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flint

Recharge alternative

A Recharge alternative with no monthly fee and no Shopify plan underneath.

Recharge costs $99 a month plus 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction on Starter, or $499 plus 1.34% + 19¢ on Plus, and it sits on top of a Shopify plan and Shopify Payments’ card fees. Flint Pay runs subscriptions with no monthly fee: 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment with processing included, plus 0.40% on subscription payments. At 500 subscribers renewing at $40 a month, the cheapest Shopify and Recharge setup costs $1,251.00 a month in fees, and Flint costs $1,013.00.

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3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card

last reviewed 2026-10-27 · sources

01The alternatives

Flint against every published Recharge setup.

Ranked by what a subscription business pays each month. Recharge runs on a store platform, so each Recharge option includes the Shopify plan and card processing under it. Every price is from the vendor's own page, checked on the date under Sources.

  1. 01

    Flint Pay

    Subscription boxes, refills, memberships, and subscribe and save, on the site you already have or through payment links. Every renewal is an order you ship from the same dashboard.

    Monthly
    No monthly fee
    Each renewal
    4.19% + 35¢, processing included
    Store platform
    Not needed
  2. 02

    Recharge Starter on Shopify

    Recharge's entry plan, installed on a Shopify store.

    Monthly
    $99 Recharge + $29 Shopify Basic (yearly)
    Each renewal
    1.49% + 19¢ + 2.9% + 30¢
  3. 03

    Recharge Plus on Shopify

    Recharge's higher plan, on a 12-month term.

    Monthly
    $499 Recharge + Shopify plan
    Each renewal
    1.34% + 19¢ + Shopify Payments

02Side by side

Flint vs Recharge on Shopify, need by need.

The Recharge column is what Recharge's and Shopify's own pricing pages and docs say today, each linked under Sources. The Flint column is what a Flint account does, with the API name behind it.

Monthly feeRecharge on a Shopify store: Recharge Starter $99 or Plus $499 a month, and the Shopify plan under it: Basic $39, Grow $105, or Advanced $399 a month ($29, $79, or $299 billed yearly).Flint: No monthly fee. One account covers subscriptions, one-time sales, checkout, and payments.
Fee on each renewalRecharge on a Shopify store: Recharge takes 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction on Starter or 1.34% + 19¢ on Plus, on top of the card processing below.Flint: 3.79% + 35¢ with card processing included, plus 0.40% on payments that start or renew a subscription.POST /v1/checkout-sessions
Card processingRecharge on a Shopify store: Shopify Payments at 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow. Another payment provider adds Shopify's third-party fee of 2% on Basic.Flint: Included in the card rate. Flint processes on Stripe, and you don't need a Stripe or Shopify account.
Store platform underneathRecharge on a Shopify store: Recharge is a Shopify app, with a separate BigCommerce integration. Its pricing page says its fees come in addition to your ecommerce platform, payment processor, and other apps.Flint: None. Sell from the site you already run, a payment link, or Flint's hosted checkout.POST /v1/subscription-plans
CommitmentRecharge on a Shopify store: Starter bills monthly. Plus and Custom run on 12-month terms.Flint: No plan and no term. You pay as subscribers renew.
Fees on one $40 renewalRecharge on a Shopify store: $2.25 on Shopify Basic with Recharge Starter, before either monthly fee.Flint: $2.03, and no monthly fee to add.
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How switching works

03Recharge pricing

What does Recharge really cost on Shopify?

Three layers, each billed separately: the Shopify plan, Shopify Payments on every charge, and Recharge's own plan and transaction fee. Recharge's pricing page says its pricing is in addition to your ecommerce platform, payment processor, and any other apps.

As of October 2026, Recharge lists Starter at $99 a month plus 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction, with a 60-day free trial, and Plus at $499 a month plus 1.34% + 19¢, on a 12-month term. Its Shopify App Store listing adds a $25 plan with no transaction fees for the first 50 subscribers. Recharge may bill its charges separately from your Shopify invoice.

