The Best Ecommerce Platforms for Your Subscription Business
There’s a lot of talk about which popular subscription ecommerce platform is the best choice.
When choosing a subscription ecommerce platform, it’s important to understand which features you should keep an eye out for.
But before we get started on that, let’s see what your options are. If you want to look at the features first, skip to the next section.
Alternatively, read on:
We’ve assessed some of the biggest names out there to help you make the right choice—here’s the lineup for you to explore:
1. Subbly
Subbly is the only subscription-first ecommerce platform on the market that offers every single feature your subscription ecommerce business could need.
It’s all available in one place, without the need for any plugins or coding skills, and matches any business—whether you’re selling online courses or running a subscription box.
From subscription management and recurring payments to more niche subscription features like offering tiered subscription plans and mid-purchase upsells, Subbly has it all.
This includes 100+ features that have helped thousands of businesses launch and scale successful subscription businesses.
With 24/7 customer support and a huge community of users and product experts, Subbly is the best ecommerce subscription platform for subscription-first businesses.
If you want to maximize retention and achieve stratospheric subscription growth, then this is the best ecommerce platform for your subscription business.
Key features
- Support for recurring payments
- Compatible with multiple payment gateways (Stripe, BrainTree, PayPal)
- Drag and drop ecommerce store site builder
- Professional ecommerce store templates
- Sell digital downloads and online courses as well as physical products
- 24/7 human-powered support and a huge online community
- Customizable signup flows
- Custom billing cycles
- API for more advanced users
- Integrations with favorite tools (e.g. Google Analytics, MailChimp, Zapier)
Pricing: Starting at $29/month + 1.25% transaction fees (free trial available)
2. Cratejoy
More than any of the other subscription ecommerce platforms, Cratejoy’s biggest claim to fame is that it’s a marketplace-first subscription platform.
The marketplace somewhat simplifies your marketing strategy by providing a built-in marketing channel and online storefront for the subscription boxes that launch on its site—albeit at the cost of owning your traffic fully.
Popular for those who want to start selling subscriptions with as little marketing spend as possible, Cratejoy comes with a functional ecommerce store builder and subscription management functions.
It also offers a range of help articles and other documentation to help less experienced subscription box operators get up to speed.
Key features
- Marketplace-first approach focused on subscription boxes
- Basic, simple to use features
- Website templates available
- Established online community
Pricing: For a full design and website launch, prices start at $59/month, along with 1.25% + $0.10 in transaction fees
Click here to read a more detailed comparison of Subbly and Cratejoy.
3. Shopify
This is the granddaddy of online ecommerce platforms. It’s designed to handle online sales, and you can add plugins to accommodate your business model.
This means that, if you have a subscription business model, you will have to choose from thousands of subscription management apps available on the Shopify app store.
We’ve shared our thoughts on the best Shopify subscription apps before, but the short version is that if you’re going all-in on subscriptions, it might not be the best ecommerce platform for you.
That being said, if subscription products or the ability to collect recurring payments effectively are just a side thought for you, then Shopify might work for you.
They offer other business functionality like POS systems and integrations with other plugin ecosystems, which can be useful for certain businesses.
Key features
- Can be used as a subscription platform through plugins and third-party apps
- Huge amount of user-generated content about using it
- Supports different third-party payment gateways
Pricing: Starting at $19/month + 2% transaction fees
Click here for more insight on the cost of running your subscription business with Shopify.
Click here to read a more detailed comparison of Subbly and Shopify.
4. Recurly
Recurly is a well-known subscription tool for running ecommerce subscriptions.
It enables its users to make subscription sales, take subscription payments on their online business, and set up flexible subscription billing frequencies.
It also allows businesses to handle subscription products, from SaaS to monthly boxes, as well as offers a host of extensions and integrations to further boost customer lifetime value.
Recurly has certainly earned a spot as a strong piece of subscription management software.
Key features
- 30+ languages supported
- 20+ payment gateways supported
- Flexible customer support
Pricing: Starting at $0/month (no fees on first $40k revenue in first 3 months). Thereafter $249/month.
5. Stripe
While Stripe is a payment gateway, it also has developer-friendly tooling with subscription capabilities, which is mainly accessible through their API and their ‘Billing’ add-on.
From recurring payment retries (i.e. dunning) to custom subscription products, Stripe is a solid option for people looking to sell subscriptions on their online store, or anything else where recurring payments are key to their business model.
Key features
- Transaction fee-based pricing structure with no monthly fees
- POS integration
- Smart churn recovery tools
Pricing: From 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
6. SubscriptionFlow
SubscriptionFlow positions itself as an AI-powered subscription management platform, promising to streamline processes with features like automated quote management.
This subscription tool enables you to create product catalogs and efficiently manage customer databases. If you’re operating a B2B subscription business, SubscriptionFlow can be a solid choice, as it helps reduce administrative tasks.
However, SubscriptionFlow may feel a bit overwhelming for smaller or simpler subscription models, especially given its higher starting price point.
Key features
- Trial management software
- Metered billing, charging customers based on usage
- Customer health scores for retention and churn management
Pricing: Starting at $199/month for 3 users.
