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Smartrr Review & Alternatives: Finding the right tool for your business

Last updated:  October 27, 2022

It’s difficult trying to find a subscription management tool that’s easy to use, is compatible with multiple payment providers, and gives you great value for your money.

But having the right tool comes with many benefits such as:

  • Efficient processing of recurring transactions.
  • Increased customer retention. 
  • Streamlined revenue collection that results in fewer failed payments.

At Upscribe, we’ve dedicated time and resources to helping store owners like you find or migrate to a subscription management tool that meets all their needs.

Here, we’ll be reviewing Smartrr, a new subscription management tool for Shopify stores. We’ll take a look at some of their features, the pricing, and a few pros and cons. We’ll then compare it to Upscribe, a subscription management alternative with more comprehensive features. 

Whether you’re new to subscriptions and need a tool to get you started, or you’ve already got a subscription business but want to migrate to a different tool, after reading this, you’ll be able to decide which one is best for you.

Smartrr Vs. Upscribe, key differences

  • Upscribe has a single plan that provides you with everything that you need and more to build, grow, or scale your subscription business. As a store owner, you won’t have to worry about upgrading or paying more as your business grows. On the other hand, Smartrr may appear to have a cheaper entry-level plan but as you scale your business, you’ll quickly realize that you’re going to need to upgrade to get what you need to support your business growth. 
  • Upscribe uses an advanced dunning engine that identifies the ideal times to recover declined charges. This is so that your business can increase revenue retention without having to send those awkward emails and texts about declined payments. Smartrr’s dunning engine is less advanced (slower) than Upscribe’s dunning engine.
  • Support on Smartrr’s entry-level plan is limited to email and chat options. Priority support is only available on the premium plans. With Upscribe, Priority support is always free.
  • Upscribe offers a solution for merchants to not only build your subscription business, but it also has a solution for businesses to capture reorders. Some customers don’t want to be locked into a subscription, so Upscribe makes it easy for merchants to capture reorders in as little as a single click.

What is Smartrr? 

Smartrr is a subscription management platform for D2C Shopify brands looking to grow by using the subscription model. 

The platform was founded by Gabriella Tegan and launched in 2021 as a subscription management app on Shopify. “ We built a product that helps brands grow their subscription programs and their business more effectively with the goal of building brand affinity and increasing Customer Lifetime Value ” said Tegan in a recent interview

Smartrr’s client base is made up of hundreds of ecommerce stores big and small, including Joggy, Three ships, Jolie and Freestyle.

Product features

1. Diverse subscription management actions

Smartrr’s subscription management features allow your subscribers to take control of their orders by choosing whether to send, skip, gift, or swap out products in their subscription. 

They can also edit the frequency with which they receive the subscription or delay the date for one that’s more convenient.  All this is done in a well-designed intuitive customer portal that can be further customized in line with your brand.

2. Customized subscription programs

You can tailor your subscription program depending on what works for your business. Smartrr lets you choose and experiment with subscribe and save options, prepaid subscriptions, build-a-box subscriptions, sequential subscriptions, or one-time purchases. All of these options work to help you get more sales in your business.

3. Advanced analytics 

Smartrr offers advanced analytics powered by Looker. Although this feature is only available on the premium plans, you can upgrade to access insights on:

  • Your active subscribers, 
  • Subscription revenue, 
  • Retention metrics, 
  • Queued subscription renewals, and more.

Analytics help you uncover how well your subscription business is performing. This feedback lets you refine and improve performance, so it’s a must-have for businesses looking to grow.

4. Memberships

Smartrr helps you improve customer loyalty by enabling you to create membership programs. This is where you give members discounted prices and offer members-only benefits. You can also offer members special rewards and give them exceptional customer experience to encourage them to become brand advocates.

Based on Shopify reviews, Smartrr customers are generally happy with the platform and its features compared to the previous solutions they were using.

Pricing

Smartrr uses tiered pricing with plans starting from $99 to $499 on monthly plans. They also charge 1% of the total dollar value of orders facilitated through their platform. Their launch plan is for stores just starting out with subscriptions and is limited to the most basic features such as automated customer notifications, their branded portal, and subscription management.

To access your subscription analytics to see how your subscriptions are performing or smart retention features that deflect churn, you’d have to upgrade. Note that Smartrr charges extra for support, something that Upscribe never charges for.

Pros and cons. 

Pros

  • Multiple payment providers from PayPal, Google pay, Apple pay, Shopify payments, Stripe, etc
  • 14-day free trial is available on the launch and grow plans to test out the platform and its functionality 
  • Beautiful themes available to customize the customer portal 
  • Offers white glove onboarding for the grow and excel plans

Cons 

  • Limited features on the launch plan. To get the full benefits of the platform, you would have to upgrade to the more expensive excel plan
  • They do not offer 24/7 support, you have to pay extra for priority support 
  • Don’t offer customers the ability to manage their next orders if they aren’t part of the subscription program

What is Upscribe?

