How to Migrate from Recharge to SaltAI Subscriptions

Merchants on Recharge who want to reduce costs or access food-specific functionality often delay migration because the process seems complex. The reality is that a well-planned migration from Recharge to SaltAI Subscriptions can be completed without subscriber disruption in 2-4 weeks. This guide covers the full process.

Before You Start: What You Are Moving

A subscription migration involves three types of data:

1. Subscriber records: Name, email, shipping address, billing address for each active subscriber
2. Payment methods: Tokenised card data stored by your payment processor (Shopify Payments or a third-party gateway)
3. Subscription schedules: What each subscriber is receiving, how often, at what price, and when their next order processes

The complexity of payment method migration depends on your payment processor. If you are using Shopify Payments (which most Shopify merchants are), Shopify holds the payment tokens and both apps can access them — this is the simplest scenario. If you are using a third-party gateway through Recharge, you will need to confirm token portability with your gateway provider before starting.

Step 1: Export Your Recharge Data

In Recharge, export the following:

• All active subscribers (customer data export)
• All subscription schedules (subscriptions export)
• All upcoming orders (orders export)

Recharge provides CSV exports for all of these from the merchant dashboard. Download and save all three files before making any changes.

Step 2: Install SaltAI Subscriptions in Parallel

Install SaltAI Subscriptions on your Shopify store without uninstalling Recharge. Both apps can coexist during the migration period. Configure SaltAI Subscriptions completely — delivery zones, allergen settings, cut-off times, customer portal styling — before importing any subscribers.

This parallel configuration period is important: test SaltAI Subscriptions with a small number of test orders and internal team members as test subscribers before importing live subscriber data.

Step 3: Import Subscribers

SaltAI Subscriptions accepts subscriber import via CSV in the format provided by Recharge's export. Map the columns from the Recharge export to the SaltAI Subscriptions import template (the import documentation walks through this field by field).

For payment methods: if you are on Shopify Payments, SaltAI Subscriptions can reference the existing Shopify payment tokens. If you are on a third-party gateway, check the token portability process with your gateway before this step.

Import subscribers in a test batch of 10-20 first. Verify their subscription details in the SaltAI Subscriptions dashboard. Confirm that a manual test billing processes correctly before importing all subscribers.

Step 4: Choose Your Cutover Date

Select a cutover date that does not coincide with a major billing cycle. Mid-cycle is usually safest — when most subscriptions have already been billed for the current period and you have 1-2 weeks before the next billing run.

Set the cutover date at least one week out from when you complete subscriber import, to allow a review and testing period.

Step 5: Pause Recharge Billing and Activate SaltAI Subscriptions

On the cutover date:

1. In Recharge, pause all upcoming subscription orders (do not cancel — pause)
2. In SaltAI Subscriptions, set the imported subscribers to active
3. Verify the first billing run in SaltAI Subscriptions processes correctly on the expected date
4. Once two full billing cycles have run successfully in SaltAI Subscriptions, cancel the Recharge subscription and remove the app

Communicating the Change to Subscribers

Most subscribers do not notice a subscription platform migration if it is executed cleanly — their portal URL changes, but their subscription continues without interruption. A brief email notification ("We've updated our subscription platform — your subscription continues as normal, you can manage it at [new portal URL]") is good practice but not always necessary.

What to Watch Out For

Outstanding orders: Any order that has been charged but not fulfilled in Recharge should be fulfilled through Recharge. Do not migrate open orders mid-fulfilment.

Discount codes: Active subscriber discounts in Recharge must be recreated in SaltAI Subscriptions. Export all active discount codes and verify they are active before cutover.

Webhook configurations: If you have custom integrations built on Recharge webhooks (to an ERP, WMS, or email platform), those integrations will need to be reconfigured for SaltAI Subscriptions' webhook schema.

Timeline Expectation

With a clean Shopify Payments setup and no custom integrations: 2-3 weeks from start to cutover. With a third-party gateway or custom integrations: 4-6 weeks. Plan accordingly and do not rush the payment token verification step.

