# Gro: full content export --- --- Gro is a Shopify subscription platform built around the delivery, not the billing cycle. What follows is the full text of the core pages and blog posts. Blog tables are GFM tables and each post ends with its FAQs. --- ## Gro Subscriptions URL: https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions Gro is a Shopify subscription platform built around the delivery, not the billing cycle. Instead of treating the card charge as the main event, Gro treats the delivery as the primary object: the customer portal leads with the next delivery date, and skip, swap and reschedule flows anchor to the day the box arrives rather than the day the card is charged. Gro is also built for the way real households subscribe: one subscription per pet, per kid, or per vehicle, instead of everything jammed into a single account. Each recipient gets its own plan, portion size and delivery, which is impossible to retrofit onto a billing-first platform. It's a modern platform built on Shopify's current APIs with no legacy debt, transparent pricing with no feature gating, and free white-glove migration from Recharge. The fit is sharpest for delivery-sensitive brands (meal kits, fresh and frozen food, flowers, pet food, kids boxes), but the modern foundation and support hold up for any brand leaving the old billing-first model behind. --- ## Pricing URL: https://www.usegro.co/pricing Free under 10 active subscriptions, then 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $199/mo minimum. No per-order fee, no feature gating. Priority and dedicated support, full API access, and custom-built portal widgets are included free on every plan. --- ## Email & SMS URL: https://www.usegro.co/email Email and SMS marketing for Shopify, built into Gro. Grow the list with popup, embedded, flyout and full-page signup forms, write campaigns with AI, automate your flows, and run it from the same place as your subscriptions. --- ## Gro vs Recharge URL: https://www.usegro.co/vs/recharge The all-inclusive Recharge alternative: every feature on every plan, subscriptions and email marketing in one platform, free migration from Recharge, and fast support from the team that builds it. --- ## Gro vs Skio URL: https://www.usegro.co/vs/skio The delivery-first Skio alternative: subscriptions built around delivery dates not billing cycles, free to start with no $499 platform fee, an independent founder-led team, and free migration from Skio. --- ## Migrate from Klaviyo URL: https://www.usegro.co/migration/klaviyo Free, done-for-you migration from Klaviyo to Gro Email & SMS: profiles and consent, flows, campaigns, templates, send history and sending domain. Or self serve with the free Klaviyo import tool: one import brings campaigns, flows, profiles with their history and templates. --- ## Migrate from Mailchimp URL: https://www.usegro.co/migration/mailchimp Free, done-for-you migration from Mailchimp to Gro Email & SMS, made for Shopify: contacts and consent, automations, campaigns, templates and send history. --- ## Migrate from Recharge URL: https://www.usegro.co/migration/recharge Free migration from Recharge to Gro Subscriptions: subscribers, plans, payment methods, cancel and retention flows and history moved by a Gro expert, then a zero downtime cutover. Most stores are live in 1 to 2 days. --- ## Migrate from Skio URL: https://www.usegro.co/migration/skio Free migration from Skio to Gro Subscriptions: subscribers, plans, payment methods, cancel and retention flows and history moved by a Gro expert, then a zero downtime cutover. No platform fee. --- ## Migrate email from Omnisend or any tool URL: https://www.usegro.co/migration/email/other Free, done-for-you migration to Gro Email & SMS from Omnisend or any other email tool: contacts and consent, flows, templates and send history. --- ## Migrate subscriptions from Loop, Bold, Stay AI or any app URL: https://www.usegro.co/migration/subscriptions/other Free migration to Gro Subscriptions from Loop, Bold, Stay AI, custom builds and other apps: subscribers, payment methods and flows moved by a Gro expert, with zero downtime. --- ## Pet food subscriptions URL: https://www.usegro.co/use-cases/pet-food Subscription software built for pet food brands: multi-pet households, replenishment timing, loyalty and rewards, all in one fee. --- ## Meal kit subscriptions URL: https://www.usegro.co/use-cases/meal-kits Meal-kit and fresh-food subscriptions where customers build and customise their own box and move deliveries by the day, self-serve. --- ## Coffee subscriptions URL: https://www.usegro.co/use-cases/coffee Coffee and tea subscriptions that auto-rotate the blend box to box, with self-serve grind, size and cadence. --- ## Supplement subscriptions URL: https://www.usegro.co/use-cases/supplements Supplement subscriptions built around a protocol: multi-product stacks that swap on schedule, with refills timed to real usage. --- ## Wine subscriptions URL: https://www.usegro.co/use-cases/wine Wine club subscriptions: a new case each shipment, members pick their mix, deliveries on the day they choose, loyalty rewards and failed payment recovery. --- # How to Manage Shopify Subscriptions from ChatGPT or Claude (2026) URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/manage-shopify-subscriptions-chatgpt-claude Published: 2026-09-27 Category: Subscriptions ## Short answer You can manage Shopify subscriptions from ChatGPT or Claude if your subscription app runs an MCP connector. As of September 2026, Gro's connector can look up and change subscriptions (skip, reschedule, pause) after you confirm. Loop's official connector reads analytics but doesn't make changes. We couldn't find an official Recharge connector, so merchants use third-party servers. Klaviyo has an official one for email. Setup takes a few minutes with your normal login. Most of the questions you open a subscription dashboard to answer are simple. When is this customer's next box? Why did cancellations go up? Can you move Jane to Friday? AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude can now answer them, and some can act on them, as long as your subscription app lets them in. That door is called an MCP connector. If you run a [delivery-first subscription](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions), and especially if you ship [fresh or frozen products](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-product-subscriptions), most of those questions are about a specific delivery. So whether the assistant can change anything matters as much as what it can read, and the platforms differ here as much as they do on [price](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained). ## What is an MCP connector? MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets an AI assistant use another app's tools. The app runs an MCP server. You add it to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or GitHub Copilot and sign in, and from then on the assistant can call that app's tools: look things up and, if the app allows it, make changes. The assistant only sees the results of the lookups it makes. ## Which Shopify subscription apps connect to ChatGPT and Claude? This is what each platform publishes as of September 2026. **AI connectors for Shopify subscription and email apps** | App | Official AI connector | Can it make changes? | How you connect | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Gro (subscriptions and email) | Yes | Yes: skip, reschedule, pause, cancel and discounts, after you confirm | Claude connector directory, or add https://api.usegro.co/mcp in ChatGPT, Cursor or Copilot and sign in with your Gro login | | Loop | Yes | No: read-focused analytics on subscribers, revenue, cohorts, payments and cancellations | Custom connector in Claude, ChatGPT or other MCP clients | | Recharge | No official connector found | Depends on the third-party server | Third-party managed servers, or open-source servers that run on a Recharge API key | | Klaviyo (email) | Yes | Yes: drafts and creates campaigns and templates | Listed connector in Claude, Klaviyo app in ChatGPT | _Prices checked September 2026. From each company's published documentation._ The split that matters is read versus write. A read-only connector is a faster way into your analytics. A connector that can act handles the jobs your support team does all day: moving a delivery, skipping a box, sending a customer their portal link. For each app's pricing and features side by side, see our [comparison of the best Shopify subscription apps](https://www.usegro.co/blog/best-shopify-subscription-app). ## What can you ask a subscription app from ChatGPT or Claude? These are real requests Gro's connector handles. Anything that changes a subscription or moves money waits for you to confirm. **Requests Gro's connector handles from ChatGPT or Claude** | What you ask | What happens | Changes anything? | | --- | --- | --- | | "How are subscriptions doing this month? Active, new and churned." | Pulls headline subscription numbers for the period | No | | "Find Jane's subscription. When is her next delivery?" | Looks up the customer and their next delivery date | No | | "Why are people cancelling? Top reasons for the last 90 days." | Groups cancellation and skip reasons | No | | "Move Jane's next delivery to next Thursday." | Checks the dates available, then reschedules | Yes, after you confirm | | "Skip Sam's next box, he's away for two weeks." | Skips the delivery | Yes, after you confirm | | "Pause Priya's subscription." | Pauses the subscription | Yes, after you confirm | | "Forecast next month's subscription revenue." | Projects revenue from active subscriptions | No | | "Show retention by signup month." | Builds a cohort retention view | No | | "Send me a portal login link for order 1042's customer." | Generates a login link to the customer portal | No | | "Draft a win-back email in our brand style using our three best sellers." | Drafts an email with your products | Creates a draft | For a fresh food brand, the delivery requests save the most time. A customer emailing "I'm away next week" becomes a one-line request instead of a hunt through the dashboard. It's the same problem the portal solves for customers in our [fresh dog food subscription guide](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-dog-food-subscription-shopify). ## Is it safe to let AI change subscriptions? It depends on how the connector is built. Four things to check: - It signs in with your own login, not an API key pasted into a config file. Gro uses OAuth, so there are no keys to copy around. - It acts as you, in one store. Gro's assistant can reach exactly what you can reach in the dashboard and can't see any other store. - It asks before changing anything. Gro marks every tool that changes data, so the assistant confirms before cancelling, pausing or applying a discount. - It leaves a trail. Every action is recorded in Gro's activity log under your name, the same as if you had done it yourself. Stick to questions for the first week, then let it make changes once you trust the answers. Removing the connector in your assistant's settings cuts access straight away. ## How do you connect Gro to Claude or ChatGPT? 