Shopify Subscriptions vs Recharge vs Loop: which to use in Australia

A subscription is a promise to deliver the same thing on a schedule and charge the card each time. That promise has three parts: a way for customers to sign up at checkout, a way to bill them repeatedly, and a way for them to manage or cancel without writing to you. If any part is clumsy, you lose customers or invite complaints.

Shopify supports subscriptions through apps that use selling plans. You choose an app, set up plans on products, and the app handles the recurring orders. Your theme needs to display the plan options on the product page, and your payment gateway needs to support repeat charges.

This guide compares the three options we see most in Australia: Shopify's own app, Recharge and Loop. It is a comparison of published features and prices, not a test of each app's reliability. Prices are USD where the developer lists them that way, and they change, so confirm them on each App Store listing.

Read the table with two cautions. First, Shopify's listing does not state fees or supported gateways in the text we could read, so we only say what the page says. Second, the percentage fees on Recharge and Loop sit on top of the card processing fee, which for Shopify Payments in Australia starts at 1.7% + 30c for standard online cards on Basic. Run the numbers on your expected subscription revenue before you commit.

Shopify launched its own subscription app in January 2024. Its listing describes auto-billed subscriptions on weekly, monthly or yearly cycles, subscribe-and-save, fixed and custom pricing, email templates for order confirmations and payment reminders, performance reports and the ability to transfer existing subscription contracts. Customers can view subscriptions in their account and resume, skip or cancel them, and manage payment methods and shipping address.

That is enough for a lot of brands. A coffee roaster selling a monthly 250 gram bag, a pet brand selling a recurring food order, or a skincare brand selling a replacement every 60 days does not need a complex engine.

Where Shopify's app is thin

Reviewers on the listing ask for the ability to change the recurring charge date and to swap products inside a subscription without cancelling. Those are two features that matter once a subscriber base grows. The listing also does not list bundle builders or detailed dunning, so check your needs against it.

• Shopify says the store should not already run a third-party subscription app, needs a compatible theme and needs a supported payment gateway.
• Local payment methods such as Klarna cannot be used to buy subscriptions, according to Shopify's documentation. Check whether Afterpay or Zip appear for subscription products on your store and message that clearly.
• If you uninstall a subscription app, data it created is deleted after a short window, so export contracts before you switch.

Recharge's Shopify listing shows three tiers: a USD $25 a month entry plan with no transaction fees for the first 50 subscribers, Starter at USD $99 a month with 1.49% + 19c per transaction, and Plus at USD $499 a month with 1.34% + 19c per transaction. Starter adds a no-code customer portal, upsell and cross-sell tools, smart cancellation prevention, failed payment recovery and analytics. Plus adds hands-on implementation, custom bundles with tiered discounts, concierge SMS, loyalty and referral features, and a JavaScript SDK and Storefront API.

Recharge makes sense when subscriptions are your main revenue and you want control: custom portals, flexible bundles, upsells inside the portal. It is worth the fees when the retention tools save more subscribers than they cost. Recharge bills in USD, so budget for the exchange rate. If you have a few hundred subscribers on simple plans, you may be paying for features you will not use.

Loop's listing shows a free plan with up to 50 active subscriptions, a customer portal and basic analytics. Starter is USD $99 a month plus 1.0% per transaction, with custom bundles, a branded portal, 15 dunning retries and cancellation offers. Pro is USD $399 a month plus 0.75% per transaction, with a dedicated customer success manager, prepaid and gift subscriptions, user permissions, multilingual support and API access. Loop lists subscription types including replenishment, curated boxes, memberships and services, and it integrates with Shopify Flow, Klaviyo and Gorgias.

Other apps exist, with different pricing structures. Whatever you choose, compare the same four things: monthly fee, percentage per order, what the portal lets a customer change, and what the app does when a card fails. For help choosing and wiring apps into your store, see our apps and integrations service.

Subscription works for products customers run out of at a predictable pace. The test is simple: would a customer be annoyed to have to order this again next month? If so, it suits a subscription.

