WooCommerce Subscriptions VS Subscriptions for WooCommerce: Choose the right plugin for your store

Subscriptions are a type of business model in which businesses receive regular recurring revenue from customers in return for their products or services.

Though they have been around for decades on end, there has been a drastic boost in the subscription economy in recent years. The trend is visible on WooCommerce too. More WooCommerce businesses are incorporating subscription models.

There are several plugins in WordPress that facilitate subscription functionalities, a prominent plugin among them is the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin from WooCommerce. The capabilities of this plugin are heavenly, however, they are a bit overwhelming for a small to medium business with limited requirements. A better alternative for such businesses would be the Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin from WebToffee.

Here is a complete comparison of the WooCommerce Subscriptions and the Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin. Have a look.

WooCommerce Subscriptions is a WordPress plugin by WooCommerce that adds subscription features to your eCommerce store hosted on WordPress.

The plugin offers superior subscription features including, but not limited to, simple & variable subscription, free trials, sign-up fees, payment synchronization, switching subscription variations, multiple billing schedules, recurring payment compatibility with several WooCommerce plugins, manual & automatic payment renewal, and more.

In addition to the plugin features, the purchase also entails 1 year of extended updates and technical support.

One of the best alternatives for the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin is the Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin by WebToffee.

Subscriptions for WooCommerce is a premium plugin that houses features that are necessary for adding and managing subscription products in your Woo Store. Subscriptions are a good way to ensure regular clients for a product in your store. The model focuses more on customer retention than acquisition.

The plugin offers everything that is essential for running a subscription-model business. The feature-rich platform is renowned for its reliability and trustworthiness. You can get the most robust of features at a competitive price to improve your store performance from the plugin.

Like WooCommerce, WebToffee also offers 1 year of extended plugin updates and technical support along with the plugin purchase.

Subscriptions plugin comparison can be done in a number of ways. Here we are comparing the plugins based on the following critical parameters that are to be analyzed before purchasing any products.

• Functionalities
  • Prorating payments
  • Switching subscriptions
  • Subscription actions for individual orders
  • Email notification
• Affordability
• Customer response
• Technical assistance
• Compatibility

Let’s dive in!

Though both the plugins look the same from the outside, there are considerable differences when it comes to the features.

Features	Subscriptions for WooCommerce	WooCommerce Subscriptions
Subscription synchronization	✓	✓
Prorate new subscriptions	✓	✓
Prorate renewals on switching subscriptions	✗	✓
Automatic payment renewal	✓	✓
Manual payment renewal	✓	✓
Drip downloadable content	✓	✓
Mixed checkout	✓	✓
$0 Subscription sign up without configuring payment method	✗	✓
Automatic retry for failed payments	✓	✓
Simple and variable subscription products	✓	✓
Free trials for subscriptions	✓	✓
Schedule recurring payments	✓	✓
Apply coupons for subscriptions	✓	✓
Automatic email alerts	✓	✓
Email alerts for subscription renewal reminder	✓	✗
Price	Starting from $89/year	$199/year

When comparing the sheer number of features that plugins offer, WooCommerce Subscriptions has the upper hand. Even though this is the case, the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin lacks several key areas that are essential to the customers.

Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin offers all the major and advanced meaningful features required for managing subscription payments in WooCommerce. This includes simple and variable subscription setup, email alerts on subscription statuses, free trial and sign-up fee offerings, multiple payment gateway support, etc.

Another key thing to note here is that the development of the plugin from WooCommerce seemed to have stalled. There have been no significant additions to the plugins during the last major releases and this has been one of the main concerns of the plugin users.

The following are some of the key differences in the features:

Prorating payments

Subscriptions by WebToffee – The Subscription for WooCommerce plugin enables you to prorate the first payment/renewal for all subscription products.

Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin offers prorating first renewals, along with prorating recurring payments, signup fees, and the number of pending payment recurrences while switching subscriptions.

Switching subscriptions

Subscriptions by WebToffee – At the time of writing this article, the Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin by WebToffee does not offer switching between subscription variations and upgrading/downgrading subscriptions.

Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The WooCommerce Subscription plugin has capabilities to help users switch between subscription variations and grouped subscriptions.

Subscription actions for individual orders

Subscriptions by WebToffee – While manually adding or editing a subscription, you are presented with subscription actions. With the WebToffee plugin, you can create the following actions for individual subscriptions: Email invoice/order details to the customer; Resent new order notification; Regenerate download permissions; Create pending renewal orders.

Subscriptions by WooCommerce – the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin only enables you to regenerate download permissions and create pending parent orders.

Email notification

Customers and store admins are notified by email of the various statuses of their subscriptions.

Both the plugins support setting up email alerts. However, the plugins differ in the type of available email notifications. For instance, with the WebToffee Subscriptions plugin, automatic notifications are sent to customers reminding them of subscription renewals, subscription expiry and subscription renewal intimation, this is not available in the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin.

Whereas both the plugins offer notifications on completing & processing renewal, suspending & cancelling subscriptions, and more.

There is a considerable difference between the plugins when it comes to plugin pricing. The WebToffee plugin is far more affordable than its alternative.

Subscriptions by WebToffee – Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin have a pay-only for what you need model. They offer the product in three different price ranges – each with the same feature sets but different site licenses. The plugin is available from $89/year to $199/year.

Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The WooCommerce Subscription plugin has a yearly subscription rate of $199. This is an extremely high rate when considering that you may have to use other add-ons/extensions to enhance subscription functionalities.

Subscriptions for WooCommerce is a well-received WooCommerce plugin with an average rating of 4.72 out of 5 from a total of 18 reviews on Trustpilot.

The WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin has an average rating of 3.4 on 5 from a total of 42 reviews in WooCommerce.

Subscriptions for WooCommerce offers support services such as email support, and technical resources.

Subscriptions for WooCommerce offer a number of customer service options including email, and technical resources. The normal response time of an email query or email support is around one business day. Note that the support desk is exclusive for premium customers.

Additionally, the users have free access to comprehensive documentation, blog articles, and FAQ guides.

WooCommerce Subscriptions also offer email support and comprehensive technical documentation.

Subscriptions by WebToffee – Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin is compatible with over 10 payment gateways and several multilingual plugins.

Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin has integrations with over 25 payment gateways and several other extensions.

While the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin has more features, it does come with a price that not all people can afford. And ultimately, it depends on what your requirements and goals are for your subscription-based business.

If you are still not sure what plugin to go for, both the plugins provide a 30-day money-back guarantee you can make use of to find the right one to take your subscription business to the sky.