1. In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors, find Gro in the directory and click Connect. If it isn't listed, choose Add custom connector and enter https://api.usegro.co/mcp. 2. Sign in with your normal Gro login and pick your store if you have more than one. 3. Approve the access Claude asks for. That's it. In ChatGPT, go to Settings, then Connectors, then Create, enter the same server URL and choose OAuth. ChatGPT connectors need a paid plan and may need developer mode switched on by your workspace admin. Cursor and GitHub Copilot connect with the same URL, and in Claude Code it's one command: claude mcp add --transport http gro https://api.usegro.co/mcp. Full steps are in the [Gro docs](https://www.usegro.co/docs/developers/mcp/). ## What about email? Klaviyo has an official connector for Claude and ChatGPT, and it's good at campaign drafting, templates and reporting. Gro's connector covers Gro Email too, so one chat can check why subscribers cancelled and draft the win-back email that answers it. Pixaprints, a UK photo printing brand, builds its email campaigns in Gro this way. ![Gro email editor with a campaign styled to the brand](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/auott93o/production/7692cd01002167b3a435cd2649bb813adf073a27-2336x1362.png?w=1200&auto=format) ## Where Gro fits Full disclosure: Gro is ours. It's a Shopify subscription platform built around the delivery rather than the charge, with email and SMS alongside, and we built the connector so the questions merchants ask most can be answered from the assistant they already use. It was built alongside 5 Hounds, a fresh dog food brand in Australia. > “Since implementing Gro, we’ve seen meaningful improvements across the business. It’s played a significant role in helping us scale more efficiently, and the customer portal has significantly cut our support tickets along the way.” Will, founder of 5 Hounds Subscriptions cost 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, free under 10 active subscriptions. Email is free up to 1,000 sends a month, then $39 a month for up to 150,000 sends. [See how Gro Subscriptions works](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions). ## Frequently asked questions ### Can ChatGPT manage my Shopify subscriptions? Yes, if your subscription app has an MCP connector that allows changes. Gro's connector can skip, reschedule and pause subscriptions from ChatGPT or Claude, asking you to confirm first. Loop's official connector is read-focused analytics. We couldn't find an official Recharge connector, so Recharge merchants use third-party servers. ### Does Recharge have an MCP server? Not an official one that we could find as of September 2026. Third-party platforms offer managed MCP servers for Recharge, and there are open-source servers that run on a Recharge API key. ### Is it safe to connect my subscription app to an AI assistant? It can be, if the connector signs in with your own login, limits the assistant to your permissions, asks before changing anything and logs every action. Gro's connector does all four. Start with questions, then allow changes once you trust the answers. ### What is an MCP connector? An MCP (Model Context Protocol) connector lets an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT use another app's tools. You add the app's server URL to your assistant, sign in, and the assistant can look things up and, where the app allows it, make changes for you. ### How much does Gro cost? Gro Subscriptions costs 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, and is free under 10 active subscriptions. Gro Email is free up to 1,000 sends a month, then $39 a month for up to 150,000 sends. Gro doesn't gate features by plan. --- # Fresh Dog Food Subscriptions on Shopify: What Your Platform Needs to Handle (2026) URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-dog-food-subscription-shopify Published: 2026-09-27 Category: Subscriptions ## Short answer A fresh or raw dog food subscription is a plan for a specific dog, not just a customer. Portions and price depend on the dog's weight, age and activity, the box arrives frozen or chilled, and the kitchen needs a cutoff to cook to order. On Shopify, pick a subscription platform that handles per-dog plans, portion changes, delivery-day control and order cutoffs, not just a repeating charge. Most Shopify subscription apps were built for replenishment: the same product at the same price, charged every 30 days. Coffee, supplements, razors. Fresh dog food breaks all three of those assumptions. The product is sized to a dog, the price moves when the dog does, and the box is frozen or chilled, so the day it lands matters more than the day it's charged. That's the idea behind [delivery-first subscriptions](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions), and the wider problem is covered in our guide to [fresh product subscriptions](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-product-subscriptions). This post gets specific: the maths behind a dog's plan, what it means for box sizes and delivery schedules, and a checklist to hold any subscription platform against. ## Why is every dog's plan different? Vets and pet food brands size a daily portion from the dog's [resting energy requirement](https://petnutritionalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MER.RER_.PNA_.pdf) (RER): 70 × body weight in kg to the power of 0.75. That covers the dog at rest. The daily requirement is RER multiplied by a life-stage factor: 1.6 for a neutered adult, 1.8 for an intact adult, 1.4 for dogs over seven and 2.0 for puppies over four months. **Estimated daily calories (kcal) by dog weight and life stage** | Dog weight | Resting (RER) | Neutered adult | Intact adult | Senior, 7+ | Puppy, 4 months+ | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 5 kg | 234 | 374 | 421 | 328 | 468 | | 10 kg | 394 | 630 | 709 | 551 | 787 | | 20 kg | 662 | 1,059 | 1,192 | 927 | 1,324 | | 30 kg | 897 | 1,436 | 1,615 | 1,256 | 1,795 | | 40 kg | 1,113 | 1,781 | 2,004 | 1,559 | 2,227 | _RER = 70 × body weight in kg to the power of 0.75. Factors: neutered adult 1.6, intact adult 1.8, senior 1.4, puppy 2.0. Estimates only: individual dogs vary, so confirm feeding plans with a vet._ Two things fall out of this table. First, a 40 kg dog eats nearly five times what a 5 kg dog does, not eight times, because energy scales with body weight to the power of 0.75. Price can't be a flat rate per kilo of dog, and it can't be one price per plan. It has to be worked out per dog. Second, the numbers move. A puppy's needs change month to month, a neutered adult needs around 10% less than an intact one, and a dog on a weight-loss plan eats less again. Every change is a new portion and, usually, a new price. ## How much food goes in each box? Fresh recipes are mostly water, so they carry fewer calories per kilo than kibble. Labelled fresh cooked recipes commonly sit between about 1,000 and 1,700 kcal per kg. At 1,200 kcal per kg, this is how much a neutered adult eats. **Fresh food eaten by a neutered adult dog, at 1,200 kcal per kg** | Dog weight | Per day | Per week | Every 2 weeks | Every 4 weeks | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 5 kg | 312 g | 2.2 kg | 4.4 kg | 8.7 kg | | 10 kg | 525 g | 3.7 kg | 7.3 kg | 14.7 kg | | 20 kg | 883 g | 6.2 kg | 12.4 kg | 24.7 kg | | 30 kg | 1,196 g | 8.4 kg | 16.7 kg | 33.5 kg | | 40 kg | 1,485 g | 10.4 kg | 20.8 kg | 41.6 kg | _Example energy density. Use your own recipes' labelled kcal per kg._ This is why delivery cadence has to be set per dog as well. A four-weekly box for a 5 kg dog is under 9 kg of food. For a 30 kg dog it's over 33 kg of frozen food, which is more than a lot of households have room for. Big dogs usually need smaller, more frequent boxes, and a household with a 5 kg dog and a 30 kg dog needs two very different plans on one delivery. ## Why does the delivery day matter so much for frozen food? Frozen and chilled boxes are built to survive a window, not a week. [ProDog Raw](https://www.prodograw.com/operational-updates-delivery-information/) packs its boxes to last up to 60 hours in transit and still warns that summer heat and courier delays can soften the food. It also stopped weekend deliveries altogether after repeated courier problems, moving Saturday orders to Monday. [Different Dog](https://www.differentdog.com/delivery/) sends customers a one-hour courier slot on the day, with a simple rule for boxes left outside: if the pots are still cool to the touch, they're fine to refreeze. Every one of those is a decision about the delivery day. The customer needs to see when the box arrives, move it when they're away, and never have it land on a day nobody can take it in. When a platform is built around the charge date, moving a delivery usually means moving a billing date and hoping fulfilment follows. Get it wrong and a failed delivery costs you the food, a second courier run, a support conversation and, often, the customer. ![Gro customer portal showing the next delivery, box contents and add-on products](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/auott93o/production/592b50fc5a4895ad4b277a5bc4b3e775af818c84-2304x1512.png?w=1200&auto=format) ## What should a fresh dog food subscription platform handle? Hold any platform, including ours, against this list. **Fresh dog food subscription platform checklist** | Requirement | Why it matters | What to ask the vendor | | --- | --- | --- | | Per-dog plans | Each dog has its own weight, age, activity and recipe, so its own portion and price. Multi-dog homes need a plan per dog, not one blended order. | Can one customer have a separate plan for each dog, with its own portion and price? | | Portion and price updates | Puppies grow, adults gain or lose weight and seniors slow down. The plan should change when the dog does. | When a dog's weight or life stage changes, do portion and price update without starting a new subscription? | | Delivery-day control | Frozen boxes survive a limited window. Customers need to see and move the delivery day, not the charge date. | Does the customer portal lead with the next delivery, and can customers move a single delivery? | | Order cutoffs | Cook-to-order kitchens need volumes locked days ahead. Late edits make a mess of production. | Can you set a cutoff before each delivery, after which changes apply to the next box? | | Delivery days by area | Frozen couriers run set days in each area, and many brands avoid weekend delivery. | Can delivery days be limited by region or courier schedule? | | Skip and pause by delivery | "I'm away next Thursday" should be one click on that delivery, not a sum about billing dates. | Are skip and pause tied to deliveries or to billing cycles? | | Migration | Moving hundreds of active dogs, each with a portion and a schedule, is the scariest part of switching. | Is migration done for you, and does it carry each dog's plan across? | ## What does subscription software cost a fresh dog food brand? Fresh dog food orders are big and frequent, so percentage and per-order fees add up fast. Recipe mixing matters too: on Recharge, Build-a-Box sits on the Plus plan, which comes with a 12-month contract. Here is what a fresh dog food brand pays at an $80 average order. **Subscription software cost for a fresh dog food brand, $80 average order** | Subscription revenue | Orders a month | Recharge Starter | Recharge Plus | Gro | Gro saving vs Starter, per year | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $30K/mo | 375 | $617 | $972 | $270 | $4,167 | | $50K/mo | 625 | $963 | $1,288 | $450 | $6,153 | | $100K/mo | 1,250 | $1,826 | $2,076 | $900 | $11,118 | | $150K/mo | 1,875 | $2,690 | $2,865 | $1,350 | $16,083 | _Prices checked September 2026. Recharge Starter: $99 + 1.49% + $0.19 per order. Plus: $499 + 1.34% + $0.19 per order on a 12-month term, required for Build-a-Box. Gro: 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 minimum and no per-order fee._ The full breakdown at six revenue levels is in [Recharge pricing explained](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained), and every app's fees side by side are in our [comparison of the best Shopify subscription apps](https://www.usegro.co/blog/best-shopify-subscription-app). ## How Gro handles fresh dog food subscriptions Full disclosure: Gro is ours. It was built alongside 5 Hounds, a fresh dog food brand in Australia, so most of the checklist above came straight out of their operations. ![Will, founder of 5 Hounds, holding two puppies](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/auott93o/production/432650cdce99605628be94df46f2acf1fe411ef0-2000x1333.jpg?w=1200&auto=format) > “Since implementing Gro, we’ve seen meaningful improvements across the business. It’s played a significant role in helping us scale more efficiently, and the customer portal has significantly cut our support tickets along the way.” Will, founder of 5 Hounds - Each dog is its own plan, with its name, weight, portion and life stage. When the dog's weight or life stage changes, the portion and price change with it. Multi-dog households can have their dogs delivered together or separately. - The customer portal leads with the next delivery. Skip, reschedule and pause act on a specific delivery, not a billing cycle. - A deadline before each delivery for changes, so the kitchen knows exactly what to cook. - 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, free under 10 active subscriptions. Migration from Recharge is free and done for you. If you run a fresh or raw dog food brand on Shopify, [see how Gro works](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions). ## Frequently asked questions ### How do fresh dog food subscriptions work? The customer sets up a plan for their dog based on weight, age, activity and recipe. The brand works out a daily portion, cooks to order, freezes or chills the food and delivers on a set schedule, usually every one to four weeks. Customers can skip or move deliveries, and the plan should update as the dog changes. ### How much fresh food does a dog eat a day? Roughly 300 to 1,500 grams, depending on size. A neutered adult needs about 1.6 times its resting energy of 70 × body weight in kg to the power of 0.75, so a 20 kg dog needs about 1,060 kcal a