Key Takeaways
- WooCommerce subscription plugins enable recurring billing, automated renewals, and long-term customer retention.
- Top plugins like WooCommerce Subscriptions, WebToffee, and YITH simplify setup with flexible payment gateways and trial options.
- Plugins like Subscriptio and SUMO offer advanced features for managing memberships, renewals, and variable products.
- Fast, reliable hosting such as Cloudways ensures seamless subscription renewals, secure payments, and zero downtime.
- Choosing the right plugin and hosting platform helps maintain recurring revenue and enhances the overall shopping experience.
So let me guess – you likely have a WooCommerce store ready where you sell something. A digital or physical product doesn’t matter. Or you probably sell a mix of both. And now you want to have a customer base.
You’d want recurring customers, sell bundles, or even offer discounted product prices. Because all this means you can enjoy consistent revenue streams and have a dependable customer base.
Well, WooCommerce subscription plugins can be your beacon of hope. These plugins can help you set up a sales strategy that retains customers, offers better and easy payment options, helps you with promotional activities, and what have you.
In this article, I’ve gathered 7 subscription plugins that you can use with your stores. From collecting WooCommerce payments to offering enticing deals, these plugins have different features to exploit.
So, without further ado, let’s jump in and explore some of the best WooCommerce subscriptions plugins.
Before diving into the article, let’s go through the outline below.
- What is WooCommerce Subscription?
- WooCommerce Subscriptions Plugins
- WooCommerce Subscriptions by WooCommerce
- Subscriptions for WooCommerce by WebToffee
- Subscriptio – WooCommerce Subscriptions
- Yith Woocommerce Subscription
- SUMO Subscriptions
- Membership & Content Restriction – Paid Member Subscriptions
- WP Simple Pay (Stripe Payments)
- Subscriptions For WooCommerce Pro by WP Swings
- Final Thoughts
What Are WooCommerce Subscription Plugins and Why Have Them?
WooCommerce subscription plugins are extensions for WooCommerce stores that can help you with the store’s money management. These plugins enhance your store’s functionality by offering users a better shopping experience while benefiting your store financially.
You can use these plugins to fetch recurring payments, offer bundle offers, display discounts and promotions, and streamline your payments. Result? Healthy balance sheets of the store, a loyal customer base, and less stress about acquiring new customers.
Subscriptions Need Reliable Speed
Recurring revenue depends on flawless performance. Our stack ensures:
✓ 99.99% uptime for subscription billing
✓ Zero slowdowns during peak renewals
✓ PCI-compliant secure checkout
8 Best WooCommerce Subscriptions Plugins (2023)
I will now mention 7 WooCommerce subscriptions extensions that would help you set up and automate recurring sales-focused subscriptions at your stores.
1. WooCommerce Subscriptions by WooCommerce
Price: $19.92/month
Active downloads: 80,000+
WooCommerce Subscription by WooCommerce essentially adds a new payment method to your Woo store. Granted that it is a paid extension, but it is money well spent. The plugin greatly streamlines the process of setting up and managing a WooCommerce subscription offer.
It’s a plugin developed by WooCommerce developers themselves. You can make the shopping experience bliss for your customers using this plugin. Right off the bat, it lets you set up recurring client payments. This means, no need to send monthly payment reminders to the customers.
Then, you can use it to offer trial periods of your choice, discount offers, set up time-bound deals, etc. It’s perfect for all sorts of WooCommerce subscription needs, whether you sell digital or physical products.
Key Features
- It allows store owners to create multiple subscriptions for products and services
- You can offer trial periods
- Give subscribers the ability to manage their own plans
- Set up subscription expiry dates
- Create and manage subscription products at your WooCommerce store
2. Subscriptions for WooCommerce by WebToffee
Price:
- $89/year for a single site
- $199/year for 25 sites
WebToffee for WooCommerce subscriptions is another great plugin that you can use for setting up and managing recurring payments and billing at your store. It is a paid plugin, and you get a 30-day money-back guarantee period if you don’t like the plugin.
