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See Features10 best WooCommerce subscription plugins in 2024
Adding WooCommerce subscriptions to your store can be a powerful way to turn one-time shoppers into long-term customers and increase sales.
WooCommerce subscription plugins allow you to offer your services and products on a recurring basis. So, with the right plugin, you can build a sustainable revenue stream with monthly products, annual licenses, and customizable subscription plans.
However, selecting the best-fit plugin is critical to ensuring seamless payment gateway integration and flexibility in product creation.
You might also want to allow customers to manage their subscriptions, automate notifications, convert products into subscriptions without creating separate SKUs, and track subscriptions on your WordPress dashboard.
So, which plugins are worth considering?
We’ve tested the best plugins to help you add subscriptions to your WooCommerce store. Read on to discover the best tools for your business.
Criteria for choosing the best WooCommerce subscription plugins
We prioritized WooCommerce subscription plugins offering multiple subscription types and those that can scale with growing businesses to ensure the best fit for every store.
Specifically, we looked at:
- Functionality: Diverse subscription options and customization capabilities
- Ease of use: Intuitive interfaces for both store owners and customers
- Integration: Seamless compatibility with WooCommerce and payment gateways
- Flexibility: Customizable billing cycles, free trials, and signup fee options
- Performance: Reliable automated processes without impacting site speed
- Support: Comprehensive documentation and responsive customer assistance
- Value: Balanced pricing structures offering good feature-to-cost ratios
- Scalability: Ability to handle growing subscription bases and complex models
- Reporting: Detailed analytics for tracking key subscription metrics
Our selected plugins offer practical functionalities, user-friendly interfaces, and scalability to help your store implement various subscription models.
Top 10 WooCommerce subscription plugins for 2024
Whether you want to introduce subscriptions for physical or virtual products, the 10 WooCommerce subscription plugins below offer advanced features to capture recurring revenue:
1. Woo Subscriptions
Created by the WooCommerce team, Woo Subscriptions is a top plugin for managing WooCommerce subscriptions for any of your products.
The tool allows your customers to sign up, suspend, cancel, and change their subscriptions. It helps customers manage their accounts and take action, such as upgrading and downgrading their subscriptions, changing their shipping address, etc.
You can include several subscription types based on your product and customers’ needs. These include:
- Weekly subscriptions
- Annual billing packages
- Free trials
- Product of the month
The plugin boasts 90k+ installations and has a 3.2-star rating based on 101 reviews. Billed annually, the subscription includes constant product updates, improvements, and customer support. You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Key features
- Multiple payment schedules
- Automatic rebilling on failed subscription payments
- Manual renewal payments
- Automatic invoices and receipts via emails
- Detailed reports and analytics to help you track important subscription metrics
- Automated renewal notifications
Pros
- Supports both physical and virtual product subscriptions
- Flexible billing cycles (weekly, monthly, annual) to suit various business models
- Free trials and signup fees to reduce entry barriers for customers
- Customer self-management reduces support workload
- Detailed revenue forecasting aids business planning
- Multiple payment gateway support
Cons
- Takes time to master all the features
- Requires ongoing management to maintain subscriber satisfaction
Pricing information
- $23.25/month, billed annually at $279
2. Subscriptions for WooCommerce
Subscriptions for WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin for WooCommerce subscriptions. It allows users to offer subscription-based products and services through their WooCommerce stores.
This plugin makes it easy to collect recurring revenue for all product types, including online courses, services, ecommerce products, and so on.
One of the most attractive features of this plugin is that it integrates with PayPal and Stripe. This ensures a reliable payment processing for your online store. Plus, if there are any failed recurring payments, you’ll be notified witht updated order notes.
You can also get specific with your subscriptions by setting up different frequencies and expiration dates for individual products. If anything goes wrong, this plugin also automatically generates subscription error logs. This helps you track and troubleshoot your subscription process and keep it all running smoothly.