day, or around 880 g of a fresh recipe at 1,200 kcal per kg. ### Can you sell fresh or raw dog food subscriptions on Shopify? Yes. Shopify handles products, checkout and orders, and a subscription app handles the recurring plan. For fresh dog food, choose an app that supports per-dog plans, delivery-day scheduling and order cutoffs, not just a repeating charge. ### How often should fresh dog food be delivered? Usually every one to four weeks, set by the dog's size and the customer's freezer space. A 5 kg dog eats about 8.7 kg of fresh food in four weeks, while a 30 kg dog eats about 33 kg, so larger dogs often need smaller, more frequent boxes. ### What does Gro cost for a fresh dog food brand? Gro is free under 10 active subscriptions, then 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee. At $50K a month in subscription revenue that is $450. Migration from Recharge is free. ### What is the best subscription app for fresh dog food on Shopify? One built around the dog and the delivery date rather than the billing date: per-dog plans that re-price when a dog's weight changes, a portal that leads with the next delivery, order cutoffs for cook-to-order kitchens, and no per-order fees on frequent boxes. Gro was built with 5 Hounds, a fresh dog food brand in Australia, for exactly this, at 0.9% of subscription revenue. --- # Klaviyo Pricing Explained (2026): Why Your Bill Keeps Going Up and What You Actually Pay at Every List Size URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/klaviyo-pricing-explained Updated: 2026-09-27 Category: Email ## Short answer Klaviyo charges by active profiles, not emails sent. It is free up to 250 profiles, then $20/mo at 500, $45 at 1,500, about $150 at 10,000, $720 at 50,000 and $2,300 at 250,000. Every paid tier has the same features, so you pay more only because your list grew. SMS adds about $15 a tier plus credits. Since February 2025 Klaviyo bills every active profile, which is why many Shopify brands saw bills jump without sending more. ## How Klaviyo pricing works Three plans: - **Free.** Up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month. - **Email.** Priced by active profile tier. Sends are roughly 10× your profile count per month. - **Email + SMS** (now "Email + Mobile"). Same tiers, about $15 more per month at each, includes a small bundle of SMS/MMS credits. Extra credits bought separately. Above 250,000 profiles you move to manual billing and a sales conversation. **Features do not change as you move up.** Flows, segmentation, predictive analytics, integrations, AI tools: the same at $20 and at $2,300. The price is a list-size tax, nothing else. ## How much does Klaviyo cost at each list size? **Klaviyo monthly price by active profile count, Email and Email + SMS plans** | Active profiles | Email plan | Email + SMS (approx.) | Monthly email sends | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 0 to 250 | Free | Free (limited) | 500 | | 251 to 500 | $20 | $35 | 5,000 | | 1,001 to 1,500 | $45 | $60 | 15,000 | | 2,501 to 3,000 | ~$70 | ~$85 | 30,000 | | 5,001 to 5,500 | ~$100 | ~$115 | 55,000 | | 10,001 to 10,500 | ~$150 | ~$165 | 105,000 | | 25,001 to 26,000 | ~$400 | ~$415 | 260,000 | | 45,001 to 50,000 | ~$720 | ~$735 | 500,000 | | 200,001 to 250,000 | ~$2,300 | Custom | 2,500,000 | _Prices checked September 2026. Representative tiers. Klaviyo has many intermediate steps._ Notice the jump between 10,000 and 25,000 profiles. Below it, Klaviyo costs like a normal email tool. Above it, the increments per tier get much steeper. That inflection is where most brands start looking at alternatives. ## The 2025 change that raised everyone's bill Before 18 February 2025 Klaviyo billed on **emailed profiles**: the contacts you actually sent to in a month. Since then it bills on **active profiles**: anyone in your account who is not unsubscribed, suppressed or deleted. That means: - A customer who bought once in 2022, never opened an email, and never unsubscribed **counts against your tier**. - A profile you never email at all still costs money. - Legacy accounts were moved to the new model too, which is why long-running stores saw bills rise without changing anything. The practical effect: list hygiene stopped being good practice and became a billing lever. Suppressing 3,000 dead profiles can drop you a tier or two. ## What you actually pay: three stores **Store A: 4,000 profiles, sends 3 campaigns a month.** ~$85/mo on Email. Roughly $1,000 a year. Reasonable. **Store B: 22,000 profiles, of which 9,000 have not opened anything in 12 months.** ~$375/mo. Suppress the 9,000 dead profiles and the bill drops to ~$200. Same revenue, $2,100 a year saved. **Store C: 60,000 profiles, Email + SMS.** Around $900/mo before extra SMS credits. $10,800 a year, and the SMS credits on top can double that for a brand texting weekly. ## Add-ons to budget for - **Marketing Analytics:** from $100/mo, requires 1,001+ profiles. - **Customer Agent AI:** $200/mo regular price plus per-conversation overages. - **Customer Hub, Helpdesk, Advanced Data Platform:** each priced separately, the data platform at $500/mo. - **SMS credits:** the bundle included with Email + SMS is small. Real texting volume means buying more. None of these are needed to run email. All of them appear on invoices of brands that thought they were paying $150. ## How to lower your Klaviyo bill 1. **Suppress, don't delete.** Suppressed profiles do not count toward your tier and you keep the data. Build a segment: no open or click in 180 days, no order in 365 days. Suppress it. 2. **Stop syncing every Shopify customer.** Only push profiles that consented to marketing. 3. **Clean at tier boundaries.** If you are at 10,200 profiles, 200 suppressions drop you to the 10,000 tier. 4. **Question the add-ons annually.** Most brands do not use Marketing Analytics enough to justify $1,200 a year. 5. **Check SMS credit usage.** Unused credits do not roll over on all plans. ## Is Klaviyo worth it? If your team lives in predictive segments, custom data and a deep integration stack, Klaviyo's price buys things you actually use. Its Shopify integration, flow builder and data model are mature and well built. If your programme is campaigns plus a handful of flows (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back), which covers most Shopify brands under $1-2M a year, you are paying for list size, not capability. The bill grows with a list you may not be monetising, and that is where the price stops making sense. ## What would the same list cost on Gro Email? Full disclosure: Gro Email is ours. It is priced on emails sent, not profiles stored: free up to 1,000 sends a month, then $39 a month for up to 150,000 sends, with no charge per profile and every feature on every plan. Here is the same store sending three campaigns a month to its whole list. **Klaviyo vs Gro Email monthly cost, three campaigns a month to the full list** | Active profiles | Emails sent a month | Klaviyo Email plan | Gro Email | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 500 | 1,500 | $20 | $39 | | 1,500 | 4,500 | $45 | $39 | | 5,500 | 16,500 | ~$100 | $39 | | 10,500 | 31,500 | ~$150 | $39 | | 26,000 | 78,000 | ~$400 | $39 | | 50,000 | 150,000 | ~$720 | $39 | _Prices checked September 2026. Campaign sends only. Flow emails also count toward Gro's monthly sends. Klaviyo prices from the tier table above._ Below about 1,000 profiles, Klaviyo's entry tiers can be cheaper. From a few thousand profiles up, the gap is the difference between paying for the size of your list and paying for what you actually send. ## Alternatives, briefly - **Omnisend.** Similar Shopify depth, generally 30 to 50% cheaper at scale, SMS included in pricing. The most common Klaviyo replacement. - **Sendlane.** Email + SMS for DTC, pricing more generous on sends. - **Shopify Email.** Free for 10,000 sends a month, then per-email pricing. Very basic, no real automation. - **Gro Email.** Full disclosure, this is ours. Priced on emails sent, not profiles: free up to 1,000 sends a month, then $39 a month for up to 150,000 sends, with flows, segmentation and a drag-and-drop editor on every plan. Full details on our [pricing page](https://www.usegro.co/pricing). It runs alongside a subscription app you already have (including Recharge and Skio) or with Gro Subscriptions. If you pay $400 a month to send four campaigns, [have a look](https://www.usegro.co/email). ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does Klaviyo cost per month? Free to 250 profiles, then $20 at 500, $45 at 1,500, about $150 at 10,000, $720 at 50,000 and $2,300 at 250,000 on the Email plan. Email + SMS adds about $15 per tier plus credits. ### Does Klaviyo charge for unsubscribed contacts? No. Unsubscribed and suppressed profiles do not count. Never-engaged profiles that have not unsubscribed do count. ### Why did my Klaviyo bill go up without sending more? Since February 2025 Klaviyo bills on all active profiles, not emailed profiles. Your tier is set by list size, not activity. ### Does Klaviyo have a free plan? Yes: 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. ### How much does Klaviyo SMS cost? Email + SMS plans cost roughly $15 more than Email at each tier and include a small credit bundle. Additional SMS/MMS credits are bought separately, so real texting volume can double the bill. ### Is Klaviyo cheaper than Mailchimp? Usually not on a like-for-like contact count. At 10,000 contacts Klaviyo's Email plan is about $150 a month, against roughly $100 to $135 for Mailchimp Standard. Klaviyo's ecommerce features are the justification. ### Is there a cheaper alternative to Klaviyo for Shopify? Gro Email, which is ours, prices on emails sent rather than profiles: free up to 1,000 sends a month and $39 a month for up to 150,000 sends, with no charge per profile. A store with 10,000 profiles sending three campaigns a month pays $39 on Gro against about $150 on Klaviyo's Email plan. Below about 1,000 profiles, Klaviyo's entry tiers can be cheaper. --- # Recharge Pricing Explained (2026): What You Actually Pay at $5K, $10K, $30K and $100K a Month URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained Updated: 2026-09-27 Category: Subscriptions ## Short answer Recharge has three plans: $25/mo for your first 50 lifetime subscribers (new merchants only), Starter at $99/mo + 1.49% + $0.19 per order, and Plus at $499/mo + 1.34% + $0.19 per order on a 12-month term. The sticker price is the smallest number you pay. At a $50 average order, a store doing $10K a month in subscription revenue pays about $286, and one doing $100K pays about $1,970. Plus only saves money above roughly $267K a month. ## The three plans **Recharge plans and fees, 2026** | Plan | Monthly fee | Percentage fee | Per-order fee | Contract | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $25 plan | $25 | 0% | $0 | Monthly | First 50 lifetime subscribers, new merchants since Feb 2026, auto-upgrades to Starter | | Starter | $99 | 1.49% | $0.19 | Monthly | Was 1.25% before 2026 | | Plus | $499 | 1.34% | $0.19 | 12 months | Build-a-Box, advanced analytics, API access | _Prices checked September 2026._ Two things to notice straight away. **The percentage went up.** Starter moved from 1.25% to 1.49% in 2026. Most comparison articles, including several "updated for 2026", still quote 1.25%. Check the date on anything you read. **The per-order fee is the same on both paid plans.** $0.19 on every renewal, whether you are on Starter or Plus. Low average order values feel this the most. At a $20 AOV that fee alone is nearly 1% of revenue before the percentage kicks in. ## What does Recharge cost at your revenue? All examples assume a $50 average subscription order. **Recharge monthly cost by subscription revenue, $50 average order** | Subscription revenue | Orders a month | Starter | Plus | Starter as % of revenue | Starter per year | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $5K/mo ($60K/yr) | 100 | $192.50 | $585 | 3.9% | $2,310 | | $10K/mo ($120K/yr) | 200 | $286 | $671 | 2.9% | $3,432 | | $30K/mo ($360K/yr) | 600 | $660 | $1,015 | 2.2% | $7,920 | | $50K/mo ($600K/yr) | 1,000 | $1,034 | $1,359 | 2.1% | $12,408 | | $100K/mo ($1.2M/yr) | 2,000 | $1,969 | $2,219 | 2.0% | $23,628 | | $150K/mo ($1.8M/yr) | 3,000 | $2,904 | $3,079 | 1.9% | $34,848 | _Prices checked September 2026. Starter: $99 + 1.49% + $0.19 per order. Plus: $499 + 1.34% + $0.19 per order on a 12-month term._ ### When does Plus become cheaper than Starter? Plus costs $400 more a month and saves 0.15 percentage points. Those cross at $400 ÷ 0.0015 = **about $267,000 a month** in subscription revenue. Below that, Plus is always the more expensive plan. Merchants move to Plus for Build-a-Box, deeper analytics or API access, not to save money. Budget for that honestly. ## What's locked behind Plus The features that most often push a merchant from Starter to Plus: - **Build-a-Box.