Zubs facts: what the Shopify subscription app is, does and costs

What Zubs is

• A Shopify app, installed from the Shopify App Store and used inside the Shopify admin.
• A subscription engine: subscription plans with discounts, prepaid billing, a fixed billing day and introductory discounts on Shopify’s own checkout.
• A build-a-box tool: customers pick the items in each box before checkout and for every order after that.
• A retention toolkit: cancellation flows with retention offers, pausing, Sequential Flows that reward subscribers at the orders the merchant chooses, and failed-payment recovery.
• An operations tool: inventory forecasts and reservation for upcoming subscription orders, local pickup, and an analytics dashboard.

What Zubs is not

• Not a shop system: Zubs runs only on Shopify.
• Not a payment provider: subscribers pay through the store’s Shopify payment gateway, which has to support subscriptions, such as Shopify Payments.
• Not a separate customer login: the customer portal lives inside the customer accounts Shopify provides.
• Not a fulfillment service: Zubs doesn’t pick, pack or ship orders.
• Not an email marketing tool: it sends subscription emails and passes subscription events to Klaviyo and Shopify Flow.

Who Zubs is for

• Shopify merchants who sell products people reorder: supplements, coffee, skincare, pet supplements, olive oil.
• Subscription-box and meal-kit brands whose customers choose what goes in each box.
• Brands selling in several markets and languages from one Shopify store.
• Merchants moving from Recharge or another Shopify subscription app, who want the move done for them.

Markets and languages

Merchants translate their own texts, such as plan names and cancellation reasons, with Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app. Source: help center

Integrations

• Shopify checkout, customer accounts and Shopify admin: Zubs works inside them rather than replacing them. Source: Shopify App Store
• Shopify Flow: triggers for subscription events, such as a new subscription, a failed payment or a skipped order, and actions that change a subscription, such as cancelling it, skipping the next order or adding a free one-time item. Source: help center
• Klaviyo: sends subscription events and sets custom profile properties for subscription-aware flows and segments. Source: help center

Pricing

• Free to install. Source: Shopify App Store
• Flex plan: 1% of subscriber GMV. All charges are billed in USD. Source: Shopify App Store
• On top of the 1%, a monthly fee that depends on the store and its contract. The Zubs team quotes it in a call. Source: zubs.app
• Migration from Recharge or another Shopify subscription app is done by the Zubs team and free: the team sets up Zubs based on the current setup and moves the subscriptions. Source: zubs.app

Proof points from customers

• Essig & Öl: Consistent growth, no guesswork on the next sourcing trip.
• HeySkin: A subscription program where customers stick around for the routine, not the discount.
• noms+: A subscription program where the customer portal quietly grows the basket, month after month.
• TryMoin: Active subscriptions and billing schedules moved in a single switchover, with zero engineering hours on TryMoin's side

Key facts

• Zubs needs a Shopify 2.0 theme, Shopify customer accounts (not legacy accounts) and an active payment gateway that supports subscriptions, such as Shopify Payments. Source: help center
• A subscription plan sets the delivery frequencies and the discount (percentage or fixed amount) for one or more products and variants. Source: help center
• Prepaid plans let customers pay for several deliveries upfront, for example 6 months at once with monthly deliveries. Source: help center
• A billing anchor bills every subscription on a fixed weekday, day of the month or day of the year. Source: help center
• Introductory discounts add an extra discount to the first recurring orders and can be limited to a Shopify customer segment. Source: help center
• Subscription plans can be limited to Shopify Markets, so each market can have its own plan, for example a EUR plan and a CHF plan for the same product. Source: help center
• Build-a-box: customers subscribe to one box product and pick its items before checkout and in the portal; the merchant decides how big a box can be. Source: help center
• In the customer portal, subscribers skip, reschedule or ship an order now, change frequency and items, update their payment method and cancel. Source: help center
• Pausing is optional; a paused subscription resumes automatically on the date the customer chooses. Source: help center
• Cancellation flows ask for a reason and answer it with a retention offer that fits. Source: help center
• Failed payments are retried automatically on the merchant’s schedule, and the customer gets an email so they can update their payment method. The merchant decides what happens if the payment never comes through. Source: help center
• Sequential Flows change a subscription at the orders the merchant chooses: swap a product, apply a discount or add a free one-time item. Source: help center
• The Inventory Planner forecasts the units upcoming subscription orders need, and Zubs can hold that stock in Shopify before each renewal. Source: help center
• Local pickup works with Shopify pickup locations and with custom pickup locations defined in Zubs. Source: help center
• Customers can turn a one-time item into a subscription in the cart; offering it in checkout needs Shopify Plus. Source: help center
• The analytics dashboard shows subscription revenue, subscriber growth, cancellations and retention, refreshed daily. Source: help center
• Shopify processes every subscription payment and keeps the payment methods; Zubs never receives card details. Source: zubs.app
• The Zubs app runs on servers in the EU (Netherlands); for customer data, Zubs is the merchant’s GDPR processor and provides a DPA on request. Source: zubs.app