Key features
- Free trials
- Email notifications for subscription renewals
- Ability to cancel subscriptions at any time by both users and store admin
- Integrated WPS PayPal payment gateway
- Compatibility with the Product Bundles for WooCommerce plugin to help you offer subscription bundles
- Automatic retries for failed payments
- Email notifications for every subscription-related action
- Compatibility with other payment gateways like Braintree and WooCommerce Payments
The Pro version also has unique features over the Free one:
- Manual subscription payment option
- Multi-step configuration
- Manage proration amount as wallet credit
- Compatible with Mollie payments for WooCommerce
- Compatible with Braintree for WooCommerce payment gateway as a credit card
- Compatible with MultiSafepay payment gateway
Pros
- Allows the creation of simple and variable subscriptions
- Enables free trials for subscription products
- Offers complete WooCommerce subscription reports for admins
- Integrates with popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal
- Generates subscription error logs for easy monitoring and troubleshooting
- Offers compatibility with various WooCommerce plugins like Memberships, Wallet System, and Points and Rewards
Cons
- Free version lacks crucial features, like the ability for the user to upgrade and downgrade their subscription plan
Pricing information
- Free version
- Subscription for WooCommerce Pro
- One site plan: $109/year
- Five site plan: $269/year
- 10 site plan: $529/year
3. YITH WooCommerce Subscription
YITH WooCommerce Subscription is another one of the top WooCommerce subscription plugins. With this plugin, you have full control over the subscription payment schedule. As the store owner, you set the payment amounts and decide how often your customers get billed.
This affordable WooCommerce plugin includes one year of updates and customer support. Plus, if it doesn’t meet your expectations, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Setting up a signup fee for your subscribers is as simple as checking a box. This tool allows you to offer a free trial period and create discount coupons and promotional deals.
If you’re already using other YITH plugins, you’ll be pleased to know that this one offers complete integration with the rest of the YITH suite.
Key features
- Scheduled delivery of subscription products
- Provides options on how to handle failed payments, e.g., retry a certain number of times and then suspend subscription for a given period
- Ability to create a subscription manually, e.g., to handle cash payments
- A dashboard with subscription reports and analytics
- Ability to export CSV files of subscription data
- Compatibility with Stripe and other top payment gateways like Paypal and Amazon Pay
- Integration with other products on the YITH catalog
Pros
- Flexible subscription creation for various product types, including simple, virtual, and downloadable products
- Multiple recurring payment options, including daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly intervals
- Ability to set signup fees for subscription plans
- Synchronization of recurring payments to a specific day
- Advanced coupon system for discounts on initial and recurring payments
- Option for users to pause, resume, upgrade, or downgrade their subscriptions
Cons
- Requires additional plugins or integrations (such as YITH WooCommerce Membership) for certain advanced features, potentially increasing overall costs
- Some users report occasional technical issues and delays in customer support response times
Pricing information
- Free
- Premium: $199.99/year
4. Prepaid for WooCommerce Subscriptions
Looking to add a prepaid feature to your WooCommerce subscriptions? This is the plugin for you.
Created by Meow Crew, Prepaid for WooCommerce Subscriptions lets you offer prepaid options for your products, complete with flexible delivery options.
With a prepaid subscription, you can create variations to your subscription payment schedules. Instead of relying on one billing option, you can set varying ones — like weekly, monthly or yearly billing — depending on what best suits your products.
You can set up as many prepaid plans as you like and pair them with regular shipments. For instance, you could bill your customers yearly and ship out their products monthly.
Offering prepaid plans alongside your regular subscription plans is an effective way to boost your recurring revenue and make it more predictable.
Key features
- Add a prepaid plan to your existing subscription packages
- Users get to upgrade from regular subscriptions to prepaid
- A custom cancellation option
- A friendly user interface
- Integration with other WooCommerce subscription plugins
Pros
- Create prepaid subscription plans alongside regular subscriptions
- Choose different delivery schedules from billing cycles, such as annual payments with monthly shipments
- Flexible shipping payment methods, including upfront, regular, and custom flat-rate options
- User-friendly admin interface for managing prepaid subscriptions, including a visual prepaid sequence area
- Customizable cancellation options, allowing subscriptions to continue until the prepaid period ends
Cons
- Supports Simple and Variable subscription products, not converted regular products
- No direct switching between regular and prepaid subscriptions
- Incompatible with prorated payments but does allow synchronized renewals with full upfront charges
Pricing information
- $6.59/month, billed annually at $79
5. SUMO Subscriptions
SUMO Subscriptions is another great choice when it comes to plugins for WooCommerce subscriptions. It gives you the flexibility to create simple, variable, and grouped subscriptions. Both store owners and users can easily adjust their renewal frequency and installments.