** Customers curate their own recurring box. Widely used in snacks, pet, beauty and coffee. Not on Starter. - **Advanced analytics and benchmarks.** - **API access** for custom portal or headless builds. - **Enhanced dunning** options. If your business model needs Build-a-Box, your real entry price to Recharge is $499 a month plus fees on a 12-month term, not $99. ## The costs that are not on the pricing page - **The percentage compounds.** Every renewal, forever. A subscriber who stays three years pays Recharge 1.49% thirty-six times. Flat-fee apps take nothing on renewals. - **Annual commitment on Plus.** Twelve months. If you outgrow it or change direction, you are still paying. - **Add-ons.** Some integrations and features are priced separately. Ask sales for the full list before signing. - **Migration out.** Recharge's migration team is excellent at moving you in. Moving out is your problem, though most competitors (Loop, Appstle, Seal, Gro) will do it free. ## How does Recharge compare with other subscription apps on cost? **Subscription app monthly cost by subscription revenue, $50 average order** | Platform | Pricing model | $10K a month | $50K a month | $100K a month | $150K a month | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Seal | Flat, by subscription count, 0% fees | $9.95 | $89.95 | $89.95 | $199 | | Appstle | Flat, by revenue tier, 0% fees | $30 | $100 | $100 | Custom | | Loop | $99 + 1%, or $399 + 0.75% | $199 | $599 | $1,099 | $1,524 | | Recharge Starter | $99 + 1.49% + $0.19/order | $286 | $1,034 | $1,969 | $2,904 | | Gro | 0.9%, $250/mo minimum, no per-order fee | $250 | $450 | $900 | $1,350 | _Prices checked September 2026. Seal is priced by subscription count, Appstle by revenue tier (custom above $100K a month), Loop on whichever of its two plans is cheaper at that volume. One order per subscriber per month._ Recharge is the most expensive option at every revenue level we modelled. That is not automatically a reason to leave. Its analytics, integrations and migration team are the best in the category, and for a large brand the retention tooling can pay for itself. But if you are doing under $1-2M a year in subscription revenue and not using Plus-only features, you are paying enterprise rates for a mid-market need. For every app's ratings, features and fees side by side, see our [comparison of the best Shopify subscription apps](https://www.usegro.co/blog/best-shopify-subscription-app). ## Who should stay on Recharge - Large brands with complex integration stacks (Gorgias, Attentive, loyalty tools) already wired in. - Merchants who rely on Recharge's analytics and benchmark data for decisions. - Anyone for whom a migration project is riskier than the fee gap. Moving live billing agreements is real work. ## Who should look elsewhere - Stores doing under $1-2M a year in subscription revenue that don't use Plus-only features. At $100K a month, Recharge Starter costs about $1,970 a month, and $380 of that is the $0.19 per-order fee. - Anyone who needs Build-a-Box but not the rest of Plus. On Recharge that one feature means $499 a month on a 12-month term. Gro includes Build-a-Box on every plan. - Brands shipping fresh, frozen or refrigerated products. Recharge is billing-first. If your customers need to move a specific delivery rather than pause a charge, look at a [delivery-first platform](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions). - Skio merchants wondering what the acquisition means for pricing. See [Recharge acquired Skio: what merchants should do](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-acquired-skio). ## One more to consider Full disclosure: we build Gro, a Shopify subscription platform for brands where the delivery matters as much as the charge. Pricing is 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, free under 10 subscriptions. At $100K a month that is $900, against about $1,970 on Recharge Starter. Build-a-Box is included on every plan. Free migration from Recharge: we move subscribers, plans and billing schedules while you keep selling. If you ship perishables, or you're paying enterprise rates for a mid-market store, [talk to us](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions). ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does Recharge cost per month? $25 for your first 50 lifetime subscribers (new merchants), then $99 + 1.49% + $0.19 per order on Starter, or $499 + 1.34% + $0.19 per order on Plus with a 12-month term. ### Does Recharge charge transaction fees? Yes, on both paid plans: 1.49% + $0.19 per order on Starter, 1.34% + $0.19 on Plus. Only the $25 entry plan has no percentage fee. ### Is Recharge worth $99 a month? On Recharge Starter, a store doing $10K a month in subscription revenue pays about $286, not $99, and a store doing $100K a month pays about $1,970. Whether that is worth it depends on how much you use Recharge's analytics, integrations and retention tools. Under $1-2M a year in subscription revenue, most merchants who don't need Plus-only features would pay less elsewhere. ### Does Recharge have a free plan? No. The cheapest option is $25 a month and it is limited to your first 50 lifetime subscribers. ### Did Recharge raise its prices in 2026? Yes. The Starter per-transaction rate moved from 1.25% to 1.49%. ### Is Build-a-Box included on Recharge Starter? No. Build-a-Box requires the Plus plan at $499 a month on a 12-month term. ### How much does Recharge cost at $100K a month? About $1,969 a month on Recharge Starter at a $50 average order: $99, plus $1,490 in percentage fees, plus $380 in per-order fees. Plus costs about $2,219. That is roughly $23,600 a year on Starter. ### Is Gro cheaper than Recharge? Above about $8K a month in subscription revenue, yes. Gro charges 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, so at $100K a month Gro costs $900 against about $1,970 on Recharge Starter. Below about $8K a month, Recharge Starter can cost less because of Gro's $250 minimum. --- # Recharge Acquired Skio: What It Means for Your Subscription Stack (and What to Do Now) URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-acquired-skio Updated: 2026-09-27 Category: Subscriptions ## Short answer On 30 April 2026 Recharge bought Skio for $105M in cash. The combined company powers 20,000+ merchants and processes over $20B a year. Nothing changes for existing Skio merchants today. But two products with overlapping features and different pricing never stay separate for long. If you are on Skio, you have time, not forever. If you are choosing between them now, understand you are choosing Recharge's roadmap either way. ## What's confirmed - **The deal:** $105M cash, announced 30 April 2026. Skio had raised only about $8M, so this was a strong outcome for the founders. - **The message to merchants:** Recharge says Skio continues to operate and current Skio merchants keep running as normal. - **Scale:** the combined business claims 20,000+ merchants and $20B+ in annual order volume. - **Skio's rating** sits at 5.0 from around 240 merchants. Its standout features were passwordless SMS login and a clean, fast portal. ## What's happened since Nothing further has been publicly announced as of September 2026. We will update this section as things change. ## What usually happens after a deal like this We cannot tell you Recharge's plan. We can tell you the pattern that plays out in almost every SaaS acquisition where the buyer already has a competing product: 1. **"Nothing changes" (months 0 to 6).** True at the time. Both teams keep shipping, both brands stay live. 2. **Roadmap consolidation (months 6 to 18).** Engineering effort shifts to one codebase. The smaller product gets fewer new features and its best ideas get ported to the bigger one. 3. **Pricing alignment.** Two price lists for the same buyer is confusing and leaves money on the table. Expect Skio's pricing to drift toward Recharge's, not the other way. 4. **Migration nudges.** Eventually merchants on the smaller product are offered a "seamless" move to the main platform, then encouraged, then given a date. Recharge has said none of this, and it may handle it differently. But if you are a Skio merchant, plan as though steps 2 to 4 are likely over the next two years. ## If you are on Skio: stay, wait, or move? **Stay** if you are on Shopify Plus, use Skio's specific features heavily, your integration stack is wired in, and Recharge's platform would meet your needs anyway if a migration came. You are already inside the acquirer's ecosystem. The eventual move, if it comes, will be white-glove. **Wait** if you are happy with Skio today but uncertain about Recharge pricing. Set a calendar reminder for three months out. Watch for: pricing page changes, feature announcements landing on Recharge but not Skio, and any "migration" language in emails. Do a trial import of your data into one alternative now so you know how long a real move would take. **Move** if any of these are true: - You chose Skio specifically to avoid Recharge's fee structure. Recharge Starter is $99 + 1.49% + $0.19 per order. See our [Recharge pricing breakdown](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained). - You need a specific capability Recharge is weak on ([delivery scheduling for perishables](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-product-subscriptions), for example). - You dislike renegotiating your billing platform under time pressure. Moving now, on your schedule, is easier than moving later on theirs. ## If you are choosing a platform right now Do not evaluate Skio as an independent option. Evaluate Recharge, and ask whether you want to be on the Skio product line inside it. For most new merchants the honest answer is to compare Recharge against the platforms that are still independent. We keep an updated list in [Skio alternatives now that Recharge owns it](https://www.usegro.co/blog/skio-alternatives) and a broader comparison in [best Shopify subscription apps 2026](https://www.usegro.co/blog/best-shopify-subscription-app). Quick read on where the independents sit: **Where the independent subscription platforms sit after the Recharge-Skio deal** | Platform | Position after the deal | Pricing | | --- | --- | --- | | Loop | Largest independent Shopify subscription platform | From $99/mo + 1% | | Appstle | Highest-rated, flat fees, 0% transaction | From $10/mo | | Seal | Cheapest predictable bill | From $5.95/mo | | Stay AI | Enterprise retention | From $499/mo | | Gro | Delivery-first, for fresh, frozen and perishable products | 0.9% of revenue, $250/mo minimum, no per-order fee | _Prices checked September 2026._ ## How to move a subscription base safely If you decide to leave, the process is the same for every modern app: 1. Export contracts from Skio (or let the new team pull them via API). 2. Map selling plans in the new app first. 3. Import a test batch of 20 to 50 subscribers. Check renewals, discounts, delivery dates. 4. Import the rest. 5. Run both platforms for one billing cycle so no renewal slips. 