What Is Stay.ai?

Stay.ai is a subscription management platform built for Shopify merchants, especially those looking to launch or scale recurring revenue programmes. It emphasises tools such as a visual subscription-flow builder (including cancellation flows), loyalty-style mechanics (such as digital punch cards) and full Shopify-native integration. Stay.ai positions itself for growth-oriented brands seeking more than basic billing infrastructure while avoiding the complexity of enterprise-only systems.

Core value features include:

• A no-code/drag-and-drop interface for subscriber experiences and flows.
• Customer portal with self-service options, loyalty mechanics, and retention-focused touch-points.
• Built to work within Shopify’s ecosystem, with analytics and retention-tools baked in.

Pricing Structure (2025)

Stay.ai Pricing:
According to its Shopify App Store listing, Stay.ai’s plans start at $499 per month, with pricing that varies based on order volume, features, and service tier. Higher plans typically include added analytics capabilities and dedicated account support. Exact transaction or per-order fees are shared upon request.

Contract Model:
Stay.ai offers customised plans depending on brand scale and implementation needs. Some merchants note that onboarding or integration fees can apply when additional configuration is required.

Loop Subscriptions Pricing:
Loop Subscription’s published pricing begins at $399 per month plus 0.75% of subscription GMV, without per-order charges. The pricing is month-to-month and scales with order volume.

Takeaway:
When evaluating subscription platforms, it’s useful to look beyond the base fee—consider how pricing scales, what support or setup services are included, and whether the feature set aligns with your retention and growth goals.

What Merchants Say: Real Feedback 

What Merchants Say: Public Feedback
Pros (Shopify App Store Reviews)
✅ Ease of Setup – Merchants highlight quick onboarding and responsive support during implementation.
✅ Visual Flow Builder – The drag-and-drop interface makes it simple to create subscription and retention flows without developer assistance.
✅ – Built for Shopify, the app connects with standard ecommerce tools and analytics platforms.

Cons (Shopify App Store Reviews)
⚠️ A Bundling Limitation – In an August 2023 Shopify App Store review, ShopSketchBox reported that Stay.ai’s system couldn’t accommodate a flat-rate bundle project as scoped, leading the brand to seek a different approach. Stay.ai’s co-founder publicly responded, clarifying that the platform focuses on core subscription use-cases rather than custom code for one-off builds.
(Shopify App Store Review, August 2023)

Overall Impression:
Public reviews are largely positive, highlighting ease of use, support quality, and a focus on retention. A few note project-fit limitations for more complex or highly customised workflows—something brands may wish to confirm during the scoping stage.

When Stay.ai Works Well

Stay.ai is often a good fit for:

✅ Emerging Subscription Brands – Businesses that are launching or refining their first subscription offering and want an approachable platform.
✅ Straightforward Subscription Models – Ideal for simple repeat-order setups with standard frequencies and minimal customisation.
✅ Smaller to Mid-Sized Order Volumes – Works well for teams managing moderate order counts where per-order or transaction fees remain predictable.
✅ Shopify-Native Operations – A suitable option for brands that prefer working within Shopify’s ecosystem and timezone-aligned support.

When to Evaluate Further:As brands expand and begin introducing advanced retention tactics—such as personalised cancel flows, multi-SKU bundles, or cohort analytics—they may want to review whether their current setup offers the depth and automation needed for that next stage of growth.

When Brands Hit the Ceiling 

As brands grow, the subscription model that once felt seamless can start to reveal new operational pressures. These often aren’t platform-specific—they’re the natural result of higher volume and more complex subscriber behavior. Common friction points can include:

1. Higher Portal Demand
   As subscriber numbers grow, customer support teams often see more questions about managing orders, payment details, or delivery schedules. Reviewing portal usability and automation options early can help reduce support dependency later.
2. Limited Visibility Into Retention Drivers
   Aggregate churn metrics may no longer be enough. Many scaling brands start looking for deeper insights—such as churn by order number, product, or cohort—to guide retention strategy more effectively.
3. Payment Recovery Complexity
   At higher order volumes, failed payments and retries can become a significant part of the revenue cycle. Proactive dunning tools and pre-failure alerts can help mitigate loss and streamline recovery.
4. Operational Coordination
   With more moving parts—fulfillment, customer experience, and marketing—it’s important that response times, support coverage, and communication stay aligned with brand scale and customer expectations.

Takeaway:
These are typical inflection points in subscription growth, and addressing them early—through better analytics, automation, and customer experience design—can preserve margin and reduce friction as brands move from early-stage success to long-term scalability.

