12 Best Subscription Management Tools for E-Commerce Brands

Subscription management tools are perfect for e-commerce brands that sell replenishable items and gift subscriptions.

They simplify recurring billing and let customers manage their own subscriptions, making checkout smooth and hassle-free.

Let’s explore some of the best subscription management tools and compare their features and prices.

Before we dive in, let me briefly explain what subscription management is and what features to look for when checking out these tools.

What Is Subscription Management And What Tools Are Best For E-Commerce Brands

Subscription management is a billing system where customers pay a fixed amount each month to receive their favorite products on a regular basis.

E-commerce brands use this method to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers and generate a steady monthly income. 

The two most popular subscription products for e-commerce businesses are prepaid and recurring billing. 

You can create both models and integrate them into your checkout cart through a subscription management tool.

Here Are The Top Features To Look For In A Subscription Management Tool

• Recurring billing.
• Failed payment recovery.
• Upsells, bundles, and discounts.
• Integration with e-commerce platforms and payment gateways.

Below, you’ll find the list of the 12 best subscription management tools that are built specifically for e-commerce brands. 

I’ve specifically included online apps that integrate seamlessly with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.

1. Recharge

Recharge is a popular subscription tool for e-commerce brands. 

It lets you set up recurring billing for replenishable products and launch a subscription management portal for customers.

The starter package contains a product page widget, upsell and cross-sell tools, a failed payment recovery feature, and smart cancellation flows. If you go for its premium package, you’ll get customization options, loyalty programs, and implementation support.

You can offer bundles to attract new buyers and run targeted campaigns to retain subscribers. 

To improve your subscribers’ experience, you can add some flexible options– like letting customers manage their subscription through SMS, or gifting their subscriptions to others.

Through A/B testing and in-app recommendations, you can experiment with different sales funnels and optimize your subscription management process.

Core Features

• Subscription widget.
• Bundles and upselling.
• Failed payment recovery.
• Cancellation management.
• Marketing campaigns.
• Automated workflows.
• Gift subscriptions.
• Loyalty programs.
• Analytics.
• Integrations.

Price

Recharge’s starter plan costs $99 per month. You can try it for free.

2. Recurly

Recurly is a flexible subscription management platform. It’s designed for both B2B and e-commerce brands.

The software works well on Shopify and supports high-volume subscriptions. You can create advanced subscription models through this app and set your workflows on autopilot. 

If you buy its commerce product, you’ll get a storefront widget, a customer portal, custom bundles, and churn-prevention tools. You can also add memberships, prepaid pricing, add-ons, discounts, and more.

If you need to test your checkout process, you can do that as well. Recurly provides a sandbox site to test your subscription model.

Core Features

• Subscription platform for both SaaS and e-commerce.
• Native Shopify integration.
• Flexible subscription models.
• Churn prevention.
• Custom bundles.
• Sandbox.
• Customer portal.
• Automated workflows.
• Referral programs.
• Reporting.
• Mobile-friendly.

Price

Recurly sells a pay-as-you-go plan. It charges $399 per month plus a percentage of your revenue. 

You can book a demo.

3. SureCart

SureCart is a WordPress e-commerce plugin. With this tool, you can sell physical products, digital downloads, subscriptions, and services.

The software includes a well-established subscription management module that supports both fixed recurring payments and installments. 

You can easily add upgrades, downgrades, free trials, and discounts to your subscription model.

For payment processing, SureCart delivers flexible features. You can set up a Pay-As-You-Want option to attract customers and offer 40+ payment methods.

Several churn-prevention tools are available as well. You can build abandoned cart and auto-payment recovery follow-up campaigns.

Core Features

• Physical products and subscriptions.
• Store and order management.
• Free trials and discounts.
• Upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations.
• Cart abandonment and auto-payment recovery.
• Pay-As-You-Want and installments.
• Analytics and reporting.
• Integrations.
• Agency Suite.
• Mobile-friendly.

Price

SureCart sells annual packages. The starter plan costs $179 per year. 

You can try it for free.

4. ThriveCart

ThriveCart is a robust shopping cart. It has a solid checkout module with built-in subscription management for e-commerce brands.