6. Uninstall Skio only after every active subscription has renewed once on the new platform. Payment methods are vaulted with Shopify, so customers almost never need to re-enter cards. Loop, Appstle, Seal and Gro all do assisted migrations for free. ## One more to consider Full disclosure: we build Gro, a Shopify subscription platform built around the delivery rather than the charge. If your product spoils, or your customers need to move a specific box rather than pause a billing date, that is the problem we solve. Pricing is 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, free under 10 active subscriptions. Migration from Skio and Recharge is free. [See how Gro works](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions). ## Frequently asked questions ### Did Recharge buy Skio? Yes. Recharge acquired Skio on 30 April 2026 for $105M in cash. ### Will Skio shut down? Recharge says Skio continues to operate and nothing changes for current merchants. No sunset date has been announced. Plan for eventual consolidation anyway. ### Will Skio pricing change? Nothing announced. In most acquisitions of this type, the smaller product's pricing moves toward the acquirer's over one to two years. ### Should I still choose Skio for a new store? Only if you would be happy on Recharge's roadmap, because that is what you are buying. If you picked Skio to avoid Recharge, look at the independents. ### What are the alternatives to Skio and Recharge? Loop, Appstle, Seal and Stay AI cover most needs. Gro is built for fresh, frozen and delivery-sensitive brands. Full comparison in our Skio alternatives guide. --- # Skio Alternatives in 2026 (Now That Recharge Owns It) URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/skio-alternatives Updated: 2026-09-27 Category: Subscriptions ## Short answer Recharge acquired Skio for $105 million in cash on April 30, 2026. Nothing breaks for Skio merchants today, but the two biggest names on most Shopify subscription shortlists are now one company. If you were on Skio partly because it wasn’t Recharge, that reason is gone. This guide covers what actually changed, whether you should move at all, and the independent alternatives worth a look: Loop, Stay AI, Smartrr, Appstle, Seal, and a newer option called Gro. ## What happened On April 30, 2026, Recharge bought Skio for $105 million. Skio was doing roughly $32M ARR at the time, with one of the best-reviewed apps on the Shopify App Store and a reputation built on clean UX and passwordless login. Recharge’s public line is that nothing changes for merchants on either platform right now. That’s probably true for the next few months. The open question is what “Skio” means in two or three years: separate product, merged product, or a brand that quietly disappears into Recharge’s lineup. Nobody outside those companies knows, and Recharge hasn’t committed publicly either way. We cover the deal itself, and a stay, wait or move framework, in [Recharge acquired Skio: what merchants should do](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-acquired-skio). ## Should you actually leave? Honest answer: probably not this week, and maybe not at all. Migrations carry real risk. Subscribers get re-authorised, billing dates can wobble, and your support inbox feels it. If Skio is working, your churn is fine, and the fees make sense at your volume, “my app got acquired” is not by itself a reason to move. But there are three situations where evaluating now makes sense: 1. **You chose Skio to avoid Recharge.** Pricing, support philosophy, product direction, whatever the reason was. You’re now a Recharge customer with extra steps. 2. **You’re mid-contract renewal or about to scale.** Post-acquisition is when pricing and priorities tend to shift. Locking into a multi-year commitment before the dust settles is a bet. 3. **You were already unhappy.** The acquisition is a free excuse to run the evaluation you’d been putting off. Subscriptions compound. A subscriber you acquire this year might still be billing in 2030, so the platform decision is a long one. That’s the real argument for at least knowing your options. ## The independent alternatives, compared **Independent Shopify subscription platforms after the Recharge-Skio deal** | Platform | Pricing | Best for | | --- | --- | --- | | Loop | Free to 50 subscriptions, then $99/mo + 1% or $399/mo + 0.75%, no per-order fee | Retention tooling for DTC brands | | Stay AI | From $499/mo, custom transaction fees | Retention experimentation at scale | | Smartrr | From $99/mo + 1% of subscriber revenue | Loyalty and member experiences | | Appstle | Free up to $500/mo in subscription revenue, then $10 to $100/mo by revenue tier up to $100K/mo, 0% transaction fees | Feature depth on a budget | | Seal | Free up to 50 subscriptions, then $5.95 to $399/mo by subscription count, 0% transaction fees | Small, simple programs | | Gro | Free under 10 active subscriptions, then 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250/mo minimum, no per-order fee | Delivery-led brands and households subscribing for more than one pet, kid or car | _Prices checked September 2026. From each platform's published pricing and the Shopify App Store. Pricing changes, so verify before deciding._ For each platform's cost modelled at real revenue levels, see [Recharge pricing explained](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained) and our [comparison of the best Shopify subscription apps](https://www.usegro.co/blog/best-shopify-subscription-app). ### Loop Subscriptions The name that comes up first in every “independent alternative” conversation, and for good reason. Shopify-native, a lower blended take rate than Recharge at most volumes, and a well-worn migration path: they’ve run over 1,100 migrations, including 400+ brands moving off Recharge. 5.0 stars across nearly 700 Shopify App Store reviews. **The catch:** Loop is the safe consensus pick, which means you’re choosing it for the same reasons everyone else does. If your subscription model is unusual (multiple delivery schedules, complex household setups), you’ll still be bending your business around the same account-based model every mainstream app uses. ### Stay AI Built around retention experimentation: A/B-testable cancel flows, churn prediction, and offer testing. Popular with larger DTC brands that treat retention as a growth channel with its own budget. **The catch:** it’s priced and built for brands with the volume to feed the experiments. If you’re under a few thousand subscribers, you’re paying for machinery you can’t use yet. ### Smartrr Strong on the member experience layer: loyalty, rewards, and a polished customer portal. A good fit if your subscription is closer to a membership than a replenishment program. **The catch:** you’re paying for the experience layer. If your subscribers just want their coffee to show up on time, most of what makes Smartrr distinctive goes unused. ### Appstle The most-reviewed subscription app on the App Store, with a free plan covering stores up to $500/month in subscription revenue and 0% transaction fees on every plan. On raw feature-per-dollar, nothing touches it. **The catch:** the interface shows its feature count. Setup takes longer, and the experience is functional rather than polished. Skio merchants in particular tend to feel the UX drop. ### Seal Subscriptions Cheap, simple, reliable. Free up to 50 subscriptions, then from $5.95 a month, rising with subscription count to $89.95 at 2,000 and $199 at 50,000, with 0% transaction fees. If your program is small and your needs are basic, Seal does the job without drama. **The catch:** basic is the point. Product upsells only arrive on the $199 plan, cancellation flows on the $9.95 plan, and the admin feels dated next to newer apps. ## One more worth knowing: Gro Full disclosure: this is our product, so weigh this section accordingly. We’re including it because it solves a problem none of the apps above do. Every app on this list, Skio and Recharge included, treats the card charge as the main event. The box shows up whenever it shows up afterwards. For coffee or vitamins, nobody minds. For a meal kit, a bunch of flowers, or anything fresh, the thing your customer actually cares about is which day the box lands on their doorstep, not which day their card was charged. Gro is built the other way round. Your customer picks the day their box arrives, and the billing quietly lines up behind it. “I’m away Thursday, push it a week” is one tap on the delivery, not a puzzle about which invoice to cancel. Skips, swaps and reschedules all hang off the delivery date, because that’s the thing on their mind. It also handles the way real households actually subscribe: one subscription per pet, per kid, per car, instead of everything jammed into a single account. If a customer feeds two dogs, each dog gets its own plan, its own portion size, its own delivery. If you sell to anyone buying for more than one recipient, you already know exactly which support tickets that kills. The full case for building around the delivery is in our guide to [delivery-first subscriptions](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions). We’re the newest name on this list, and we’ll say so plainly. What you get instead of a decade of legacy code is a platform built on Shopify’s current subscription APIs, and direct access to the people who build it. Pricing is 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, free under 10 active subscriptions, with free migration from Skio or Recharge. If your brand lives or dies on the day the box arrives, [see how Gro works](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions). ## Frequently asked questions ### Did Recharge really buy Skio? Yes. April 30, 2026, $105 million in cash. Skio keeps its branding for now but is no longer independent. ### Will Skio shut down? There’s no announcement of that, and Recharge says nothing changes for current merchants. Long term, nobody has committed publicly to what the combined product lineup looks like. ### Is migrating subscription apps risky? It carries real work: subscriber data, payment authorisations, billing continuity. Most serious platforms (Loop, Skio historically, Gro) run managed migrations for exactly this reason. Ask any platform you evaluate to walk you through their migration process before you commit. ### What’s the cheapest Skio alternative? Seal, then Appstle. Both charge 0% transaction fees: Seal from $5.95 a month priced by subscription count, Appstle from $10 a month priced by revenue tier. ### What’s the best Skio alternative overall? It depends on what you ship. Loop is the largest independent platform and is strong on retention tooling. For delivery-led brands (food, meal kits, florals) or households subscribing for multiple pets or kids, Gro is built for exactly that, at 0.9% of subscription revenue with no per-order fee. --- # Best Shopify Subscription Apps in 2026: Honest Comparison With Real Fee Maths URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/best-shopify-subscription-app Updated: 2026-09-27 Category: Subscriptions ## Short answer On price alone, Appstle and Seal are the cheapest because neither takes a cut of your orders. Loop is the strongest independent platform for retention. Recharge is the enterprise default and the most expensive to grow on: at $1-2M a year in subscription revenue, Starter costs roughly $20,000 to $39,000 a year. Gro is built for fresh, frozen and delivery-sensitive brands, at 0.9% with no per-order fee. Full disclosure: Gro is ours. ## Best by use case - **Best features per dollar:** Appstle - **Cheapest predictable bill:** Seal - **Best for stopping cancellations:** Loop - **Best for enterprise brands:** Recharge - **Best for fresh, frozen and delivery-sensitive products:** Gro - **Best free start (check the fee):** Recurpay Lite - **Free and basic:** Shopify Subscriptions ## Quick comparison **Shopify subscription apps compared: ratings, free plans and fees** | App | Rating | Reviews | Free plan | Paid from | Transaction fee | Best for | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Appstle | 5.0 | 8,300+ | Yes (under $500/mo) | $10/mo | 0% | Features per dollar | | Seal | 4.9 | 3,000+ | Yes (50 subs) | $5.95/mo | 0% | Flat, predictable cost | | Loop | 5.0 | 690+ | Yes (50 subs) | $99/mo | 1% (0.75% on Pro) | DTC retention | | Recharge | 4.8 | 2,100+ | No ($25 entry) | $99/mo | 1.49% + $0.19/order | Enterprise | | Recurpay | 4.9 | 470+ | Free install | $19/mo | 1% to 3.5% | Zero-cost start | | Stay AI | 4.9 | 150+ | No | $499/mo | Custom | Large DTC | | Gro | New | Small | Yes (under 10 subs) | $250/mo min | 0.9%, no per-order fee | Delivery-sensitive brands | | Shopify Subscriptions | ~3.5 | 600+ | Fully free | None | 0% | Bare basics | _Prices checked September 2026. Ratings and review counts from the Shopify App Store._ ## What changed in 2026 [**Recharge bought Skio.**](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-acquired-skio) On 30 April 2026 Recharge acquired Skio for $105M in cash. They are one company now with one roadmap. Any "Recharge vs Skio" comparison you find is out of date. **Yotpo Subscriptions left the App Store.** Its listing says the app is not currently available. Plenty of roundups still recommend it. **Recharge's Starter fee went up.** The per-transaction rate moved from 1.25% to 1.49%. Most articles still quote the old number, including some updated this year. **Loop became the biggest independent.** With Skio absorbed, Loop is now the largest Shopify subscription platform not owned by Recharge. Subscription apps are sticky. You are choosing the system that bills your customers every month for years, and switching later means moving live billing contracts. Stale data is how merchants end up doing a painful migration eighteen months in. ## How we ranked these apps We build Gro, a subscription platform for Shopify. That means we spend our days in migration data from Recharge, Skio and Appstle, and in support tickets from merchants who picked the wrong tool the first time. We have tried to represent every app here fairly, including the ones we compete with. Where a competitor is the better choice for your store, we say so. We scored on five things: 1. **True cost at scale.** Monthly fee plus transaction fees, modelled at real revenue (maths below). 