Picking a subscription platform feels like a software decision. It’s really a churn decision, because your cancel flow, your dunning and your customer portal all live inside it, and moving off it is real work (Stay AI quotes “up to 2 weeks” for a migration [1]). So we put Stay AI and Skio side by side on what each company publishes, and checked which brands in our scan run each one.
A coin flip on price. A real choice on focus and ownership.
If you’re choosing on price, flip a coin. Stay AI’s Pro plan is $499 a month. Skio’s Scale plan is $499 a month billed annually ($599 month to month), and the transaction fees are a penny apart. So the decision comes down to which problem keeps you up at night, churn or the box, and how you feel about Recharge owning Skio’s roadmap a year from now. That’s our opinion, and it was written before we considered any referral terms.
Pick Stay AI if
Churn is your main problem, you want every feature on one public plan, and you want a 30-day free trial and a team-led migration.
Pick Skio if
You sell build-a-box or bundles, want subscriber loyalty and referrals inside the portal, and are comfortable with the platform’s new Recharge ownership.
Side by side
From each company’s public pages, retrieved Oct 9, 2026. Numbers in brackets point to sources.
| Stay AI | Skio | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $499/month (Pro) [1] | $499/month billed annually, or $599/month billed monthly (Scale) [3] |
| Transaction fee | 1% + 19¢ per transaction [1] | 1% + 20¢, on orders involving a subscription [3] |
| Plans | Pro and Enterprise (custom). “No matter your size, you get every innovative feature.” [1] | Scale and Enterprise (custom) [3] |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial listed on the Shopify App Store [2] | Not listed; Skio’s FAQ says it focuses on brands with a “pay money to make money” mentality [3] |
| Retention tools | Cancellation and win-back flows, churn surveys, smart dunning, digital punch cards [1] | Multi-step cancel flow builder, payment recovery campaigns, journeys (lifecycle flows) [3] |
| Upsells and boxes | Easy upsells, bundles and boxes, prepaid subscriptions [1] | Smart upsell carousel, advanced build-a-box, surprise and delight gifting [3] |
| Messaging | Conversational email and SMS replies [1] | SkioSMS (1- and 2-way) [3] |
| Loyalty and referrals | Branded digital punch cards [1] | Credits, tiers and referrals inside the customer portal [3] |
| Migration and onboarding | 1:1 migration; “up to 2 weeks”; no implementation charge [1] | “Comprehensive migration” and hands-on onboarding [3] |
| Shopify App Store rating | 4.9 from 148 reviews (Oct 9, 2026) [2] | 5.0 from 242 reviews (Oct 9, 2026) [4] |
| Ownership | Independent | Part of Recharge since April 30, 2026; both platforms continue to operate [5][6] |
| Seen in our scans | 50 brands: Nutcase, Sweet Addison's, Love Me Gluten Free, mitogrow, Fishwife, Perfect Snacks, LeNOSE, Lemme, Feals, Beekeeper's Naturals, alice mushrooms, maude, DRMTLGY, OLIPOP, Graza, Magic Spoon, David Protein, Health-Ade, GRADE Supply, Freestyle, Arey, Boerne Brand, Clevr Blends, Surely, Cali Sober, Kettle & Fire, Big Ass Luxuries, Venus Et Fleur, Breath Death, Portland Pet Food Company, Bubble Skincare, Begin Health, Cowboy Colostrum, Happy Aging, Higher Dose, My Happy Flo, Promix, Veracity Health, Tmpl8 Hair, A Pup Above, Lomi, Manukora, Seya Health, UNDO Gummies, VitaHustle, Be LOVE, Joggy, Peppertux, FOND Bone Broth, Wandering Bear | 47 brand: Magic Mind, Gainful, Dad Grass, Experiment, Hiyo, OLIPOP, Supergoop!, Beauty Bakerie, KilgourMD, LUS Brands, Tower 28, Muscle Nation, De Soi, Magna, MiLa, Hippeas, immi, Kin Euphorics, Tea Drops, Ripple Foods, Elemind Store, HabitONE, Plant People, Rejuvia, Sleep Karma, Supergut, SURI, Chippin, Dandylion, Dog is Human, Tuft & Paw, Dune Suncare, Remedy Science, Summer Fridays, Aloha, Big Bold Health, CURE, Gorilla Mind, Buoy, ZBiotics, Aqua Omega, BIOLOGICA, Deeps, On the Brightside, BeePop, Guests on Earth, Vaca Chips |
The ownership question
On April 30, 2026, Recharge announced that Skio is joining the company. Recharge and Skio say they power more than 20,000 merchants and process over $20B in GMV annually [5]. Skio’s own post says both platforms will be preserved and keep shipping features while the teams “figure out the best path forward” over the next ~12 months [6]. TechCrunch reported the deal at $105M in cash, citing Skio founder Kennan Frost; the press release did not disclose terms [7].
If you’re signing today, Skio looks stable, and both companies say the platform keeps shipping. Its long-term roadmap, though, now runs through Recharge, and those calls haven’t been announced. I wouldn’t let that scare anyone off Skio. I would ask about it on the sales call and get the answer in writing. Stay AI is still independent.
Who should pick which
Stay AI fits
- Replenishment brands (food, beverage, supplements) where month-two churn decides profitability.
- Teams that want strategy support included; Stay AI says every plan comes with a dedicated account manager [1].
- Brands migrating from Recharge that want a clean break. Stay AI publishes a merchant quote about exactly that move [1].
Skio fits
- Brands with build-a-box, bundles or gifting at the center of the offer.
- Subscription programs that want loyalty and referrals inside the portal instead of a separate app [3].
- Brands already happy in the Recharge ecosystem.
If you forced me to call it for a replenishment brand making its first real subscription push, I’d start from the problem. People canceling around month two is a Stay AI conversation. Customers who love building their own box is the reason Skio exists. Whichever way you go, get the migration plan in writing before you sign anything.
Sources
- Stay AI pricing: stay.ai/pricing (retrieved Oct 9, 2026)
- Stay AI Subscriptions on the Shopify App Store: apps.shopify.com/stayai-subscriptions
- Skio pricing: skio.com/pricing (retrieved Oct 9, 2026)
- Skio on the Shopify App Store: apps.shopify.com/skio
- Recharge press release, Apr 30, 2026: prnewswire.com
- Skio, “The Best Teams in Subscriptions, Together”: skio.com/blog/skio-is-now-part-of-recharge
- TechCrunch, Apr 30, 2026: techcrunch.com
- Brand detections: Brand Tested storefront scan of public site code, Oct 9, 2026.
The Storefront Evidence Score measures how clearly a live storefront earns the next click. Scores are Brand Tested’s opinion, built from public storefront pages and app signals on the scan date and our published v1.3 methodology. They aren’t statements of fact about any company. See something wrong? Request a correction.