Lots of entrepreneurs these days are looking into starting subscription businesses. Part of the reason for this is that subscription business models lend themselves well to long-term profitability through optimizing recurring revenue streams, but without the right software, it’s not an easy undertaking. Starting off on the right foot will save you time and resources in the future!

The best subscription management platform will allow you to manage all your key business functions all in one place. More so than for a traditional, transactional business, these could include:

  • Integrated automatic recurring payments
  • Customizable recurring billing features
  • A suite of subscription management and inventory forecasting features
  • Mobile-optimized checkouts, websites, and widgets
  • Automated customer notifications and marketing tools
  • Flexible payment and dunning features

One option that people can use is Magento, an open-source ecommerce platform known for its huge library of third-party plugins that expand its basic functionality. If you’re considering Magento as a solution to power your subscription business, here’s what you need to know before you pull the trigger.

What is a Magento subscription plugin?

A Magento subscription plugin (AKA extension) is a third-party program that can be added to your Magento setup. Magento plugins can include anything from accounting and finance extensions to subscription business metrics and analytics integrations — as well as subscription management tools.

🔥 Why are plugins needed?
The reason these plugins and extensions exist is because their specific functionalities are not built into Magento by default. This applies to non-subscription-related extensions too — across the board, users are often reliant on Magento extensions, plugins, and apps to run complex business models.

Magento subscription extensions: 3 crucial facts

It’s easy to get lost in the huge range of Magento subscription extensions currently on their marketplace. Whichever combination you consider, just make sure you take into account these 3 important points before you commit!

  1. Magento recurring payments and subscription extensions are externally developed. Third-party Magento apps and Magento itself are developed asynchronously, and may not always be up to date with each other in a way that can affect stability. Keeping bugs, errors and server downtime to a minimum is generally easier to guarantee with an all-in-one subscription ecommerce platform.
  2. Every business has their own subscription management needs. It’s a nuanced topic, and each Magento extension has its own approach. Using them in combination might not always result in a coherent, effective outcome, in contrast to the experience of using a single-platform solution.
  3. The cost of extensions can quickly add up. Even if Magento is open source, most of the apps are privately developed and come with their own individual costs. The more you use, the higher those costs can stack — we found a plugin-heavy setup can cost 6 times as much as a more streamlined approach.

The best Magento subscription and recurring payments extensions

400+ matches for ‘subscriptions’ appear on the Magento App Store, but which ones are worthy of being called the best Magento subscription app? Here’s our list of the most popular ones currently available for purchase or download.

Subbly

Although there isn’t an official Subbly plugin for Magento, you can easily integrate the Subbly checkout and cart function into your existing Magento setup. This gives you access to all the key features, from upsells to coupon codes (configured via Subbly), right there on your page. To learn more about embedding Subbly into your Magento site, check out our guide.

Key features

  • Embeddable checkout available on all plan tiers
  • Support for multiple payment gateways
  • Branding and visuals are customizable
  • Unlimited products
  • 14 day free trial

Pricing details

  • Starting at $14/month

Magenest Subscriptions & Recurring Payments

Magenest Subscriptions & Recurring Payments is a popular Magento recurring payment solution that allows customers to subscribe to any product, reorder it in a specified interval, and automatically pay for it using their saved payment details. This solution requires business operators to have a PayPal merchant account, Stripe account, or Authorize.net account to receive payments.

Key features:

  • PCI and DSS compliant
  • Multiple payment gateways
  • Subscription management features
  • Enable trial subscriptions
  • Custom subscription start dates
  • Secure customer Account Dashboard
  • Free lifetime updates

Pricing

  • Open Source: $389 (one-time fee)
  • Magento Commerce/Commerce Cloud: $859 (one-time fee)

Aheadworks Advanced Subscription Products

Aheadworks’ Advanced Subscription Products extension allows Magento 2 users to configure subscription plans for various product types, alongside offering one-time products. It’s fully flexible, allowing customers to manage their subscriptions without admin or business operator input, and merchants to keep customers in the loop with automated email alerts, among other features to maximize conversion.

