A plan says how often a product is billed and delivered, and at what price. Each plan becomes a purchase option on the products you choose, so Shopify shows it on the product page and at checkout. Make and change plans under Plans.
The Plans page #
The Active tab lists your plans; Archived keeps the ones you took off your products. Each row shows:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Plan | The plan’s name (only staff see it). |
| Type | Subscription, Membership or Rental. |
| Billing and Frequencies | How often it bills, and the frequencies customers choose from. |
| Discount | For example “10% off”, “5.00 off” or “Set price 20.00”, with a free trial or sign-up fee when there is one. |
| Products | How many products and variants have the plan. |
| Shopify | Synced, Not synced yet, Sync failed, Removed in Shopify or Off. |
Click Create plan to make one.
Plan types #
| Type | What it sells |
|---|---|
| Subscription | A product delivered and billed on a schedule. |
| Membership | A membership tier: the customer is a member while the subscription runs. The plan needs a tier. See Memberships, tiers and store credit. |
| Rental | A rental billed by the period, with the Rentals & Bookings app on the store (“Rental plans need the rentals app on this store.”). See Rental subscriptions with Rentals & Bookings. |
The plan editor #
Plan #
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Plan name | “Only staff see this name.” |
| Type | Subscription, Membership or Rental. A membership plan also asks for its Membership tier. |
| Name customers see | The purchase option on the product page and at checkout, for example “Subscribe and save”. |
| Frequency label | Comes before each frequency: “Delivery every 2 weeks”. |
| Description for customers | Optional. Shown with the plan on the product page. |
Leave prices out of the names and the description: “Leave prices out of this text. Shopify shows the price in each customer’s currency.”
Frequencies #
Customers choose one frequency; each is billed and delivered at that frequency. Click Add frequency for more, up to 31 a plan. A frequency is every 1 to 365 days, 1 to 52 weeks, 1 to 36 months or 1 to 5 years, and each can be used once.
Discount #
Discount type: No discount, Percent off, Amount off or Set price, with its Value. The discount applies to every charge.
First order #
| Choice | What the customer pays |
|---|---|
| Regular price | “The first order costs the same as the ones after it.” |
| Free trial | “The first order is free; billing starts when the trial ends.” Set the Trial length (days), 1 to 365. |
| Sign-up fee | “A one-time fee is added to the first order.” A sign-up fee can’t be combined with a percent discount. |
Payments #
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Fewest payments | Optional. Customers can’t cancel before this many payments. |
| Most payments | Optional. The subscription ends after this many payments. |
Products #
Click Choose products, Choose variants or Choose collections. Collections are read again when you save or sync, so products you add to a collection later get the plan at the next sync. Turn on Only sold as a subscription if the chosen products can’t be bought once.
Subscription plans leave rental products out (“Subscription plans leave rental products out. To bill rentals by the period, make a plan of type Rental.”). Anything left out is listed under Left out with the reason.
Prepaid, billing day and gifts #
The last section sets prepaid deliveries, a fixed billing day and the gift option. See Prepaid plans, a set billing day and gifts.
Sync with Shopify #
When you click Save, the app sends the plan to Shopify and puts it on the chosen products. The On Shopify box shows when it last synced. If Shopify didn’t answer, click Sync now a minute later.
Changes made in Shopify’s own Purchase options card come back to the app: a product added to the plan there is added to the plan’s products, and a product taken off stays off, even when one of the plan’s collections holds it. If the whole plan is deleted in Shopify, it shows Removed in Shopify: Sync now puts it back, or archive it.
From a product page in Shopify #
In a product’s Purchase options card, the Subscription plan action adds the product (or one variant) to An existing plan or A new plan, with the main fields of the editor. “Changes apply to every product with this plan.” A purchase option made by another app is left alone: “This purchase option belongs to another app. Edit it there.”
Archive, restore or delete #
- Archive: “Archived plans are removed from your products. Existing subscriptions keep their terms.” Restore puts it back.
- Delete: “Delete this plan? Customers can’t choose it any more. Existing subscriptions keep their terms.”
Good to know #
- Editing a plan changes what new customers get. Running subscriptions keep the terms they were bought with.
- The Subscription options block shows only this app’s plans. Purchase options made by other apps aren’t shown in it.
- A product needs the Subscription options block on its template for customers to see the plans. See Subscription options on your product pages.