One standout feature is the ability to offer prorated subscription amounts. This can be a game-changer in managing customer billing.
The platform also provides both Stripe and PayPal integrations, enabling automatic subscription renewals for payments made via credit cards.
Key features
- Order subscriptions for non-subscription products
- Synchronization for subscription payments
- Automatic subscription renewal
- Built-in Stripe patent gateway for automated payment renewal
- PayPal integration
- Subscriptions can be set to manual renewal modes if automatic renewal is canceled
Pros
- Supports free trials, paid trials, and signup fees
- Provides subscription synchronization and proration options
- Lets subscribers pause, cancel, and resubscribe to subscriptions
- Includes a dashboard for monitoring subscription metrics and revenue
- Supports content dripping for downloadable subscription products
Cons
- Some users report occasional technical issues and delays in customer support
- Certain advanced features may require additional plugins or integrations, such as SUMO Reward Points Plugin, potentially increasing overall costs
Pricing information
- Regular License: $49
- Extended License: $490
6. Subscriptions for WooCommerce by Webtoffee
This WooCommerce plugin by Webtoffee is ideal for creating simple and varied subscription packages. It makes it easy to manage your subscription durations and renewals, giving you full control over how your subscriptions work.
As well as this, with Stripe and PayPal integrations, Subscriptions for WooCommerce makes payment processing and automated renewals easy.
The plugin also allows you to send alerts to your customers about payment actions, including cancellations, renewals, and failed payments.
Besides having recurring billings, you can create recurring discounts, too. So, every time a customer renews or upgrades their subscription package, they can also enjoy a discount. It even offers prorated charges for added flexibility.
Key features
- Set up a free trial period and signup fees
- Offer online subscription services for a fee
- Integration with a payment gateway like PayPal and Stripe
- No cap on subscriptions
- Recurring discounts
- Both customers and the store owner can manage subscriptions
- 10 language translations on multilingual sites
- Email notifications for subscription-related actions like expiry, cancellations, and more
Pros
- Flexible subscription creation options, including simple and variable subscriptions with customizable renewal intervals
- Ability to set free trial periods and signup fees for subscription products
- Synchronization of subscription renewals to specific days, with proration options
- Recurring discount coupons for renewal payments
- Comprehensive admin dashboard for subscription management and order processing
- Automated email notifications for various subscription statuses and renewal reminders
Cons
- Incompatibility with WooCommerce checkout blocks in the current version
- Limited to a sixth interval maximum for subscription renewal schedules
Pricing information
- Single site: $89/year
- Up to five sites: $129/year
- Up to 25 sites: $199/year
7. Paid Member Subscriptions
The Paid Member Subscriptions plugin helps you easily create and manage subscription-based membership sites on WordPress and WooCommerce.
With this plugin, you can enable content restriction, set up recurring payments, and let users access varied membership-level offerings.
What’s also ideal is that it seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce, allowing product access restriction and member-only discounts. Plus, with features like content dripping, group memberships, and multiple payment gateways, you have the flexibility to structure and grow your membership site however you want.
Key features
- Content restriction for pages, posts, and custom post types
- Recurring payments set up for subscriptions
- WooCommerce integration for product restrictions and member discounts
- Multiple subscription levels with different access rights
- Group memberships for corporate or team accounts
- Content dripping to release content gradually to members
- Multiple payment methods, including PayPal, Stripe, and offline payments
Pros
- User-friendly interface for easy setup and management
- Flexible pricing options, including pay-what-you-want
- Seamless integration with popular WordPress plugins
- Customizable email templates for member communications
- Regular updates and responsive customer support
- Comprehensive documentation and tutorials are available
Cons
- Some advanced features only available in higher-tier plans
- Learning curve for using all functionalities effectively
Pricing information
- Basic: €99/year (one site)
- Pro: €169/year (three sites)
- Agency: €299/year (unlimited sites)
8. AovUp Subscriptions
AovUp Subscriptions offers flexible subscription models, easy plan management, automated communications, and multiple payment gateways for upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
Bulk subscription management, direct checkout links, and extensive customization options help streamline subscription handling for your customers.
Overall, its user-friendly interface and comprehensive feature set make it a solid choice for businesses aiming to boost recurring revenue and customer lifetime value.
