frustrating than having questions or encountering issues and only getting pushed to email support, especially when it takes a long time to get a response. I’m dealing with that right now with my business book launch – a major issue and no response for over a week and a half!
Conclusion, Recharge seems good, but a little expensive for beginners.
2. Bold Subscriptions
Off the bat, Bold is half the price compared to Recharge and offers double the free trial period.
At $49.99 a month plus one percent of orders containing subscriptions, their transactional fees are also cheaper than Recharge. You can dive into the specifics here for more information. Also, look at the reviews!
Here’s a great one: ‘Blown Away by customer service! Shintak fixed an issue for me that I honestly thought wouldn’t be resolved.”
You can look at the specifics here, like with Recharge, such as the ability for customers to manage subscriptions (pause, skip, etc.). You can also do that here, and you can add subscriptions to one product, a collection, or your entire store.
If you’re a newer store not making a lot of money yet, and you’re considering Bold versus Recharge, I definitely recommend Bold.
I will show you how to figure out what these apps look like in real life. If you go to any of these apps’ websites (here, for example), you’ll always find some sort of showcase such as recharge in Blume for theirs. Blume (those guys have a lot of products, and I also love their branding – so much beautiful packaging.
You can basically find a customer success story or something similar that shows what the app looks like in real-life use.
Right here, we have ‘Who Gives A Crap’, Native, Yugora, Mary Ruth’s… Many of these aren’t subscription boxes themselves, but they could be subscription-based products. For example, the urinary care product could be a subscription.
You have to do your due diligence and look at case studies, then see what it looks like in real life. For example, Lego Box is a platform using Recharge.
I’ve added some items, but I wanted you to see what it looks like. You can see ‘Powered by Recharge’ at the top. Hovering over it even says ‘Recharge app,’ another giveaway. Basically, if you add your information here, there will be something about agreeing to terms like ‘pay each month until canceled.’ Up here, it says ‘Two Bottle Monthly Extra Hot Sauce Subscription (Pay As You Go Subscription).’ So, this is what it would look like with Recharge – and it looks great!
Now, to find out what payment processor a website uses, you can go to builtwith.com and type Fuego Box in the website URL. Scroll down, and you can see if they’re using Shopify (and potentially Recharge Payments) listed.
We will look at Bold Subscriptions now, but you can follow the same process. Go to the Bold Subscriptions page, find some case studies, and then click “View Demo Store” to see their platform in action.
This is what it would look like on the sign-up page. This is what you want to look for – the sign-up page for the customer. “Subscribe and save” – weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly – perfect for the customer, click “subscription details”. Auto-renew subscription. You can go through and see what it looks like at the checkout page, but this is the due diligence you want to do when looking up things like this.
Choosing the right subscription box platform is crucial. Migrating customers to a new system after signup is a hassle, so pick a platform you trust from the start. Even if the monthly cost seems high initially (like $50), don’t be discouraged! Focus on finding a platform that works for you. Remember, you only need to sell a small fraction of your inventory (around 2.5 out of 20 items) to cover the platform cost. Prioritize finding a reliable platform first, then focus on growing sales to offset the cost.