2. **Retention tooling.** Dunning, cancellation flows, and how well the portal actually keeps people. 3. **Delivery handling.** Can a customer skip, reschedule or change a specific delivery, not just a billing date? Most roundups ignore this. It is the difference between a working subscription and a support ticket for anyone shipping perishables. 4. **Setup speed.** Can a non-technical merchant go live in an afternoon? 5. **Risk.** Lock-in, migration difficulty, pricing surprises, and who owns the roadmap. ## 1. Appstle: best features per dollar **5.0 | 8,300+ reviews | Free plan | 0% transaction fees** Appstle is the highest-rated subscription app on Shopify, at 5.0 across 8,300+ reviews. Plans scale with subscription revenue and none take a cut of orders: free under $500/mo, $10 up to $5K, $30 up to $15K and $100 up to $100K, with custom pricing above that. Build-a-Box starts on the $30 plan. Feature depth is the best in its price class: subscribe and save, prepaid, build-a-box, bundles, gifting, loyalty perks, cancellation save offers, 24/7 support that reviewers mention constantly. **Weak spots:** the admin is dense because there are so many settings, analytics are lighter than Recharge's, and the portal is functional rather than pretty. Delivery scheduling is billing-cycle-based, which is fine for shelf-stable and awkward for perishables. **Bottom line:** the most subscription for the least money on Shopify. ## 2. Seal: cheapest predictable bill **4.9 | 3,000+ reviews | Free plan | 0% transaction fees** Seal is the simplest serious option. Install, create one rule, sell subscriptions the same day. Pricing is flat and scales by subscriber count, not revenue, so a store doing $50K a month pays the same as one doing $5K on the same tier. **Weak spots:** cancellation flows start on the $9.95 plan and renewal reminders on the $5.95 plan, the interface looks dated, and retention tooling is thin. **Bottom line:** the fastest path from install to first subscriber and the most boring bill in the category. Boring is good here. ## 3. Loop: best for retention **5.0 | 690+ reviews | Free to 50 subs | $99/mo + 1%** Loop's whole product is about keeping subscribers: cancellation journeys with exit surveys and save offers, dunning with up to 15 retries, gamified flows, a fast branded portal, LTV analytics. Paid plans are $99 + 1% and $399 + 0.75%, month to month, no per-order fee. **Weak spots:** $99 is steep for small stores and the percentage still compounds, just slower than Recharge's. **Bottom line:** the best app on Shopify at stopping cancellations, and the biggest platform not owned by Recharge. ## 4. Recharge: enterprise default **4.8 | 2,100+ reviews | $25 entry, $99 Starter, $499 Plus** Recharge bills subscriptions for Dr. Squatch, OLIPOP and thousands of others, and post-Skio the combined company processes over $20B a year. Analytics, integrations and the migration team are the strongest in the category. Current pricing: $25/mo for your first 50 lifetime subscribers (new merchants only, auto-upgrades), Starter at $99 + 1.49% + $0.19 per order, Plus at $499 + 1.34% + $0.19 on a 12-month term. Build-a-Box sits behind Plus. **Weak spots:** cost, and the direction of cost. The percentage grows with every renewal forever, the rate already rose once this year, and smaller merchants regularly cite price as their reason for leaving. Full breakdown in our [Recharge pricing explained](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained) piece. **Bottom line:** the most powerful platform here and the most expensive one to grow on. ## 5. Recurpay: free to start, watch the fee **4.9 | 470+ reviews | Free install | 1% to 3.5%** Lite is free to install with no monthly fee, but takes 3.5% of every order. Grow is $19 + 2%, Scale is $349 + 1%. The app is solid and support is genuinely fast. **Weak spots:** at $3K a month "free" Recurpay costs $105, more than triple Appstle's Business plan. **Bottom line:** a good on-ramp, not a place to scale. ## 6. Stay AI: enterprise retention **$499/mo | Enterprise-focused** Retention-first platform for large DTC brands, with AI-driven churn prediction and heavy customisation. Worth shortlisting against Recharge Plus and Loop Pro if you are doing serious volume. **Bottom line:** not for small stores, strong for big ones. ## 7. Gro: built around the delivery, not the charge **New in 2026 | Free under 10 subscriptions | 0.9% of revenue, $250/mo minimum, no per-order fee** This is our app, so grain of salt. Gro exists because every platform above treats the billing cycle as the source of truth and the delivery as a side effect. For shelf-stable products that is fine. For fresh dog food, meal kits, flowers, coffee roasted to order, or anything refrigerated, the delivery _is_ the product. If a customer is away next week, they need to move _that box_, not "pause my subscription" and hope the next charge lands somewhere useful. Gro's portal leads with the next delivery. Skip, reschedule and swap anchor to the delivery date. Subscriptions attach to the thing they are for (a pet, a household member, a gift recipient), not just a billing address, which matters when one customer has three dogs on three different foods. Build-a-box, bundles, subscribe and save, cancel flows and loyalty are included. Free migration from Recharge and Skio. **Weak spots:** we are new. Review count is small, the integration list is shorter than Recharge's, and on price alone Appstle and Seal are cheaper at every revenue level we modelled because they take no percentage. What Gro's fee buys is delivery-first scheduling and entity-aware subscriptions, so it earns its keep when a mistimed delivery costs you the customer. **Bottom line:** if a missed or mistimed delivery costs you the customer, this is the one built for that problem. The thinking behind Gro is in [delivery-first subscriptions](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions) and [what fresh and frozen brands need from a subscription platform](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-product-subscriptions). ## 8. Shopify Subscriptions: free and basic **~3.5 | 600+ reviews | Completely free** Shopify's own app handles basic recurring billing inside the admin. The rating tells the story: limited flexibility, weak failed-payment recovery, no subscriber export, no one-time add-ons. **Bottom line:** fine for one product on one schedule. Everyone else should use a dedicated app, and most have free plans anyway. ## How much does each subscription app cost at your revenue? Monthly price tags lie. Transaction fees are the real bill. **Estimated monthly cost by subscription revenue, $50 average order** | Monthly revenue | Appstle | Seal | Loop | Recurpay | Recharge | Gro | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $2,000 (40 orders) | $10 | $0 | $0 to $119 | $70 (Lite) | $25 to $136 | $250 | | $10,000 (200 orders) | $30 | $9.95 | $199 | $219 (Grow) | $286 | $250 | | $30,000 (600 orders) | $100 | $89.95 | $399 | $619 (Grow) | $660 | $270 | | $50,000 (1,000 orders) | $100 | $89.95 | $599 | $849 (Scale) | $1,034 | $450 | | $100,000 (2,000 orders) | $100 | $89.95 | $1,099 | $1,349 (Scale) | $1,969 | $900 | | $150,000 (3,000 orders) | Custom | $199 | $1,524 (Pro) | $1,849 (Scale) | $2,904 | $1,350 | _Prices checked September 2026. One order per subscriber per month. Seal is priced by subscription count, Appstle by revenue tier (custom above $100K a month). Loop and Recurpay on whichever plan is cheaper at that volume. Recharge on Starter ($25 plan for the first 50 lifetime subscribers). Always confirm live pricing before installing._ **Rule of thumb:** on price alone, flat-fee apps win at almost every revenue level because they never take a cut of your orders. A percentage fee has to justify itself: Recharge and Loop bundle retention tooling that can pay for itself by saving subscribers, and Gro is built for products where a mistimed delivery loses the customer. The highest number is not automatically wrong. ## What to look for - **Fee structure.** Flat monthly stays flat. Percentage fees compound with every renewal. - **Portal.** Subscribers must be able to skip, pause, swap and reschedule without emailing you. Test it as a buyer before you commit. - **Delivery control.** If your product spoils, check whether "skip" moves a delivery or just a charge. They are not the same thing. - **Dunning.** Failed payments are the silent killer. Look for automatic retries and one-tap card updates. - **Cancellation flow.** A save offer at the cancel button recovers subscribers a plain link loses. - **Native checkout.** The app should use Shopify checkout, not redirect. - **Migration.** You may switch one day. Free white-glove migration is worth real money. ## How to choose by stage - **Just starting, zero budget:** Seal free plan or Recurpay Lite. Redo the maths once revenue is real. - **Growing, shelf-stable, watching costs:** Appstle. Best features per dollar, bill never scales with sales. - **Fresh, frozen, or delivery-critical:** Gro. Skip and reschedule work on the delivery, not the charge. - **Scaling DTC brand fighting churn:** Loop. - **Large brand with complex needs:** Recharge or Stay AI. ## Switching without losing subscribers If your app got too expensive, got acquired or got delisted, the move follows the same shape everywhere: 1. Export subscription contracts from the old app, or let the new team pull them. 2. Map selling plans in the new app before importing anything. 3. Import a small test batch, verify, then the full list. 4. Run both apps in parallel for one billing cycle. 5. Uninstall the old app only after every active contract has renewed once on the new one. Payment methods stay vaulted with Shopify on native-checkout apps, so customers rarely need to re-enter cards. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the best Shopify subscription app in 2026? It depends on what you sell. Appstle gives the most features per dollar (5.0 rating, free plan, 0% transaction fees), Seal the cheapest flat bill, Loop the strongest retention tooling and Recharge the deepest enterprise integrations. Gro is built for fresh, frozen and delivery-sensitive products, where the delivery date matters more than the charge, at 0.9% of subscription revenue with no per-order fee. ### Which subscription apps charge no transaction fees? Appstle and Seal charge 0% on every plan. Shopify's free native app charges none. Recharge, Loop and Recurpay all take a percentage on their main plans. ### Did Recharge really buy Skio? Yes, on 30 April 2026 for $105M in cash. Skio merchants keep running for now, but both products share one roadmap. ### How much does a subscription app cost at $10K a month? At a $50 average order: about $10 on Seal, $30 on Appstle, $199 on Loop, $219 on Recurpay Grow, $250 on Gro and $286 on Recharge Starter, based on September 2026 rates. ### How much does a subscription app cost at $100K a month? At a $50 average order: about $90 on Seal, $100 on Appstle, $900 on Gro, $1,099 on Loop, $1,349 on Recurpay Scale and $1,969 on Recharge Starter, based on September 2026 rates. Percentage fees are what separate them at this size. ### Can customers manage their own subscriptions? Every app here has a self-serve portal. Quality varies a lot. Test whether skip moves a delivery or only a charge if you ship anything perishable. ### Is Shopify's free subscription app good enough? Only for one simple product on one simple schedule. It is the lowest-rated app in this comparison and most stores outgrow it fast. ### How hard is it to switch? A real project but a manageable one: export, map plans, import in batches, run parallel for one cycle. Appstle, Seal, Loop, Recurpay and Gro all offer free assisted migration. --- # Fresh product subscriptions on Shopify: the platform fresh, frozen and refrigerated brands actually need URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-product-subscriptions Updated: 2026-09-27 Category: Subscriptions ## Short answer Fresh, frozen and refrigerated products break subscription tools built for shelf-stable replenishment, because those tools anchor everything to the billing date. A fresh brand needs customers to control the delivery day, ship days that line up with the cold chain, plans that track the pet or household, and migration done for you. Gro is built delivery-first for exactly this, at 0.9% of subscription revenue with no per-order fee. If you ship something that can go off, your subscription tool is doing a different job than it thinks it is. A coffee brand can be late by a day and nobody notices. A fresh dog food brand can't. The box that lands on a hot porch while the customer is at work isn't a minor logistics hiccup. It's spoiled product, a refund, a support ticket, and a customer who quietly cancels next month. This is the part of subscription commerce that generic tools were never built for. Most of them were designed for shelf-stable replenishment, where the only thing that matters is that the charge goes through and a box eventually ships. For fresh, frozen and refrigerated brands, that's not enough, and you feel the gap every week. This page is about what a subscription platform built for fresh products looks like, and what to look for if you're choosing one. ## Why fresh products break generic subscription tools The standard subscription model is simple: a card gets charged on a schedule, and fulfilment follows whenever it follows. That works fine for protein powder. It falls apart the moment the product has a clock on it. Here's where it breaks for fresh brands specifically. **The customer can't control the day that matters.