WooCommerce Subscriptions (by WooThemes/Woo) is one of the most popular WooCommerce extensions — used for recurring product boxes, coffee subscriptions, consumables replenishment, and membership-style recurring purchases. Shopify does not have native subscription billing built into the core platform; it requires a dedicated subscription app. Migrating subscriptions requires both product setup and, more critically, subscriber data migration.

WooCommerce subscriptions ecosystem

Common WooCommerce subscription setups:

WooCommerce Subscriptions: The main plugin. Handles billing intervals, renewal payments, subscriber management, and pause/cancel workflows.
YITH WooCommerce Subscription: Alternative plugin with similar functionality.
WooCommerce Memberships + Subscriptions: Combined for membership sites where content or pricing is unlocked by active subscription.

Shopify subscription apps

App	Best for	Price
Recharge Subscriptions	High-volume subscription brands, complex bundles	$99/mo + 1.25% + 19¢ per transaction
Skio	Modern DTC brands, passwordless subscriber portal	$399/mo or 1% per transaction
Bold Subscriptions	Established brands migrating from WooCommerce Bold	$49.99/mo + 1% per transaction
Seal Subscriptions	Smaller stores, simple recurring products	Free / $4.95/mo+
Appstle Subscriptions	Feature-rich at lower price point	Free / $10/mo+

For most stores migrating from WooCommerce Subscriptions, Recharge or Appstle are the most practical choices. Recharge has the best migration tooling for WooCommerce subscriber data; Appstle offers similar features at a fraction of the cost for smaller subscriber bases.

What needs to migrate

Data	How to migrate
Active subscribers (email, product, billing interval)	Export from WooCommerce, import to subscription app
Payment methods (saved cards)	Cannot migrate — customers must re-enter payment details
Subscription status (active / paused / cancelled)	Import active subscriptions; paused/cancelled are lower priority
Next billing date	Import to preserve subscriber's expected next charge date
Subscriber discount	Recreate subscription discount rules in Shopify app

The inability to migrate saved payment cards is the most significant challenge. Customers must re-enter their card details after migration. Communication strategy: send an email to all active subscribers explaining the migration, why they need to update their payment method, and by when — with a clear CTA to the subscriber portal.

Recharge migration from WooCommerce

Recharge has a documented migration path from WooCommerce:

Export WooCommerce Subscriptions data as CSV (subscriber email, product, interval, next billing date, status)
Install Recharge on the new Shopify store
Create subscription products in Recharge matching your WooCommerce subscription products
Import subscribers via Recharge's CSV import tool
Customers receive email to add their payment method to the Recharge portal
Set a deadline: subscriptions without payment method added by [date] will be cancelled

Subscription pricing and discounts

Common subscription pricing models on Shopify:

Subscribe and save: One-time price vs subscription price (e.g. subscribe for 10–15% off). Most subscription apps support this natively. Configure discount percentage per product or globally.
Subscription-only products: Products only available as subscriptions (subscription boxes, member-exclusive products). Achieve by hiding the one-time purchase option.
Tiered subscription: Different box sizes/quantities at different price points (e.g. Small box £25/mo, Large box £45/mo). Use product variants for each tier.

Subscriber retention during migration

Subscription migrations have inherent churn risk — every subscriber who receives a "please update your payment details" email may simply not bother. Risk mitigation:

Send the migration notice well before going live — give 2–4 weeks for subscribers to update
Make the portal link prominent and the re-entry process as frictionless as possible
Offer a small incentive (free gift, extra month) for subscribers who update on time
Follow up non-responders with a reminder before their next billing date
Accept that some churn is unavoidable — measure it and plan acquisition accordingly

Post-migration subscription checklist

Subscription app installed and configured (Recharge, Appstle, or equivalent)
Subscription products recreated with billing intervals and subscriber discounts
Active subscribers exported from WooCommerce Subscriptions
Subscribers imported to subscription app with next billing dates preserved
Migration communication sent to all active subscribers explaining payment re-entry
Subscriber portal tested — customers can pause, cancel, update address and payment
Churn deadline set — subscriptions without updated payment method cancelled by [date]
Post-migration subscriber count tracked against pre-migration baseline

Shopify subscription products after migrating from WooCommerce (2026)