app comparison
Membership infrastructure built for Shopify — not bolted on as an afterthought.
Appstle can sell subscriptions. But when you need real membership perks — content gating, exclusive products, purchase restrictions — Zendra was built for that from day one.
Why merchants switch to Zendra
Appstle sells subscriptions. Here’s where Zendra goes further for memberships.
Content access
Content gating and dripping
Appstle can restrict URLs — if you manually type URLs one-by-one (or code your own Liquid templates!). Zendra gives you an access system — easily gating content types or individual URLs with a couple clicks. You can even schedule when content unlocks after signup.
Commerce controls
Members-only purchasing & discounts
Hide products details, or restrict purchasing to active members only. Zendra validates membership at the cart and checkout level — a layer of control Appstle doesn’t offer. Discounting is just easy! No need to separately create discounts and copy their IDs, Zendra does it behind the scenes.
Lifecycle
Purpose-built membership lifecycle
Churn risk detection flags at-risk members before they leave. Graceful cancellation lets members keep access through their paid period. Eight customizable lifecycle emails cover every membership event. Advanced member portal highlights perks to improve retention.
Feature by feature
A side-by-side look at how Zendra and Appstle approach memberships on Shopify.
Content gating
Gate blog posts, pages, and product details to active members. Show teasers and CTAs to non-members.
Possible, but requires manual entry of all URLs, or custom-coded Liquid templates. No teasers.
Content dripping
Schedule content to unlock on a timeline relative to each member’s join date — e.g., “available after 14 days.”
No built-in content drip scheduling for membership plans.
Members-only products
Hide details & description for specific products from non-members, so they only appear for active members.
Limited product visibility controls. No teasers, only URL level restrictions.
Purchase restrictions
Allow anyone to browse, but restrict adding to cart and checkout to active members only.
No cart-level or checkout-level purchase restriction based on membership status.
Member discounts
Automatic order-level and product-level discounts for members, calculated at checkout. Supports percentage and fixed amounts.
Minor support, but requires creating discounts manually for every single discount perk.
Shipping perks
Free shipping, shipping rate discounts, and members-only shipping rates (e.g., priority shipping for members only).
Only supports core Shopify coupons. No members-only shipping rate restrictions.
Perk scheduling
Set start and end dates on any perk. Run member sales or seasonal benefits that activate and expire automatically.
No perk scheduling. Benefits are either active or inactive.
Membership billing
Weekly, monthly, annual, or custom intervals with free trials, signup fees, and minimum commitment periods.
Close to parity: flexible subscription billing, good interval options. Free trials, prepaid plans supported.
Customer portal
Self-service portal inside Shopify’s native customer accounts. Members manage billing, view perks, and cancel with a confirmation step.
Customer portal available for subscription management. Solid self-service options for subscribers.
Churn risk detection
Automatically flags memberships approaching expiry, so you can act before a member churns. Automatically retries failed payments.
Dunning and retry logic for failed payments. No predictive churn flagging for memberships.
Smart tagging
Automatic customer and order tagging based on membership status. Tags added on activation, removed on expiry or cancellation.
Customer tagging available. Order tagging capabilities vary by plan.
Pricing
Free tier available. Paid plans scale by active member count. No transaction fees.
Free plan available. Paid plans based on order volume. No transaction fees on most plans.
0%
Transaction fees on any Zendra plan
50+
Membership features built into Zendra
5.0
Zendra’s Shopify App Store rating
★★★★★
Zendra was really easy to install & set up, I had my first plan added in about 10 minutes. Ian from chat was really helpful to suggest the perks I should include in my membership to get more signups!
Moon Shadow crafts
★★★★★
The team is responsive to questions, quick to turn around updates and feature requests, and has helped us troubleshoot and resolve numerous issues. Recommended without hesitation.
Norfolk Wine & Spirits
★★★★★
Easy set up for what we needed for our business. Team was great getting everything behind the scenes up and running and it looks amazing.
DBC Baby Bedding
Frequently asked questions
Yes! Zendra works through Shopify’s native subscription APIs, so your existing customer payment methods and billing relationships are preserved. Reach out to our team and we’ll help you plan a smooth migration.
Zendra handles recurring billing for membership plans — weekly, monthly, annual, or custom intervals — with free trials, signup fees, and minimum commitments. But unlike Appstle, Zendra does it all-in-one! No need for separate apps.
You can even use Zendra for subscription boxes or recurring deliveries.
Zendra is built specifically as membership infrastructure. Content gating, content dripping, members-only products, purchase restrictions, and membership-specific shipping perks are all native features — not add-ons.
No custom code, templates, manual setup, or tagging workarounds are required. Zendra just works — configure your plan and you’re done.
Yes. Zendra offers a free tier so you can set up your membership program, configure perks, and start enrolling members before committing to a paid plan.
Ready to accelerate your brand’s growth?
100k+
Ecommerce stores have used our apps since we started working with Shopify.
43
Combined years of experience building Shopify apps in our small team.
98%
Customer happiness ratings from support CSAT scores.