As an ecommerce business owner, you know the importance of a fast, efficient checkout and payment system. Implementing a subscription model or recurring payment options can build a reliable revenue stream and steady cash flow while increasing customer satisfaction and sales.
But getting the most out of recurring payments requires figuring out which technological solutions best match your business model and sales goals. Here are the best recurring payment systems available today, with real-world insights from ecommerce business owners who’ve used these tools to scale their recurring revenue.
What is a recurring payment system?
A recurring payment system lets merchants automatically collect payments from customers at pre-defined intervals—such as weekly, monthly, or annually. These are common for ongoing products or services, like subscription services (e.g., software-as-a-service (SaaS) and video streaming) or regular bills (e.g., software licenses and installment plans).
The customer gives permission (often at sign-up) for the business to repeatedly charge their method of payment, and the system stores the payment details. When a billing cycle hits, the payment processor triggers a transaction without requiring the customer to manually re-enter their information. This continues until the customer cancels or the contract ends.
Benefits of a recurring payment system
- Predictable revenue
- Payment flexibility for customers
- Automated payment recovery
- Reduced manual work
Recurring payment services allow for more predictable cash flow, efficiency gains, and increased convenience for customers. Here are some key benefits of using a recurring payment system:
Predictable revenue
Recurring payment models shift your business from unpredictable one-off sales to a reliable revenue stream. Because customers opt into a cycle, subscription-based models can increase average order value (AOV) by up to 33%, according to subscription platform Recharge. This stability allows for more accurate inventory planning and financial forecasting, increasing your average customer lifetime value.
Payment flexibility for customers
Offering multiple payment methods—digital wallets, credit cards, and local payment options—is both a convenience and a growth lever. For example, digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay have been shown to improve mobile conversion rates by as much as 58% compared to traditional forms, according to eMarketer.
Automated payment recovery
Payment failures contribute to customer churn. Payment retry mechanisms can recover 45% to 70% of initially failed payments, according to Baremetrics, saving your team from the manual labor of chasing down late invoices.
Reduced manual work
Automating invoicing and payment collection helps eliminate human error in data entry. By letting the system handle the billing cycles, your team can pivot from administrative paperwork to high-value tasks like product development and customer acquisition, reducing the overall cost of payment acceptance.
Best recurring payment systems
Here are seven of the best recurring payment systems to consider when you’re ready to start managing complex subscription models:
1. Shopify Subscriptions
Shopify Subscriptions is the most efficient recurring payment system if you’re starting out on Shopify because the app integrates directly with Shopify Payments. This native integration lets you manage your entire subscription workflow within the central Shopify admin, so there’s no need to toggle between different apps. The result is a more stable, unified checkout experience.
Shopify Payments can automatically update expired cards when a customer’s bank issues a new card, protecting your recurring revenue without manual intervention, and preventing failed payments before they even occur.
Shopify Subscriptions also integrates with Shopify Flow—a no-code automation platform—allowing you to automate high-touch customer service tasks that would otherwise require manual tracking. The system can also automatically detect when a customer hits a milestone, like the third successful billing cycle, and trigger rewards, like a loyal subscriber tag or a free gift.
2. Appstle
Appstle is a “built for Shopify” app, meaning it uses Shopify’s native checkout. This ensures that your payment processing remains secure and that you can leverage Shopify Payments for useful features like automatically updating expired cards. Appstle’s customer portal lets customers make one-time purchases or set up and manage subscriptions.
Book Box uses Appstle to manage its highly curated, community-centric subscription box model that provides customers with new books and locally sourced snacks and goodies. As founders Kate and Carl explain in an interview, Appstle’s customer portal tool allows readers to easily skip or pause orders.
The app has proven to be a useful customer retention tool for Book Box; a customer who pauses a month isn’t necessarily lost to permanent cancellation. The app also provides loyalty billing options, enabling Book Box to reward long-term commitment with subscription pricing plans that automatically drop in price after a certain number of successful cycles.
Beyond just processing payments, Appstle also acts as a feedback loop that enables Book Box to gather specific customer insights. “We ask the customer to fill in a questionnaire,” Kate says, “and that data helps us focus on what to pivot into.” For a curated subscription business, this ability to align inventory with customer preferences can be the difference between a stagnant brand and a thriving one.
3. Recharge
Recharge is favored by high-volume merchants for its deep application programming interface (API) and advanced tools like “surprise and delight” flows that automatically add gift items to specific billing cycles, customizable churn prevention sequences that offer incentives when a customer attempts to cancel.
Charlie Bowes-Lyon, cofounder of Wild, a sustainable deodorant brand, leveraged Recharge to scale a multimillion-dollar business. “As we grew, suddenly we were a much more attractive prospect,” he says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “With Recharge, the bigger we grew, the lower we were able to lower our fees.” Recharge’s tiered pricing and enterprise-level plans let high-volume merchants reduce per-transaction costs as order volume grows, making the platform increasingly cost-effective at scale.
Charlie says the app also reduces friction for customers. Wild’s subscribers can also manage their orders via SMS, with the option to skip, swap, or delay shipments without logging into a portal. Recharge helps him provide his customers with a hassle-free text-based order management system if they aren’t ready for their next shipment.
Charlie isn’t alone in singing Recharge’s praises. On Shopify Masters, Jamey Stegmaier, cofounder and lead designer of board game company Stonemaier Games, says he uses Recharge to monitor a subscription service that functions like a “small-scale Amazon Prime.” By offering a monthly plan with perks, Jamey uses Recharge to build a community-driven model where automatic payment is just the beginning of Stonemaier Games’ relationship with its customers.
