Cratejoy review (2026): is it worth $24.99 a month, billed yearly?
Store builder and marketplace for subscription box businesses
Black Friday: is there a Cratejoy sale?
Cratejoy report card
Weak · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 13, 2026
Best for subscription box sellers
Cratejoy is a store platform for subscription boxes, with a marketplace listing and your own site from $24.99 a month billed yearly. Every plan adds a 1.25% plus $0.10 fee per transaction, and marketplace orders carry a 15% referral fee.
Who Cratejoy is for
- Fits if you sell subscription boxes and want a marketplace plus your own site
- Works for new box sellers who want recurring billing without custom development
Who Cratejoy is not for
- Pricey if you sell a lot, since each order adds 1.25% plus $0.10 on every plan
- Not for you if you sell one-off products, as the plans are built for recurring boxes
- Skip it if you want a trial, because none is listed
- Watch out: marketplace orders and renewals carry a 15% referral fee, and monthly billing costs more on every plan
Why Cratejoy gets a 1.6
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- CValue for money$24.99 a month billed yearly ($29 monthly) is inside the category's $20 to $89 range. Fees of 1.25% plus $0.10 an order come on top of every plan.
- FFree plan and trialNo free plan and no trial is listed, so you pay from the start.
- CFeaturesRenewals and shipping, a marketplace listing, your own website, dunning and tax. It does the box job fully and is a narrower job than a general store, and the vendor does not position it for one-off products.
- CEase of useYou set up the boxes, site and billing yourself. No store rating is on record.
- CPlatforms and integrationsWeb only, with TaxJar the only listed integration.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Cratejoy's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/cratejoy#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/cratejoy.svg" alt="Cratejoy: 1.6 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Cratejoy stands among online store builders
Cratejoy's GPA of 1.6 is higher than 5 of the 80 other online store builders we grade, and level with 9.
It stands best on ease of use (C, above 28 of 80) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0).
Its paid plans start at $24.99 a month, against a middle price of $29.25 for the category: 15 of the 44 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 14 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 81 online store builders we grade, cut by the letter each got. Cratejoy’s own letter is outlined.
- CValue for moneyAbove 15 of 80, level with 51
- FFree plan and trialAbove 0 of 80, level with 22
- CFeaturesAbove 5 of 80, level with 54
- CEase of useAbove 28 of 80, level with 48
- CPlatforms and integrationsAbove 1 of 80, level with 26
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 52 online store builders. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Keep Cratejoy, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Cratejoy you would be making checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 66 of the 80 other online store builders grade higher. It costs $299.88 a year.
What you could not
- Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you.
- It plugs into other products, TaxJar among them, and has an API.
What this rests on. Cratejoy’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Cratejoy?
Cratejoy is an ecommerce platform built around recurring subscription boxes. Sellers can list on its consumer Marketplace only, or run their own branded site that also lists on the Marketplace, with renewal, shipping and customer tools for subscriptions.
Worth knowing
- Every plan adds a transaction fee of 1.25% + $0.10 on top of the monthly price.
- Marketplace orders and renewals carry a 15% referral fee, which applies to Essentials and Advanced too.
- The plans are built for recurring boxes; the vendor does not position them for general one-off product stores.
- Prices shown are the yearly-billed rate; paying monthly costs more on every plan.
Key features
- Subscription renewals and shipping
- Advanced rebilling and shipping features and built-in customer management tools aimed at recurring boxes.
- Marketplace listing
- Sellers list on Cratejoy's consumer Marketplace, which the vendor says draws about 4 million monthly page views.
- Your own website
- Essentials and Advanced include a custom site built on responsive templates, with app integrations and an API.
- Checkout and currencies
- Secure checkout supporting 138 currencies, with fraud protection included.
- Dunning and tax
- Advanced adds advanced dunning for failed payments and a native TaxJar integration.
- Seller support
- Support by live chat and email, with priority support included on Advanced.
Cratejoy pricing
As of Nov 13, 2026, Cratejoy is a paid product, starting at $24.99 per month, billed yearly ($29 billed monthly).
- Starts at
- $24.99 per month, billed yearly ($29 billed monthly)
- Free plan
- None
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace Only | $24.99per month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly) | A listing on the Cratejoy Marketplace plus subscription tools. Adds 1.25% + $0.10 per transaction and a 15% referral fee on every order and renewal. |
| Essentials | $59per month, billed annually ($79 billed monthly) | Your own custom website and themes plus a Marketplace listing. Adds 1.25% + $0.10 per order; Marketplace orders also carry the 15% referral fee. |
| Advanced | $159per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly) | Everything in Essentials, plus native TaxJar integration, advanced dunning, a referral app and priority support. Same transaction and referral fees. |
Read from sell.cratejoy.com on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Cratejoy before you buy.
Ways to pay less
- Annual discountLower rate for yearly billing
The pricing page shows each plan cheaper when paid yearly: $24.99 vs $29, $59 vs $79 and $159 vs $199 per month.
Stated on sell.cratejoy.com
Works with
- TaxJar
Cratejoy alternatives
- Cratejoy vs Subbly
Free trial · from $59/mo
- Cratejoy vs Shopify
Free trial · from $29/mo
- Cratejoy vs WooCommerce
Free plan
- Cratejoy vs BigCommerce
Free trial · from $29/mo
- Cratejoy vs Big Cartel
Free plan · from $12/mo
Common questions
Does Cratejoy have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Cratejoy is listed for Web.
Does Cratejoy have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Cratejoy is listed for Web.
Is Cratejoy open source?
Cratejoy is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 13, 2026.
Does Cratejoy have an API?
Yes. Cratejoy offers a public API, according to its own site.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026.