Two popular Shopify subscription apps, built for very different use cases. Here's an honest look at where each one shines.
These apps solve different problems. Appstle is a proven, general-purpose subscription platform used by 15,000+ merchants across every industry. It's a great pick if you sell supplements, beauty products, coffee, or any recurring product. MealSubs is narrower on purpose: it's built specifically for meal plan businesses, with delivery day scheduling, build-a-box meal selection, and min/max item controls baked in. If your business revolves around weekly meal prep or meal kits, MealSubs will feel like it was made for you. If you need a flexible subscription tool for a broader product catalog, Appstle is the stronger choice.
| Feature | MealSubs | Appstle |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose-Built for Meals | ✓ | ✗General subscriptions |
| Multi-Industry Support | ✗Meal plans only | ✓ |
| Delivery Day Scheduling | ✓ | ✗ |
| Build-a-Box Meal Selection | ✓ | Limited |
| Min/Max Item Controls | ✓ | ✗ |
| Customer Self-Service Portal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shopify Native Integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transaction Fees | 0% on all plans | 0% on paid plansCharged on free plan |
| Starting Price | $29/mo | FreePaid plans from $10/mo |
| Subscription Analytics | ✓ | ✓ |
| Theme Integration | ✓ | ✓ |
Appstle is one of the most popular subscription apps on Shopify for good reason. It supports virtually every subscription model: subscribe-and-save, curated boxes, replenishment, and more. If you sell across multiple product categories (say, supplements and skincare and snacks), Appstle handles all of them from one dashboard.
It also has a free plan, which makes it easy to test before committing. The paid tiers start at just $10/mo, and the app has deep customization options for email flows, widget styling, and subscription rules. For stores that need a do-everything subscription tool, Appstle is hard to beat.
MealSubs was built for one thing: meal plan subscriptions. That narrow focus means features you won't find in general-purpose apps.
You pick which days of the week customers can receive meals. Orders get grouped by delivery day automatically, so your kitchen knows what to prep and when. For meal prep businesses that batch-cook on specific days, this is table stakes.
Customers pick their specific meals from your weekly menu instead of getting a fixed box. They browse your curated collections, choose what they want, and check out. Less food waste, happier subscribers.
Set rules like "pick between 8 and 12 meals per week." This keeps order sizes within what your kitchen can actually handle, and makes sure every box is profitable.
None of these are things Appstle does poorly. They're just outside its scope. Appstle is built to be flexible across industries, which means it doesn't have meal-specific workflows like delivery day grouping or kitchen-oriented item limits.
Appstle has a wider range of pricing tiers, starting with a free plan. MealSubs has a simpler structure with fewer tiers. Here's how they stack up.
Worth noting: MealSubs charges zero transaction fees on every plan. Appstle's free plan includes transaction fees, and you'll need the $30/mo Business tier for comparable feature depth.
Install, create a meal plan, add products, sync to your theme. Because the entire UI is designed around meal subscriptions, there's not much to configure. Most stores are up and running in about 5 minutes.
Appstle has more configuration options, which is the tradeoff of supporting so many subscription types. You'll spend more time setting things up, but you also get more flexibility to customize the subscription experience for your specific needs.
If you sell a mix of products and need one subscription app to rule them all, go with Appstle. It's battle-tested, flexible, and has a free plan to get started.
If you run a meal prep, meal kit, or weekly meal delivery business and want an app that just gets how your business works out of the box, MealSubs is the better fit. Delivery scheduling, meal selection, item limits, and zero transaction fees from day one.
MealSubs is built for exactly that. Try it free for 14 days, no credit card required.
Try MealSubs Free