Company

• Zubs GmbH, Am Stein 6, 34327 Körle, Germany. Registered at the commercial court of Frankfurt am Main, HRB 136694. Source: zubs.app
• Support: the Zubs support team answers in English and German. Source: zubs.app

Frequently asked questions

What is Zubs?

Zubs is a Shopify app for selling products as subscriptions. It adds subscription plans, build-a-box, a customer portal inside Shopify’s customer accounts, retention flows and failed-payment recovery.

How much does Zubs cost?

Zubs is free to install. It charges 1% of subscriber GMV, billed in USD, as stated on the Shopify App Store listing, plus a monthly fee that depends on your store and contract. The Zubs team quotes the fee in a call.

Does Zubs work without Shopify?

No. Zubs is a Shopify app and runs only on Shopify stores.

What does my store need to run Zubs?

A Shopify 2.0 theme, Shopify customer accounts (not legacy customer accounts) and an active payment gateway that supports subscriptions, such as Shopify Payments.

Do I need Shopify Plus?

No. Only checkout features need Shopify Plus, such as offering a subscription in checkout itself. The cart offer works without it.

Where do customers manage their subscriptions?

In the customer accounts Shopify provides. There they skip, reschedule or ship an order now, change frequency and items, update their payment method and cancel.

Which languages does Zubs support?

The customer portal and subscription emails come in English, German, Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish. The storefront widget and checkout cover 14 languages. Your own texts are translated with Translate & Adapt.

Can customers build their own subscription box?

Yes. Customers subscribe to one box product and pick its items on the product page before checkout and in the portal for every order after that.

Does Zubs support prepaid subscriptions?

Yes. A plan can bill several deliveries upfront, for example 6 months at once with monthly deliveries.

Can every subscriber be billed on the same day?

Yes. A billing anchor bills subscriptions on a fixed weekday, day of the month or day of the year.

What happens when a subscription payment fails?

Zubs retries the payment automatically on your schedule and emails the customer so they can update their payment method. If the payment never comes through, you decide whether the order is skipped or the subscription paused or cancelled.

How does Zubs reduce cancellations?

Customers can skip, reschedule or pause instead of cancelling. When they do cancel, Zubs asks for a reason and can make a retention offer that fits it.

Can Zubs hold stock for upcoming subscription orders?

Yes. The Inventory Planner forecasts the units your subscriptions need in the coming weeks, and Zubs can hold that stock in Shopify before each renewal.

Does Zubs integrate with Klaviyo and Shopify Flow?

Yes. Zubs sends subscription events and profile properties to Klaviyo, and adds Shopify Flow triggers for subscription events and Flow actions that change a subscription, for example to cancel it, skip the next order or add a free one-time item.

Can I move my subscriptions from Recharge to Zubs?

Yes. The Zubs team does the whole move for you, free of charge: it sets up Zubs based on your current setup in Recharge or another Shopify subscription app and moves your subscriptions. Subscribers keep their billing dates, and payment methods saved in Shopify carry over.

Does Zubs support local pickup?

Yes, with Shopify pickup locations or custom pickup locations defined in Zubs.

Who makes Zubs?

Zubs GmbH, a company based in Körle, Germany, registered at the commercial court of Frankfurt am Main.

Does Zubs offer support in German?

Yes. The Zubs support team answers in German and in English.