Setting up digital subscriptions
Digital Subscriptions let you offer access-based products, such as memberships, premium content, or app access, through Recharge, giving subscribers automatic access to digital benefits tied to their active subscriptions.
This guide explains how Digital Subscriptions work with Recharge and the benefits of offering digital subscriptions.
- Shopify Checkout Integration
- Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration
Before you start
- Digital Subscriptions is in Early Adopter status. See Early Adopter Program for more information. Contact support to request access to this feature.
- Digital Subscriptions is available to merchants on Shopify or Custom platforms using the Affinity customer portal theme, or custom customer portals.
How it works
Digital Subscriptions connects customer subscriptions to access-based digital products through entitlements. While you own and host your content, Recharge provides the engine that verifies a customer's active subscription and determines whether they should have access.
Digital subscriptions share the same platform as physical subscriptions, so your existing data models carry over with no additional setup:
- Products and variants
- Subscription plans
- Subscriptions and orders
- Customers and payments
Two features are specific to digital subscriptions:
- Entitlements: The real-time record of what a customer currently has access to. Entitlements are granted at checkout or when a recurring order is processed, and remain active until their expiration date, even if a customer has canceled.
- Entitlement features: The specific benefits tied to each entitlement, configured in the Recharge merchant portal and assigned to product variants and plans.
To manage access efficiently, you must connect your external platform or content delivery service to Recharge's entitlements engine via API. Recharge does not automatically link to external platforms; instead, successful setup requires API configuration on your side. Recharge recommends working with a Recharge Partner to configure this setup correctly.
When a shopper purchases a subscription, Recharge automatically assigns the corresponding entitlement feature to their customer profile. As the subscription status changes — paused, canceled, or reactivated — Recharge keeps the entitlement in sync. Customers won't immediately lose access; instead, access updates based on the subscription's lifecycle and any access rules you've set.
How the digital-first experience works
You can update your customer portal settings to ensure that digital subscription customers see a streamlined portal experience:
- Customers cannot skip, reschedule, or process a digital subscription early
- Customers can cancel or pause the subscription
- Address and shipping details do not appear because nothing is being shipped
Setting the Home page to Manage subscriptions helps present a clear, complete view of what the customer is subscribed to and the access included.
When viewing a customer in the merchant portal, you can see their active entitlements on the Customer Details page, where you can also add or revoke entitlements as needed.
Key features
Automatic access alignment
When a customer cancels or pauses early, access remains active until expiration, keeping experience and billing in sync.
Payment-aware logic
Entitlements renew only after successful payments. Failed payments suspend access during the dunning process and restore it automatically once payment is recovered.
Merchant-level controls
Manage, extend, or revoke entitlements directly from the Recharge dashboard, no manual syncing or external tools required.
Digital-first customer experience
The customer portal reflects digital realities, showing access status and only relevant actions, such as pause, change billing information, or cancel.
Entitlements API
Recharge's robust API lets you integrate with your native app, content platform, or service to check and update access in real time.
Set-up instructions
Digital Subscriptions is currently in Early Adopter status. Interested users should contact support to have a member of the Recharge product team enable this feature.
Step 1 - Configure entitlement features
After enrolling in the Early Adopter Program, you must set up entitlements to sell your digital products:
- From your Recharge merchant portal, select Products and click Entitlement features.
- Select Create an entitlement feature.
- Provide the following information:
- A name for the entitlement feature (this does not need to be unique).
- Optional - Enter a description of the entitlement feature to explain what it offers customers. This is displayed on the customer portal.
- A unique entitlement feature key that lets you identify the entitlement in your own systems.
- Click Select plans to choose which products/variants and associated plans should have entitlements added. Select Save to confirm your choices.
- Click Save to save your entitlement feature.
Example set up
A store offers online workout training. Customers choose between:
- A Basic monthly subscription with access to the workout library.
- A Premium monthly subscription with access to the workout library, nutrition logging, and personal training.
To support this setup, the store creates three entitlement features:
- Workout library access
- Nutrition logging
- Personal training
Then they link entitlements to plans as follows:
- Basic subscription: workout library access only
- Premium subscription: all entitlement features
When a customer checks out, they only receive the entitlements assigned to the plan they purchased. The store can then use the Entitlements API at any point in its access management flow to verify the customer’s active benefits on its external platform.
Step 2 - Configure the customer portal for a digital-first setup
Recharge recommends optimizing your customer portal settings to ensure customers make the most of their digital subscriptions:
- In your Recharge merchant portal, select Storefront, then click Customer portal.
- Find the Affinity option under Your current theme.
- Select Manage subscriptions page under Your theme's home page. This ensures customers immediately see:
- The subscriptions they have purchased
- The entitlement details associated with their digital access (the entitlement description)
- Enable View entitlement features unlocked by a customer's subscription plan to help customers understand what they can access. Do not enable this if entitlements should be internal-facing only.
- Click Save to update your settings.
Step 3 - Configure a Digital Subscription product page template
Recharge recommends creating a Shopify product page template specifically for digital subscriptions.
Use cases
Use case |
Description |
| Online learning platforms | A subscription-based education site offers tiered memberships that grant access to different course libraries. When a customer subscribes to the “Pro Plan,” Recharge automatically assigns an entitlement that unlocks advanced video lessons and downloadable materials. If the customer cancels, their access is removed immediately. |
| Content or media memberships | A digital magazine uses Digital Subscriptions to manage paid access to premium articles and podcasts. Each subscription plan corresponds to an entitlement, such as “Monthly Access” or “Annual VIP”, so customers only see the content included in their active plan. |
| App or software access | A fitness app sells recurring subscriptions for workout programs. When customers subscribe, Recharge provisions an entitlement that unlocks in-app features like training videos and progress tracking. If a subscription expires or is paused, Recharge automatically updates the customer’s access in the app. |
Considerations
Consider the following when using Digital Subscriptions:
Consideration |
Notes |
| Entitlements and variants |
Entitlements function at the variant level. If a product includes multiple variants (for example: Standard monthly, Standard annual, Deluxe monthly, Deluxe annual), you can configure variant-specific plans and assign different entitlements to each plan. This ensures customers receive the correct access based on the variant they purchase. |
| Digital-first customer portal visibility | The digital-first customer portal only appears when the product is marked as Not a physical product in Shopify and is associated with a plan that has entitlements configured. Both conditions must be met for the experience to display. |
| API integration is required | Recharge does not push entitlement status to external platforms automatically. Your platform must query the Entitlements API to verify access in real time.automatically push entitlement status to external platforms |
