Best Shopify Subscription App for Subscription Boxes in 2026: Fees Worked Out at 100, 500 and 1,000 Subscribers

Which app fits your box

Below 1,000 subscribers, a flat-fee app costs the least for nearly every box, so start with Seal or Appstle and only pay a percentage when you need a feature they lack. The pick changes with what your box does:

1. Fixed curated box, tight budget: Seal. It costs $5.95 to $89.95 a month across our three sizes, with no transaction fee.
2. Build-a-box (subscriber picks the items), one app for everything: Appstle on the Business plan or above. Build-a-box, bundles and cutoff days live in the same app, at $30 to $100 a month.
3. Build-a-box on the lowest published price: Recurpay ($19 a month on Grow) or Seal plus the Bundler app ($15.94 to $99.94 a month). Both cost less than Appstle, but each has a catch, explained below.
4. You want retention tools and will pay a percentage for them: Loop Starter. It costs $139 to $499 a month, and build-your-own bundles are on its first paid plan.
5. You plan to grow past a few thousand subscribers and want the most-used platform: Recharge. Bundles need the $499 Plus plan, so a build-a-box on Recharge costs $571.60 to $1,225 a month in app fees at our three sizes.
6. One fixed box, no swaps, no build-a-box, $0 app fee: Shopify's own free Subscriptions app can work. Its limits are listed further down.

The apps we priced, and the two we set aside

We compared eleven apps and kept nine in the running. Skio and Stay AI are good products, but both start at $499 a month before transaction fees. That puts them above $550 a month even at 100 subscribers, so we show them in the cost table for reference and leave them out of the feature check.

Skio is now part of Recharge. Recharge announced the acquisition in April 2026 and said both platforms would keep running as they are for now. If you're choosing between them, you're choosing between two products from one company.

The nine apps we checked feature by feature: Recharge, Appstle, Seal, Loop, Bold, Recurpay, Subi, Easy Subscriptions and Shopify Subscriptions.

What a box needs that a coffee refill doesn't

Most comparisons are written for "subscribe and save" stores, where one product repeats on each customer's own schedule. A box business has different needs:

1. Build-a-box or curated box support. A curated or mystery box is one product that repeats, so any app can sell it. A build-a-box, where the subscriber picks 4 of 12 items, needs bundle logic. Shopify's help center says bundles "aren't compatible with the Shopify Subscriptions app", so a build-a-box always needs a third-party app.
2. One billing day and a cutoff. A box ships to everyone in one batch, so you want every subscriber charged on the same day and sign-ups after a cutoff rolled to the next box. Apps call this an anchor day or a specific charge day.
3. Prepaid and gift plans. Three-month and twelve-month prepaid plans are how most boxes sell gifts. Check which plan tier unlocks them; on some apps it's the top one.
4. Skip, swap and pause in a customer portal. Pausing instead of cancelling is a churn lever (see our cancellation flow guide). Swap matters more for build-a-box and variant boxes such as sizes or flavours.
5. 3PL handoff. Every app here creates a normal Shopify order at each renewal, so any 3PL connected to your Shopify store receives it. The thing to test is how a build-a-box order arrives: as one bundle line or as each picked item, because your picker needs the items.
6. Shopify Flow. Flow lets you tag every renewal on billing day for batch fulfillment, without code.
7. Migration help. If you outgrow your first app, a free hands-on migration saves weeks.

True monthly cost at 100, 500 and 1,000 subscribers

The cheapest app at 100 subscribers is Shopify Subscriptions at $0. Among apps that can run a build-a-box, Seal plus Bundler is cheapest at $15.94. At 1,000 subscribers a build-a-box costs between $19 (Recurpay) and $1,225 (Recharge Plus) a month in app fees for the same box.

Our assumptions

1. The box costs $40, with shipping included in the price. No sales tax is added to the charge. If you charge shipping or tax on top, every percentage fee in the table grows by the same rate on that extra amount.
2. Each subscriber renews once a month, so 100 subscribers means 100 orders and $4,000 in subscription revenue.
3. We used each app's monthly price, not the annual discount, and the cheapest plan that fits the volume.
4. App fees only. Shopify's plan and card fees are the same whichever app you pick, so they're in a separate table.
5. Prices are from each app's Shopify App Store listing and its own pricing page, checked October 31, 2026.

