Comparison
Bold Subscriptions vs Recharge
Bold Subscriptions vs Recharge for Shopify: AOV maximizers + transaction fees vs the subscriptions default at scale — pricing models compared.
Bold Subscriptions
Recurring billing and subscriptions for Shopify.
Recharge
"The world's leading subscription platform, powering 71% of subscriptions sold on Shopify stores" — Recharge homepage (getrecharge.com, May 2026).
Affiliate link. Pricing and terms are set by the vendor. details
On this page
At a glance
Bold Subscriptions and Recharge both run recurring billing on Shopify, but their fee models differ sharply. Recharge is the subscriptions default at scale with a mature ecosystem; Bold leans on AOV-boosting Maximizers but adds a per-order transaction fee on top of its base price. The deciding factor is usually how the fees compound as you grow.
Quick stats
Starting price
Bold Subscriptions
$25/mo
Recharge
$99/mo
Rating
Bold Subscriptions
6.8/10
Recharge
8.1/10
Integrations
Bold Subscriptions
6
Recharge
8
Pricing
Bold Subscriptions
$25/mo
- up to
- $400/mo
- Model
- tiered
Tiers (verified 2026-06-05 at boldcommerce.com/shopify/subscriptions-pricing): Launch $24.99/mo + 2% transaction fee; Grow $49.99/mo + 1%; Scale $74.99/mo + 0.9%; Ultimate Retention $399.99/mo + 0.9% (ProsperStack cancellation prevention, sales consult). All include unlimited subscribers and a 30-day free trial. Pricing gotchas: a base fee PLUS a per-order transaction fee on every subscription order; the fee applies to the full order including one-time items; higher tiers buy down the fee rate; theme-compatibility issues reported. Free plan: 30-day free trial (no card); not a permanent free tier. Verified 2026-06-05 (Grow/Scale tiers + Ultimate $399.99 confirmed; Part-2 baseline had only Launch + transaction-fee notes).
Recharge
$99/mo
- up to
- —
- Model
- tiered
Tiers (verified 2026-06-05): public Starter $99/mo + 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction (month-to-month); Plus $499/mo + 1.34% + 19¢ per transaction (12-month term); Custom volume-based for high volume. Pricing gotchas: transaction fees apply on every subscription order; Plus requires a 12-month contract. A constrained $25/mo Starter exists OFF the public pricing page — new merchants only (installed after Feb 9, 2026), capped at 50 lifetime subscribers, auto-bumps to $99 at 51. Treat $99 as the sustainable floor. Free plan: 60-day free trial on Starter. Verified 2026-06-05
Bold Subscriptions starts at $25/mo vs Recharge's $99/mo. At the top tier Bold Subscriptions climbs to $400/mo.
Features
Bold Subscriptions
- Standard / prepaid / convertible subscriptions
- Customer self-serve portal
- Subscription Maximizers (upsells, dynamic discounts, add-ons)
- Cancellation flows (ProsperStack on Ultimate)
- Reporting / CSV
- APIs
Recharge
- Shopify Checkout Integration — Subscriptions run inside Shopify's native checkout (no iframes)
- Concierge SMS — AI-powered SMS lets subscribers skip, delay, swap, or add products via text
- Bundles (curated and customizable) — Static and dynamic subscription bundles with tiered discounts
- Rewards & Referrals — Built-in loyalty/points and referrals tied to subscription behavior
- Cart and Cart Overlay Upsell — Convert one-time orders to subscriptions inside the cart with analytics
- Post-purchase Cross-sell — One-click post-purchase add-on offers for subscribers
Shopify integration
Bold Subscriptions
Native Shopify Checkout integration. A Recharge/Skio/Loop alternative with AOV Maximizers, but base fee + per-order transaction fees make it pricier as subscription revenue grows.