Key features
- One-time, recurring, or trial options for diverse offering
- Customers can easily modify subscriptions without admin intervention
- Tailor billing periods to suit business needs
- Lets you set charges when customers change subscription plans
- Keeps customers informed about renewals and payments
Pros
- Easy plan modifications (upgrades/downgrades) manageable by customers
- Prorated billing during subscription changes
- Bulk subscription management tools for efficient administration
- Direct subscription checkout links for marketing campaigns
- Create flexible product bundles
- Multi-lingual support for international stores
Cons
- Some key features like automated communication and subscription checkout links require higher-tier plans
- Lack of built-in cancellation workflows (noted as “coming soon”)
Pricing information
- Basic: $23.25/month, billed annually
- Pro: $33/month, billed annually
- All Access: $41/month, billed annually
9. Buy Once or Subscribe for WooCommerce Subscriptions
Buy Once or Subscribe for WooCommerce Subscriptions is a useful plugin for offering existing products as subscriptions without needing to create separate SKUs.
You can easily set up global or product-specific subscription plans and incentivize subscriptions with discounts (percentage or fixed value).
The plugin integrates with Product Bundles and Composite Products, making it ideal for creating subscription boxes. It also supports simple and variable products, giving you lots of options to work with.
One of its biggest selling points is that you can use the same SKU for both one-time purchases and subscriptions, helping you maintain a streamlined product catalog without duplicating items.
Key features
- Convert existing products into subscription offerings without new SKUs
- Set up global subscription plans for entire product categories
- Create product-specific subscription plans with custom frequencies
- Offer discounts on subscription plans (percentage or fixed value)
- Compatible with Product Bundles and Composite Products for subscription boxes
- Integrates with Self-service Dashboard for customer subscription management
Pros
- Increases recurring revenue potential without complicating inventory
- Simplifies SKU management across one-time and subscription purchases
- Incentivizes customer loyalty through subscription discounts
- Flexible implementation for diverse product catalogs
- Enhances customer autonomy with self-service options
Cons
- May require additional setup time for stores with large product catalogs
Pricing information
- $6.59/month, billed annually at $79
10. Enhancer for WooCommerce Subscriptions
Enhancer for WooCommerce Subscriptions extends the functionality of WooCommerce Subscriptions with valuable features like updating prices for existing subscribers, flexible cancellation policies, auto-renewal reminders, and the ability to convert simple products into subscriptions.
This plugin helps increase revenue by ensuring all subscribers pay current prices, improves customer retention through strategic cancellation rules, and enhances the overall subscription management experience.
If you’re already using WooCommerce for subscriptions, it’s an excellent choice for optimizing your subscription model and boosting recurring revenue.
Key features
- Update subscription price for existing subscribers
- Flexible cancellation policies
- Auto-renewal and expiry reminders
- Convert simple products to subscriptions
- Separate shipping cycles
- Subscribe to the entire cart
- Multiple email templates
- Trial and switching controls
Pros
- Automatically updates prices for existing subscribers, ensuring all customers pay current rates
- Strategic cancellation rules prevent users from canceling just before renewal
- Customizable reminders keep subscribers informed about expirations
- Allows conversion of simple products to subscriptions
- Separate shipping cycles for subscriptions simplify logistics
Cons
- The price update feature only functions with payment methods that explicitly support the “amount changes” subscription feature
- Subscription prices don’t automatically update when tax amounts change, requiring manual adjustments for tax modifications
Pricing information
- $8.25/month, billed annually at $99
Comparison table of WooCommerce subscription plugins
Plugin | Pricing | Key features |
Woo Subscriptions | $23.25/month, billed annually at $279 | – Multiple payment schedules – Automatic rebilling on failed subscription payments – Manual renewal payments – Automatic invoices and receipts via emails – Detailed reports and analytics to track subscription metrics – Automated renewal notifications |
Subscriptions for WooCommerce | One site plan: $109/year Five site plan: $269/year 10 site plan: $529/year | – Free trials – Email notifications for subscription renewals, cancellations, and status changes – Allows users to cancel subscriptions at any time – Integrated WPS PayPal payment gateway – Compatibility with Product Bundles for WooCommerce to offer subscription bundles |
YITH WooCommerce Subscription | Free Premium: $199.99/year | – Scheduled delivery of subscription products – Options to handle failed payments (retry, suspend) – Ability to create manual subscriptions – Dashboard with subscription reports and analytics – Compatibility with Stripe, PayPal, and Amazon Pay |
