0. Before you start
This guide takes you from a fresh install to a subscription checkout that real customers can use. Five steps, roughly 30 minutes, no code. Everything here also appears inside the app as the Setup checklist (Sublyra admin → Settings → Setup), which checks each step against your live store and keeps score at the top — so you can do the work from either place.
What you need:
- A Shopify store where you can install apps and edit the theme.
- At least one product you want to sell on subscription.
- For the test order: a store where test payments are possible — a development store, or a live store with Shopify Payments test mode (more in step 4).
1. Install the app
1 Open the Sublyra listing from sublyra.com and click Install on Shopify. If you're not logged into your store, Shopify asks you to log in first.
2 Shopify shows its own approval screen listing every permission Sublyra uses — orders, products, customers, subscription contracts, discounts, shipping and inventory. Read it, then click Install (or Approve). One click is the whole job: Sublyra asks for everything it needs up front, so you're never interrupted by permission prompts later.
3 You land in the Sublyra admin, embedded inside your Shopify admin. The Home page is your command centre — it will fill in as orders arrive.
Pick a plan (you can do this later)
Sublyra's Launch plan is free — 1.5% + 19¢ per subscription transaction, up to 100 subscribers — so you can set everything up and make real sales without paying a platform fee. Paid plans add the retention toolkit and lower your rate as you grow:
| Plan | Monthly | Transaction fee | Subscribers | Adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | Free | 1.5% + 19¢ | Up to 100 | Core subscriptions, widget, portal |
| Starter | $29 | 1.0% | Up to 500 | Smart retries, cancellation flows, win-back, bundles, onboarding call |
| Growth | $79 | 0.75% | Up to 2,000 | Loyalty, referrals, cohort analytics, API access |
| Plus | $199 | 0.5% | Unlimited | SLA and hands-on implementation |
Paid plans start with a 30-day free trial, and yearly billing is 10× the monthly price — two months free. Optional add-ons run $9.99–$19.99/month. You choose or change plans any time under Settings → Plan & billing; switching routes through Shopify's own charge-approval screen, so nothing is ever billed silently. Full detail lives on the pricing page.
2. Create your first selling plan
A selling plan group is the heart of a subscription offer: it attaches to products and defines the delivery frequencies a shopper can choose ("every month", "every 2 months") and the discount they get for subscribing. Nothing in your store is subscribable until a group exists.
1 In the Sublyra admin, open Selling plans in the left menu.
2 Build your plans. You can create up to 6 plans per group, each with its own name, interval (days, weeks or months) and discount. A sensible starting pair is every month and every 2 months with a modest subscribe-and-save discount.
3 Select the products. Tick the products you want subscribable, or use Select all. For larger catalogs, use the search box to filter, or paste titles/IDs from a CSV to select in bulk.
4 Click Create offer. The button shows how many products will get the offer. Sublyra creates the selling plan group as a real Shopify object and attaches it to those products for you.
3. Place the widget in the theme editor
The Subscribe & Save widget is the block on your product page where shoppers pick one-time purchase or a subscription frequency. It ships as a theme app extension, so placing it is a drag-and-drop job in the theme editor — no theme code.
The easy way: one-click placement from the Setup checklist
1 In the Sublyra admin, go to Settings → Setup.
2 On the Add the widget to your product pages step, click the placement button. Sublyra places the Subscribe & Save block on your live theme, just above the Add to cart button.
The manual way: theme editor
1 In Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes → Customize.
2 From the page dropdown at the top, choose a Product template.
3 In the product section, click Add block → Apps → Subscribe & Save.
4 Drag the block so it sits above the Add to cart button, then click Save.
Make it yours
Open Widget in the Sublyra admin to edit the headline, colors, layout and frequency style — the live preview updates as you type, with a desktop/mobile toggle. Five style presets (Classic, Minimal, Bold, Midnight, Sharp) apply a whole theme in one click. Note the widget hides the Buy it now button when a subscription is selected: the shopper is committing to recurring billing, not a one-time checkout. Full reference: the widget guide.
4. Place a test order with the Bogus Gateway
Before a real customer ever checks out, prove the whole loop yourself: shopper subscribes, a contract is created, the order lands in Sublyra. That's what Shopify's Bogus Gateway is for — a test payment method that simulates card payments without moving real money.
