Recharge raised its prices and acquired Skio — what's a cheaper alternative in 2026?

Recharge's net-new Starter plan is now $99/month plus 1.25% + $0.19 on every transaction, its Pro plan is $499/month, and in April 2026 Recharge acquired Skio — the kind of consolidation and price increase that has merchants re-evaluating their subscription tool. Curobi is a flat-rate alternative: $29.99 or $69.99 per month with 0% transaction fees, so a percentage of each recurring charge never leaves your account no matter how much you grow. Migration from Recharge is built into the Pro plan via CSV import, at no extra cost, and does not interrupt active subscriptions.

What makes Curobi different from Recharge?

Curobi is a newer, focused alternative — it does not try to match a decade of Recharge's feature breadth. It concentrates on three things: 0% transaction fees with flat pricing, a billing core built around idempotent, no-double-charge processing, and merchant-curated monthly boxes on its $69.99 Pro plan — a price point where the established players are still charging $299–$499/month. If you need SMS flows, A/B testing, or enterprise-scale tooling, Curobi is not there yet — if you want reliable core subscriptions without a transaction-fee tax, it is.

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Curobi vs Recharge

Recharge is the established, feature-broad subscription platform. Curobi is the flat-rate, 0%-fee alternative built on Shopify's native billing. Here's an honest, factual comparison — including where Recharge is still the better fit.

Feature	Curobi	Recharge
Transaction fees	0% transaction fees, always	1.25% + $0.19 per transaction
Starting price	$29.99/mo	$99/mo (net-new Starter)
Top published tier	$69.99/mo	$499/mo (Pro)
Billing rails	Shopify-native Subscription Contracts	—
Ownership	Independent, built by Vibhora	Acquired Skio (April 2026)
Migration	CSV import on Pro, no interruption	—

Cells marked “—” are where we don’t publish a verified figure for Recharge. We only state competitor facts we can stand behind.

The transaction-fee difference compounds as you grow

Recharge's net-new Starter plan is $99/month plus 1.25% + $0.19 on every transaction, and its Pro plan is $499/month. Curobi charges 0% transaction fees on every plan, because recurring charges run on Shopify's own Subscription Contract billing rails — Curobi is never in the payment flow, so there is no fee to recover. You pay a flat $29.99 or $69.99 per month instead, regardless of how much subscription revenue you process. The more you grow, the wider that gap gets.

Consolidation vs focus

In April 2026 Recharge acquired Skio — the kind of consolidation and price increase that has merchants re-evaluating their subscription tool. Curobi is an independent product built and operated by Vibhora, focused on flat-rate pricing, a no-double-charge billing core, and box formats — not on matching a decade of Recharge's feature breadth.

Migration is included on Pro and doesn't interrupt subscriptions

Curobi provides CSV-based migration to bring existing subscribers in from Recharge without interrupting active subscriptions. Migration tools are included on the Pro plan at no extra cost.

The honest verdict

If you need SMS flows, A/B testing, or enterprise-scale tooling, Recharge's decade of feature breadth is still ahead. If you want reliable core subscriptions and boxes without a percentage of every recurring charge leaving your account, Curobi is the flat-rate alternative — and migration off Recharge is included on the Pro plan.

Questions merchants ask

Recharge raised its prices and acquired Skio — what's a cheaper alternative in 2026?: Recharge's net-new Starter plan is now $99/month plus 1.25% + $0.19 on every transaction, its Pro plan is $499/month, and in April 2026 Recharge acquired Skio — the kind of consolidation and price increase that has merchants re-evaluating their subscription tool. Curobi is a flat-rate alternative: $29.99 or $69.99 per month with 0% transaction fees, so a percentage of each recurring charge never leaves your account no matter how much you grow. Migration from Recharge is built into the Pro plan via CSV import, at no extra cost, and does not interrupt active subscriptions.
What makes Curobi different from Recharge?: Curobi is a newer, focused alternative — it does not try to match a decade of Recharge's feature breadth. It concentrates on three things: 0% transaction fees with flat pricing, a billing core built around idempotent, no-double-charge processing, and merchant-curated monthly boxes on its $69.99 Pro plan — a price point where the established players are still charging $299–$499/month. If you need SMS flows, A/B testing, or enterprise-scale tooling, Curobi is not there yet — if you want reliable core subscriptions without a transaction-fee tax, it is.

See the full FAQ, the Curobi vision, or compare other tools: Curobi vs Loop, Curobi vs Appstle, Curobi vs Seal, Curobi vs Skio.