Prepaid for WooCommerce Subscriptions | $6.59/month, billed annually at $79 | – Add prepaid plans alongside regular subscriptions – Customize delivery schedules separately from billing cycles – Flexible shipping payment methods (upfront, regular, flat-rate) – Customizable pricing strings and descriptions for prepaid plans – Visual prepaid sequence management in the admin interface |
SUMO Subscriptions | Regular License: $49 Extended License: $490 | – Order subscriptions for non-subscription products – Subscription synchronization and proration options – Lets subscribers pause, cancel, and resubscribe – Provides subscription status change email notifications – Dashboard for monitoring subscription metrics and revenue |
Subscriptions for WooCommerce by Webtoffee | Single site: $89/year Up to five sites: $129/year Up to 25 sites: $199/year | – Customizable billing periods to suit business needs – Prorated billing during subscription changes – Bulk subscription management tools – Direct subscription checkout links for marketing – Multi-lingual support for international stores |
Paid Member Subscriptions | Basic: €99/year (one site) Pro: €169/year (three sites) Agency: €299/year (unlimited sites) | – Content restriction for pages, posts, and custom post types – Group memberships for corporate or team accounts – Content dripping to gradually release content to members – Multiple payment methods, including PayPal, Stripe, and offline |
AovUp Subscriptions | Basic: $23.25/month, billed annually Pro: $33/month, billed annually All Access: $41/month, billed annually | – Allows customers to modify their own subscriptions – Prorated billing during subscription changes – Bulk subscription management for efficient administration – Direct subscription checkout links for marketing campaigns – Create flexible product bundles |
Buy Once or Subscribe for WooCommerce Subscriptions | $6.59/month, billed annually at $79 | – Convert existing products into subscriptions without new SKUs – Set up global or product-specific subscription plans – Offer discounts on subscription plans (percentage or fixed value) – Compatible with Product Bundles and Composite Products – Integrates with Self-service Dashboard for customer management |
Enhancer for WooCommerce Subscriptions | $8.25/month, billed annually at $99 | – Automatically update prices for existing subscribers – Flexible cancellation policies to prevent churn – Customizable auto-renewal and expiry reminders – Convert simple products to subscriptions – Separate shipping cycles for subscriptions |
How to use a plugin for WooCommerce subscriptions?
Besides consistent income, a WooCommerce subscription plugin allows you to bill customers automatically. This saves you time and reduces payment errors and delays.
Here’s how to set up a WooCommerce subscription:
1. Choose a subscription plugin
Today, advanced plugins for WooCommerce subscriptions are available for businesses of all sizes. You can choose the native WooCommerce plugins or the third-party applications available in your region. We’ll discuss the top options for your consideration in a bit.
2. Add a product and set the subscription type
The process is simple and the same as adding regular products on WooCommerce. Go to WooCommerce > Products > Add Product.
While selecting the type, you can opt for Simple Subscription if you want the basic model. You can choose Variable Subscription instead if you want to create a more diverse subscription plan.
3. Add product pricing and other information
You can then set up your subscription prices, billing cycles, signup fees, trial period, and more.
With a simple subscription, you can easily set up:
- A single billing cycle
- Price
- Expiration date
With variable subscription products, you can add:
- Unique attributes
- Signup fees
- Subscription prices
- Billing periods
- Subscription durations
- and more
This gives you the flexibility to promote individual products from your WooCommerce store.
Conclusion
Woo Subscriptions is a solid all-around choice for most stores. It offers flexible billing cycles, free trials, customer self-management options, and detailed reports on subscription events, revenue, retention rate, product popularity, and customer value.
For larger stores, YITH WooCommerce Subscription offers advanced capabilities that make it an excellent fit, including manual subscription creation, in-depth analytics, and the ability to export data to CSV.
AovUp Subscriptions is a top fit for small and medium-sized stores. Its clear dashboard, prorated billing feature, product bundles, and direct checkout links make it easy to build interesting subscription packages.
If you want to provide prepaid subscription options alongside regular subscription plans, Prepaid for WooCommerce Subscriptions lets you set different billing and shipping schedules and offer upgrade paths from regular to prepaid subscriptions.
Evaluate and seamlessly incorporate these plugins to build a thriving online store that maximizes recurring revenue.
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