Recharge
Deep native Shopify integration; Shopify App Store; supports Shopify Plus and the Recharge–Shopify Checkout Integration; subscription billing engine native to Shopify checkout
Integrations
Only Bold Subscriptions
- Authorize.Net
- Google Pay
- PayPal Express
- Peel Analytics
- Shop Pay
- Shopify Payments
Both
No data yet
Only Recharge
- Amazon
- Google Ads
- Meta
- Shopify
- Shopify Checkout
- Stripe
- Tapcart
- TikTok
Customer support
Support rating (aggregated from independent review platforms like G2, Capterra, Shopify App Store): Bold Subscriptions 6/10, Recharge 8/10. This is an editorial composite of channel availability, response speed, and resolution quality — see the individual reviews below for specifics.
Pros & cons
Bold Subscriptions
Pros
- All features on every plan
- Maximizers boost AOV
- Free migration
Cons
- Transaction fees on growth
- Theme-compatibility glitches
- Support complaints
Recharge
Pros
- Industry-standard Shopify subscription management
- Customizable customer portal
- Collections & dunning capabilities (9.0 G2)
Cons
- Built on legacy code — causes intermittent issues
- Limited out-of-box checkout customization
- Pricing & 12-month Plus contracts criticized
When each one wins
Winner: Recharge
Scaling subscription revenue
Recharge is the category default with the deepest ecosystem — predictable economics as you grow.
Winner: Bold Subscriptions
AOV upsells on every plan
Bold's Maximizers (upsells, dynamic discounts) ship on every plan to push average order value.
Winner: Recharge
Avoiding per-order fees
Bold layers a per-order transaction fee on top of its base price; Recharge's model avoids that tax-on-growth.
Our verdict
Recharge is the safer default for a Shopify store scaling subscription revenue: it's the category standard with the deepest ecosystem and integrations, and it's the option most subscription stacks are built around. Bold Subscriptions differentiates with Maximizers — upsells, dynamic discounts and add-ons aimed at average order value — and ships every feature on every plan from $24.99/mo. The catch is the transaction fee: a base price PLUS a per-order percentage (2% on Launch, buying down to 0.9% on higher tiers), applied to the full order, which compounds exactly when revenue grows. Pick Recharge if you want the proven default and predictable economics at scale; pick Bold if AOV Maximizers are the draw and you've modelled the transaction fee against your order volume. Skio is also worth pricing as a modern Checkout-native challenger. For the full Recharge pricing breakdown (hidden $25 tier + 1.49% rate hike + Skio outlook), see /pricing/recharge.
Related comparisons
- RechargevsStay AI
For brands under $30K MRR subscription revenue, Recharge Standard at $25/mo + per-transaction fees is the only honest choice — Stay AI Pro at $499/mo cannot pay back at that scale. Above $30K MRR subscription revenue where active churn is a measurable revenue leak, Stay AI becomes evaluable: the OLIPOP case study suggests the retention delta covers the price step-up at meaningful scale, but case-study results are top-end outcomes, not median ones. Pilot the migration on a 90-day window with churn instrumented before committing. For the full Recharge pricing breakdown (hidden $25 tier + 1.49% rate hike + Skio outlook), see /pricing/recharge.
Open
- RechargevsSkio
For new subscription deployments in 2026, default to Recharge — it is the post-acquisition continuing platform with the active affiliate program (Lasso, 90-day cookie window). For existing Skio merchants, no immediate forced migration was announced, but treat the next 12-24 months as a stay-or-migrate window: stay if Skio specifically solves a pricing or feature edge you rely on, migrate if you want long-term roadmap certainty. Either way, evaluate what specifically broke for you on the platform you would migrate FROM before signing a new contract. For the full Recharge pricing breakdown (hidden $25 tier + 1.49% rate hike + Skio outlook), see /pricing/recharge.
Open
- Loop SubscriptionsvsRecharge
For brands under $20K MRR subscription revenue, Recharge Standard at $25/mo beats Loop Essentials at $99/mo on raw cost — the Loop entry-tier price jump made the lower-volume comparison harder to justify. For brands $20K-$100K MRR where per-transaction fees on Recharge add up, Loop becomes evaluable on the price-stability + UX axis. Recharge stays the partner choice (active affiliate program); Loop is editorial-only here. For the full Recharge pricing breakdown (hidden $25 tier + 1.49% rate hike + Skio outlook), see /pricing/recharge.
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