App fees per month on a $40 box

Fees per month if subscribers build their own box

How the numbers are built

1. Recharge Starter at 500 subscribers: $99 plan + (1.49% × $20,000 = $298) + (500 orders × $0.19 = $95) = $492.
2. Loop Starter at 1,000 subscribers: $99 + (1% × $40,000 = $400) = $499. Loop charges no per-order fee.
3. Appstle at 500 subscribers: $20,000 a month is above the Business plan's $15,000 band, so you're on Business Premium at $100, which covers up to $100,000 a month.
4. Seal at 1,000 subscribers: Legend stops at 500 subscriptions, so you're on Leader at $89.95, which covers up to 2,000.
5. Subi at 1,000 subscribers: Starter would be $29 + (1.6% × $40,000) = $669; the Subi plan is $119 + (0.8% × $40,000) = $439, so Subi wins.
6. Easy Subscriptions caps each plan by lifetime subscription orders, not monthly ones: 100 on the free plan, 1,000 on Growth ($39), 10,000 on Scale ($99), then Enterprise ($399). A 100-subscriber box passes 1,000 lifetime orders in month 11; a 1,000-subscriber box passes 10,000 in month 11. The table shows the plan you reach within the first year. Growth's $39 only lasts 2 months at 500 subscribers.
7. Bold with build-a-box: Bold's help center says it has no built-in bundle feature and points to Easy Bundles. Easy Bundles' Growth plan costs $49 for up to $5,000 a month in bundle sales, so 100 subscribers is $89.99 + $49. Its top published plan stops at $10,000 a month, which a 500-subscriber box passes.

Add Shopify's own fees

Every app above sits on top of your Shopify plan and card fees. With Shopify Payments at US online card rates:

Shopify's Grow plan becomes cheaper than Basic at about 825 renewals a month on a $40 box ($66 more in plan fee, $0.08 less per order).

What it does to your margin

At 100 subscribers on Shopify Basic, Recharge Starter brings platform, payment and app costs to $3.63 a box, or 9.1% of the price. Seal brings them to $1.91, or 4.8%. That 4.3-point gap is the difference between a box at 40% margin, the bottom of what we call healthy, and one at about 36%, which is thin. Run your own figures through the profit calculator and see our margin benchmarks.

Where flat-fee and percentage apps swap places

Below 1,000 subscribers, a percentage-fee app is never cheaper than Seal or Appstle on a $40 box once you pass about 50 subscribers. The swaps that do happen are inside each group, or above the range most founders are in:

1. Under 50 subscribers, everything is close to free. Seal and Loop are free up to 50 subscriptions. Recharge has a $25 plan with no transaction fee, but its help center says it's only for stores that first installed Recharge on or after February 9, 2026, and it moves you to Starter once you pass 50 lifetime customers (inactive and test customers count too).
2. Each extra subscriber adds $0.79 a month on Recharge Starter, $0.64 on Subi Starter, $0.40 on Loop Starter or Bold Grow, and $0 on Seal or Appstle until you cross a plan band.
3. Appstle's bands are by revenue, Seal's by subscription count. On a $40 box Appstle steps from $10 to $30 at 125 subscribers ($5,000) and to $100 at 375 ($15,000). A $60 box reaches those steps sooner. Seal doesn't care what you charge.
4. Seal vs Appstle: Seal is cheaper at every size up to 2,000 subscribers. From 2,001 Seal moves to $199, while Appstle stays at $100 up to $100,000 a month (2,500 subscribers at $40). Appstle wins in that window.
5. Bold: Launch beats Grow below $2,500 a month (about 63 subscribers). Scale beats Grow above $25,000 a month (625 subscribers).
6. Subi: the Subi plan beats Starter above $11,250 a month (about 282 subscribers).
7. Loop Pro beats Starter only above $120,000 a month (3,000 subscribers). Recharge Plus beats Starter on fees only above about $266,700 a month (about 6,700 subscribers). In both apps you'd move up for features, not to save money.

