When you switch to Appstle Subscriptions from another subscription app, the Appstle team moves your existing subscriptions over for you. This article explains how to start, and what you and the team do at each step.
Start a migration
The first time you open Appstle Subscriptions, the app asks What brings you here today? Choose I'm migrating from another app or platform, click Chat With Us, and send the message that opens in the chat.
If you're past that screen, start from the Migration Guide page:
In Appstle Subscriptions, go to More, open the Migration Guide tab, and click Migration Guide.
Click Contact Us, and send the message that opens in the chat.
The team replies in that chat, asks which subscription app and payment provider you use now, and works with you there until the migration is done.
Which guide applies to you
Each way your current subscriptions can be billed has its own guide, also linked from the Migration Guide page. Pick the one that matches your current app:
Your subscriptions are billed | Guide |
Through Shopify's native checkout | |
Through Stripe, outside Shopify | |
Through PayPal, outside Shopify | |
Through Braintree, outside Shopify | |
Through Authorize.net, outside Shopify |
Not sure which one applies? Ask the team in the chat. For how long a migration takes, what it costs and which payment providers are supported, see the migration FAQ.
How a migration works
The team runs the migration and tells you in the chat whenever it needs something from you.
Step 1: Get your store ready
Choose a plan for Appstle Subscriptions. Until you choose one, the app shows only the plan page, and the team can't start.
Accept the collaborator request. The team sends a collaborator request from Appstle Inc. to your store's email address. Accept it in your Shopify admin. It lets the team work in your store without full control of it.
Share an export if the team asks. The team usually exports your subscription data from your current app itself. If it can't open that app, it asks you for an export file.
Step 2: Recreate your subscription plans
In Appstle Subscriptions, go to Subscription Plans and recreate the plans from your current app, with the same products, frequencies and discounts. The team uses them to link your migrated subscriptions to plans. For help, see Create a subscription plan, or ask the team in the chat.
Your customers keep subscribing through your current app until the team switches on the Appstle widget in Step 4. If you turned on the Appstle Subscriptions app embed in your theme during setup, tell the team: the Appstle widget can show on a product as soon as it's in a plan.
Step 3: Test with a few subscriptions
Before moving everyone, the team checks your data and runs a test:
Data check. The team checks your exported data, for example that each active subscription has a saved payment method. If something can't move over as it is, the team tells you and asks how to proceed.
Test migration. The team migrates a few subscriptions, usually under your own email address instead of your customers', so your customers aren't contacted. It may also create unpaid test orders from them, so no one is charged.
Your review. In Appstle Subscriptions, go to Subscriptions and check the test subscriptions: products, quantities, prices, shipping and next order date. Tell the team when they look right.
Step 4: Move all your subscriptions
When the test looks right, the team does the final move. It usually takes a few hours:
Switch the widget. The team turns off your current app's widget and turns on the Appstle widget, so new customers subscribe through Appstle. If your product pages use a custom or bundle widget, have your developer switch it to Appstle's subscription plans before this step.
Close the old customer portal. The team turns off your current app's customer portal, so customers can't change their subscriptions during the move. For some apps, the team asks you to turn off the widget and the portal yourself.
Take a fresh export. The team exports your latest subscription data, so recent sign-ups and changes aren't missed.
Migrate. The team moves all your subscriptions into Appstle. Subscriptions that are active in your current app arrive paused, so no one is billed twice. Appstle's subscription emails stay off, so customers aren't emailed about the move.
Step 5: Review and go live
Review the migrated subscriptions. In Appstle Subscriptions, go to Subscriptions and filter by Record Type → Imported. Check 10 or so against your current app.
Turn off your current app's emails. Do this first, so customers don't get pause or cancellation emails from it in the next step.
Pause or cancel the active subscriptions in your current app. Then tell the team.
The team activates your subscriptions in Appstle. Only the ones that were active in your current app are activated. Paused and cancelled ones stay as they are. From now on, billing runs through Appstle.
The team turns on Appstle's subscription emails. To choose which emails customers get, go to More → Notification Settings.
Uninstall your current app. Do this once everything looks right in Appstle.
The team also links your migrated subscriptions to your plans from Step 2 wherever the product and frequency match. Subscriptions that don't match a plan keep working as they are. If anything looks wrong afterward, message the team in the same chat.