Memberships and subscription boxes
Recurring billing for subscription boxes and memberships.
Flint charges your members on schedule and turns every renewal into an order with the member's address, shipping, and tax, ready to pack. Members skip, pause, and fix their own cards. You pay 3.79% + 35¢ per payment plus 0.40% on subscription payments, with no monthly fee.
150 members, $35.00 box
$272.48 a month in Flint fees, all in, with no monthly fee.
Every renewal is an order
With the member's address, a shipping charge, tax, and a shipment to fulfill.
Declined cards
Flint emails the member a link to update their card and retries for 16 days by default.
01Who it's for
Boxes that ship and memberships that don't.
A Flint plan is a price, a cadence, and optionally the items that ship each time. That covers most recurring businesses a small team runs.
Coffee, tea, and snack boxes
One plan per box, with your products as its items. Members choose every 2, 3, or 4 weeks if you offer it, and each renewal ships at your rates.
CSA shares
Weekly or every-other-week shares by shipment or local delivery, with skips for vacation weeks. Selling a season up front for pickup? Use a payment link with local pickup instead.
Flower subscriptions
Weekly or monthly bouquets with local delivery or shipping. Members can change the address for a gift or skip a week from their account.
Wine clubs
Monthly or quarterly releases with bottle-count choices, and delivery options limited to the places you're licensed to ship.
Studio and gym memberships
Monthly or yearly memberships with an optional free trial. Members pause for travel within the limit you set, and every charge lands in your orders.
Paid communities
Monthly or yearly dues with an optional free trial. Your subscriber list shows who is active, past due, or canceling, so you know who belongs in the group.
02Renewal day
Every renewal lands as an order you can pack.
Most billing tools stop at the charge. On Flint, each renewal is an ordinary order with line items, shipping, tax, a receipt, and a shipment, in the same list as everything else you sell.
Three days before, a reminder. For a box that ships, Flint emails the member what’s coming, where it’s going, and the estimated total, with links to skip, change the address, or pause. If their address can’t be served, you both hear about it while there’s still time to fix it.
On the day, stock, shipping, tax, then the charge. Flint checks stock, quotes shipping with your current rates for the member’s address, works out tax for that address, and charges the card on file. Flint never charges for a shipment it can’t route.
Then a shipment to fulfill. The paid renewal has an unfulfilled shipment like any other order. Add tracking and the member gets Flint’s shipping emails. Refund one item from a box without touching the subscription.
Prices hold, shipping follows your rates. Item prices stay at what the member signed up for. Shipping is quoted again each renewal, so a rate change reaches everyone. For members-only free shipping, make a delivery option for orders with a subscription only.
Upcoming shipments
How many of each item ship in the next 7, 14, or 30 days, by delivery method, with renewals at risk counted apart. Download it as a CSV for packing day.
Needs attention
One tab for past due members, renewals waiting on stock, and addresses that can't be served.
Mixed businesses
Sell one-off gift boxes, merch, and tickets from the same account. Renewals and one-time sales share one order list.
03Stock
No charge for a box you can't fill.
When a plan's items track inventory, every renewal draws from the location you chose for the plan, and the stock check comes before the charge. Turn on stock tracking for an item on its product page in the dashboard, record how many you have, and pick the plan's stock location. No code at any step.
Waits, then charges
If an item is out, the renewal waits without charging the member. When stock is back, Flint charges it and the box ships. Or have Flint mark the subscription past due instead; it's one setting in Orders and stock.
Members hear about it
Turn on the backorder email and members whose shipment is waiting get a note that it's delayed, instead of wondering where their box is.
Order before you run out
Upcoming shipments totals every item due in the window, so you can order beans, tins, or bottles for the members you have this month.
04Skip, pause, cancel
Members help themselves. You set the rules.
