8 Best WooCommerce Subscription Plugins for Recurring Sales

It is undoubtedly great to receive regular income from an e-commerce business but is it easier to manage reoccurring revenue? Well, it can be if you have a good WooCommerce subscription plugin working hand in hand, to do most of the job for you.

In addition to handling your payments, a plugin for subscription services in WooCommerce can predict favorable revenue streams with analytics and help scale your business.

After reviewing the most popular WooCommerce subscription plugins, let me share with you the 8 best options for any business in need of recurring payment solutions.

What is a WooCommerce Subscription Plugin?

A WooCommerce subscription plugin is utilized to help manage billing for repeat payments. Instead of manually processing each transaction you can initiate invoices to the customer at predefined intervals without manual intervention.

This is particularly beneficial for companies that directly sell digital products, membership access, or subscription boxes. With a dedicated plugin, you can also provide an easy approach to your customers to give them provisions to handle subscription plans, payment updates, and subscription cancellations.

A subscription plugin for WooCommerce allows businesses to:

1. Create automated billing cycles
2. Manage continuous product or service delivery
3. Provide seamless payment experiences
4. Generate predictable revenue streams

Subscription Plugin Vs Membership Plugin in WooCommerce

While both membership plugins and subscription plugins for WooCommerce generate recurring income for a business, the two models are quite different. It is a one-time payment vs a recurring payment.

Membership Plugins

• Focus on access control to content
• May not always involve recurring payments
• Ex: Gym Membership

Subscription Plugins

Recurring billing cycles (weekly, monthly, annually) for product/service
Provide comprehensive subscription management WooCommerce capabilities
Ex: Monthly Skincare box subscription

Key Features of a WooCommerce Plugin for Subscription

When choosing a WooCommerce plugin for subscription, it’s important to look for features that suit your business needs.

Some key features of WordPress subscription tools include:

• Automated Billing: Several subscription plugins for the WooCommerce store enable the auto-renewals of the subscriptions. This keeps customers billed continuously, thus, no need for the admin to do a follow-up.
• Trial Periods and Discounts: Subscription models for e-commerce must offer trial periods and discounts to attract new customers. Look for plugins that allow easy setup of free trials and discounted subscription rates.
• Flexible Payment Options: The subscription-based payment system will accommodate options for payment with PayPal and Strip and the possibility to pay with a credit card. This guarantees customers convenience when making payments on contracts.
• Subscription Management: Monthly subscription plugins in WooCommerce allow both store owners and customers to view subscription details, modify their plans, or cancel their subscriptions as needed.
• Customizable Billing Cycles: This offers automated subscription payment management irrespective of whether you are using either monthly, annual or any other payment schedule. A WooCommerce subscription plugin allows for the change of billing cycles depending on your type of business.

8 WooCommerce Subscription Plugins for Recurring Sales

8 Best WooCommerce subscription plugins for recurring sales are:

• WooCommerce Subscriptions by WooCommerce
• Subscriptions for WooCommerce by WebToffee
• SUMO Subscriptions
• YITH WooCommerce Subscription
• Subscriptio – WooCommerce Subscriptions
• WP Simple Pay (Stripe Payments)
• Paid Member Subscriptions
• Subscriptions For WooCommerce Pro by WP Swings

1. WooCommerce Subscriptions by WooCommerce

WooCommerce Subscriptions is an official subscription plugin by WooCommerce used for recurring payments for physical and digital products or services. You can capture residual revenue effortlessly and enables you to predict income stream that contributes to long-term growth.

It’s recognized as the best WooCommerce subscription plugin for small businesses. You can have WooCommerce subscription features like detailed reports, synchronized payments, and automated notifications.

Key Features

1. Flexible billing schedules with weekly, monthly, or annual payments to suit your business model.
2. Supports over 25 payment gateway integrations for seamless recurring payments.
3. Automated subscription renewals for uninterrupted service with automatic rebilling for failed payments and prompt renewal reminders.
4. Admins and customers can update, cancel, or modify subscriptions directly through the WooCommerce subscription dashboard.
5. Provide discounts for recurring payments or initial sign-ups with subscription coupons.
6. Automated customer emails to notify about renewals, cancellations, or expirations automatically.