• Coffee and tea. Fresh beans on a two, four or six week cycle. A grind option belongs on the plan. Our concept Second Shift Coffee store shows a subscription layout. See coffee and food.
• Pet food, treats and parasite control. Predictable use and a strong dislike of running out. See pet brands and our Good Kelpie concept.
• Skincare and supplements. A 30, 60 or 90 day supply. Be careful with claims, and see beauty and skincare.
• Razors, filters, consumables and cleaning refills.
• Not a good fit: one-off or seasonal products, high-priced items with long gaps between orders, anything where choice matters more than convenience.

Offer a discount that is meaningful but sustainable. Run your margin after the discount, shipping and the app fee, not before. And keep the one-time purchase option on the product page, so a shopper who is not ready to commit does not leave.

Shopify's help documentation says a store needs a supported payment gateway to sell subscriptions, and notes that on Shopify Payments, expired or replaced cards may be updated automatically, whereas customers on other gateways might need to update their details by hand. That is a strong reason to run Shopify Payments if it is available to you. If you use a third-party gateway, Shopify also charges its third-party transaction fee, which is 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.

On Shopify Payments in Australia, standard online card rates are 1.7% + 30c on Basic, 1.55% + 30c on Grow and 1.35% + 30c on Advanced, with higher rates for American Express and international cards. Each recurring order is its own transaction, so the fixed 30c applies every cycle. On a $25 order that is a large share of the fee, so it affects the margin on low-priced consumables. See our pricing guide for the full table.

Churn is the share of subscribers who cancel. We will not quote an industry figure, because none we can verify fits every category. What we can say is where churn comes from and what to do about it.

• Too much stock. Let customers skip or delay the next order, change frequency or pause. A skip is a saved subscriber. Shopify's own portal supports skip, pause and cancel.
• Failed payments. Choose an app with retries and reminder emails, and send a clear message when a card fails. Loop lists automatic retries and dunning, and Recharge lists failed payment recovery.
• Boredom. Offer swaps for different flavours or sizes. Swaps are a headline feature in Loop, and Shopify's reviewers ask for them.
• Surprise charges. Send a reminder before each order and show the next date in the portal.

Australian Consumer Law and cancelling

Australia is tightening the rules on subscriptions. Reports on the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026 say it passed Parliament in July 2026. The subscription cancellation rules apply from 1 July 2027 and require businesses to give an easy and straightforward means to cancel. Penalties fall under the existing Australian Consumer Law regime, with fines reported at up to $100 million. The ACCC has already been enforcing, and secured a $10 million penalty against the online service JustAnswer over subscription practices, according to coverage.

We are not lawyers and the final Act is the source of truth. For your store, the safe design is to let customers cancel in the portal in a few clicks, show the price, frequency and next charge date before they buy, never hide the cancel link, and send reminders. This also happens to be good business. Customers who can cancel easily are far more willing to subscribe in the first place.

Your returns and refund wording should also fit the subscription terms. Our returns policy guide covers the consumer guarantees.

1. Step 1

   Count your subscribers

   Under a few hundred on simple plans, start with Shopify Subscriptions. Free is hard to beat.

2. Step 2

   List the features you need

   Swaps, bundles, custom charge dates, prepaid plans, loyalty. If two or more are must-haves, look at Loop or Recharge.

3. Step 3

   Model the fees

   Multiply your expected monthly subscription revenue by the percentage fee and add the monthly plan. Compare against the retention you expect the tools to protect.

4. Step 4

   Check theme and checkout

   Make sure the plan selector shows cleanly on your theme and checkout. Test on a phone. Our theme guide covers what to look for.

5. Step 5

   Test the cancel journey

   Sign up with a test card, skip an order, swap if possible, then cancel. Fix anything that takes more than a few clicks.

Not sure where you land? Contact us and we will tell you which app we would pick for your range, or use the cost calculator to size the whole project.