Through ThriveCart, you can create a checkout page, add recurring revenue billing, and set up both local and global payments. Plus, you can include one-click upgrades, downgrades, and limited billing in your subscription model.

To optimize your workflows, you can use ThriveCart’s automation tools. You can create abandoned cart and failed payment recovery email campaigns and set them on autopilot.

Core Features

• Customized checkout cart.
• Subscription management.
• Flexible payment methods.
• Upgrades and downgrades.
• Dunning tools.
• Order bumps and upsells.
• Cart abandonment recovery.
• A/B testing.
• Global coverage.
• Analytics and reporting.
• Integrations.
• Mobile-friendly.

Price

ThriveCart’s standard plan costs $295 per year. You can also make one-time payments. 

Check out the pricing page for details.

5. Appstle

Appsttle sells subscriptions, memberships, and loyalty programs to Shopify users. Most merchants love it for its flexibility and smooth app experience. 

You can get started on Appstle for free and try the core subscription features without paying a transaction fee. The premium packages are also pretty affordable, and you can buy subscription management as a standalone product.

Everything is included in the premium packages, from product page builder and prepaid subscription plans to automated billing and dunning management. You’ll get various subscription widgets with advanced features to optimize the checkout experience.

One-click upsells, discounts, and email marketing are also built into the system. You can send unlimited emails, create tailored bundles, and monitor your campaign performance.

Core Features

• Subscriptions, memberships, and loyalty programs.
• Automated recurring billing.
• Customer portal.
• Dunning tools.
• Email marketing.
• Upsells and discounts.
• Cancellation management.
• Bulk automation.
• Analytics.
• API and integration.

Price

Appstle charges between $10 and $100 per month. You can customize your package.

6. Loop

Loop is another good Shopify app. 

It exclusively offers subscription management tools to e-commerce brands.

Some of its notable features include subscription bundles, one-click checkout, failed payment recovery, and cancellation management.

You’ll get a branded portal for customers and a workflow builder to automate the checkout process.

There are other excellent features as well on Loop. For example, you can set up alerts to identify at-risk subscribers and attach personalized discount offers to the cancellation workflows.

You can also add a pause button to let customers temporarily take a break without cancelling the subscription. The app’s cancellation management function is really impressive.

Core Features

• Subscription management.
• Bundles and upsells.
• Advanced cancellation management.
• Flexible failed payment recovery.
• Branded portal for customers.
• Automated workflows.
• Loyalty program.
• Discount offers.
• API and integration.
• Mobile-friendly.

Price

Loop’s starter plan costs $99 per month. You can take a free trial.

7. Skio

Skio helps you acquire, engage, and retain subscribers.

With its intuitive visual builders and user-friendly customer portals, you can customize your checkout process with ease and make subscription management hassle-free.

You can add bundles, add-ons, and discounts to subscriptions and create a dynamic pricing model to offer flexible options to your customers. Skio’s journey builder has smart triggers to create personalized prices and targeted offers.

For customer retention, you’ll get smart retries, cancellation flows, and rewards. You can build multi-step cancellation flows and automatically route at-risk subscribers to your customer care team.

Skio also has some good workflow management tools. For example, you can automatically delay orders when your inventory is low.

Core Features

• Subscription management.
• Journey builder.
• Failed payment recovery.
• Multi-step cancellation flow.
• Volume discounting and trigger-based rewards.
• Anti-fraud protection.
• Audit logs.
• No-code customer portal.
• Quick actions.
• Tracking and reporting.
• Integration.

Price

Skio charges $599 per month.

8. Bold Subscription

Bold sells a suite of sales apps for Shopify stores. One of its products is a subscription management app that delivers customizable subscription flows.

Here, you can create multiple subscription pricing plans and also let customers build their own bundles. You can set up triggers at checkout to display subscription bundles to one-time buyers.

Apart from the checkout experience, the Bold subscription also has good cancellation management tools. You can give your customers the autonomy to change orders, reschedule delivery, and pause subscriptions.

Overall, it’s an excellent subscription management tool for e-commerce brands.

