Swell vs Cratejoy

Swell8.7Visit Cratejoy8.5Visit

Higher score Swell #4 in Subscription Ecommerce Software 8.7/10 Paid ✓ 5 of 5 features Visit Swell

vs

Cratejoy #6 in Subscription Ecommerce Software 8.5/10 14-day trial Free trial✓ 4 of 5 features Visit Cratejoy

• Swell fits best

  Headless or omnichannel product sellers

• Cratejoy fits best

  Physical subscription box businesses

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Side by side

Feature	Swell 8.7/10 Visit ↗	Cratejoy 8.5/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.7	8.5
Ranking	#4 in Subscription Ecommerce Software	#6 in Subscription Ecommerce Software
Best for	Headless or omnichannel product sellers	Physical subscription box businesses
Pricing model	Paid	Paid
Starting price	$29/mo	—
Free plan	—	—
Free trial	—	14 days
Deployment	Cloud, Browser extension	Cloud
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Email, Live chat, Community, Docs	Email, Tickets, Docs
Compliance	GDPR, PCI DSS	PCI DSS
Integrations	13 integrations	9 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Swell 5/5 · Cratejoy 4/5
Subscriber portal	✓	✓
Pause or skip	✓	✓
Prepaid plans	✓	✓
Payment recovery	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Native storefront	✓	✓
Specs
Product types	Both	Physical
Billing intervals	Custom	Custom
Our review
Pros	Supports physical and digital subscriptions with custom billing schedules Separates billing and fulfillment intervals for flexible operations Offers APIs, mixed carts, dunning, and pause, skip, and resume controls	Hosted storefront supports customizable HTML and CSS Pause, skip, prepaid terms, and custom billing schedules Shipping exports, labels, fulfillment integrations, and analytics
Cons	No free plan is available Starter is limited to 2 admin users and $50K annual sales Advanced capabilities require higher-priced annual plans	Focused on physical subscription products Marketplace subscriptions have specific pause controls Advanced workflows may require API or integrations
Our verdict	Swell is a headless commerce platform for developers, agencies, brands, and ecommerce teams selling physical or digital products through subscription models. It supports hosted storefronts as well as custom storefronts, checkout, APIs,… Read the review →	Cratejoy is a subscription commerce platform for businesses selling recurring physical subscription boxes. It combines a hosted storefront with customizable HTML and CSS, subscription and customer management, billing and shipping updates,… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Swell — where it wins

  • Supports physical and digital subscriptions with custom billing schedules
  • Separates billing and fulfillment intervals for flexible operations
  • Offers APIs, mixed carts, dunning, and pause, skip, and resume controls

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan is available
  • Starter is limited to 2 admin users and $50K annual sales
  • Advanced capabilities require higher-priced annual plans

• Cratejoy — where it wins

  • Hosted storefront supports customizable HTML and CSS
  • Pause, skip, prepaid terms, and custom billing schedules
  • Shipping exports, labels, fulfillment integrations, and analytics

  Where it doesn't

  • Focused on physical subscription products
  • Marketplace subscriptions have specific pause controls
  • Advanced workflows may require API or integrations

• Swell8.7/10 · Paid

  Flexible subscriptions for physical and digital products across hosted and headless stores.

  Visit SwellFull verdict →
• Cratejoy8.5/10 · 14-day trial

  A hosted toolkit for selling, managing, and fulfilling physical subscription boxes.

  Visit CratejoyFull verdict →