The plugin supports multiple payment gateways, and the list includes PayPal and Stripe too. Both have millions of users, making it very easy for you to receive payment for your products.
In addition to that, you get multilingual support which means you can target customers in different geographic locations. Definitely, a good plugin to explore if you are looking for a decent subscription model for your store.
Key Features
- Set up simple and variable subscriptions for physical or digital (downloadable) products
- Supports synchronized renewal with prorate option
- Multiple billing schedules, free trial & signup fee, recurring subscription discount coupon, & email notifications
- Synchronize the dates of the subscription products to a specific day of the month
- Fully compatible with multiple payments gateways
3. Subscriptio – WooCommerce Subscription
Price: $69
Active downloads: 7,500+
Subscriptio is another premium WooCommerce subscription plugin that is a great option for selling products like online memberships, e-learning packages, magazine subscriptions, and similar tangible and intangible products.
The company also offers support which you can extend for an additional payment of $24. This is a developer-friendly plugin and offers lots of hooks and filters for them. Using this plugin, you can track the complete transaction that takes place when a customer buys a subscription.
You can then track the events and draw insights to support your customers better. The plugin has many great features that can help you grow your WooCommerce store and set up a reliable revenue stream.
Key Features
- Create subscription lists and subscription management tools for customers
- Sell online memberships with recurring charges
- Configure subscription trial period of any length
- This plugin is fully compatible with Stripe and PayPal
4. Yith WooCommerce Subscription Plugin
Price: $199.99/year
Active downloads: 25,000+
Yith WooCommerce subscription is a freemium plugin that simplifies the process of offering subscriptions to your visitors. This is an ideal plugin for creating subscriptions for videos, podcasts, courses, reviews – pretty much anything that you can offer to your customers on an installment basis.
You can get started with the free version, but eventually, you’ll need the paid version to offer a better user experience. Some top features in the paid version include – allowing users to pay via credit cards, create manual subscriptions, choose recurring payments, etc.
Some of the other key features of the plugin are mentioned below.
Key Features
- It allows users to find subscription information on the “My Account” page
- You can create subscriptions for physical and variable products
- Fully compatible with PayPal and Stripe for automatic payments
- Admins can easily delete the subscriptions whenever they want
- Easily upgrade or downgrade subscription plans (this option is only available for variable products).
WooCommerce Subscriptions Built Right
Cloudways handles the infrastructure so your subscription plugins work perfectly with:
• Auto-scaling for renewal surges
• Isolated resources for payment processing
• Daily backups of customer data
5. SUMO Subscriptions
Price: $49
Active downloads: 3,900+
SUMO Subscriptions is a complete subscription solution for your WooCommerce online store. This plugin lets you set up simple, variable, and grouped product subscriptions. Moreover, you can create and sell subscription products from your existing WooCommerce shop.
You can have additional 12 months of support for this plugin for an additional $16.5. The plugin works with most WooCommerce-supported themes. You can also get a free trial for the plugin before you decide to set it up for your WooCommerce store.
Key Features
- This plugin is always compatible with WooCommerce, and WordPress updates
- The support is excellent, with fast response time
- Fully compatible with payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, etc
- You can create multiple subscriptions in a single checkout
- Compatible with SUMO Reward Points and WPML
6. Membership Content Restriction – Paid Member Subscriptions
Price:
- €99 basic
- €199 pro
- €299 agency
Active installations: 10,000+
Paid Member Subscriptions is built by Cozmoslabs and is a great option to explore when choosing a WooCommerce subscription plugin. The plugin allows high customization for your subscription content.
With great control, you can set prices for your offers and even get reporting data for your sales. Also, the plugin lets you use shortcodes to help with user logins, sign-ups, and subscription management for users.
The plugin is a little pricey compared to others in the league. However, you get many features and add-ons that help you with taxes, emails, invoicing, etc. These add-ons justify the prices to a great extent.
Key features:
- Easy login using [pms-login] shortcode.
- Subscription management for customers who want to buy higher-priced packages.
- Recurring payments and discount codes available.
- Prevention from account sharing so that only those who purchase your content can view it.