Every Flint store comes with a buyer account where members manage their subscriptions. Your settings decide what they can change, and your team can do all of it from the dashboard.
| Action | The member, in their account | You, in the dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| Skip the next shipment | Member: Yes, unless you turn skips off. You can cap how many in a row, from 1 to 12. | You: Yes, with no cap. |
| Pause | Member: If you allow it, for up to the longest pause you set (1 to 12 billing periods, or no limit). It resumes on its own. | You: Yes, until you resume it or for a set number of periods. |
| Cancel | Member: Always. You choose whether it ends at the period's close or the member picks, which reasons they choose from, and whether Flint offers a pause first. | You: Yes, at the period's close or right away, with a reason. |
| Change address or delivery option | Member: Yes, among the options the plan offers, unless you turn delivery changes off. | You: Yes. |
| Change how often, quantity, or variant | Member: When the plan offers more than one cadence or quantity, or a variant to swap to. | You: Yes, or move the member to another plan. |
| Order the next box now | Member: Yes. Later shipments are scheduled from that day. | You: Yes. |
| Update the card or retry a failed payment | Member: Yes, from the link in the payment failed email or their account. | You: Retry the payment from the subscription's page. |
Plans that ship can’t have a free trial; discount the first box with a one-time promotion instead. Memberships that don’t ship can have a trial in days, and Flint emails the member before it ends.
05Failed payments
Declined cards get a second, third, and fourth chance.
Expired and declined cards are where small subscription businesses quietly lose members. Flint chases them for you.
The member gets a fix link
When a renewal fails, the subscription goes past due and the member gets an email with a button to update their card. The next retry uses the new card.
Flint retries on a schedule
By default Flint keeps retrying for 16 days, and you can set anywhere from 1 to 90 days in Settings, Subscriptions. Any success makes the subscription active again.
You choose the ending
When the last retry fails, Flint cancels the subscription, pauses it, or leaves it past due until someone steps in. While it's past due, you can also retry by hand from the subscription's page.
06Subscribe and save
Turn one-time buyers into members.
Not every subscription is a box. A subscription offer adds a subscribe option, with a discount if you want one, to products you already sell.
Pick the products and the cadences. Under Subscriptions, Subscription offers, choose which products the offer covers, how often buyers can have them, and a discount that comes off every shipment.
Checkout asks the question. Flint’s hosted checkout shows one-time or subscribe on every product an offer covers, including checkouts opened from a payment link, and one cart can mix subscribed and one-time items.
Same member tools. Each subscribed product renews as an order, and the buyer skips, pauses, or cancels it from the same account.
Building it into your own product pages takes a developer or an AI builder; the subscription billing API page covers that side.
07What it costs
150 members, worked out.
Take a $35.00 monthly box with shipping built into the price. Flint charges 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment, which includes processing, plus the 0.40% subscriptions add-on on each renewal, with no monthly fee.
| 150 renewals at $35.00 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Renewals collected | $5,250.00 | |
| Card payments at 3.79% + 35¢ | $251.48 | |
| Subscriptions add-on at 0.40% | $21.00 | |
| Flint fees for the month | $272.48 | |
| Per member | $1.82 | |
Fees fall on what you collect. If you charge shipping separately, the fees apply to the shipping and tax on each renewal as well, the same as on any card payment.
Nothing to pay in a slow month. With no monthly fee, a month where half your members skip costs half as much. Skipped and paused shipments aren’t charged, so they carry no fee.
Refunds carry no extra fee. Flint keeps the original processing and add-on fees on a refunded payment and charges nothing more.