Underneath it, Shopify Basic costs $39 a month ($29 billed yearly), and Shopify Payments takes 2.9% + 30¢ on every online card payment. So a $40 renewal on Basic with Recharge Starter pays $2.25 in fees, before either monthly plan. On Flint the same renewal pays $2.03: 3.79% + 35¢ plus the 0.40% subscription add-on, with no monthly fee. Flint’s per-renewal rate, 4.19% + 35¢, is lower than Shopify Payments plus Recharge Starter on Basic or Grow at any order size, so the monthly fees are pure savings on top.

Flint pricing →What Shopify really costs a small store →Flint vs Shopify →

04Included

What do Flint subscriptions include?

Plans for boxes and refills, subscribe and save across your catalog, hosted signup, shipping on every renewal, failed payment recovery, and a buyer account. All of it is in 3.79% + 35¢ plus 0.40% on subscription payments.

Every renewal is an ordinary Flint order, tagged as a subscription renewal, with its own receipt, refunds by line, and reporting.

origin

Renewals that ship carry the subscriber's address, a shipping charge quoted again each cycle, tax for that address, and a fulfillment.

delivery_destination

Subscribe and save across your catalog: an offer names the products, the cadences buyers pick from, and a discount on every shipment.

POST /v1/subscription-offers

Each shipment is numbered, so a first-box insert or a tenth-box gift is a field on the order.

subscription_cycle

Subscribers skip, pause, swap a variant, change cadence or quantity, order now, update their card, and cancel from their own account.

POST /v1/me/subscriptions/{subscription_id}/skip-cycle

A declined renewal is retried four times over 16 days by default, with an email to the subscriber, and you choose what happens if every retry fails.

subscription.past_due

Subscriptions on Flint →Memberships and subscription boxes →Subscribe and save offers →Failed payment recovery →

05Without a developer

Can you run subscriptions on Flint without a developer?

Yes, from the dashboard. A developer or an AI builder is only needed to put a subscribe and save choice on your own product pages or to create customers in bulk.

In the dashboard you add products with their sizes or flavors as variants, each with its own stock count, and create subscription plans with the cadences and quantities buyers can choose and the variants subscribers can swap to, subscribe and save offers across your products, and a payment link for each plan that opens Flint’s hosted signup. Hosted checkout offers one-time or subscribe and save on each item an offer covers. Renewals land in your orders list ready to ship, and a subscriptions view shows which ones need attention.

Settings decide what subscribers can do on their own: how long a pause can last, how many renewals in a row they can skip, whether a cancellation waits for the end of the period, which reasons they pick from, and whether a pause is offered first. You also choose whether a subscription is canceled, paused, or left past due when every payment retry fails.

Payment links →Customer accounts →

06Worked example

Is Flint cheaper than Recharge?

Yes, at every size below, even against the cheapest published Shopify and Recharge combination at each one. At 2,000 subscribers Flint saves $458.00 a month, and it costs less with automatic tax on every renewal too.

One $40 renewal per subscriber, per month100 subscribers500 subscribers2,000 subscribers
Shopify plan, billed yearly$29.00$29.00$79.00
Shopify Payments$146.00$730.00$2,760.00
Recharge plan$99.00$99.00$99.00
Recharge transaction fees$78.60$393.00$1,572.00
Shopify with Recharge$352.60$1,251.00$4,510.00
Flint, 3.79% + 35¢ + 0.40%, no plan$202.60$1,013.00$4,052.00
Flint with automatic tax on every renewal (+0.50%)$222.60$1,113.00$4,452.00