- Offers several add-ons such as Pro-rate, Tax & EU VAT, Group Memberships, and PayPal Express.
7. WP Simple Pay (Stripe Payments)
Price:
- $44.5/year – personal
- $79.6/year – plus
- $139.65/year – professional
- $209.65/year – elite
Active installations: 10,000+
WP Simple Pay is a simple payment plugin that you can use for your subscription website. It accepts payments via Stripe and is very easy to install and use.
It’s a premium plugin that offers different pricing schedules, and you can choose what best fits your requirements. The plugin makes it easy for users to buy a subscription plan from you for whatever you sell.
You don’t even need a shopping cart which makes checkout easier and eradicates the problems of abandoned carts altogether. The best part about this plugin – it’s so easy to build forms with it. It has a drag-and-drop interface for form building, making it very beginner-friendly.
Key Features
- Secure payment reception via Stripe.
- 10+ payment methods available to make it easier for users to pay.
- You can create recurring payment schedules.
- Collection and remittance for taxes.
- You can offer free trials of your products before collecting payment from them.
- Powerful automation with your WP CMS.
8. Subscriptions For WooCommerce Pro by WP Swings
Price: $109/ Yearly
Active downloads:- 10000
Subscription for WooCommerce is a powerful plugin designed to simplify and automate your recurring payments on WooCommerce. Whether you’re running a membership site, a subscription box service, or selling digital content, this plugin makes managing subscriptions easy and efficient. If you’re looking to boost your revenue through a reliable subscription management tool, Subscription for WooCommerce is a must-have.
Key Features
- Compatible with Learnpress, WooCommerce PayPal Payment, Stripe, Authorize, Braintree and much more
- Allow Multiple Quantities on Subscription Products
- Subscriptions for WooCommerce Pro plugin, you can enable subscription prices for a one-time purchase of products.
- This WordPress subscriptions plugin processes refunds if the user prefers to cancel their WooCommerce payment subscriptions. You can send refunds through the same payment methods they used for purchasing subscriptions.
Final Thoughts!
You can review them and choose the one that fits your WooCommerce subscription needs the best. I’ve also mentioned the latest pricing for these plugins to make decision-making easier for you.
I hope that you make the right choice and your store thrives and delivers great profits!
Q. Can I use WooCommerce for subscriptions?
Yes, you can use WooCommerce for subscriptions by installing the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin or other subscription-related plugins.
Q. What is the difference between WooCommerce memberships and subscriptions?
The main difference lies in their functionality:
WooCommerce Memberships: Focuses on granting access to restricted content or perks based on membership levels. For example, you can create a site where members access exclusive posts, videos, or discounts.
WooCommerce Subscriptions: Focuses on recurring payments for products or services. This is ideal for selling subscription-based products like a monthly box or a streaming service.
Q. Can you sell a subscription on WooCommerce?
Absolutely! WooCommerce allows you to sell subscriptions using plugins like WooCommerce Subscriptions or Subscriptions for WooCommerce. You can offer subscription plans for physical or digital products, and customers can choose billing intervals such as weekly, monthly, or annually.
Q. Is there a free version of WooCommerce subscriptions?
WooCommerce Subscriptions is a premium plugin and doesn’t have a free version. However, you can use free alternatives like the “Subscriptions for WooCommerce” plugin by WP Swings, which offers basic subscription features at no cost.
Q. How to handle subscriptions with WooCommerce?
Since WooCommerce does not support subscriptions by default, you must install a dedicated plugin like WooCommerce Subscriptions or YITH. Once installed, you can create a subscription product type, set billing intervals, and configure a compatible payment gateway like Stripe or PayPal. To ensure these recurring payments process without failure, Cloudways hosts your store on a managed, auto scaling cloud environment that prevents downtime during high traffic renewal periods.
Abdur Raafay Suhail
Abdur Rafay is a Digital Marketing Manager at Cloudways. His interests revolve around technology, and he spends his time reading and learning new stuff and believes in contributing to a greater cause. After work hours, he likes to cook, travel, and indulge in music and sports. You can contact him at [email protected] or via : Linkedin
