Shopify Subscriptions

One of the main reasons why we switched over to Shopify was to get access to subscriptions for our customers. This app has been a huge dissapointment. It is so bad and we have almost considered not to offer subscriptions for our customers.
However we will try to find another subscription App.
- Customers can't amend their subscriptions, nor can we.
- We can't see future subscription orders, not even on the same day.
- When updating prices we have to go in on every single contract and change it manually.
Bad! Bad! Bad!

Shopify Subscriptions: A Major Step Backward for Business Users

Shopify's subscription offering reveals a concerning lack of understanding of subscription management needs. After migrating over 2,000 subscriptions from our previous platform, we've encountered severe limitations that make this solution untenable for serious subscription businesses.

The most egregious oversight is the complete absence of read-only API access to subscription data. Shopify's justification that this information is "too sensitive" for API access contradicts industry standards and their own practice of providing the same data via CSV download. This restriction severely hampers any business's ability to build robust reporting or integration systems. They want you to become a "Partner" and develop your own solution, vs Admin API endpoints.

The data accessibility issues compound further:
- The provided CSV exports only capture current state data, omitting crucial historical information like creation dates
- There's no way to link orders with their corresponding subscriptions
- The analytics suite lacks fundamental subscription metrics (expansion, contraction, churn, new subscriptions)

The migration process itself is poorly implemented. While Shopify provides an import template, the system offers no meaningful error reporting or validation. Failed imports generate sporadic email notifications without actionable details, leaving teams to guess at composite key issues and other potential problems.

After three weeks of migration efforts, multiple support tickets, and account representative meetings, it's clear Shopify has no serious intention of addressing these limitations. Their dismissive attitude toward feature requests suggests these problems won't be resolved anytime soon. The lack of API access to our own subscription data has proven to be a critical dealbreaker.

For any business managing more than a handful of subscriptions or requiring proper analytics, I strongly advise looking elsewhere. This product appears designed for app normies with no reporting needs, falling far short of business requirements.

I am looking to use Shopify's own Subscriptions app. Most of my subscriptions are fixed term e.g. once a month for a year. This app doesn't have ability to put in an end date. Very basic.

The setup process is quite straightforward and user-friendly, which we appreciate. However, we have encountered several glitches, particularly with the subscription not updating from a two-month plan to a monthly one for our skincare products. Additionally, the subscription details are only visible in the footer. I have reached out to customer support, and it appears there is a bug affecting this functionality.

Doesn't work for products that are only subscription - i.e. a one time purchase is not an option. The documentation says it does this, but when you set it up as documented customers get a "Variant can only be purchased with a selling plan" error message and can not buy.

Um, it works. Not a lot of customization, options for customers (like change billing/shipping date, add more products, etc) and lacking on analytics and retention capabilities. Best part is - it's free. If you are just getting started its a good app. We've been using it for about 6 months now and probably to the point of needing a more robust app that has more flexibility and features.

Can you make it possible to purchase subscriptions in person through the POS Go machine? It is nice having the option online for customers, but some customers would prefer to start their subscription in person at our store (Dog Daycare).

It's just about OK. We had (and continue to have) glitches moving across from Recharge (that got expensive). Really basic subscription stuff like a customer wanting to postpone an order by a few days just doesn't look possible. Even the support help couldn't do it. Having significant doubts about this after a time-consuming migration. Be careful of this app - if you need anything above a super-basic sub, it's unlikely to be what you want...

It's a very basic plug-in subscription app – you get what you pay for. We have quite a few frustrations with it from the back-end, and it's not user-friendly for customers to use on the front-end either. So do your research before you commit, as you may be better paying for a subscription service with more bells and whistles.

Needs to serious improvements.
1. If payment failed and customer updates their credit card there is no way customer can trigger and approve the payment again, they are left contacting us, we then cancel the subscription and then tell them to make a new one on the site.
2. Customer cant change or move the date, eg if they order every 6 weeks and want it to trigger at 5 weeks and reset the schedule from 6 weeks from manual payment they cant do it.