Using Shopify as a subscription billing platform for clients – any real-world examples?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for real-world examples of using Shopify primarily as a subscription billing platform, rather than as a storefront for selling products.

The model I’m considering is:

  • We build and manage Shopify stores or websites for clients
  • Clients do NOT enter credit card details into their own Shopify stores
  • Instead, clients pay us a monthly subscription fee on our own Shopify site
  • Shopify is used mainly for recurring billing, payments, and customer management
  • The client’s actual website or Shopify store is technically separate from our billing system

This would be similar to a “website / Shopify store as a service” or agency subscription model.

I understand Shopify officially supports subscriptions, but I haven’t been able to find clear public case studies or named examples of agencies or SaaS companies using Shopify this way.

If you’ve:

  • Personally built something like this
  • Worked at an agency that used Shopify for client billing
  • Seen documented examples or public references

I’d really appreciate any links, names, or firsthand experience.

Thanks in advance!

3 Likes

I recommend the third-party solution Shopify Stripe Checkout & Subscriptions because you don’t pay for subscription apps, you don’t pay extra Shopify commission, and you can accept subscriptions with other recurring payment methods (that have lower commissions than the cards) supported by your Stripe account.

2 Likes

What’s the actual goal for the clients.
Without that critical detail this is a “just a build it on wordpress et al.” post.

You can’t white label shopify.
And the way your using the word “subscription” is twisted up so it’s not clear what you think that word means on shopify.
There’s subscriptions for the prices of the platforms PLANS, shopify plan subscriptions.
And the subscriptions system for selling PRODUCT on a single store, product subscriptions.

Regardless , standard plans billing and management will be all over the place.
Bills won’t automagically appear in the merchants mailboxes if your the owner of the stores that custom stuff has to be custom built.


If IF IF the other stores are extensions of a main brand:
Then see enterprise features ,on shopify Plus plans , of organizations & expansion-stores as the sanest route…
READ: 6 figures a year for only 10 stores.
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/manage-orgs-and-stores
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/organization-settings/expansion-stores

Otherwise there could some sort of sales-channel approach here but who knows at this level of detail /shrug

Good luck.