Box features, checked against each listing

Fees don't decide everything. Seal's build-a-box depends on a second app, and Appstle's product swap needs its $100 plan. Below is what each app's listing and pricing page say, plan by plan. Ratings are from the Shopify App Store on October 31, 2026.

Points the table can't show:

1. Recurpay's 0% fee. Its own pricing page shows 0% on every plan. Its App Store listing calls the 0% on the $9 plan a "BFCM Special" and doesn't say what the fee becomes after the promotion. Get the post-promotion fee in writing before you build on it.
2. Loop's gift plans. Loop's pricing page lists gift subscriptions on Starter, while its App Store listing puts "prepaid and gift" on Pro. Prepaid is Pro-only in both, which matters if you sell prepaid gift boxes.
3. Seal's build-a-box runs in Bundler. You set the min and max item count in Bundler and the subscription rule in Seal. That means two apps, two support teams, and Bundler's $9.99 Premium plan.
4. Appstle's cutoff only works when the renewal day is set to a specific day or fixed calendar dates. The first order still charges at sign-up; the cutoff decides whether the next renewal is skipped.
5. Subi's build-a-box launched in April 2026, and the address of one of Subi's setup articles still carries a "beta" label. Test it with your real product count before you launch.

When Shopify's free Subscriptions app is enough

Shopify Subscriptions is enough for one fixed box that ships on each subscriber's own signup date, with no build-a-box and no swaps. Its help pages say customers can skip, resume or cancel and update their payment method and address. Merchants can edit products, quantity and frequency, and can move an upcoming order only "within the order's billing cycle".

It falls short for most boxes in three ways. There are no bundles. Billing follows each customer's signup date, so you can't charge everyone on the 20th and ship on the 28th; reviewers on its listing raise this most often. And customers can't swap products themselves. If you plan to batch-ship, start on a paid app; moving later means a migration.

Three Shopify problems to test before you launch

These come from Shopify itself, so switching apps won't make them go away. Test each one in your store before launch:

1. Renewals use the cheapest shipping rate. Shopify's June 2024 changelog says buyers choose a shipping method for the first shipment, with "recurring shipments defaulting to the cheapest shipping option." In an August 2026 Shopify Community thread, a founder on Skio found that customers who paid for a premium courier at checkout got the cheapest rate at renewal, and ended up offering one courier only. Bold's help center describes the same default. Recharge has a setting to keep the original rate. If you offer more than one shipping speed, test a renewal before launch. The shipping calculator shows what each rate costs you per box.
2. Mixed carts can charge shipping twice. When a cart holds a subscription and a one-time item, Shopify can add two shipping lines. A 2023 Community thread traced it to the delivery policy's anchors: a subscription with a fixed delivery anchor becomes "fulfill later" and gets its own shipping charge. Box founders are the ones most likely to use anchors, so test a mixed cart after you set your billing day.
3. Prepaid prices round per delivery. In a Community thread, a merchant set a 12-delivery prepaid price of $55. Shopify divided it by 12, rounded each delivery to $4.58 and charged $54.96. Nobody in the thread found a fix. Pick prepaid prices that divide evenly by the number of deliveries: $54 or $60 over 12, $114 over 3.

Price is the other trap. One founder planning a build-your-own jar box wrote in the Shopify Community that "Recharge and Skio are $499 a month" and wanted to be sure the setup worked before spending that much. On the numbers above, a build-a-box under 1,000 subscribers doesn't need a $499 plan.

How to choose in five steps

1. Name your box type: fixed curated, mystery, or build-a-box. If it's build-a-box, cross off Shopify Subscriptions and note which plan each remaining app needs for bundles.
2. Decide your billing model: each subscriber's signup date, or one billing day with a cutoff. If it's one day, keep only the apps with anchor or charge-day settings and confirm the plan tier with support.
3. List what you sell as gifts. If you sell prepaid 3-month or 12-month plans, check the plan tier for prepaid (Loop: Pro only).
4. Price your next 12 months, not today. Put your expected subscriber count at month 12 into the tables above. Check for lifetime-order caps (Easy Subscriptions) and revenue bands (Appstle).
5. Run one test cycle on the free trial: a sign-up after the cutoff, a skip, a swap, a prepaid order, a mixed cart and a renewal with a non-default shipping rate. Then check that the renewal order reaches your 3PL with each item on its own line.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Stripe good enough to run a Shopify subscription box on its own?