Stay.ai vs. Loop Subscriptions: The Retention Question

For growing brands, the comparison often comes down to operational depth—how each platform supports retention, analytics, and customer experience at scale.

Takeaway:
Stay.ai provides an intuitive, Shopify-native platform suited for teams focused on getting subscriptions live quickly. Loop Subscriptions builds on that foundation with retention-first tools—bringing deeper analytics, proactive recovery, and pre-authenticated portal experiences into one platform.

For a detailed feature breakdown and migration overview, see:
👉 Loop Subscriptions vs. Stay.ai

Alternative Platforms to Consider 

Loop Subscriptions (Retention-Focused)
Best For: Brands aiming to improve retention, automate payment recovery, and deliver personalised subscriber experiences.
Key Capabilities: Profile-based cancel flows, pre-authenticated customer portal, and smart dunning with pre-failure alerts.
Pricing:

• Starter plan — $99/month + 1.0% of subscription GMV
• Pro plan — $399/month + 0.75% of subscription GMV
  Both plans include no per-order fees.‍
• Payment Providers: Shopify Payments, Stripe, Authorize.net, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal Express.
  

Recharge
Best For: Established DTC brands managing larger subscription programs that need advanced APIs and developer flexibility.
Key Capabilities: End-to-end subscription management, advanced analytics, and a customisable developer framework.
Pricing:

• Standard plan — $99/month + 1.25% + $0.19 per transaction
• Pro plan — $499/month + 1.0% + $0.19 per transaction, as listed on Recharge’s official pricing page.

Skio
Best For: Shopify Plus brands focused on seamless checkout experiences and unified customer accounts.
Key Capabilities: Native Shopify checkout integration, passwordless login, and flexible subscriber portal design.
Pricing: Starts at $399/month, according to the Shopify App Store listing.

Smartrr
Best For: Brands that prioritise community engagement, loyalty programs, and gifting within their subscription model.
Key Capabilities: Customisable subscriber portals, loyalty rewards, and subscription gifting options.
Pricing: Available upon request.

See also:
👉 Compare Loop Subscriptions vs Stay.ai‍

FAQs 

What is Stay.ai?
Stay.ai is a Shopify subscription management app that helps DTC brands implement recurring billing with core features such as automated payments, a customer portal, cancel flows with “punch card” loyalty, and dunning management. It’s designed primarily for early-stage and growing brands launching or scaling subscription programs.

How much does Stay.ai cost?
Public information indicates Stay.ai’s pricing starts around $499/month, with some plans including per-order fees. Pricing may vary based on order volume, features, and onboarding requirements, so brands are encouraged to confirm the latest rates directly with the Stay.ai team.

What’s the main difference between Stay.ai and Loop Subscriptions?
While both platforms help Shopify brands manage recurring billing, the main difference lies in focus.

• Stay.ai offers subscription infrastructure with visual flow builders and loyalty features designed to help brands launch quickly.
• Loop Subscriptions focuses on retention-first subscription management, combining profile-based cancel flows, a pre-authenticated customer portal, and smart dunning with pre-failure alerts and automated recovery logic.

Loop Subscriptions also includes detailed analytics that help teams understand why subscribers cancel and how to improve retention outcomes.‍

When should brands consider switching from Stay.ai to Loop Subscriptions?
Brands often evaluate migration when they begin scaling rapidly and need more advanced retention, analytics, or recovery tools. For example, when:

• Subscriber management starts driving higher support volume
• Existing cancel flows don’t adapt to subscriber order history
• Payment recovery rates plateau
• More granular analytics are required to identify churn patterns

Loop Subscriptions’ retention and analytics tools are built to support that next stage of growth.‍

How does Loop Subscriptions handle Stay.ai migrations?
Loop Subscriptions provides end-to-end white-glove migration support, managing everything from data transfer and payment token mapping to Klaviyo integration setup and portal theming.

Each brand is assigned a dedicated onboarding manager, and migrations are handled with zero downtime, ensuring a seamless experience for active subscribers.‍

The Bottom Line

Stay.ai offers a strong foundation for brands launching or managing subscriptions on Shopify, with tools to handle recurring billing, cancellations, and customer engagement. For early-stage teams, it provides a straightforward way to get started.

As brands grow, however, retention and recovery become more critical than setup. This is where Loop Subscriptions takes a different approach — focusing on reducing churn, recovering failed payments, and improving subscriber experience through pre-authenticated portals, smart dunning, and profile-based cancel flows.

The real question for scaling DTC brands isn’t just “Does my subscription app work?” but “Does it help me retain more customers while reducing operational friction?”

Loop Subscriptions is designed to help brands answer that question confidently — with retention-first tools built to scale seamlessly as subscriber volume increases.