7. Sellfy
Sellfy is tailored for creators looking to set up an online store, with a focus on those in creative industries, such as vloggers, music producers, and hairstylists.
One of its strengths is the ability to turn an existing website into a storefront, allowing you to expand your business without starting from scratch.
While Sellfy is ideal for creators, it’s important to note that its subscription management features might be somewhat limited compared to platforms specifically designed for subscription-first businesses.
If you’re heavily focused on subscriptions, then this transaction-first, ecommerce platofrm may not be the right choice for you.
Key features
- Built-in marketing tools, including tracking pixels and email marketing
- Integrated payments through PayPal and Stripe
- Storefront creation, enabling you to build a custom website
Pricing: $29/month + 0% transaction fees
8. Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop is an ecommerce platform that primarily supports businesses focused on traditional one-off sales.
While it’s not built specifically for subscription-first models, it does offer subscription billing options through its app, available on select plans.
This allows businesses to offer flexible billing intervals, like weekly or monthly subscriptions, even though subscriptions aren’t the platform’s core strength.
Shift4Shop also provides useful social media integrations, helping businesses engage with customers online.
However, if your main focus is building a subscription-based business, Shift4Shop may not be the most optimal choice due to its primary focus on one-time transactions.
Key features
- GDPR compliant toolkit
- Tax rate calculation by country, state, and Postal Code/Zip
- Multiple shipping addresses checkout
Pricing: $39/month with PayPal for new customers only.
9. Pabbly
Pabbly offers a business suite that covers a range of needs, from email marketing to recurring billing.
While their subscription feature is part of the package, it’s worth noting that Pabbly isn’t solely focused on subscriptions—it’s more of an all-in-one tool for businesses.
If you’re looking for a dedicated subscription platform, Pabbly might not be the first choice. But if you want an all-around solution that includes subscription billing alongside email marketing and workflow automation, it could be worth exploring.
Just keep in mind that customer support has been a sticking point for some users, though they do offer tutorials to help you get started.
Key features
- Upsell and downsell funnels to boost revenue
- Multi-tier affiliate system for marketing
- Flexible pricing models, including flat fee, per unit, volume, or tiered
Pricing: Free version with limited features, or $49/month for full access.
What Features Should a Subscription Ecommerce Platform Have?
Long story short… as many as possible!
As a subscription-based business, you basically have two options when you’re choosing a subscription ecommerce platform.
Your first option is to pick a platform built specifically for subscription ecommerce. These platforms will have the full range of features you need to start selling subscriptions built in without any need for plugins.
Your second option is to pick a platform that isn’t built specifically for an ecommerce subscription model use case.
Sometimes they’ll be optimized for some kind of ecommerce, while others—like using a WordPress website—will have been built for a completely different use case. This means that you’ll need to rely on plugins to get all the functionality you need.
There is a third option: Commissioning your own custom solution. However, the development costs of this are often out of reach for businesses without extremely deep pockets.
However you approach it, here are some of the most important features a top subscription ecommerce platform will have—all necessary to help your subscription business reach its full potential:
- Subscription management tools
- Customer relationship management tools
- Recurring payments and subscription billing functionality
- Support for multiple payment gateways and different payment methods
- Support for global online payments
- The ability to offer a free trial
- Customer loyalty initiatives and rewards
- A no-code ecommerce website builder
- Low transaction fees
- The ability to offer flexible shipping options
- Support for digital downloads
- Best-in-Industry subject matter
- Expert support team to assist you every step of the way
- No data hostage polices, so you can leave when you want (unlike other platforms)
The Problem With Plugins
While plugins are a great way to add extra features to your ecommerce platform, the challenge comes when you have too many to manage.
Each plugin is built by a different company, which means they use different technologies that don’t always work well together or with your main platform.
If you run a one-off business, you might only need 5 to 10 plugins. But for subscription businesses, it’s common to need 15 to 20 plugins to keep everything running smoothly.
With so many different systems in play, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be as stable as you need them to be for maximum effectiveness.
On top of this, you need to think about the cost—if each new feature requires a plugin, your monthly costs could skyrocket!
Since Subbly is an all-in-one solution for subscription ecommerce businesses, it already has all the functionality you need to kickstart your business growth.
This includes over 100+ features that all support a subscription business.
From integrating your customer journey to managing your operations, Subbly can help your business thrive on a subscription business model.
Which Ecommerce Subscription Platform Will You Choose?
In the end, the best subscription ecommerce platform for your unique business use case will be the one that allows you to most efficiently achieve your recurring revenue goals and maximize your customer lifetime value.
However, it’s always important to think ahead.
Even if you don’t need every feature on day one, once your business starts to gain traction, it can be hard to change subscription platforms midway.
If you go this route, you may even risk your website’s stability and have to juggle the added cost of plugins or subscription extensions to keep up with your needs.
Try Subbly for free today and see the difference it’ll make.
Already launched your subscription business on another platform and looking to switch things up? We’ll migrate you for free and cover your first year of fees!
