Subscription Migration to Shopify

Last updated August 2026

Migrating active subscription products and recurring billing from platforms with native subscription support (WooCommerce Subscriptions, Magento recurring profiles) to Shopify's subscription ecosystem.

What transfers

• Subscription product configuration can be recreated
• Billing interval and pricing structure
• Subscription box contents

• Active subscriptions with their billing schedules
• Payment tokens for recurring charges
• Subscription history (past renewals)
• Failed payment and dunning history
• Subscription-related emails and notifications

Risks and common problems

• Double-charging customers if old subscriptions are not canceled
• Payment tokens are platform-specific and cannot be transferred
• Customers must re-enter payment information for new subscriptions
• Subscription modifications (pauses, skips, upgrades) lost
• Billing date alignment issues
• Multi-currency subscription handling

Recommended approach

1) Export all active subscriptions from the old platform. 2) Choose a Shopify subscription app (Recharge, Bold, Appstle, Seal). 3) Configure subscription products in Shopify. 4) Contact active subscribers to migrate their subscriptions to Shopify. 5) Run both platforms in parallel for 1-2 billing cycles. 6) Cancel old subscriptions after confirming successful Shopify renewal.

Technical notes

• WooCommerce Subscriptions stores data in posts and post_meta tables
• Payment tokens in WooCommerce are stored by the gateway (Stripe, Braintree)
• Shopify subscription APIs are app-specific, not native
• Recharge API allows subscription import via CSV or API
• Each subscription app has different data models and API capabilities
• Consider running WooCommerce solely for subscriptions while migrating everything else

Platform-specific guides

Subscription Migration by platform:

Related migration problems

References

• WooCommerce Subscriptions Documentation — WooCommerce