See plans

$ crate about --short

not another billing tool — a system that counts the stock first.

Crate is subscription commerce software for independent DTC brands. It schedules the renewal, recovers the payment, and reserves the inventory before a box is promised.

productSubscription and recurring billing platform
forIndependent DTC brands shipping boxes on a cadence
connectsShopify, WooCommerce, live inventory
plansThree, billed annually, from $199

// the problem

a renewal is a promise to ship.

Most subscription tools treat a renewal as a charge. The card is billed, a receipt goes out, and somebody checks the shelf afterward. If the shelf is short, the apology is a support ticket.

Small brands feel this first. A matcha tin sells out between the first of the month and the fourteenth. A card declines on a Tuesday and nobody notices until the cohort report. A subscriber wants to skip a box and has to email to do it.

Crate was built around the order of operations. Check the stock, reserve it, bill the card, and ship. When a step cannot be completed, the system says which one and why.

1$ crate reserve --window 7d --hold-short

$ crate principles

five things the product will not trade away.

  1. 01

    stock before charge

    A renewal reserves units against live inventory. A short SKU holds the order and names the gap. Nothing is sold that is not on the shelf.

  2. 02

    the subscriber holds the controls

    Skip, swap, pause and card updates live in a portal on your own domain. The renewal date moves with the subscriber.

  3. 03

    recovery is a sequence, not a blast

    Retries land on days cards tend to clear. One email, in your voice, asks for a new card. Pausing comes last and releases the stock.

  4. 04

    one record per subscriber

    Billing, inventory, portal and analytics read the same record. There is no Friday reconciliation between systems.

  5. 05

    limits printed plainly

    250 active subscribers on Sample, 5,000 on Shipment, unlimited on Warehouse. The price is annual and stated in advance.

$ crate stack --explain

how it is built, and who answers.

Crate sits between your storefront and your warehouse count. It does not replace either. It reads both and acts before the box is due.

storefrontShopify and WooCommerce, products and subscribers imported as they are
inventorySynced continuously; reserved units shown per SKU, per week
connectionsMailchimp, Calendly, Zapier, GitHub, Xero, PagerDuty, Zendesk
supportEmail to hello@cratesubscription.com; Warehouse adds priority support and onboarding

// where it is headed

the next few things on the bench.

  • in use

    reservation, recovery, portal

    Renewals reserved against live stock, failed payments retried on a plan, and a portal on your domain. These ship on every plan that includes them.

  • in progress

    sharper forecasts

    Demand projections that account for skips and pauses already in the portal, so the reserved count tracks what will actually ship.

  • under review

    more places to connect

    Additional storefronts and warehouse tools, added when they can reserve stock as reliably as the ones already supported.

// dates are posted in the changelog when they are firm.

$ crate plans

three plans. the stock gets counted either way.

Billed once a year, from $199. Connect your store and the first renewals are forecasted against live inventory.

See plans