The Shopify Subscriptions Reference app marks a significant milestone in how our partners and merchants build and share apps at Shopify, offering a foundational template for developing subscription applications.

In our Winter ‘24 Edition, we launched the Shopify Subscriptions app—a Shopify-built app with the basic features you need to set up and launch subscriptions directly from Shopify admin. As Shopify continues to build tools and code that help partners and merchants of all sizes scale for growth, we're excited to announce the release of the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app at the Winter ‘25 Edition.

This source code gives partners and merchants insight into our app-building process and serves as a starting point for creating custom subscription solutions.

Why we launched the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app

At Shopify, we’re focused on advancing the commerce landscape by continuing to invest in emerging business models such as subscriptions. Our partner ecosystem plays a crucial role in driving this ongoing innovation, supporting merchants with diverse needs. However, up until now, the ability to build a custom subscriptions app for Shopify has been challenging for businesses with unique and highly complex requirements.

Now, with the introduction of the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app, merchants looking to build a custom subscriptions app will be able to:

Build faster. Instead of starting from scratch, merchants and partners can use the reference app as a starting point to create an app Built for Shopify or an example app to accelerate development. With our comprehensive yet flexible application, developers will have the tools they need to get started.

Build for unique subscription requirements. The reference app includes the basic features of the Shopify Subscriptions app and its architecture allows developers to easily modify and extend Shopify to develop new ways of selling subscriptions. For example, offering a custom discount after a certain number of subscription orders.

More ways to use the reference app

Additionally, the source code provides you with more insight into the logic used to build the Shopify Subscriptions app, since you can:

Gather more context on the Selling Plan APIs. With the reference app, we’re demystifying the Selling Plan APIs and providing you with a deeper understanding of the logic used for selling plan groups, selling plans, cycles, and more.

Apply principles from the source code to other types of apps. Even when building applications outside of subscriptions, the source code provides valuable content such as how to build a more intuitive user experience for any app.

This app exemplifies Shopify's best practices in app development, offering a complete application with multiple extensions for developers to explore and adapt. Additionally, the reference app will continue to be updated with features from the Shopify Subscriptions app, ensuring developers have the latest base-level feature set.

Now, let’s learn more about the features and capabilities of the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app.

Features and capabilities

The Shopify Subscriptions Reference app is designed to benefit both developers looking to create their own subscription applications and merchants who want a customizable solution tailored to their business needs. Here are some features you can expect in the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app:

For a detailed overview of these features and more, please review our developer documentation.

App Extensions

Shopify is also introducing a new Purchase Options Extension that works like admin extensions and lets merchants create or edit subscriptions directly from the product and product variant page. Developers now only need to build a single extension to allow merchants to more easily create and manage purchase options. The Purchase Options Extension is replacing the existing product subscription app extension that is sunsetting and will no longer be available by December 3, 2025.

The app's architecture also supports modifications for other selling plan types, such as pre-orders or try-before-you-buy. Additionally, reusable extensions, like the theme extension, facilitate seamless integration with major themes available on the Shopify Theme Store.

How it works

Leveraging Remix, Vite, selling plans, and subscription contracts, the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app delivers a seamless user experience. Detailed installation and operational guidance are available in the developer documentation.

The reference app also works as a Shopify CLI template, which makes it easy to set up your development environment and to deploy your app and extensions. Additionally, the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app is released under the license which lets developers use and distribute the source code as their own.

Best practices

Accompanying the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app are best practices for running apps with Remix and Vite. We recommend developers implement component tests, update translations, and adhere to our App Design Guidelines.

For partners looking to build a subscriptions app for the Shopify App Store, please note that the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app can be used as a starting point but the app submitted must be substantively different so that it provides added value for merchants.

Get started today

To begin building your subscription application, please explore our developer documentation and API references for the Shopify Subscriptions Reference app.

The Shopify Subscriptions Reference app unlocks new possibilities for our merchants and developers by providing a foundational template to build a custom subscriptions application. With our comprehensive resources, including API references, the community forum, tutorials and more, we’ve enabled you to build faster while adhering to Shopify’s app-building best practices.

Julien Henrotte