Product perspectives: Flexibility is the future of subscriptions
Today, winning means adapting fast. Subscriber expectations are global, real-time, and unforgiving. A customer might skip a shipment, downgrade from premium to standard, pause their plan, and change billing addresses across time zones all in one week. Whatever they choose, they expect it to just work.
And our data support this claim. Per our State of Subscriptions report, we found that subscribers who can skip or swap are up to 25% more likely to renew. The brands thriving now understand that “set-and-forget” subscriptions are fading and retention now hinges on customer choice.
At Recurly, our product team studies what actually drives growth. We focus on how subscription management can unlock flexibility without creating operational chaos.
Key takeaways:
Customer control: Over $200M was generated from subscribers who re-subscribed after pausing. Businesses offering a pause option saw 25% of subscribers pause instead of canceling
Scalability: Automation is required to manage complex billing changes without manual overhead
Global reach: Localized flexibility (pause, resume, regional plans) is essential for international growth
Five lessons from subscription leaders
Flexibility is a balancing act. When done wrong, it creates chaos. Done right, it builds trust and revenue. Here’s what goes beyond the hype:
1. Flexibility drives loyalty by empowering choice
According to Recurly’s 2025 State of Subscriptions, pause options surged 68% year-over-year, with over $200M generated from paused subscribers who later reactivated.
Real-world impact: Output, a software company serving musicians and creators, used flexible billing and pause options to significantly reduce churn and empower loyal customers. They saw 90% of their customers return after they started offering Recurly’s pause features.
2. Automation scales choice without chaos
Every skip, plan change, and reactivation across currencies and platforms demands billing, tax, and communication updates. Manual ops won’t cut it.
Real-world impact: PandaDoc, a leader in B2B documentation, integrated Recurly to automate their financial operations. Recurly’s framework didn’t just improve their processes; it transformed them. Reconciliation, once a tedious three-day grind, now wraps up in a single day. As their VP of Finance noted, “We’re saving several hours of manual effort every month.”
3. Global growth requires localized flexibility
Launching in new markets is more than languages and currencies. . In LATAM, pause and resume are baseline expectations. In APAC, custom billing cycles win subscribers. Recurly’s flexible, composable infrastructure lets brands adapt fast without rebuilding the foundation.
Real-world impact: Paramount+, the international streaming giant, leveraged Recurly’s flexible infrastructure to adapt subscriptions across regions and devices, offering local payment options and plan upgrades. This helped them engage subscribers worldwide, while maintaining a unified system for reporting and providing a better subscriber experience. As CIO Stephen Comstock put it, “Together we can provide the best subscriber experience possible. Recurly understands that preparation is key and has delivered successfully.”
4. Smart flexibility reduces churn and drives adoption
Our merchants see not only lower churn but also higher adoption of premium features when flexibility tools are surfaced strategically.
Real world impact: Kudos, a direct-to-consumer diaper brand, increased subscription revenue by 200% by solving a critical flexibility challenge on Recurly Commerce. Parents needed to easily update diaper sizes, but technical friction was blocking them.“customers could not go in and update the order, which for our customers is tough because you grow out of diapers so quickly… ” Moira Finicane, Head of Marketing said.
5. Data-led personalization defines the experience
The best brands don’t offer every option equally. They segment. By using actual customer data, you can customize plans for specific needs — whether that is a multi-pet household or a bundle that combines physical hardware with digital tracking.
Real-world impact: Fi, a smart dog collar brand, uses Recurly to simplify a complex ecosystem of hardware, GPS tracking, and health supplements. By automating subscription management, they can offer flexible plans and rewards for multi-pet households without operational friction. As Ginji Wang, COO put it “At Fi, our mission is to strengthen the bond between people and their pets. Personalization and flexibility are key to delivering on that promise, and Recurly gives us the agility to make the experience seamless for our customers.”
Winning with flexibility and automation
The future of subscriptions will not be defined by how many customers you lock in. It will be defined by how many you influence to stay by choice.
When you anticipate needs, localize options, and empower true customer choice, you unlock retention and operational sanity.
At Recurly, flexibility engineered for real life is our approach. In a world where change is constant, the brands that embrace agile technology and trust their subscribers are the ones that win.
Ready to learn more? Reach out to our team, or explore real-world flexibility use cases.