Assumptions

  • Each subscriber renews once a month for $40, shipping included, paid with a US card. Prices are each vendor's published US prices.
  • The Shopify and Recharge column is the cheapest combination of Shopify Basic, Grow, or Advanced (billed yearly) with Recharge Starter or Plus at each size: Shopify Basic with Recharge Starter at 100, Shopify Basic with Recharge Starter at 500, and Shopify Grow with Recharge Starter at 2,000. Billed monthly, Shopify costs more.
  • Flint saves $150.00, $238.00, and $458.00 a month at the three sizes.
  • Under 50 subscribers, Recharge's $25 plan has no transaction fees. At 40 subscribers that is $112.40 a month with Shopify Basic billed yearly, against $81.04 on Flint.
  • Sales tax isn't priced on the Shopify side: Shopify Tax is free until a store reaches $100,000 in sales, then 0.35% an order capped at $0.99 on these plans. The last Flint row adds automatic tax to every renewal.
  • Flint has no store builder. These figures assume you sell from a site you already run or with payment links, and leave a website's own cost out.

07Who Flint is for

Flint is built for US businesses that sell on repeat.

If that describes you, plans, signup links, renewals, and the buyer account are running the day you create your account.

Boxes and refills that ship

Each renewal quotes shipping for the subscriber's address and lands as an order with a fulfillment, so subscription and one-time orders ship from the same list.

Memberships and clubs

Monthly or yearly plans with trials and setup fees for memberships that don't ship, and a numbered cycle on every order for first-box inserts and milestone gifts.

Your site or your links

Flint has no store builder. Put a signup link on the site you already run, in your newsletter, or behind a QR code, and checkout is hosted for you.

US sellers

Flint onboards businesses in the US and pays out in USD to your own bank account.

08Switching

How do you move from Recharge to Flint?

Flint can't import saved cards from Recharge, Shopify, or any other processor, so every existing subscriber enters a card on Flint once. Flint can import their subscriptions on the dates they already paid for, so no one is charged twice.

  1. Recreate your products and plans

    POST /v1/subscription-plans

    In the dashboard, add your products, their variants and stock counts, and delivery options, then create a subscription plan for each box or refill, or a subscribe and save offer across products, with the cadences and quantities buyers can choose.

  2. Open new signups on Flint

    POST /v1/payment-links

    Create a payment link for each plan and put it on your site, in emails, or behind a QR code. New subscribers sign up on Flint's hosted checkout while Recharge keeps renewing your existing ones.

  3. Have each subscriber save a card on Flint

    POST /v1/customers

    Add your subscribers as customers, one at a time in the dashboard or in bulk through the API. Then email each one your Flint customer account link, where they sign in with a code sent to their email and save a card as their default.

  4. Import their subscriptions on the dates they already paid

    completed_cycles

    Export each subscriber's plan, cadence, address, and last charge date from Recharge, then upload a CSV on the dashboard's subscription import page. Flint checks every row before it creates anything. Each subscription continues the period the subscriber already paid Recharge for, charges nothing for it, renews at its end, and carries over the shipment count.

  5. Or let subscribers sign up again at their next renewal

    To skip the import, send each subscriber their plan's payment link shortly before their next Recharge charge date. When they sign up, cancel their Recharge subscription before it charges, and the Flint signup payment takes the place of that renewal.

  6. Cancel in Recharge before its next charge

    Cancel each Recharge subscription once its Flint subscription exists and before Recharge's next charge date. From then on, renewals arrive as Flint orders to ship from the dashboard.

Read how imports work →

09Start

Sign up, make your first link, and pay it yourself.

Sign up, add a product or make a payment link in the dashboard, and open it on your own phone to see exactly what your buyers will see. No code and no monthly plan.

3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card

Then read these

  1. 01
    Memberships and subscription boxesSetting up a box, a refill, or a club on Flint
  2. 02
    SubscriptionsPlans, offers, retries, and the buyer account
  3. 03
    What Shopify really costsPlan, apps, and processing, per order
  4. 04
    Flint vs Shopify
  5. 05
    Subscription billing guide
  6. 06
    Payment links guide
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Sources

Where each claim comes from.

