The Best Subscription Ecommerce Platforms in 2026
Bold starts at $24.99 a month. Stay AI and Skio start at $499. Ordergroove will not list a price. Three of these only run on Shopify.
Recharge Starter is $99 a month plus 1.49% and 19 cents per transaction; Plus is $499 plus 1.34% and 19 cents. New stores can sit on a $25 plan with no transaction fees for the first 50 lifetime subscribers. Skio Scale is $499 a month billed yearly or $599 monthly, plus 1% and 20 cents. Stay AI Pro is $499 a month plus 1% and 19 cents. Bold Subscriptions Launch is $24.99 plus 2%; Grow $49.99 plus 1%; Scale $74.99 plus 0.9%; Ultimate Retention $399.99 plus 0.9%. Ordergroove has no public price. Skio, Stay AI and Bold are Shopify-only. Recharge is Shopify plus BigCommerce. Ordergroove is the multi-platform one.
Subscription apps look like a monthly fee. They bill like a tax. The $99 or $499 line is the part you can screenshot. The part that actually moves the P&L is 0.9% to 2% of every order the app touches, sometimes plus 19 or 20 cents a charge, stacked on top of Shopify Payments.
Four names on this list live in the Shopify App Store.
Three of those will not install on Salesforce, Magento or a homegrown stack. Recharge also talks to BigCommerce. Ordergroove is the one built for stores that are not Shopify. Skio still sells as its own product. Recharge bought it in April 2026, so picking Skio to get away from Recharge is a different decision than it was a year ago.
Top Picks
Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.
| Tool | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Recharge | From rechargepayments.com/pricing and the Shopify App Store listing, checked 1 September 2026. 25-50 plan $25/month, no… | Shopify (or BigCommerce) brands that want the default subscription stack and a published starter price |
| Skio | From skio.com/pricing, checked 1 September 2026. Scale $499/month billed annually or $599/month billed monthly, plus 1%… | Shopify brands that want one public plan with the portal and flows ungated, and will pay $499 before the cut |
| Stay AI | From stay.ai/pricing and the Shopify App Store listing, checked 1 September 2026. Pro $499/month plus 1% + 19¢ per… | Shopify brands already doing real subscription volume that want Stay's retention tools and will pay the $499 floor |
| Bold Subscriptions | From boldcommerce.com/shopify/subscriptions-pricing and the Shopify App Store listing, checked 1 September 2026. Launch… | Shopify stores that want a low published floor and will live with a percentage fee and a thinner brand name |
| Ordergroove | No public list price on ordergroove.com, checked 1 September 2026. Sales-quoted only. Third-party writeups float… | Mid-market and enterprise programs, especially off Shopify, that can sit through a sales cycle |
Pricing read from each vendor's own published pricing page, checked Sep 2026. Every vendor here publishes a price.
Best for: Shopify (or BigCommerce) brands that want the default subscription stack and a published starter price
PricingFrom rechargepayments.com/pricing and the Shopify App Store listing, checked 1 September 2026. 25-50 plan $25/month, no transaction fees, first 50 lifetime subscribers, net-new installs on or after 9 February 2026 only; auto-moves to Starter after 50. Starter $99/month plus 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction, 60-day free trial. Plus $499/month plus 1.34% + 19¢, 12-month term. Custom is volume-based; Shopify Plus stores may get a Custom quote. Fees apply to transactions Recharge processes, including mixed one-time items; refunded orders still incur the fee. Separate from Shopify Payments. SMS on Plus is $0.03 US and Canada / $0.06 international per segment.
Best for: Shopify brands that want one public plan with the portal and flows ungated, and will pay $499 before the cut
PricingFrom skio.com/pricing, checked 1 September 2026. Scale $499/month billed annually or $599/month billed monthly, plus 1% + 20¢ on orders that involve a subscription. Enterprise is custom (volume pricing, dedicated CSM, custom development). Transaction fees do not replace the payment processor. Shopify only. Recharge acquired Skio on 30 April 2026; both products still sell separately.
Best for: Shopify brands already doing real subscription volume that want Stay's retention tools and will pay the $499 floor
PricingFrom stay.ai/pricing and the Shopify App Store listing, checked 1 September 2026. Pro $499/month plus 1% + 19¢ per transaction. Enterprise custom (flat-rate tiers, dedicated strategist, custom development). 30-day free trial on the App Store listing. No implementation fee on the pricing FAQ. Shopify only.
Best for: Shopify stores that want a low published floor and will live with a percentage fee and a thinner brand name
PricingFrom boldcommerce.com/shopify/subscriptions-pricing and the Shopify App Store listing, checked 1 September 2026. Launch $24.99/month + 2% transaction fee. Grow $49.99/month + 1%. Scale $74.99/month + 0.9%. Ultimate Retention $399.99/month + 0.9%, adds ProsperStack cancel flows and priority onboarding. 30-day free trial on Launch, Grow and Scale; Bold's help center notes transaction fees still apply during the trial. No per-order flat cent fee on the published plans. Shopify Checkout only. Enterprise quotes exist above about $1M yearly subscription revenue.
Best for: Mid-market and enterprise programs, especially off Shopify, that can sit through a sales cycle
PricingNo public list price on ordergroove.com, checked 1 September 2026. Sales-quoted only. Third-party writeups float platform minimums and a GMV share; treat those as gossip, not a quote. Ask for a written order form that separates platform fee, usage, implementation and migration. Multi-platform: Shopify, Shopify Plus, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Magento / Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Commercetools and homegrown, per ordergroove.com/integrations.
What it is
A subscription ecommerce platform sits between your storefront and the payment processor. It creates the selling plan, charges the card on a cadence, lets the shopper skip or swap in a portal, retries failed payments, and tries to keep the person who hit Cancel.
On Shopify that is an app wired into Checkout. On Salesforce or a custom stack it is a platform you implement, not a one-click install.
The invoice is almost always a platform fee plus a cut of subscription GMV. That cut does not replace Shopify Payments or Stripe. It stacks.
Why it matters
At $80,000 a month in subscription GMV, Recharge Starter's 1.49% plus 19 cents is already larger than the $99 fee. Stay AI and Skio start at $499 before that cut. Bold's $24.99 Launch plan looks cheap until the 2% line is doing the real billing.
Ordergroove will not let you run that math from a public page.
The other decision is the store you already have. Install Stay AI on a Magento catalog and you have wasted a week. Install Ordergroove on a $4,000-a-month subscribe-and-save program and you are in an enterprise sales cycle for a problem Bold would have covered.
Key features to look for
The bottom line
On Shopify, start with the fee math. Bold Subscriptions at $24.99 plus 2% is the cheap door; move to Grow or Scale when 2% hurts. Recharge Starter at $99 plus 1.49% and 19 cents is the default if you want the large install base and a 60-day trial, or $25 with no cut if you are new and under 50 lifetime subscribers.
Stay AI and Skio both start near $499 plus about 1% and a per-order cent fee. Pick between them on portal and retention, not on the invoice. Skio is a Recharge company as of April 2026.
Off Shopify, Ordergroove is the real platform list.
It will not publish a price. Recharge can cover BigCommerce. Stay AI, Skio and Bold will not.
Frequently asked questions
Get the Retailpresso brief
Free daily newsletter, read in 5 minutes.
Subscribe free