Explore Loop Subscriptions →
See Migration Support →

See What Retention-First Looks Like

Book a Demo →

Get a personalised walkthrough of your current subscription setup and see how retention-first tools in Loop Subscriptions can streamline operations, improve recovery, and strengthen subscriber relationships.

Read Migration Stories →

See real examples of brands that scaled retention after switching to Loop Subscriptions — including Good Protein’s 400% growth in 4 months.

Compare Platforms Side-by-Side →

See how Loop Subscriptions differs from other Shopify subscription apps across customer experience, retention features, and total cost of ownership

About This Guide:
This guide is based on publicly available information from the Stay.ai Shopify App Store listing, merchant feedback shared through public channels, and an analysis of feature documentation as of November 2025.

Core Features Breakdown

1. Subscription Management

What It Delivers:

• Convert one-time products to subscription offerings
• Multiple frequency options (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or custom intervals)
• Discount structures (percentage off, flat rate, or tiered pricing)
• Prepaid, pay-as-you-go, and hybrid subscription models

Operational Reality: According to merchant feedback, complex subscription rules (e.g., "subscribe to SKU A, get 10% off SKU B on 3rd order") may require additional configuration or custom setup.

2. Customer Portal

The Feature: Stay.ai provides a self-service portal where subscribers can manage their orders—skip deliveries, reschedule shipments, and swap products. For payment method changes, subscribers are routed through their Shopify customer account login rather than updating cards directly inside the subscription portal.

Operational Reality: Because Shopify portals often require customer account login for payment-related actions, brands evaluating the platform may want to review this flow in a live demo to ensure the experience aligns with their CX goals.

What Advanced Portals Do: Platforms such as Loop Subscriptions offer pre-authenticated subscriber links that allow direct access to actions like card updates or order management—removing extra steps and reducing friction in the process. This design helps CX teams save time while improving the overall subscriber experience. 

Additional Flexibility: Stay.ai’s portal supports core management functions for entire subscriptions. If your brand requires granular controls—such as removing or skipping individual items within a multi-product order—confirm whether those actions are supported natively or would need custom setup.

3. Cancel Flows & Retention

The Feature:Stay.ai offers a visual flow builder that lets teams design cancellation experiences and incorporate ‘punch card’-style loyalty messaging, such as highlighting that subscribers earn rewards after a certain number of orders. 

What It Offers:
– Drag-and-drop interface for flow creation
– Offer engine for discounts, pause, or delay options
– Reason tracking and save-rate visibility

Operational Context: Stay.ai’s flows are designed to give every subscriber a consistent cancellation experience. For some brands, this simplicity is an advantage; others, especially those with larger subscriber bases, may seek additional segmentation—such as tailoring messages by order number, purchase history, or loyalty tier.

How Advanced Flows Evolve: Platforms like Loop Subscriptions expand on this concept with profile-based retention journeys. These allow brands to present different offers or founder videos depending on the subscriber’s stage—such as first-order education versus long-term loyalty rewards—and to view performance by specific cohorts rather than overall totals. All actions run natively within the Loop platform, without requiring external URLs or third-party hosting.

4. Dunning Management

What It Does: Stay.ai automates payment retries for failed transactions, notifies subscribers by email, and provides a dashboard to track recovery outcomes.

Operational Context: Most subscription platforms, including Stay.ai, offer standard retry logic once a payment fails. However, true retention protection often depends on how early and intelligently those failures are managed—particularly before a decline occurs.

How Advanced Dunning Works: Platforms such as Loop Subscriptions enhance this process with pre-failure alerts, backup payment method capture, and configurable retry timing that can adapt to subscriber behavior. These capabilities help brands reduce revenue loss from failed payments while creating a smoother recovery experience for customers. 

Practical Takeaway: If recurring revenue is a significant part of your business, review how your platform handles payment recovery at each stage—before failure, at the time of decline, and during retries—to ensure it aligns with your retention goals.

5. Analytics & Reporting

What You See: Stay.ai provides visibility into key subscription metrics such as save-rate performance, revenue trends, and subscriber growth over time.

Operational Context: These high-level metrics help brands understand general performance, but they often focus on aggregate outcomes rather than granular subscriber behavior. For growing merchants, understanding when and why churn occurs can be just as critical as knowing overall churn percentage.

How Advanced Analytics Expand: Platforms like Loop Subscriptions offer deeper cohort and order-level analytics—revealing patterns across subscriber stages, SKUs, and retention campaigns. This helps brands identify which offers, products, or customer segments drive higher retention and optimize interventions with measurable clarity.