2. Subscriptions for WooCommerce by WebToffee

WebToffee’s WooCommerce subscription plugin can help you create and sell your products and services to customers in a subscription model. Instead of static subscription choices, you can use this plugin and let customers customize their subscription boxes.

Provides efficient recurring payment solutions for WooCommerce by synchronizing subscription renewal to the same day. This keeps you updated about expected revenue.

Key Features

1. Set flexible billing cycles such as daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, and manage renewal intervals and expiry.
2. Sends notifications for subscription statuses to keep your customers updated
3. Compatible with multiple languages, including German, Spanish, Italian, and more, for global customers.
4. Manage subscriptions directly from the admin panel with options to suspend, cancel, or process renewals.
5. Charge initial fees based on the remaining days until the first synchronized renewal.

3. SUMO Subscriptions

Managing subscriptions by adopting a recurring revenue model can be guided by SUMO. This WooCommerce subscription plugin can handle everything from billing cycles to renewal processes.

With SUMO businesses can seamlessly manage customer subscriptions, automate renewals, and even integrate with various payment gateways to provide a hassle-free shopping experience.

Key Features

1. Allows users to select renewal frequency and set the number of installments for their subscriptions.
2. Combines subscription and non-subscription products in a single checkout for convenience.
3. Enables automatic subscription renewals with Stripe, PayPal, or SUMO Reward Points gateways.
4. Offers free trials, paid trials, and the ability to charge a signup fee for subscriptions.
5. Offers various options to pause, cancel, resubscribe, or cancel subscriptions.
6. Allows subscription quantity updates and includes features for drip-downloadable content or additional digital downloads.
7. Bulk update capabilities for subscription product settings

4. YITH WooCommerce Subscription

The YITH WooCommerce subscription plugin can easily manage subscription products management, automate recurring payments, and handle physical or digital subscription-based offerings seamlessly.

Businesses dealing with curated product boxes, providing access to premium digital content can use this subscription tool to create a successful subscription-based business. You can set up subscription plans to manage payment cycles and ensure smooth customer transitions between plans.

Key Features

1. Create diverse subscription plans for products with daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly payment options.
2. Develop subscription boxes with customizable product selections and advanced pricing rules.
3. Offer free trials or discounted subscription coupons to boost conversions and attract new customers.
4. Implement signup fees and manage recurring payments efficiently.
5. Generate printable shipping lists for subscription-based physical product deliveries.
6. Export subscription data to CSV for detailed reporting and analysis.
7. Monitor key metrics like revenue, subscription trends, and trial-to-paid conversions via an integrated dashboard.

5. Paid Membership Subscriptions

Paid Membership Subscription Plugin in WooCommerce offers a seamless way to integrate subscription models into your online store. Thus it’s suitable for businesses generating recurring revenue. With this plugin, you can create subscription-based products, restrict access to members-only content, and set up hierarchical plans tailored to your business needs.

The plugin simplifies subscription product management with easy plan creation, member management, and automated payment handling. Its compatibility with major subscription payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe ensures secure and flexible transactions.

Key Features

1. Create member-exclusive products and pricing.
2. Offers detailed payment history and reporting tools.
3. Allows the creation of discount codes for subscriptions.
4. Enables content restriction based on subscription plans.
5. Provides shortcodes for registration, login, and member management.
6. Offers a secure platform with reCAPTCHA and GDPR compliance.
7. Enables exporting data for external tools like MailChimp and Excel.
8. Customizable email templates for member notifications and admin updates.

6. WP Simple Pay

WP Simple Pay is a user-friendly plugin that allows you to integrate Stripe with your website and start accepting payments in minutes. It will be useful for collecting one-time payments, setting up recurring billing, or offering installment plans. This billing tool for WooCommerce offers control over subscription and billing processes.

This WooCommerce subscription plugin enables businesses to set up automated billing for subscription-based products. With its flexible payment options, including the ability to offer discounts, tax calculations, and payment plans, WP Simple Pay integrates seamlessly into your existing WooCommerce store and optimizes your payment processes.

