Loop vs Recharge vs Skio: 2026 Subscription App Comparison

Pricing and features side by side

Loop and Recharge both start at $99 a month, and the difference is in the transaction fees. These are the list prices each vendor published on 11 October 2026.

Sources: loopwork.co/pricing, getrecharge.com/pricing and skio.com/pricing, all checked 11 October 2026. Skio's page shows no currency symbol, so confirm the currency with Skio before comparing its prices to the others.

What that means at $100,000 a month. Take a hypothetical brand with $100,000 a month in subscription revenue from 2,000 orders. At list price, before payment processing:

• Loop Starter: $99 + $1,000 = about $1,099 a month. Loop Pro: $399 + $750 = about $1,149.
• Recharge Starter: $99 + $1,490 + $380 = about $1,969. Recharge Plus: $499 + $1,340 + $380 = about $2,219.
• Skio Scale: $599 + $1,000 + $400 = about $1,999 billed monthly, or about $1,899 billed annually.

On Loop, Pro becomes cheaper than Starter once subscription revenue passes about $120,000 a month. The sums assume every order is a subscription order. Skio says its fee applies to "orders involving a subscription", Recharge says its usage fees apply to "all transactions processed by Recharge", and Loop's pricing page does not say whether first checkout orders count. Ask each vendor in writing which orders are charged, since it changes the sum. Larger brands can usually negotiate, so ask for a written quote.

Cancel flows and retention tools

All 3 let you show cancel reasons and a save offer for each one. The differences are in testing and how much control you have per reason.

The cancel flow matters more than most features on this list. Across the subscription brands we run on Loop, "I have enough or too much product" is the #1 cancel reason, at about 23% of cancel attempts in the last 90 days, and about 1 in 5 people who start canceling give no reason at all. Whatever app you choose, you need to set skip, slower frequency, swap and pause for the right reasons, and test the screens.

• Loop: benefits page, cancel reasons with an action per reason, retention offers and an instant winback offer after the cancel. A/B testing of the flow is on Pro.
• Recharge: no-code cancellation journeys on Starter, with A/B testing and smart branching on Plus and Custom.
• Skio: a multi-step cancel flow builder on the Scale plan.

Our cancel flow guide covers which offer to show for each reason, in any of the 3 apps.

Payment recovery and dunning

All 3 retry failed renewals automatically and can message the subscriber. Failed payments are a large share of subscription churn, so check how much control each app gives you over retries.

Across our Loop brands we saw at least 50,000 failed billing attempts in 90 days, so this is not a small problem for any subscription brand.

• Loop: smart dunning on every paid plan. Pro adds a backup payment method and hard-decline handling. In our accounts we set separate strategies by failure reason, such as an expired card or a revoked payment method, each with its own retry timing and messages.
• Recharge: AI-powered retries on Starter, which Recharge says can recover up to 88% of failed payments. That is the vendor's own figure.
• Skio: payment recovery campaigns with timing optimisation.

Whichever app you use, pair the retries with Klaviyo email and SMS triggered by the failure event, and stop them the moment the payment goes through. Our failed payment recovery guide goes through the retry ladder and the messages.

Klaviyo integration and the customer portal

All 3 send subscription events and profile data to Klaviyo, so you can build dunning, winback and subscriber flows on them. The event names differ, which matters when you switch apps.

• Loop sends events such as "Loop Billing Attempt Failed and will be Retried", "Loop Order Processed", "Loop Subscription Cancelled" and "Loop Payment Method Expiring". We build dunning, card-expiry reminders, winback and subscriber segments on these.
• Recharge sends metrics such as "Subscription started on ReCharge", writes profile properties that start with rc_, and offers pre-built flow templates in Klaviyo with the latest version of its integration, according to Recharge's help centre.
• Skio sends lifecycle events such as subscriptionCreated, subscriptionRenewed and subscriptionCancelled, with properties like cancelledAt and cyclesCompleted, according to Skio's help docs.

For the portal, all 3 give subscribers self-serve skip, swap and frequency changes with your branding. Test the portal on a phone as a subscriber would, since that is where most changes happen.

Migrating between the apps

Moving between subscription apps is a data transfer the vendor usually supports, but your Klaviyo flows need rebuilding by you or your agency. Loop says it has handled 1,065+ Skio-to-Loop moves and 400+ from Recharge, and that a Skio move typically takes about 2 weeks. Those are Loop's own figures.

Plan for these areas in any move:

• Subscribers, statuses and next billing dates.
• Payment methods, which depend on your payment gateway.
• Selling plans and legacy prices.
• The portal, cancel flow, payment recovery and notification emails.
• Every Klaviyo flow, segment and template that uses the old app's events or portal links.

Our Skio to Loop guide has the full checklist and a safe order for the cutover.

The reported Recharge and Skio deal

Recharge announced on 30 April 2026 that it was acquiring Skio. TechCrunch reported the price as $105M in cash, a figure shared by Skio's founder that was not in the press release. Recharge said both platforms continue operating as normal and that nothing was changing for merchants at the time.

Coverage put the combined business at more than 20,000 merchants and over $20B in yearly GMV. A third-party blog reported a "no change" commitment for Skio through 2028, which we could not confirm with Recharge.

If you run Skio, ask your account manager in writing about pricing, product plans and support from your next renewal date. If you run Recharge, the deal is unlikely to change much in the short term.

Who each app fits

Each app suits a different kind of brand, and the right choice depends on your size, your team and how much you want to customise.

• Loop fits brands that want the lowest published fees, migration included, and detailed control over cancel flows and payment recovery. On Shopify Plus stores, one May 2026 count put Loop at 1.32% of stores against Recharge's 9.43%, so it has a smaller install base.
• Recharge fits brands that want the most established option, a large partner network and a wide choice of plans. It costs more per transaction at list price, and its higher plans run on 12-month terms.
• Skio fits brands already on it whose terms and results are good. New brands choosing today should weigh what Recharge plans for it over the next 1-2 years.

Before you switch, measure your current cancel saves and payment recovery so you can tell whether the move helped.

EK proof

Email Kong is an official Loop partner and a Klaviyo Master Platinum Partner. We run cancel flows, payment recovery and Klaviyo flows on Loop events for 6 subscription brands. Results from 3 of them, measured as Klaviyo's share of total store revenue:

• Kaori (women's health): Klaviyo went from 3.3% to 19% of store revenue. Flow revenue grew 17.7x.
• Penrose Skin (skincare): Klaviyo's share went from 15.2% to 23.2%. Flow revenue grew 10.5x.
• KittySpout (pet): 46% of store revenue comes from Klaviyo.