# Cratejoy review (2026): is it worth $24.99 a month, billed yearly? > Store builder and marketplace for subscription box businesses Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. 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. - **Category:** Online Store Builders - **Made by:** Cratejoy - **Website:** https://www.cratejoy.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you sell a lot, since each order adds 1.25% plus $0.10 on every plan. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Cratejoy is a paid product, starting at $24.99 per month, billed yearly ($29 billed monthly). - **Pricing model:** Paid - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Marketplace Only | $24.99 per 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 | $59 per 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 | $159 per 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 https://sell.cratejoy.com/pricing/ on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Cratejoy before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Lower rate for yearly billing** (Annual discount): The pricing page shows each plan cheaper when paid yearly: $24.99 vs $29, $59 vs $79 and $159 vs $199 per month. Source: https://sell.cratejoy.com/pricing/ ## 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. ## Good for - Subscription box businesses that want to sell on a marketplace as well as their own site - New box sellers who want recurring billing and shipping tools without custom development ## 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 1.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. 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. - **Value for money: C.** $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. - **Free plan and trial: F.** No free plan and no trial is listed, so you pay from the start. - **Features: C.** Renewals 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. - **Ease of use: C.** You set up the boxes, site and billing yourself. No store rating is on record. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Web only, with TaxJar the only listed integration. These are ToolGPA's own grades. 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. ## Where it 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. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/online-stores ## Keep it, 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. - You could not: Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you. - You could not: It plugs into other products, TaxJar among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with TaxJar **Tags:** Online store, Public API ## Alternatives - [Subbly](https://toolgpa.com/tools/subbly): Store and subscription platform for subscription-box businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/cratejoy-vs-subbly) - [Shopify](https://toolgpa.com/tools/shopify): Hosted commerce platform for online, in-person and social selling. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/cratejoy-vs-shopify) - [WooCommerce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/woocommerce): Free, open-source store plugin for WordPress that you host yourself. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/cratejoy-vs-woocommerce) - [BigCommerce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bigcommerce): Hosted ecommerce platform with plans set by yearly sales. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bigcommerce-vs-cratejoy) - [Big Cartel](https://toolgpa.com/tools/big-cartel): Simple online store for artists, makers and independent sellers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/big-cartel-vs-cratejoy) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://sell.cratejoy.com/ - https://sell.cratejoy.com/pricing/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/cratejoy Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).