Key Features

1. Supports over 10+ payment methods including credit/debit cards, US Bank accounts, and Klarna.
2. Drag-and-drop form builder for creating customized subscription payment forms without coding.
3. Customizable receipts and dynamic Smart Tags for personalized payment confirmations.
4. Set up recurring payments for daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly subscription cycles.
5. Purchase restrictions to limit form usage and set specific start and end dates for payment availability.
6. Create installment plans for subscriptions to split payments into multiple installments.

7. Subscriptions For WooCommerce Pro by WP Swings

Subscriptions For WooCommerce Pro by WP Swings is designed to offer businesses more control over subscription management. You can use this plugin to accept manual payments, set up one-time subscriptions, and provide automated solutions for recurring payments. Automating payments with WooCommerce extensions can ensure smooth and efficient payment processing.

Additionally, it offers extensive customization options for subscription plans and pricing. This will help you to provide a personalized experience for each customer, increasing customer retention and satisfaction.

Key Features

1. Auto-retry failed recurring payments to ensure uninterrupted subscription renewals.
2. Allow customers to start or pause their subscriptions at any time.
3. Support for manual payment methods like cash on delivery, direct bank transfer, and check payments.
4. Send automatic email reminders for recurring payments, subscription expirations, renewals, pauses, and reactivations.
5. Prorate subscription fees based on changes made to the subscription at any point during the cycle.
6. Customize the text of the Add to Cart and Place Order buttons for a better user experience.

8. Autoship Cloud

Autoship Cloud is a flexible and scalable subscription solution for WooCommerce. It provides features to manage product subscriptions, subscribe and save programs, and repeat deliveries easily. This plugin is designed to streamline subscription management by enabling recurring orders, automated payments, and notifications to implement a smooth subscription-based business model.

It integrates well with existing WooCommerce setups and allows merchants to offer subscription options across a variety of products. Plugin for subscription services WooCommerce allows for easy product selection, inventory synchronization, customizable order scheduling, and automated email notifications.

Key features:

1. Enable any WooCommerce product for subscriptions with “subscribe and save” options.
2. Sync with over 10+ popular payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net, for seamless WooCommerce automated billing.
3. Send automated email notifications for upcoming orders, payment failures, and changes to subscription plans.
4. Allow customers to modify delivery frequencies, and order dates, and even pause or cancel subscriptions.
5. Dynamic coupons for recurring orders, helping to increase customer retention and conversions.
6. Full integration with inventory management to automatically exclude out-of-stock products.
7. Automate shipping rates and delivery options, adjusting them according to customer locations and order details.
8. Use the plugin’s built-in reporting suite for inventory forecasting, revenue tracking, and customer metrics.

Common Use Cases for WooCommerce Subscriptions

WooCommerce recurring payments can be useful for various business models. Some common use cases for WooCommerce subscription plugins are:

• Subscription Boxes: An e-commerce subscription model is perfect for businesses selling subscription boxes. Customers sign up once, and products are delivered automatically at regular intervals.
• Digital Products: Products that are sold through WooCommerce as subscriptions will be particularly helpful for firms that deliver digital goods regularly, on a monthly or yearly basis. Products that may be sold through subscriptions include Software, eBooks, media, etc.
• Membership Sites: Membership-based businesses that rely on people subscribing to being a member such as online courses, exclusive content, etc can use subscriptions plugins to have payments made weekly, monthly, or annually.
• Services: Businesses offering ongoing services, such as consulting to their clients will find it useful to organize the customer’s payment method.

Conclusion

Subscription-based services are a promising business idea to ensure consistent sales. However, smooth operations and positive customer experience can only help scale the business.

A WooCommerce subscription plugin can ensure both and manage recurring payments, automate billing cycles, and increase customer retention.

Further Reading

• 10 Best WooCommerce Discount Plugins for Success in 2024
• 8 Best WooCommerce Tax Plugins
• 9 Best WordPress SMS plugins to engage customers
• 7 Best Contact Form plugin for WooCommerce in 2024