  • Starter $99/mo plus 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction; Plus $499/mo plus 1.34% + 19¢; Custom volume-based; 60-day free trial on Starter; monthly billing; Plus and Custom on 12-month terms; pricing is in addition to your ecommerce platform, payment processor, and other apps. Recharge pricing

    getrecharge.com · checked 2026-10-26

  • From $25/month; the $25 plan has no transaction fees for the first 50 subscribers; Starter and Plus fees as above; external charges may be billed by Recharge separately from your Shopify invoice. Recharge on the Shopify App Store

    apps.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-26

  • The Recharge integration with BigCommerce lets merchants offer subscriptions on a BigCommerce store. Recharge docs: Recharge Checkout with BigCommerce

    docs.getrecharge.com · checked 2026-10-26

  • Subscriptions can be listed through the Recharge API (GET /subscriptions) for an export. Recharge API reference: subscriptions

    developer.rechargepayments.com · checked 2026-10-26

  • Basic $39, Grow $105, Advanced $399 a month, or $29, $79, $299 billed yearly; Shopify Payments online 2.9% + 30¢, 2.7% + 30¢, 2.5% + 30¢; third-party transaction fees 2%, 1%, 0.6%. Shopify pricing

    www.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-26

  • Shopify Tax is free until a store reaches $100,000 in sales, then 0.35% per order in the US on Basic, Grow, and Advanced, capped at $0.99 an order. Shopify Help Center: Shopify Tax pricing

    help.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-26

last reviewed 2026-10-27 · corrections: Flint Help

FAQ

Questions people ask.

How much does Recharge cost?

As of October 2026, Recharge's pricing page lists Starter at $99 a month plus 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction and Plus at $499 a month plus 1.34% + 19¢, with Custom priced by volume. Its Shopify App Store listing adds a $25 plan with no transaction fees for the first 50 subscribers. Recharge says its pricing is in addition to your ecommerce platform and payment processor, so a Shopify plan and Shopify Payments fees come on top.

Is Flint a good alternative to Recharge?

Yes, for a US subscription business that wants to stop paying for an app and a store plan on top of card fees. Flint has no monthly fee: renewals cost 3.79% + 35¢ with processing included, plus 0.40%. At 500 subscribers renewing at $40 a month, the cheapest Shopify and Recharge setup costs $1,251.00 a month in fees and Flint costs $1,013.00. Flint has no store builder, so you sell from your own site or with payment links.

Does Recharge require Shopify?

Recharge is installed as a Shopify app and also offers a BigCommerce integration, and its pricing page says its fees come in addition to your ecommerce platform and payment processor. Flint needs no store platform: subscriptions, checkout, orders, and card processing are one account.

Can I move my Recharge subscribers to Flint without charging them twice?

Yes. Import each subscription with the start of the period the subscriber already paid Recharge for, from a CSV on the dashboard's import page or through the API. Flint charges nothing for that period and bills next at its end, then you cancel the Recharge subscription before its next charge. Each subscriber needs a card saved on Flint first.

Can Flint import saved cards from Recharge or Shopify?

No. Flint doesn't import saved cards from another processor, so each existing subscriber enters a card on Flint once, in your Flint customer account or when they sign up again through a payment link. The import can carry over how many shipments each subscriber has already received.

Can subscribers skip, pause, or swap on Flint?

Yes. In Flint's buyer account subscribers update their card or address, skip the next shipment, change how often it comes or the quantity among the options you offer, swap to another variant you allow, order the next one now, pause and resume, and cancel. Your settings decide the pause length, the skip limit, and cancellation timing.

Subscriptions without an app fee or a store plan.

Free sandbox, no credit card, no sales call. Create a plan, open its payment link, and subscribe with a test card.

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Read how imports work

Or run npm install -g @flintpay/cli && flint signup to create your account and a sandbox key from the terminal. CLI guide

More comparisons · last reviewed 2026-10-27