Key features:

  • Offer free shipping
  • Configure different subscription product types
  • Offer customer group-specific pricing
  • Supports bulk discounts or other rule-based reductions
  • Mobile-optimized design
  • Multiple payment methods (including Apple Pay, PayPal, Stripe, and credit cards)

Pricing

  • Open source: $674 in the first year, $250/year afterwards
  • Magento Commerce/Commerce Cloud: $1,215 in the first year, $450/year afterwards

MageDelight Subscribe Now - Subscriptions and Recurring Payments

Developed by MageDelight, Subscribe Now – Subscriptions and Recurring Payments enables Magento 2 users to sell subscription products and services. Featuring a user-friendly and intuitive interface alongside powerful merchant tools, it’s a comprehensive solution for business operators aiming to increase customer loyalty and recurring revenue.

Key features:

  • No payment gateway dependency
  • Customizable customer area
  • Enable skipping and pausing
  • Supports cash on delivery
  • Automated customer email notifications

Pricing

  • Open source: $399 (one-time fee)
  • Magento Commerce: $799 (one-time fee)
  • Magento Commerce Cloud: $999 (one-time fee)

mPower Subscription & Recurring Payment Solution

mPower’s Subscription and Recurring Payment Solution is a native Magento 2 subscription management extension allowing users to leverage recurring revenue and subscription business models with powerful automations. Its developers, PowerSync, also include 24/7 support for the first year, as well as lifetime updates.

Key features:

  • Accept recurring payments
  • Manage subscription products and customer accounts
  • Modify subscriber preferences, or allow subscribers to do it themselves
  • Simple checkout functionality
  • Automated notifications and renewals
  • Payment integrations with Braintree, PayFlow, Stripe, Authorize.net, CyberSource, and more

Pricing

  • Open source: $1,497/year
  • Magento Commerce and Commerce Cloud: $4,997/year

Subscribe Pro Connector

Subscribe Pro Connector provides an integrated subscription commerce solution for Magento users looking to increase customer lifetime value, loyalty, and revenue. Data is stored on their platform, and transmitted to Magento via API calls — meaning merchants just need their extension to get started, rather than a custom installation.

Key features:

  • Self-service subscription management
  • Secure, PCI certified payment details storage
  • Automatically generated customer service emails
  • Automatic error handling
  • Over 100 payment gateways supported

Pricing

  • Starting at $499/month, with enterprise options available

In conclusion

That’s it — you’ve reached the end of our list of the best Magento subscription plugins and extensions on the market.

🔥 Pro tip
When you’re making your choice, there’s nothing more important than ensuring you’re building your business on a solid foundation (read: tech stack) that facilitates long-term growth and maximizing recurring revenue. The more stable and unified your tech stack, the less you open yourself up for problems to arise once you’ve gained momentum and pivoting isn’t an optimal option.

Check out Magento’s App Store and see for yourself — but no single extension matches the functionality of an all-in-one platform like Subbly. It’s the same case with BigCommerce subscription apps, Shopify subscription apps, WordPress subscription plugins, and Webflow subscription ecommerce setups too!!

Here’s what our merchants have to say!

“Subbly is easy to use… I can’t really think of anything I’d need outside of what Subbly offers, plus they’ve helped me think of things I hadn’t thought of yet. Also, the customer service is EXCEPTIONALLY amazing (and super patient).” – Telia Rae Sorter, Founder of Sorter’s Corner

“Subbly has exactly what we need in a subscription platform. We have tried others and they simply still need more development, while Subbly has given us enough room to grow with enough ease of use to be the perfect solution.” – Robert Sanchez, Founder of Pure Roasters Coffee

“There is no other single platform that offers so much for such a low upfront investment. There is no fluff in the Subbly ecosystem; you get what you truly need out of the box, without being overwhelmed or confused.” — Alex Fleck, Founder of The Keeper Box

We invite you to discover Subbly yourself today – the first 14 days are on us!

By Zaki Gulamani
Editor-In-Chief at Subbly