Auditing Your Subscription Product Catalogue Before Migration

Before you move a single subscriber record, take time to audit the product catalogue that underpins your subscriptions in Recharge. In Recharge, subscription products are linked to specific Shopify product variants, and if those variant IDs have changed due to a theme update, a product restructure, or a bulk edit, your import into SaltAI Subscriptions will reference broken links. Pull your active subscription products from the Recharge dashboard and cross-reference each variant ID against your current Shopify product list to confirm every link resolves correctly.

This audit step is particularly relevant for food and beverage merchants who rotate seasonal products or update packaging regularly. A variant that existed six months ago when a subscriber first signed up may have been archived or replaced, and carrying that broken reference into a new platform compounds the problem rather than solving it. Resolve all broken or archived variant links in Shopify first, then update the corresponding subscription product entries in Recharge before running your export.

Documenting the clean, verified product catalogue in a spreadsheet before migration also gives you a useful reference during the SaltAI Subscriptions configuration phase. When you are setting up delivery zones, cut-off rules, and allergen flags in SaltAI Subscriptions, having a single source of truth for which products are active, what their variant IDs are, and which subscription frequencies they support will save significant time and reduce the risk of configuration errors that are difficult to trace once subscribers are live.

Managing Subscriber Expectations Around Portal Access

The customer-facing subscription portal is the part of the migration that subscribers are most likely to notice, because the URL they use to pause, skip, or update their subscription will change. In Recharge, the portal is typically accessed via a link in the order confirmation email or through a Recharge-hosted URL. In SaltAI Subscriptions, the portal is embedded directly within the Shopify customer account, which for many subscribers is a more intuitive location but still represents a change in their existing workflow.

Prepare a short FAQ document that you can link to in your migration communication email. Cover the three most common subscriber questions: where is my new portal, will I be charged again, and how do I update my delivery address. Keep the language simple and avoid platform-specific terminology that subscribers will not recognise. The goal is to make the transition feel like an improvement to their experience, not an administrative change you are asking them to accommodate.

If your subscriber base is large or particularly active, consider scheduling a brief extension on any upcoming billing dates to give yourself a buffer window after cutover. Adding five to seven days to the next renewal date for all subscribers at the point of import is a straightforward way to create breathing room for any edge cases that surface in the first billing run. SaltAI Subscriptions allows you to adjust next billing dates in bulk during import, which makes this a low-effort safeguard worth taking.

Reconciling Revenue Data Across Both Platforms

During the parallel operation period — when both Recharge and SaltAI Subscriptions are installed but only one is processing live billing — keep a clear record of which platform has processed which charges. This matters for your end-of-month reconciliation and for any VAT reporting you complete based on subscription revenue. If your cutover happens mid-month, you will have revenue attributed to two different apps in the same reporting period, and Shopify's default revenue reports will not automatically distinguish between them.

Export a revenue summary from Recharge covering the period from the start of the migration month to the cutover date before you uninstall the app. Store this alongside your regular Shopify financial exports so you have a clean record if you need to reconcile later. Some accountants and bookkeepers are unfamiliar with subscription app revenue exports, so flagging this split-period in advance will prevent confusion during your next accounting review.

SaltAI Subscriptions logs all billing events with timestamps and order references that map directly to Shopify orders, which makes post-cutover reconciliation straightforward. The complexity lies in the transition period itself. Treat the parallel window as a distinct reporting period in your records, document both the Recharge charges and the SaltAI Subscriptions test charges separately, and do not close out the migration until you have confirmed that the total subscriber count and active revenue figure in SaltAI Subscriptions matches the verified figures from your final Recharge export.

Using BlogFlow to Support Your Migration Communications

If you are publishing content to support your subscriber base through the migration — an FAQ post, a platform update announcement, or a guide on using the new portal — BlogFlow integrates directly with your Shopify blog and makes it straightforward to schedule and publish structured content without leaving the Shopify admin. For a migration that runs over two to four weeks, having a lightweight content workflow means you can publish timely updates as each phase completes rather than preparing everything in advance and hoping the timeline holds.

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