Anchor Subscriptions vs Essential Subscriptions App
Two Shopify apps, side by side: detected stores, momentum, reviews, plans, listed features and who runs each. Store counts as of Nov 6, 2026.
The short answer
- Essential Subscriptions lists 6 features Anchor Subscriptions’s listing doesn’t mention, including Custom pricing, Digital products, Dynamic pricing.
Head to head
- United States
- Australia
- United Kingdom
Momentum
New reviews each month
Review pace is the clearest public read on how fast an app is winning new merchants.
Anchor
- · 0% transaction fees, forever
- · Automatic payment recover
- · Customers manage subscriptions
- · Free zero-downtime migration
- · No percentage of your sales
- · Subscription analytics
Coverage counts what each App Store listing names. Every feature, checked off app by app, is in Shoplist.
See every featureLaunch subscriptions without adding another platform to your business. Customers subscribe from a widget that matches your storefront — no code — and manage everything from their Shopify account: skip, pause, cancel, swap or reschedule without contacting support.
Essential Subscriptions is a subscription app that adds subscribe and save to any product, no code needed. Create subscription bundles with lower prices on bigger packs, for one-time or recurring orders. Add free gifts to the first subscription order, with different gifts per delivery plan. When customers try to cancel or pause, ask why and show one matching offer.
- Add a subscription widget that matches your storefront. No code required.
- Build subscription plans that fit your business.
- Let customers skip, pause, swap, reschedule or cancel on their own
- Recover failed payments with automatic branded emails
- Create subscription campaigns with subscribe and save discounts, no code needed
- Pay-as-you-go or prepaid billing with daily, weekly, monthly or yearly delivery
- Self-service customer portal to skip, pause, resume or cancel subscriptions
- Recover revenue with automatic payment retry, smart dunning and email alerts
All the numbers
Every figure, side by side
A green dot marks the app ahead on a measured figure. Estimates, gaps and apps that leave no storefront trace never take the lead.
Adoption
| Measure |  Essential Subscriptions | |
|---|---|---|
| Detected stores | Not published | 12 |
| Net store change, 28 days | 0 | 0 |
| Stores added, 28 days | Not enough data | Not enough data |
| Big-brand share | Not enough data | Not enough data |
| Top store categories | Not published | Food, Beverages & Tobacco, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden |
| Top store countries | Not published | United States, Australia, United Kingdom |
Reviews
| Measure | Essential Subscriptions | |
|---|---|---|
| App Store rating | Not published | 5.0 ★ |
| App Store reviews | Not published | 12 |
| New reviews, 28 days | Not enough data | Not enough data |
| Reviewers a year or more in | Not enough data | Not enough data |
Pricing
| Measure | Essential Subscriptions | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Not listed | Not listed |
| Lowest paid monthly plan | $30/month | No monthly plan listed |
| Longest free trial | 14 days | Not listed |
| Plans listed | 1 | Not published |
Listing
| Measure | Essential Subscriptions | |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify category rank | Not enough data | #18 |
| Shopify App Charts | Not on this week’s charts | Not on this week’s charts |
| Built for Shopify | No | Yes |
| Launched | Nov 5, 2026 | Apr 30, 2026 |
| Languages | 1 | 1 |
| Developer | officehour | Essential Apps |
FAQ
Anchor Subscriptions and Essential Subscriptions: common questions
- What features does each app list that the other doesn’t?
- Essential Subscriptions lists 6 the others don’t mention, such as Custom pricing, Digital products, Dynamic pricing, Freemium. A feature missing from a listing may still be supported; this compares what each App Store listing says.
- Where does this comparison’s data come from?
- Shoplist crawls Shopify storefronts to detect which apps each store runs, and reads each app’s Shopify App Store listing for reviews, pricing, features and integrations. Store counts are as of Nov 6, 2026; estimated figures are labeled.
How Shoplist compares apps
Store counts come from Shoplist’s crawl of Shopify storefronts, which detects the apps each store runs; they are as of Nov 6, 2026. Reviews, ratings, plans, features and integrations come from each app’s Shopify App Store listing. 28-day figures are labeled when estimated, and a figure that is missing or estimated never decides who leads. Read the methodology.