Not inside Shopify checkout. Stripe Billing on its own charges cards but doesn't create Shopify orders at renewal, so your 3PL, inventory and order history won't see the renewals without custom work. Shopify subscription apps bill through Shopify's supported gateways, and Shopify lists Stripe for subscriptions as "available only to select merchants". Most box founders on Shopify use Shopify Payments plus one of the apps above.

Do app transaction fees apply to shipping and tax?

It depends on the app, and most pricing pages don't say. Recharge's help center says fees are worked out monthly on the total amount processed, refunded orders included. Subi charges its fee on subscription orders only, with nothing on one-time orders. Loop charges "a percentage of transaction volume". If you charge shipping on top of the box price, ask each app in writing whether that amount counts.

Which app suits a mystery box?

Any of them. A mystery box is one product that repeats, so you don't need build-a-box. Choose on billing-day control and prepaid gifts instead. Because nobody picks items, you can also skip any plan tier you'd only need for bundles.

How do subscription apps handle boxes with several items?

A fixed box is usually one product, so it reaches your 3PL as one line. In a build-a-box, each picked item has to reach the packer. Ask the app whether renewal orders list each component as its own line, and send a test order to your 3PL before launch. Our fulfillment cost guide covers per-item pick fees.

When is Recharge worth paying more for?

When you need its retention analytics benchmarked against other brands, its loyalty and referral tools (Plus), or a platform built for brands far larger than yours, and your margin can carry the percentage fee. Our Recharge vs Bold vs Appstle comparison goes through those three head to head.

Should my box be on Shopify at all?

Shopify plus an app suits founders who also sell one-time products or want their own store. If you'd rather have subscriptions built in, compare Subbly vs Shopify and Cratejoy vs Subbly vs Shopify.

Sources

All pages checked October 31, 2026.

1. Recharge Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
2. Recharge pricing
3. Recharge help: Can I downgrade to the 25-50 plan?
4. Recharge help: How are transaction fees charged?
5. Recharge help: Charging on a specific day of the week or month
6. Recharge help: Creating a cut-off window
7. Recharge help: Shipping rates differ between checkout and recurring orders
8. Recharge: Recharge welcomes Skio (April 2026)
9. Appstle Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
10. Appstle help: Subscriptions cutoff days
11. Seal Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
12. Seal Subscriptions pricing
13. Seal: How to offer your customers a subscription box
14. Bundler, Shopify App Store
15. Loop Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
16. Loop pricing
17. Loop help: Anchor day billing
18. Bold Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
19. Bold help: How can I offer subscription bundling?
20. Bold help: Subscriptions shipping overview
21. Easy Bundles, Shopify App Store
22. Recurpay Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
23. Recurpay pricing
24. Subi, Shopify App Store
25. Subi pricing
26. Subi changelog: Build a Box (April 2026)
27. Easy Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
28. Skio, Shopify App Store
29. Stay AI Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
30. Shopify Subscriptions, Shopify App Store
31. Shopify Help: Shopify Subscriptions eligibility considerations
32. Shopify Help: Managing subscription contracts
33. Shopify Help: Shopify Subscriptions
34. Shopify pricing
35. Shopify Changelog: Improved shipping options for subscriptions (June 2024)
36. Shopify Community: Recurring orders default to cheapest shipping rate (August 2026)
37. Shopify Community: Shipping options for subscriptions and one-time purchase in a single order (2023)
38. Shopify Community: Shopify rounds price incorrectly for prepaid subscriptions
39. Shopify Community: Seeking advice on creating a build-your-own-box subscription
40. Shopify Community: Monthly sub with fixed cutoff on the 20th and shipping on the 28th

Read next

• Recharge vs Bold vs Appstle: head-to-head comparison
• What is a good profit margin for a subscription box?
• How many subscribers do you need to be profitable?
• Subscription box fulfillment cost
• How to reduce subscription box churn
• COGS calculator
• Break-even calculator