Best Shopify Subscription Apps (2026): Recharge, Skio, Stay.ai, and Loop Compared
The Shopify subscription app market consolidated in April 2026 when Recharge acquired Skio for USD 105 million, leaving Recharge (now operating both products), Loop, and Stay.ai as the platforms most DTC brands actually choose between. Recharge starts at USD 99 per month plus 1.49% and 19 cents per transaction on its Starter plan; Stay.ai runs USD 499 per month plus 1% and 19 cents; Loop is the one major platform without a per-order flat fee on its paid tiers.
Those pricing structures matter less than fit. These platforms are not interchangeable - Recharge is the broad incumbent, Skio built its reputation on frictionless passwordless checkout, Stay.ai is engineered specifically to reduce churn, and Loop leans on upsells and retention flows. A brand choosing on monthly fee alone, without matching the platform to what its subscription business actually needs, usually ends up migrating within a year.
This guide compares the leading Shopify subscription apps on 2026 pricing, what each does best, and which kind of brand each fits.
The 2026 landscape after the Skio acquisition
The Recharge-Skio deal reshaped the choice. There are now two independent leaders - Recharge and Loop - plus Stay.ai as the retention specialist, and a set of lower-cost apps (Appstle, Bold, Loop's entry tiers) for brands early in their subscription journey. Skio continues as a product under Recharge, but a brand evaluating it is now evaluating a Recharge-owned platform, which changes the roadmap and support calculus.
| Platform | Entry pricing | Best at |
|---|---|---|
| Recharge | $99/mo + 1.49% + 19c (Starter) | Breadth, ecosystem, the safe incumbent choice |
| Skio (Recharge-owned) | ~$299-599/mo | Passwordless, frictionless native checkout |
| Stay.ai | $499/mo + 1% + 19c | Actively engineering retention, not just reporting it |
| Loop | Paid tiers without per-order flat fee | Upsells, retention flows, integrated analytics |
| Ordergroove | Enterprise / quoted | Large operations where fit outweighs app-store convenience |
Recharge
Recharge is the incumbent and the default. It offers the broadest feature set, the deepest integration ecosystem, and the most third-party tooling built around it, which makes it the low-risk choice for a brand that wants a platform it will not outgrow.
Pricing runs from a USD 25 per month tier for the first 50 subscribers (net-new merchants only), to USD 99 per month plus 1.49% and 19 cents per transaction on Starter, to USD 499 per month plus 1.34% and 19 cents on Plus. The full breakdown, including the annual-contract requirement on higher tiers, is in Recharge pricing and fees.
Recharge fits a brand that values breadth and ecosystem over specialization. It is rarely the best at any single thing, and rarely the wrong choice.
Skio
Skio built its reputation on checkout experience: passwordless login and a fast, native checkout that directly reduces the friction where subscription conversions are won or lost. It was commonly adopted by larger merchants running high subscription volume, where a small conversion improvement is worth a premium platform.
Since the April 2026 acquisition, Skio operates under Recharge. For a brand evaluating it today, the checkout strengths remain, but the independent-roadmap consideration that once distinguished it from Recharge no longer applies - both are now Recharge products.
Stay.ai
Stay.ai is the retention specialist. Where the others manage subscriptions and report on churn, Stay.ai is built to actively reduce it, with machine-learning-powered cancel flows and timing models for win-back campaigns. It is the sharpest choice when a brand wants to engineer retention rather than observe it.
Pricing is a single tier at USD 499 per month plus 1% and 19 cents per order. That positions it above Recharge Starter, so the retention capability has to be worth the premium - which it is for a brand where involuntary and voluntary churn are the binding constraint on growth, and less so for one still establishing product-market fit.
Loop
Loop is the other major independent after the Skio acquisition. It combines subscription management with upsells, retention flows, and integrated analytics, and is the one major platform without a per-order flat fee on its paid tiers - a structure that favors brands with high order volume and lower average order values, where per-order fees compound.
Loop fits a brand that wants subscription management plus growth tooling in one platform, and whose order economics make a per-order flat fee expensive.
How to choose
Match the platform to the binding constraint, not the monthly fee.
- If breadth and low risk matter most, Recharge is the default and the safe choice.
- If checkout conversion is the constraint, Skio's frictionless checkout is its edge, now inside the Recharge ecosystem.
- If churn is the constraint, Stay.ai is built specifically to reduce it and justifies its premium when retention is what limits growth.
- If order volume is high and AOV is low, Loop's no-per-order-fee structure is cheaper at scale.
The number that should drive this decision is rarely on any platform's pricing page: how much of your churn is involuntary versus voluntary, and what each platform's retention tooling is actually worth against your subscriber base. That sits in your subscription and payment data. Finsi computes it across whichever platform you run - it is the analytics layer on top, not a subscription app, so it measures the platform decision rather than competing in it.
Related reading: Recharge pricing and fees, Recharge vs Skio after the acquisition, and subscription retention strategies.
Andrei Rebrov is Co-CEO of Finsi, where he builds AI-powered analytics for subscription and DTC e-commerce. He writes on subscription economics, LTV modeling, cohort analysis, and retention metrics.