** Most tools anchor everything to the billing date. But for a fresh box, the delivery day is the only date the customer cares about. If they can't easily say "not this Thursday, I'm away," the box arrives anyway and sits at the door. One bad delivery on a $90 frozen order is enough to lose them. **Failed deliveries cost real money.** When a shelf-stable order goes wrong, you reship. When a refrigerated order goes wrong, you've lost the product, eaten the cold-chain packaging cost, issued the refund, and paid for support time. The same failure rate hurts a fresh brand several times harder. **The packaging and timing have to line up with the route.** Dry ice has a window. Gel packs have a window. A platform that doesn't understand delivery windows is asking you to manage cold chain in a spreadsheet on the side. None of this is a knock on the established players. Recharge built a genuinely great business serving shelf-stable brands, and if you sell coffee or supplements on a simple cycle, it does the job well. The issue isn't that those tools are bad. It's that fresh products need a different model underneath. ## What that different model is The fix is to stop treating billing as the centre of the subscription and start treating the delivery as the centre. We call it [delivery-first](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions), and it's the foundation everything on this page sits on. Instead of "your next charge is the 28th," the customer sees "your next delivery is Thursday." Skip, reschedule, address changes and content edits all anchor to the delivery day, because that's how the customer actually thinks about a fresh subscription. The billing happens because a delivery is scheduled, not the other way around. For a fresh brand, that one change quietly fixes most of the problems above. Customers who know exactly when the box is coming plan to be home for it. Skips are one click instead of a guessing game. Failed deliveries drop, and so do the refunds and support tickets that ride along with them. If you want the full argument for why this model wins, the [delivery-first pillar](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions) goes deep on it. This page is about what it means for your category specifically. ## What to look for in a fresh subscription platform If you're shopping for a platform to run a fresh, frozen or refrigerated subscription on Shopify, here's the short checklist that actually matters. **Delivery dates are first-class, not bolted on.** The customer portal should lead with the next delivery, and every flow (skip, reschedule, pause) should work off that date. If the platform talks about charges first and deliveries second, it was built for shelf-stable brands. **Delivery windows and day-of-week routing.** You should be able to control which days orders go out so your cold-chain packing lines up with your carrier pickups. Shipping frozen on a Friday before a long weekend is how you lose a batch. **It tracks the thing, not just the cardholder.** A lot of fresh subscriptions aren't really "for" the buyer. A fresh dog food plan is for a specific dog with a specific weight. A kids' snack box is for a specific kid. This is the [entity-aware](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions) idea, and it matters more for fresh brands because the product changes as the thing it serves changes. **Honest pricing that doesn't punish growth.** Fresh brands run on tight margins. You don't want a tool that taxes every feature. **Real migration help.** Moving a live subscriber base is the scariest part of switching. Look for a platform that does the migration for you rather than handing you a CSV and wishing you luck. ## The categories this matters most for Different fresh categories break in different ways. Fresh and raw dog food is the clearest case: weight-based portions, per-pet plans, and a product that can't sit out. Meal kits live and die on the delivery day, because the customer has planned their week around when the ingredients land. Frozen brands have the tightest timing of all, since dry ice doesn't wait. Refrigerated supplements and skincare are small and premium, which means one melted delivery on an expensive product is enough to lose a high-value customer. And flowers sit in their own corner, where the freshness clock starts the second the box leaves the warehouse. ## What we're building [Gro](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions) is a Shopify subscription platform built delivery-first from the start, which makes it a natural fit for fresh, frozen and refrigerated brands. The portal leads with the next delivery. Skip and reschedule work off the delivery day. Subscriptions can track a pet, a kid or a vehicle, not just the cardholder. Pricing is 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, free under 10 active subscriptions, and migrations from Recharge are free and white-glove, so moving your subscribers isn't on you. You can see the full [Subscriptions product](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions) for the feature detail. Gro is built by a team that spent years inside subscription billing and operations, so it targets the problems we already watched break for fresh brands. It runs on Shopify's modern APIs, with no legacy weight to work around. We're deliberate about who we onboard because we'd rather support a brand properly than chase logos. If you're running a fresh-product brand on Shopify and your current tool is fighting you on delivery, [we'd like to talk](https://www.usegro.co/contact). ## Related reading - [Delivery-first subscriptions: a better model for brands that ship perishables](https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions) - [Subscriptions product page](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions) - [Best Shopify subscription app in 2026: how to choose for what you actually ship](https://www.usegro.co/blog/best-shopify-subscription-app) - [Recharge pricing explained: what you actually pay at every revenue level](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained) - [Recharge acquired Skio: what merchants should do now](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-acquired-skio) - [Fresh dog food subscriptions on Shopify: what your platform needs to handle](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-dog-food-subscription-shopify) ## Frequently asked questions ### What should a fresh food subscription platform do? Let customers manage the delivery day rather than just the billing date, control which days orders ship so cold-chain packing lines up with carrier pickups, track the pet or household each plan is for, and migrate your existing subscribers for you. ### Why do fresh and frozen subscriptions struggle on most subscription apps? Most apps anchor skips and reschedules to the charge date, so a customer who is away can't easily move the box. A missed perishable delivery means spoiled product, a refund and support time, which costs a fresh brand far more than a late shelf-stable order. ### Can you run frozen or refrigerated subscriptions on Shopify? Yes. Shopify handles checkout and orders, and the subscription app decides whether customers can manage their delivery day and whether you can control which days orders ship. For frozen products, ship days need to line up with dry ice or gel pack windows and carrier pickups. ### How much does Gro cost for a fresh subscription brand? Gro is free under 10 active subscriptions, then 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee. At $100K a month in subscription revenue that is $900. Migration from Recharge is free. ### What does delivery-first mean? Delivery-first means the delivery, not the billing date, is the centre of the subscription. Customers see and manage their next delivery day, and billing follows the delivery schedule. It is the model Gro is built on. --- # Delivery-first subscriptions: a better model for brands that ship perishables URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/delivery-first-subscriptions Updated: 2026-09-27 Category: Subscriptions ## Short answer Delivery-first subscriptions make the delivery, not the billing date, the centre of the subscription. Customers see their next delivery day, skip or reschedule a specific box, and billing follows the delivery schedule. For fresh, frozen, refrigerated or high-value products, that control means fewer failed deliveries, refunds and cancellations. Gro is a Shopify subscription platform built this way, at 0.9% of subscription revenue with no per-order fee. The best subscription brands have something in common. They obsess over the moment the box arrives. Not the moment the card gets charged. Not the renewal date in the customer portal. The moment a real human meets a real box at a real door. That's the moment loyalty is won or lost. A fresh dog food delivery that arrives on a planned Thursday, with a heads-up the day before and a porch that's clear and shaded, builds the kind of customer who stays for years. The product is great, sure, but the experience is what compounds. This post is about how to build a subscription business around that moment. We call it delivery-first, and it's the model we think the next generation of Shopify subscription brands will be built on. ## What delivery-first actually means Most subscription tools treat billing as the source of truth. A charge happens, a fulfilment follows. The customer's relationship with the brand is anchored to a card transaction. Delivery-first flips that. The delivery is the primary object. Billing happens because a delivery is scheduled. The customer sees, manages, and plans around the day the box arrives, not the day they get charged. ![Gro subscription plan card showing the next delivery date, with the billing date alongside it](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/auott93o/production/27d41cdbc5001b5b9ba2b3fca96a169878d1862a-1626x312.png?w=1200&auto=format) It sounds like a small shift. In practice it changes almost everything about how the customer experiences the subscription. The portal leads with "your next delivery is Thursday May 30" instead of "your next charge is May 28". Notifications follow the delivery date: a heads-up three days out, tracking on the day, a "did it arrive ok?" check-in after. Skip, reschedule, change address and edit contents all anchor to the delivery day. The customer is in control of when the box shows up, which means they're set up to be home for it. ![Gro customer portal showing the next delivery, box contents and add-on products](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/auott93o/production/592b50fc5a4895ad4b277a5bc4b3e775af818c84-2304x1512.png?w=1200&auto=format) For brands shipping anything temperature sensitive or high value, that control is the whole game. ## Why this matters more than ever Subscription commerce has grown up. The early days of "set it and forget it" replenishment worked because the products were shelf-stable. Coffee, supplements, razors, toilet paper. The box could sit on a porch for hours and nothing bad happened. The fastest-growing categories now are different: Fresh and frozen pet food. Meal kits. Flowers. Refrigerated supplements. Skincare with active ingredients that hate heat. Premium coffee delivered at peak freshness. Subscription wine. Kids' snack boxes with chocolate that melts in summer. For these brands, the box arriving on the right day with the right person home isn't a nice-to-have. It's the product working as designed. A melted box of treats isn't a delivery issue, it's a brand experience issue, and customers churn over it. The brands building in these categories deserve tools that treat delivery as the main event. If you're running a fresh, frozen or refrigerated brand specifically, [we've written a deeper guide for you](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-product-subscriptions). ## What delivery-first changes When you build around the delivery rather than the charge, several things get easier. **Fewer failed deliveries.