Best Shopify Subscription App: Recharge vs Skio vs Loop vs Shopify Subscriptions

Search "best Shopify subscription app" and every comparison you find is written by someone selling one. Loop's guide puts Loop first. Recurpay's puts Recurpay first. Rivo's puts Stay AI first. Two of them say so in a disclaimer. Most don't.

We don't sell an app. We work inside them. RetainUP has set up and audited 30+ subscription programs on Recharge, Skio, Stay AI and Loop, for 80+ DTC brands. So this one is scored on the things our audits check, not on feature counts.

The short answer

For most brands between $1M and $10M, Recharge, Skio, Loop and Stay AI can all run a good program. The free Shopify Subscriptions app can't, because it has no cancel flow. Pick a paid app on three things: bundles, what happens after the last failed payment, and the fee at your size.

If you are under about 100 subscribers, the free app is fine for now. Above that, it costs you more in lost saves than a paid app costs in fees.

How we scored them

Each app is scored on the seven levers our churn audits check. Features come from each app's pricing page, App Store listing and help docs, plus what we have seen inside client accounts. Pricing was checked on 24 October 2026.

Same app, different score

The app sets what you can do. The setup sets what you get. Our public scorecards show it plainly.

Grüns runs on Skio and scored 85.5 out of 100, the highest we have given. IM8 also runs on Skio and scored 64 out of 80. Dr. Squatch runs on Recharge and scored 73. Create runs on Recharge and scored 67.5. Mars Men runs on Stay AI.

IM8 is the clearest case. Skio supports one-click self-serve cancel and save flows, and IM8 already pays for both. Its policy page still described something slower. In the Grüns teardown, the same app carried the best program I have scored.

Cancel flow routing

All four paid apps can route a cancel by its reason. The free app can't, and that gap matters most. A routed flow sends "too much product" to a skip, "too expensive" to a cheaper plan, and "didn't work" to a swap.

The average cancel flow saves 1 in 6 subscribers who click cancel. Best in class saves 1 in 3. We moved one client from 14.8% to 29.6%.

Having the tool is half of it. A supplement brand on Loop with about 300 subscribers came to us with a cancel flow that offered one thing, a discount. 68% of the subscribers who gave a reason said taste. Price was 8%. The flow saved 2.33%. Loop could route by reason. Nobody had set it up. The fix is in our post on cancel flow routing.

Pause and skip depth

The paid apps all let subscribers skip, pause, reschedule and swap from the portal. The free app gives pause, resume and skip. Changing products is a top request in its App Store reviews, because today that means cancel and resubscribe.

Depth matters less than placement. Most brands hide skip inside the cancel flow, after the subscriber has already decided to leave. Put it in the reminder email and on the portal's first screen. And never offer a pause with no end date. I covered both in pause and skip.

Dunning control

Every app retries failed cards. The question to ask on a demo is what happens after the last retry. That one setting decides whether a dead card shows up as churn or hides as an active subscriber.

On the free app you set the retry count, the days between retries and the final action: skip, pause or cancel. Shopify's open-source code for the app defaults to 3 retries, 3 days apart. Loop lists up to 15 retries timed by failure type, with a backup card and hard-decline handling on Pro only. Recharge and Skio include payment recovery on every plan.

On that same Loop brand, the final retry logged a skip. The subscription stayed active, the next order billed and failed again. 16 of 36 dunned subscriptions failed two orders while counting as active the whole time. Our fix was to pause the subscription and send a card update email. More on the split in active vs passive churn.

Customer portal

Recharge and Skio both offer passwordless login, which removes the "I can't log in, so I'll email support to cancel" problem. Loop has a drag-and-drop editor. Stay AI includes a full portal on every plan. The free app lives inside Shopify customer accounts and is the most basic.

What to check: can a subscriber skip, swap or change frequency within two taps of the email link? If the first screen is a login wall, the app's feature list doesn't matter.

Bundles

Bundles split the apps more than anything else. Recharge keeps them on Plus at $499 a month. Loop has build-your-own and preset bundles from Starter at $99. Skio has Build-a-Box. Stay AI does not list bundles on its pricing page, so ask. The free app lists none.

Test the discount, not just the bundle. On one Loop store, bundle discounts fired only on items added through the bundle's own link. The product page widget never triggered them. We used a Shopify automatic discount instead.