4. Bold Subscriptions
Bold is known for its flexible pricing models, especially for merchants offering build-a-box experiences. Its advanced subscription features let customers buy a starter kit one month and automatically switch to refill packs the next. Subscribers can also swap products, skip months, or add one-time items through a robust customer portal—without needing to contact support.
It also simplifies inventory management by syncing subscription logic with real-time stock levels, ensuring customers never select out-of-stock items. Divy Ojha, founder of the produce company Odd Bunch, configured the brand’s back end with Bold Subscriptions to handle its weekly produce box model. “The burden of carrying that SKU count across so many geographies with suboptimal scale basically eroded margins,” he says on Shopify Masters. “We had to dial in that process.” With Bold, Odd Bunch was able to manage the logistical madness of 300 or more SKUs while keeping the payment processing simple for the end user.
If a specific type of carrot is out of stock, Bold can automatically trigger a swap for a similar SKU. This prevents incomplete boxes or shipping delays by recommending a comparable, in-stock product. Customers enjoy a consistent experience without manual intervention, while merchants protect the sale and reduce churn caused by inventory gaps.
5. Ordergroove
Ordergroove is a high-performance recurring payment system built for merchants doing more than $10 million in recurring revenue. Its core strength is predictive reordering: Proprietary AI analyzes customer behavior to identify at-risk subscribers before they cancel. If a customer usually orders every 30 days but hasn’t opened their last three emails, Ordergroove can automatically trigger a “skip or save” offer to prevent cancellation. For former subscribers, a one-click reactivate button in win-back emails saves payment details to instantly restart a billing cycle.
Its deep integration with loyalty programs helps you treat subscribers like VIPs across every touchpoint. Ordergroove can integrate with your Shopify point-of-sale (POS) system to automatically apply exclusive discounts or offer subscriber-only gifts in-store. This unified customer data ensures the VIP treatment extends beyond a web browser to mobile app experiences and brick-and-mortar locations.
6. PayWhirl
PayWhirl focuses on simplicity and predictable pricing, letting merchants accept payments and manage subscriptions via simple widgets. Its flat-rate model makes it ideal for small- to mid-sized businesses, helping them forecast software costs without the complexity of enterprise, volume-based tiers. PayWhirl also offers a passwordless customer portal that lets customers manage subscriptions via a secure, one-time email link, reducing password resets and customer service requests.
As a recurring payment system, PayWhirl is a highly accessible option for merchants focused on maintaining low overhead as they test new subscription models, offering multiple tiers, including a free-to-install plan for startups. Unlike enterprise apps with volume-based fees, PayWhirl provides essential features, like customized widgets, at a lower cost. It also handles mixed carts, letting customers buy a one-time gift while subscribing to a recurring monthly plan for themselves in a single checkout.
PayWhirl also allows for billing adjustments, which is especially useful for brands with fluctuating order values, such as wholesalers charging by weight or service providers who require overage fees. Unlike metered billing—which requires a developer to automate usage tracking—merchants can manually edit line items or the price of an upcoming invoice directly in the dashboard.
Since the customer has already authorized a recurring relationship, the updated total is securely processed on the next billing date. This ensures the merchant gets paid for the exact value delivered without the friction of a manual re-authorization.
7. Chargebee
Chargebee moves beyond simple recurring billing software and positions itself as a comprehensive revenue management platform that unifies subscription services across multiple channels—making it ideal for hybrid businesses that sell physical goods and digital services (like an app or membership).
Chargebee offers both usage-based billing and tiered pricing structures. If your business model involves charging customers based on consumption or complex custom pricing for wholesale clients, Chargebee can automate those calculations without manual invoicing. For brands considering international expansion, Chargebee handles tax compliance across different jurisdictions. Its revenue recognition features ensure that your accounting software accurately reflects your finances.
If you have a legacy system or a custom-built app alongside your Shopify store, Chargebee lets you manage subscriptions and collect payments from a central hub—acting as a single source of truth for customer data and ensuring that your revenue generation is consistent across the entire customer life cycle. Chargebee’s “smart collect” feature uses AI to determine the best time to retry a failed payment based on the customer’s time zone and historical bank behavior. This approach to retrying failed payments protects your steady cash flow and minimizes churn for high-volume merchants.
Best recurring payment system FAQ
Does Shopify allow subscriptions?
Yes, Shopify allows you to offer subscriptions, whether you’re selling recurring services or a monthly subscription. Shopify Subscriptions makes it easy to set up and launch subscriptions directly from the Shopify admin.
What’s a good billing system for both one-time and recurring payments?
The Shopify Subscriptions app is the ideal starting point for mixed carts, allowing customers to purchase both a one-time product and a monthly plan in a single transaction. Higher-volume brands often layer their gateway with apps like Recharge or Appstle to manage complex subscription models alongside traditional retail sales. These combinations let you retain a reliable revenue stream while offering users the flexibility to choose between one-time purchases and recurring billing without a fragmented customer experience.
What is the best app to manage subscriptions?
The best app for subscription payment services depends on the scale of your business. Shopify Subscriptions is a cost-effective solution for beginners, while Recharge is the industry standard for high-volume subscription management. Brands with highly specific curation needs often prefer Appstle for its flexible customer portal, while others use Ordergroove for its advanced customer behavior optimization.