** Customers know exactly when the box is coming, so they plan for it. Skip flows are anchored to the delivery date, which is how customers actually think about their subscription. "I'm away Thursday" is a one-click skip, not a calculation about which charge to cancel. **Better margins.** Every failed delivery is a margin hit: a replacement to send, a refund to issue, support time to handle. Even a small drop in failure rate compounds fast across hundreds of monthly shipments. **Higher trust.** Customers who know when their box arrives recommend the brand. Customers who get surprised at their door churn and tell their friends. The delivery experience is one of the most underrated growth levers in subscription commerce. **Easier ops.** Your fulfilment team works to a delivery schedule. Your customer support team can answer "when's my box coming" without checking three tools. Your marketing team can build campaigns around the delivery moment, not just the renewal. ## Entity-aware: the next layer Delivery-first opens up another idea worth getting excited about. A lot of subscriptions aren't really "for" a customer. They're for a pet, a kid, a vehicle, a household member. The subscription should reflect that. A pet food subscription is for Bowie the kelpie, 18kg, currently eating chicken and rice. When Bowie grows, the food changes, the portion size changes, and so does the price. The subscription evolves with the animal, not with the cardholder. A kids' clothing subscription is for Mia, age 3, size 4T. When she grows, the next box is a different size. The subscription tracks the kid. A car wash subscription is for the white Ford Ranger. If the household gets a second car, that's a second subscription, not a confusing single line item. Entity-aware subscriptions feel obvious once you see them, and they're impossible to retrofit into a billing-first platform. The data model has to be right from the start. ## Who delivery-first is for Recharge works. But it still leaves a sub-optimal customer experience on the table: confusing portals, skip flows tied to charge dates instead of delivery days, support tickets about "when's my order coming". If you want better, [speak to us](https://www.usegro.co/contact). The migration's on us. If you ship anything where the day matters, fresh food, frozen, refrigerated, flowers, high-value items, or anything tracking a specific pet, kid or vehicle, you'll feel the difference even more. Your support tickets, your churn rate and your replacement costs all live downstream of the delivery experience. Building around it pays back. ## What we're building [Gro](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions) is a Shopify subscription platform built delivery-first from the ground up. The customer portal leads with the next delivery. Skip and reschedule flows are anchored to delivery dates. Entity-aware subscriptions are first-class. The data model treats deliveries as the primary object, not billing cycles. We also built it to be simple. Two products under one umbrella (Subscriptions and Email), sold separately, both designed for brands that want powerful tools without the enterprise weight. Subscriptions cost 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, free under 10 active subscriptions. Email is free up to 1,000 sends a month, then $39 a month for up to 150,000 sends. Migrations from Recharge are free. Gro is built by a team that spent years inside subscription billing and operations, so it targets the problems we already watched break. We're deliberate about who we onboard because we'd rather support a brand properly than chase logos. If you're building a delivery-first brand on Shopify, [we'd like to talk](https://www.usegro.co/contact). ## Related reading - [Fresh product subscriptions on Shopify: the platform fresh, frozen and refrigerated brands actually need](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-product-subscriptions) - [Subscriptions product page](https://www.usegro.co/subscriptions) - [Best Shopify subscription app in 2026: how to choose for what you actually ship](https://www.usegro.co/blog/best-shopify-subscription-app) - [Recharge pricing explained: what you actually pay at every revenue level](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained) - [Why we're building Gro](https://www.usegro.co/blog/why-we-re-building-gro-and-why-shopify-stores-deserve-better-tools) - [Fresh dog food subscriptions on Shopify: what your platform needs to handle](https://www.usegro.co/blog/fresh-dog-food-subscription-shopify) ## Frequently asked questions ### What are delivery-first subscriptions? Delivery-first subscriptions treat the delivery as the main object instead of the billing date. The customer sees and manages their next delivery day, skips and reschedules move a specific delivery, and billing follows the delivery schedule rather than driving it. ### How is delivery-first different from billing-first? A billing-first platform schedules a charge and lets fulfilment follow. A delivery-first platform schedules the delivery and charges because of it. For shelf-stable products the difference is small. For fresh, frozen or refrigerated products it decides whether the customer is home when the box arrives. ### Who needs a delivery-first subscription platform? Brands where the delivery day matters: fresh and frozen pet food, meal kits, flowers, refrigerated supplements and skincare, high-value items, and any subscription that tracks a specific pet, kid or vehicle. ### What are entity-aware subscriptions? Subscriptions attached to the thing being served, such as a pet, a child or a vehicle, rather than only the cardholder. A dog food plan tracks the dog's weight and life stage, so portions and price change as the dog does, and two dogs mean two plans. ### Does Gro support delivery-first subscriptions on Shopify? Yes. Gro is a Shopify subscription platform built delivery-first: the portal leads with the next delivery, skips and reschedules anchor to the delivery date, and subscriptions can be entity-aware. Pricing is 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250 a month minimum and no per-order fee, free under 10 active subscriptions. --- # Why We're Building Gro (And Why Shopify Stores Deserve Better Tools) URL: https://www.usegro.co/blog/why-we-re-building-gro-and-why-shopify-stores-deserve-better-tools Updated: 2026-09-27 Category: Company ## Short answer Klaviyo's active-profile billing and Recharge's per-order fees both grow faster than most Shopify stores' email and subscription programmes. Gro is email and subscription management for Shopify, priced on what you use: email is free up to 1,000 sends a month and $39 for up to 150,000, and subscriptions cost 0.9% of subscription revenue with no per-order fee. It's built for stores where the delivery matters more than the billing cycle. I'll keep this simple. I started building Gro because I got tired of watching Shopify stores overpay for tools that should cost a fraction of what they do. It started with email. Klaviyo is a good product, but the pricing has become genuinely hard to justify, especially since the February 2025 switch to active profile billing. You now pay for every active profile in your account, whether you email them or not. Unengaged subscribers count. Contacts you never email count. The better you are at collecting emails, the faster your bill climbs. A store with 10,000 profiles is paying around $150/month on Klaviyo's email plan. That's before SMS and before any add-ons. And if your profile count creeps over your plan limit, Klaviyo moves you up a tier automatically on your next billing cycle. Full tier-by-tier breakdown in [Klaviyo pricing explained](https://www.usegro.co/blog/klaviyo-pricing-explained). For a lot of Shopify stores, especially ones in the early growth stage, that maths just doesn't work. ## Then I looked at subscriptions Recharge is the default subscription app for Shopify. Its Starter plan is $99/month plus 1.49% of every order plus $0.19 per order. If you're doing $50,000/month in subscription revenue at a $50 average order, that's about $1,034/month. For managing subscriptions. Full breakdown in [Recharge pricing explained](https://www.usegro.co/blog/recharge-pricing-explained). But the cost isn't even the main problem. The main problem is that tools like Recharge are built around billing, not around the customer. Think about what most subscription apps actually do: they track when a customer is going to be charged next. They manage billing cycles. They handle payment retries. That's all important stuff. But from the customer's perspective, they don't care when they're being billed. They care about when their box is showing up. If you run a build-a-box subscription (pet food, coffee, snack boxes, meal kits, whatever) your customers think in terms of deliveries, not payments. "When is my next box being delivered?" "What's in it?" "Can I swap something out before it ships?" Most subscription tools don't think this way. They're oriented around the payment event, not the delivery experience. Features like letting customers easily see what's coming, swap products before a cutoff date, or understand their subscription in terms of what they're getting rather than what they're paying. These are either missing entirely or bolted on as afterthoughts. That gap is where Gro started. ## What Gro actually is Gro is a Shopify app that does two things: email and SMS marketing, and subscription management. On the email side, it's straightforward. You get a visual email editor, flows, segmentation, campaigns. The stuff you'd expect. The difference is you pay per send, not per profile. Free up to 1,000 sends/month. $39/month for up to 150,000 sends. Your bill reflects what you actually use, not how big your contact list is. On the subscription side, we built it around the customer experience first. Subscriptions in Gro are tied to what the subscription is actually for, not just a billing address with a renewal date. If someone subscribes to a monthly dog food box for two dogs, those are two subscriptions with context. The customer portal shows them what's coming, not just when they'll be charged and which box is for which dog. They can skip, pause, swap products or adjust quantities without feeling like they're navigating a billing system. We also don't gate any features behind pricing tiers. No "upgrade to Pro to unlock advanced cancellation flows." No "contact sales for build-a-box bundles support." Everything is available from day one. **Pricing:** - **Email:** Free up to 1,000 sends/month. $39/month for up to 150,000 sends. No per-profile charging. - **Subscriptions:** Free for stores with fewer than 10 active subscribers. After that, 0.9% of subscription revenue with a $250/month minimum. No per-transaction fees. No feature gating. ## What we're not I want to be honest about where Gro fits and where it doesn't. Klaviyo has years of integrations, a massive ecosystem and enterprise-grade infrastructure. If you're a brand doing $10M+ in revenue with a dedicated email marketing team then Klaviyo probably still makes sense for you. Recharge has deep integrations with the wider Shopify ecosystem and a track record with large-scale subscription programmes. If you need a tool that connects to 50 other apps in your stack, they've had more time to build those bridges. Gro is for the stores in between. The ones doing real revenue, often up to $1-2M a year, but watching tool costs eat into margins and create operational headaches. The ones running subscription boxes who want their customers to have a better experience than a billing portal. The ones who'd rather talk to the person who built the product than wait 48 hours for a support ticket reply. Gro uses Shopify's native subscriptions and orders, so it still connects to the rest of your Shopify apps, and Gro Subscriptions integrates with Klaviyo, so there's no need to remove Klaviyo if you only use Gro Subscriptions. ## Where to from here? We are a small team. We built Gro because the pricing in this space frustrated me and because we kept seeing subscription stores struggle with tools that didn't understand their actual business needs. Building a competitor to Klaviyo and Recharge at the same time is either ambitious or naive. Probably a bit of both. But the advantage of being small is that we can ship fast, we can listen to what merchants actually need and there's no six month roadmap committee between a feature request and a deploy. Gro is currently in private beta. If any of this resonated, check us out at [usegro.co](https://www.usegro.co/).