The same box on other subscription box platforms
Monthly totals at each platform’s published price on monthly billing, with card processing included, as of October 2026. At 150 members Flint costs $64.27 a month less than Subbly, the next lowest.
| Members at $35.00 | Flint | Subbly | Cratejoy Essentials | Shopify Basic + Recharge Starter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 members$1,750.00 a month in renewals | $90.83 | $158.25 | $169.88 | $239.33 |
| 150 members$5,250.00 a month in renewals | $272.48 | $336.75 | $351.63 | $441.98 |
| 400 members$14,000.00 a month in renewals | $726.60 | $783.00 | $806.00 | $948.60 |
| How it adds up | 3.79% + 35¢ with processing included, plus 0.40%. No monthly fee. | $69 a month, 1% + 12¢ per transaction, plus Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ | $79 a month, 1.25% + 10¢ per transaction, plus 2.8% + 30¢ processing | $39 + $99 a month, Shopify Payments' 2.9% + 30¢, plus Recharge's 1.49% + 19¢ |
On yearly billing, Subbly is $51 a month and Cratejoy Essentials $59; both still total more than Flint at every size above. Those plans include a hosted store. Flint sells from a link on the website, Instagram account, or newsletter you already have. Leaving Shopify’s app stack? Flint as a Recharge alternative goes further.
08How to start a subscription box
Price it, then set it up in an afternoon.
Before the first box ships, check that every renewal leaves you money. Then the setup is five steps in the Flint dashboard, with no code, stock counts and size or flavor variants included.
| One $35.00 box, example costs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price, shipping included | $35.00 | |
| What goes in the box | $11.00 | |
| Box, tissue, and insert card | $3.00 | |
| Shipping label | $7.50 | |
| Flint fees | $1.82 | |
| Left per box | $11.68 | |
Price for what’s left, not what’s collected. The amount left per box has to cover your time and the members who cancel. If it doesn’t, raise the price, trim the contents, or offer an every-other-month cadence that ships fewer, fuller boxes.
Decide how shipping is paid. Build it into the price, as here, or let Flint add it to each renewal at your rates. A free shipping option only members see is one delivery option, set to orders with a subscription.
Plan the first box. Plans that ship can’t start with a free trial, so a first-box discount is a one-time promotion. Memberships that don’t ship can start with a trial instead.
- 01
Add what goes in the box
Create your products in the dashboard with prices and photos, and give each one its delivery settings, so Flint knows how it ships. For a box in sizes or flavors, choose Add option on the product page, then Add variants gives each one its own price and SKU, and Track stock for these variants keeps a count for each.
- 02
Make the plan
Under Subscriptions, Plans, name the box, add its items, and set the price and how often it renews. For an item with variants, pick the one the box ships and the others members can swap to. Offer extra cadences or quantities if members should choose, pick the delivery options, and, if its items track stock, choose the location that stock comes from.
- 03
Set the member rules
In Settings, Buyer account and emails, decide whether members can pause and for how long, how many shipments they can skip in a row, and how cancellations end. In Settings, Subscriptions, set how long Flint retries a declined card.
- 04
Sell it on a link
From the plan, make a payment link. Put it on your website, in your Instagram bio, or on a QR code at the market, and subscribe once yourself to see what members see.
- 05
Pack from the forecast
Each week, open Upcoming shipments to see how many of each item ship in the next 7, 14, or 30 days, download it as a CSV, and fulfill the renewal orders like any other order.
Need more than the dashboard does, such as a joining fee or access to a members-only group that opens and closes with each subscription? A developer or an AI builder sets those up through the API. The guide to subscriptions that ship and charging shipping on Stripe subscriptions cover the details.
09Start
Put your first box on a link.
Sign up, add your box’s items, make a plan, and subscribe to it yourself from your phone in the free sandbox. When it looks right, share the link with your first members.
3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card
Then read these
- 01Subscription billingEverything subscriptions do, for the developer on your team.
- 02Recharge alternativeMoving subscriptions off a Shopify app.
- 03Preorders with local pickupFor CSA seasons and market orders picked up in person.
- 04Webflow Ecommerce alternativeSelling boxes from a Webflow site.
- 05Payment links guideSharing, QR codes, and limits.
- 06PricingEvery rate, published.
Sources
Where each outside price comes from.
