Recurring Payment for "In-Store" membership services with an initial setup price?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Selling a non-physical membership service in Shopify with two pricing phases: a higher one-time upfront charge and a lower recurring monthly fee afterward (example given: $250 initially, then $99/month).

  • The main issue is whether Shopify subscription or membership apps can support different initial and recurring prices for the same offering.
  • The original poster had reviewed several apps and believed standard app settings did not appear to support this billing structure.

A subscription app provider responded with a concrete option:

  • Their app can support this setup through custom plan creation, even though merchants cannot configure it themselves in the current app interface.
  • They directed the merchant to contact support by email for assistance.

Current outcome:

  • A possible solution was identified via custom implementation from the app provider.
  • No platform-wide answer or native Shopify method was confirmed.
  • The discussion appears unresolved in general, but the poster indicated they would follow up directly with the provider.
Summarized with AI on March 6. AI used: gpt-5.4.
1

Looking for a way to setup a recurring payment for “in-store” membership services, however the initial price of the membership setup will be different than the recurring monthly price.

Essentially, selling a non-physical product through Shopify that has recurring payments on a monthly basis, but the initial price is different from the monthly recurring billed price.
IE: $250 up front and then $99 billed monthly after the first month.

I’ve checked out a few of the Membership and Subscription apps but I don’t think any of them will let me bill an initial price that is different from the recurring monthly price.

Thanks in advance.

2

Hi,

We have a subscription app, Simple Subscriptions, and we are happy to help you set something like this up. This functionality is not yet available for merchants to setup in our app, but we are able to create custom plans and have done it for merchants using our app. Please email our support channel support@cakewalk.dev and we can help you set this up.

Cheers!

Alyssa

3

Thanks @CakewalkAlyssa for your reply, I will reach out to your team and talk to them directly about our needs.

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