Essential Subscriptions adds subscribe and save plans to any Shopify product in minutes: no code, no transaction fees. Offer recurring billing, give customers a self-service portal, and recover failed payments automatically.
5-star rating on Shopify app store.
Essential Subscriptions is a free Shopify app that adds recurring billing to any product. Merchants create subscribe and save campaigns, choose pay-as-you-go or prepaid billing on any delivery schedule, and give customers a self-service portal to skip, pause, or cancel, with no transaction fees.
We’re Essential Apps, a Shopify app developer with 13 apps focused on helping merchants increase AOV, conversions, and revenue. Essential Subscriptions works with Shopify customer accounts, GemPages, PageFly, Shopify Admin, and your online store, no theme edits required.
Free
To install. No monthly fee.
5.0 ★
Rating on Shopify App Store
$0
Transaction fees on top of Shopify
SETUP
Most stores are live with subscriptions in under 30 minutes. No developer, no theme edits
Add Essential Subscriptions from the Shopify App Store. It connects to your store automatically, no manual configuration or theme code required.
Select which products to offer as subscriptions. Set your discount (percentage or fixed), billing frequency, and delivery schedule. Save and publish.
The subscribe and save widget appears on your product pages. Customers subscribe, get billed automatically, and manage their subscription from the self-service portal.
Watch: Getting started in under 5 minutes
Turn one-time buyers into subscribers. Monthly recurring orders you can plan your inventory and cashflow around.
Let subscribers skip, pause, or resume deliveries on their own. Fewer cancellations, fewer support tickets.
Smart dunning retries failed payments and sends email alerts so subscribers update their card before they lapse.
Essential Apps are used by brands such as:
Who it's for
Any store selling products people buy more than once can benefit. Here’s who gets the most value from Essential Subscriptions.
Coffee, supplements, skincare, pet food - anything customers run out of and reorder. The most common subscription use case.
Curated or surprise boxes shipped on a weekly, monthly or quarterly schedule.
Ongoing services billed on a recurring schedule: cleaning, maintenance, consulting.
Add subscription plans to any product. Set percentage or fixed discounts that change over time to reward long-term subscribers. Choose pay-as-you-go or prepaid billing with any delivery frequency. The subscription widget matches your brand out of the box.
Every subscriber gets a self-service portal where they can skip a delivery, pause, resume, or cancel, without ever contacting your team. Giving subscribers control over their subscription is one of the most effective retention tools available. Fewer cancellations, dramatically fewer support tickets.
Every merchant gets 24/7 access to a real human support team, not a chatbot. On average, we respond in 10 minutes. The team helps with onboarding, widget customisation to match your brand, and building custom solutions for your store, from design tweaks to feature requests.
Pricing
Most Shopify subscription apps charge a monthly fee, a percentage of every order, or both. Essential Subscriptions doesn’t.
Typical subscription apps
$99-$299/mo
$0 / month
Free to install. No monthly fee. No per-transaction fee on top of Shopify.
Shopify’s standard payment processing fees apply to all transactions, as with any Shopify app. Essential Subscriptions adds no additional fees on top of these.
Shopify built-in subscriptions
Free
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5-star rating on Shopify app store
Another great app from Essentials. Setup was straightforward, we were able to customise widgets to completely fit our brand, customer portal setup was very easy too. Simple and reliable app for simple subscriptions.
BURGA
I have been looking for an app that is easy to use both for me and most importantly my customers, this app fits the bill. I have needed to contact the support line and they are super helpful, prompt, and easy to communicate with. They were quick to send updates to functional and aesthetic features. Highly recommend Essential Subscription app.
Dara’s Soapery
This app works perfectly for e-commerce businesses looking to offer recurring orders through subscription plans. It is easy to navigate, user-friendly, and simple to set up. Sebastian from the support team has also been extremely helpful and provided valuable recommendations. Definitely worth trying.
Elfas Namuose
Don’t hesitate to contact the Support if you have any additional questions
Yes. Essential Subscriptions has no monthly fee and no per-transaction fee on top of Shopify’s standard payment processing rates. There are no hidden charges: billing, customer portal, smart dunning, and widget customization are all included at no cost.
Install Essential Subscriptions from the Shopify App Store, create a subscription campaign for the products you want to sell on a recurring basis, and the subscribe and save widget appears on your product pages automatically. No code or theme edits required. Most stores are live with subscriptions in under 30 minutes.
Pay-as-you-go charges customers each delivery cycle: weekly, monthly, or on any schedule you set. Prepaid charges customers upfront for multiple deliveries at once, which typically improves cash flow and reduces churn because the commitment is made in advance. Essential Subscriptions supports both billing models on any delivery frequency.
Yes. Every subscriber gets a self-service portal where they can skip a delivery, pause, resume, or cancel without contacting support. Giving customers this control reduces cancellation rates and support ticket volume.
Essential Subscriptions retries the payment automatically and sends the customer a branded email so they can update their card before the subscription lapses. This smart dunning process recovers revenue that would otherwise be lost to failed payments without requiring manual intervention.
Both are free to use. Shopify’s built-in subscriptions handle basic recurring billing with limited customization and no dunning logic. Essential Subscriptions adds a customizable subscribe and save widget, smart dunning with automatic payment retry, a flexible self-service customer portal, branded email notifications, and 24/7 human support, all with no transaction fees.
ReCharge charges a monthly platform fee plus a percentage of subscription revenue. Appstle has a limited free plan followed by paid tiers. Essential Subscriptions is fully free with no monthly fee and no transaction fee: billing, customer portal, dunning, and widget customization are all included at no cost.
Yes. The Essential Subscriptions support team helps with migration from other apps. Contact the team before switching to move active subscriber data with minimal disruption to existing customers.
Essential Subscriptions is the strongest option for small stores that want recurring billing without platform fees or transaction costs. It is free to install, takes under 30 minutes to set up, and covers billing, a self-service customer portal, smart dunning, and widget customization — all at no cost.
Free to install. No transaction fees. Set up subscribe and save in minutes, give customers a self-service portal, and recover failed payments automatically.