Core Features

• Standard, prepaid, and convertible subscription.
• Dynamic discounts and upselling.
• Customer portal.
• Failed payment recovery.
• Cancellation flows.
• Analytics and reporting.
• API and integration.
• Shopify app.
• Mobile-friendly.

Price

Bold prices start at $25 per month. You can take a 30-day free trial.

9. RecurPay

RecurPay provides standard and prepaid subscription management tools for e-commerce brands.

You can connect it with both Shopify and WooCommerce stores and integrate popular payment gateways for billing.

With RecurPay, you can build a mixed cart and let customers choose one-time and subscription payments. You can add free trials, customization, and multiple delivery frequencies to your subscription pricing plan.

Billing and renewal are on autopilot, but you can give your customers the option to pause, reschedule, and cancel their subscription at any time. With the dunning tools, you can automatically recover failed payments.

Core Features

• Standard and prepaid subscription.
• Mixed cart.
• Custom bundles.
• Failed payment recovery.
• Customer portal.
• Free trials, discounts, renewals, and cancellations.
• Automated billing.
• Email campaigns.
• Branded widget.
• AI chatbot.
• Analytics and insights.
• API and integration.
• Mobile-friendly.

Price

You can install RecurPay for free. Its premium package starts at $19 per month.

A 30-day free trial is included in all the premium packages.

10. Stripe

If you need a simple recurring billing system for subscriptions, Stripe is best for you.

It’s an online payment platform that handles domestic and cross-border payments.

Stripe is a popular choice among small e-commerce brands because it simplifies the checkout process. You can easily manage both one-time and recurring payments through Stripe and process your transactions securely.

All the essential subscription management tools are available on Stripe. You can set custom billing cycles, add free trials, handle failed payments, and automate renewals.

Stripe works well with major e-commerce platforms and supports several digital wallets, including Apple Pay.

Core Features

• Recurring billing with customer cycles.
• Auto-renewals and cancellation.
• Free trials and discounts.
• Failed payment recovery.
• Fraud prevention.
• Follow-up emails.
• Customer portal.
• Global coverage.
• Integration.
• Reporting.
• Mobile-friendly.

Price

Stripe offers pay-as-you-go and annual subscriptions. You can either pay 0.7% of your bills or a fixed amount per month. The standard premium package starts at $620.

11. Seal Subscription

Seal has some fantastic subscription management tools for e-commerce brands.

You can build both prepaid and ongoing plans, automate monthly payments, and set up a payment recovery system. 

Not only that, but you can also create cancellation flows and add discounts to retain customers.

One of Seal Subscription’s unique features is its inventory forecast. 

You can predict your inventory needs and set up out-of-stock alerts to ensure smooth delivery.

Seal also offers a visual calendar to keep an eye on your payments. You can monitor scheduled, pending, failed, and skipped payments.

Core Features

• Shopify subscription management.
• Automated payments and renewals.
• Dunning management.
• Cancellation flows.
• Inventory forecasts.
• Out-of-stock alerts.
• Discounts.
• Email marketing.
• Payment calendar.
• Analytics.
• Integration.

Price

Seal Subscription’s basic plan is free, and premium packages start at $25 per month.

12. OrderGroove

OrderGroove is an AI-powered enterprise-grade app.

It supports advanced subscription models and integrates seamlessly with popular e-commerce platforms.

Some of the things you can do through OrderGroove include recurring billing, bundle subscriptions, churn management, and monitoring. You can run various promotional campaigns to attract customers and offer self-service portals to let them manage their own subscriptions.

The best feature of OrderGroove is its advanced subscription model. You can set up rotating subscriptions so customers receive different products each month.

Core Features

• Prepaid, ongoing, bundles, and rotating subscriptions.
• Integrated checkout.
• AI-powered churn management.
• Dynamic discounts and other incentives.
• Cancellation management.
• Email communication.
• Customer portal.
• Analytics.
• API and integration.

Price

OrderGroove shares prices on request. You can take a 30-day free trial.

Conclusion

So, did you find what you were looking for?

If you need suggestions, I recommend Recurly, Recharge, and Skio. 

Recurly provides scalable solutions, Skio delivers a smooth customer experience, and Recharge offers robust features.

Try some of the apps, take a few trials, and make a well-informed purchase decision.