Klaviyo data

All four paid apps send subscription events to Klaviyo. We found no Klaviyo events for cancels or skips from the free app. Without them you can't run the flows that do the retention work.

On a demo, open Klaviyo and look for: upcoming charge, skipped, cancelled with the reason, payment failed and reactivated. Then check profile properties. Skio, for example, writes cycles completed and active subscription count onto the profile. That is what lets you send an order 3 gift or a tenure offer. The full list is in our post on Klaviyo subscription automations.

Pricing, checked 24 October 2026

List prices from each app's pricing page or Shopify App Store listing. Shopify's normal payment fees apply on top of all of them.

Fees look small as percentages. Turned into a yearly number at a $50 average order, they are not.

At $3M a year, the gap between the cheapest and dearest list price is about $30,000. One point less monthly churn on that base keeps about $2,500 of monthly revenue every month. So the fee matters, but a lever you can't set costs more. Above $5M, nobody pays list. Negotiate.

Is the free Shopify Subscriptions app enough?

Yes, until you have something to save. The free app bills, lets subscribers pause and skip, and retries failed cards. It has no cancel flow, no bundles, and a cancel ends billing at once and can't be undone, per Shopify's help center.

Here is a rough break-even. Say 10% of subscribers click cancel in a month, and each save is worth one more $50 order. Loop Starter costs $99 a month plus 1% of revenue.

At an average 1 in 6 save rate, the paid app pays for itself at about 300 subscribers. At 1 in 3, about 85. Change the inputs to your own numbers, but the answer lands in the low hundreds for most brands. A save is usually worth more than one order, so this is the cautious version.

Recharge owns Skio now. Does it matter?

Recharge bought Skio on 30 April 2026. Recharge says both platforms keep running as they are, with a joint roadmap to come. Skio's App Store listing now reads "Skio, a Recharge Company".

For a brand on either app, nothing changes this quarter. For a brand choosing today, it means two of the four big paid apps share one owner. Loop and Stay AI are independent. Watch pricing at your next renewal.

Which app fits your brand, by stage

Stage decides this more than features. Here is how I would pick, by subscriber count.

Under 100 subscribers

The free Shopify app, Loop's free plan or Recharge's $25 plan. At this size, call the people who cancel. You will learn more than any flow can tell you.

100 to 2,000 subscribers

Loop Starter or Recharge Starter. You need a routed cancel flow and Klaviyo events now. Loop is cheaper here and includes bundles. Recharge has the bigger ecosystem.

$1M to $5M in subscription revenue

Loop Pro, Recharge Plus, Skio or Stay AI. Choose on bundles, backup card handling and A/B testing of the cancel flow. Ask each one to show you the final retry action live.

Over $5M

Get custom quotes from all four. At this size, a migration costs more than a year of fee differences, so only switch for a lever you can't set today. If you do, read our guide to switching subscription apps without losing subscribers first.

Already on one of these and not sure the setup is pulling its weight? Our free subscription audit scores it on 48 checkpoints.

FAQ

What is the best subscription app for Shopify?

For most $1M to $10M brands, Recharge, Skio, Loop and Stay AI are all good enough. Pick on bundles, dunning control after the last retry, and fees at your size. Loop has the lowest list fees, Recharge the biggest ecosystem.

Is Shopify Subscriptions free?

Yes. The app costs nothing and charges no transaction fee beyond Shopify's normal payment fees. It has no cancel flow and no bundles.

Is Recharge or Skio cheaper?

At list price, Skio is cheaper from about $3M a year. At $1M, they are close: about $19,900 a year on Recharge Starter against $20,000 on Skio, at a $50 average order. Both are now owned by Recharge.

Loop or Recharge for a small brand?

Loop's Starter plan costs the same $99 a month with a 1% fee against Recharge's 1.49% plus 19¢, and it includes bundles. Recharge is the safer pick if you depend on its integrations.

Does the subscription app reduce churn on its own?

No. Grüns and IM8 both run Skio and scored very differently. The app gives you the levers. Someone has to set the cancel reasons, the retry action and the reminder emails, which is what our Subscription LTV Maximizer does in 30 days.

About the author

Rahi Jain

Rahi Jain is a subscription LTV specialist who helps DTC brands maximize their LTV from subscriptions.

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