The Subbly plan is $69 a month on monthly billing ($51 a month billed yearly), with a 1% + 12¢ transaction fee on Stripe. The payment provider's own processing fees are separate. Subbly pricing
www.subbly.co · checked 2026-10-27Essentials is $79 a month paid monthly ($59 a month paid yearly), plus 1.25% + $0.10 transaction fees. Cratejoy pricing
sell.cratejoy.com · checked 2026-10-27Website orders carry 2.8% + $0.30 processing. Cratejoy fees
sell.cratejoy.com · checked 2026-10-27Starter is $99 a month plus 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction, in addition to the store's ecommerce platform and payment processor. Recharge pricing
getrecharge.com · checked 2026-10-27Basic is $39 a month billed monthly, with Shopify Payments online card rates of 2.9% + 30¢. Shopify pricing
www.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-27Stripe's standard rate for domestic cards in the US is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction. Stripe pricing
stripe.com · checked 2026-10-27
last reviewed 2026-10-27 · corrections: Flint Help
FAQ
Questions subscription box owners ask first.
What does Flint cost for a subscription box?
3.79% + 35¢ per card payment, plus 0.40% on every payment that starts or renews a subscription, with no monthly fee. A $35.00 monthly renewal costs $1.82 in fees, so 150 members at $35.00 cost $272.48 a month in total. Automatic sales tax is an optional 0.50% on payments that carry tax. See every rate.
Do I need a website to sell a subscription box?
No. Make a plan in the Flint dashboard and sell it on a payment link: its own hosted page where members pick a delivery option, enter their address and card, and subscribe. Put the link on the website you already have, in your Instagram bio, in a newsletter, or on a QR code at the market stall.
Can members skip a month or pause on their own?
Yes. Every member gets a Flint account page where they can skip the next shipment, pause, change their address or delivery option, change how often it comes or the quantity when your plan offers choices, swap to a variant you allow, order the next box now, update their card, and cancel. You decide whether they can pause and for how long, how many shipments in a row they can skip, whether they can change delivery, and whether a cancel ends at the period's close. Your team can do all of it from the dashboard too.
What happens when a member's card is declined?
The subscription goes past due and Flint emails the member a link to update their card. Flint retries the payment for 16 days by default, which you can set anywhere from 1 to 90 days, and any success makes the subscription active again. If every retry fails, Flint cancels it, pauses it, or leaves it past due for you to handle, whichever you chose in Settings.
What if an item in the box is out of stock on renewal day?
Flint checks stock before it charges a renewal that ships. If an item is out, the renewal waits without charging the member and goes through once stock is back, or Flint marks the subscription past due, whichever you choose. You can have Flint email members that their shipment is delayed. Upcoming shipments in the dashboard shows what ships in the next 7, 14, or 30 days so you can order stock before it runs out.
Can I use Flint for a CSA?
Yes, for shares you ship or deliver. A plan can use local delivery, as long as it doesn’t ask members to pick a delivery window, and every delivery is an order on your list. Recurring pickup isn’t a subscription delivery option, so for shares collected at the farm or a market, sell the season as one payment with local pickup, or bill the share as a membership with no shipping and keep the pickup list from your subscribers.
Can I run a wine club on Flint?
Yes. Bill each release as a plan with your bottles as its items, offer a quarterly or monthly cadence, and let members skip a release from their account. Limit your delivery options to the places you're licensed to ship. Your licenses, age checks at delivery, and state shipping rules stay with you and your carrier.
Can I move my members from another subscription tool?
Yes. Upload a CSV on the dashboard’s Import subscriptions page. Flint checks every row before it imports, and each subscription continues the period the member already paid for and bills next when that period ends. Each member needs a card saved in Flint first, because saved cards don’t move between payment providers: add members as customers in the dashboard, and each one signs in to your Flint customer account and saves a card once. With a short list, sending members your new plan link is simpler still. Moving from Shopify? Flint as a Recharge alternative covers the switch.
Can I offer a free trial?
On memberships, yes: set a free trial in days on the plan, and Flint saves the card at signup and charges when the trial ends. Plans that ship goods can't have a free trial, so discount the first box with a one-time promotion instead.