Upscribe is a premium subscription management platform that comes up with attractive ways of enticing your business subscribers to remain loyal to your brand. Since its launch in June 2021, Upscribe has managed over $500 million in subscription revenue for businesses like yours. As a subscription management tool, it’s been awarded multiple 5-star ratings on the Shopify App by happy customers. 

Upscribe is trusted by hundreds of brands of all sizes including Awesome Coffee Club, Athletic Greens, and RYZE Superfoods, which have all seen tremendous business growth since using the platform for their subscription management.

Key features 

Upscribe was developed to help you scale your subscription business to the next level.  In addition to all the features that Smartrr has, Upscribe has added features that are designed to help you make money while you sleep. Let’s take a look at each of them below.

1. Churn deflection

We get it, things happen sometimes and frustrated customers will want to cancel their subscriptions.  But having smart cancellation flows can make them think twice about canceling. Instead of canceling, customers can be persuaded to try different options such as gifting their subscription, skipping a shipment, getting a discount, getting a free gift, or swapping out products. 

Upscribe integrates with platforms like Klaviyo so you can even send follow-up emails if you see customers trying to cancel. This is how businesses like RYZE Superfoods reduced churn after migrating to Upscribe.

2. One-click reordering 

66% of customers expect businesses to understand their needs and expectations. Your customers are no different. Some customers want to be able to reorder from you without the commitment of a subscription program. Sometimes those customers can forget to place their regular orders. This is where the one-click reordering functionality shines.

  • Customers can click reorder button for quick and easy reordering
  • Upscribe tracks customer ordering patterns and metrics and reminds customers to reorder their regular product from your business via SMS or email.

3. Payment Retry (dunning)

Sometimes churn can be a result of failed transactions or declined billing. Having a system that identifies when the best time to retry failed payments without sending unnecessary emails or text messages to subscribers can reduce your churn rates and retain revenues for your business.

4. Out-of-the-box enterprise-grade customer portal

You can create a delightful customer experience with a branded and easily customizable customer portal. With Upscribe, you can design a cohesive portal that mirrors the look and feel of your Shopify store for a unified brand experience. Subscribers can manage or edit their subscriptions from within the portal with ease.

For customers who don’t want to have to log in to the portal to manage their subscriptions, they can do so easily via SMS or email. The passwordless login feature helps reduce the frustrations of having a new password to remember.

5. Advanced analytics

Analytics help you understand the health of your business and take action to reduce churn, increase customer lifetime value and grow your subscribers.

Upscribe has a reporting integration with Segment which can give you further insights such as cart completions, abandonments, and what steps active leads completed. This is how Ready, Set, Food was able to increase their margins by 35% after migrating to Upscribe.

Below are some of the reviews left by Upscribe’s customers on Shopify’s app store. To see how brand owners like you were able to reduce churn, increase margins, and grow their subscribers after partnering with Upscribe, read their stories here.

Pricing

Upscribe’s pricing is simple and transparent with a single pricing structure available for all businesses. To get the full features and functionality on Upscribe, you’re only paying $300 per month, plus 1% per transaction. 

Upscribe does not charge transaction flat rates and offers free priority support for the price. Most businesses save at least 30% monthly just by switching to Upscribe because of the zero transaction flat fee and free support. You can find out how much you can save here.

Pros & Cons 

Pros. 

  • Seamless migration and free white glove onboarding to help you set up without the headaches so you can focus on your business.
  • You’re getting the VIP experience with free priority support from day 1.   
  • They offer free or discounted shipping to your businesses. 
  • Passwordless login means your customer won’t have to worry about remembering passwords to log into the customer portal

Cons. 

  • Upscribe does not offer memberships, but there are benefits you can give loyal customers

Smartrr Vs Upscribe: Feature comparison

Reasons why people choose Upscribe

    • Upscribe has a comprehensive list of features that you can access on a more affordable plan than other subscription management tools
    • Flat monthly fee
    • There are no restricted features meaning your business has everything it needs to grow from the start
    • You never have to pay for priority support
    • Constant innovation means you’ll enjoy feature upgrades that keep you ahead of the pack 

Key Takeaways

While both tools offer similar features, Smartrr is more expensive considering the fact that if you want to access their comprehensive features you would need to be on the excel plan for $499. If you want a more affordable subscription management tool with free support, overall value for money, an easy-to-navigate portal, and a multitude of growth support tools for your business then Upscribe may be a better option.