Enable test payments
1 Development stores (the kind Shopify Partners create) have the Bogus Gateway available by default — skip to the order below.
2 Live stores: in Shopify admin go to Settings → Payments and switch on Shopify Payments test mode (Shopify's own toggle for simulated payments), or activate the Bogus Gateway as your payment provider while you test. Remember to switch back to real payments before launch — the checklist in step 5 reminds you.
Place the order
1 Turn off the storefront password if it is on: Online Store → Preferences → Restrict store access.
2 Open a product page that has a selling plan, choose the subscription option and a frequency, and click Add to cart.
3 Go to checkout and pay with the Bogus Gateway:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Card number | 1 (approves the payment) |
| Expiry | Any future date |
| CVC | Any 3 digits |
| Name on card | Anything |
4 Complete the order.
Confirm it landed
1 Back in the Sublyra admin, open Subscriptions — the new contract is there, delivered by Shopify's order webhook.
2 Open Orders — the first order shows as a checkout order. Future renewals will appear as recurring charges.
2 declines the payment. Place a subscription with a failing card and watch the Smart retries screen schedule the recovery attempts — each decline reason gets its own retry rhythm. See the dunning guide (Starter plan and above).
5. The go-live checklist
The three core steps above make subscriptions possible. This checklist makes them profitable. Work through it before you announce anything.
Core (required)
- Selling plan group created and attached to the right products (step 2).
- Subscribe & Save block placed on the product template and visible on the storefront (step 3).
- Test order completed end-to-end; contract visible under Subscriptions (step 4).
- Test mode / Bogus Gateway switched back off and real payments live (Settings → Payments) — live stores only.
- Storefront password removed when you're ready for the public (Online Store → Preferences).
Retention (highly recommended)
- Smart retries reviewed — retry schedules per decline reason and the attempt limit. Involuntary churn is usually the cheapest revenue you will ever win back. Starter+ Guide
- Cancellation flow offers mapped — a price objection needs a discount; "I have more than I need" needs a delay. Starter+ Guide
- Win-back email configured — the wait after cancelling and the discount that brings lapsed subscribers back. Starter+ Guide
Operations
- Inventory policy chosen — what happens when a renewal comes up and stock is short: skip, keep selling, or pause. Guide
- Order and customer tags set up — so fulfilment rules and segments recognise subscription orders, plus the subscriber shipping profile if you offer one. Guide
- Widget styling reviewed on mobile — most of your shoppers will see it there. Guide
- Plan confirmed under Settings → Plan & billing — the Launch plan is free up to 100 subscribers; paid plans carry a 30-day trial.
6. FAQ
Can I test everything without paying for a plan?
Yes. The Launch plan is free (1.5% + 19¢ per subscription transaction, up to 100 subscribers), and paid plans start with a 30-day free trial — so you can trial Starter's retention tools and cancel before the trial ends if they're not for you.
The widget block doesn't appear in the theme editor. Why?
Three usual causes: you're customizing a template that isn't a product template (check the page dropdown at the top), the theme is a vintage theme without JSON templates (use Open in theme editor from the Setup page and add the block by hand), or the app embed/block hasn't loaded — re-save the theme and refresh. The product also needs a selling plan attached before the block has anything to show.
My test order didn't appear in Subscriptions. What now?
Give it a minute — contracts arrive via Shopify's webhooks, then refresh the Subscriptions page. If it still isn't there, confirm the order actually contained a subscription (a frequency was selected on the product page) and that payment went through the Bogus Gateway rather than being abandoned at checkout.
Can I use a real card instead of the Bogus Gateway?
On a development store, no real charges are possible at all. On a live store you can place a real order with your own card and refund it — but the Bogus Gateway is faster, costs nothing, and lets you force failures with card number 2 to watch dunning recover them.
Do I need to do anything for renewals to charge?
No. Once a contract exists, Shopify runs the automatic renewal charges on schedule and Sublyra records them — each renewal appears under Orders as a recurring charge, and under Subscriptions the contract's cycle count grows. Failures are picked up by your smart-retry schedule.
Where do I get help?
The chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of any Sublyra admin page is fastest. Otherwise email support@sublyra.com — replies land within one business day. Starter plan and above includes a free onboarding call if you'd rather walk through setup together.