# Cratejoy Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Cratejoy the right eCommerce solution for you? Explore 42 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/173276/Cratejoy/reviews --- Cratejoy 4.3 (42) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/173276/Cratejoy/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of Cratejoy Ease of use 4.5 Customer Service 4.0 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews CB Cindy B Owner, DesignerArts and Crafts, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Cratejoy has been a huge help in getting my sub box marketed and seems to be user friendly for my customers.“ January 21, 2024 LC Linda C OwnerRetail, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Cratejoy even encouraged me to keep sending crates to someone who cancelled but failed to ask for a refund.“ September 29, 2021 PM Peter M ownerRetail, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Cratejoy is pretty easy to roll out and offers a solid subscription e-commerce service.“ August 8, 2020 MW Mikelle W FounderRetail, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “For example, as I scale, Cratejoy doesn't have the integrations and customizations to support my business as I scale.“ May 8, 2020 PM Peter M ownerRetail, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “In the end Cratejoy has accepted no accountability for the lost revenue and I intend to stop using them as soon as I can without ruining subscriber relationships.“ August 8, 2020 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 42 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Mark D. Marketing Executive Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Cratejoy has helped my business by providing a backend that I never have to worry about." March 20, 2018 5.0 Comprehensive sales platform with a lot of options. Pros Easy to use with a great interface. The growing features help streamline my business so I don't have to worry about my customers. Cons Customizing can be difficult if your business is not the same as others. Reports are pretty generic. Review Source CB Cindy B. Owner, Designer Arts and Crafts Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Cratejoy Sub Box Creator" January 21, 2024 5.0 Cratejoy has been a huge help in getting my sub box marketed and seems to be user friendly for my customers. Pros Ease of setup, frequent update emails from Cratejoy Cons Need updates via text/sms, easier filtering of current subscriptions, marketing options Alternatives considered [Subbly](https://www.capterra.com/p/144363/Subbly/) Reason for choosing Cratejoy Cost, ease of setup, Cratejoy marketing on social media and tv Review Source PB Pam B. Owner Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Not as good as it used to be" May 8, 2025 3.0 I loved Cratejoy when I started. I felt my company was recognized often and the support was great. In the past couple years they have allowed customers who are not subscriptions and products that compete with subscriptions. Its gotten too big, impersonal and barely no customer service. I moved my website but kept marketplace. I have to charge higher on marketplace then on my own website because of all the fees, some unnecessary, like charging taxes when I already submit taxes for my business. Pros I started my business with Cratejoy when they had just recently started. It was alot more personal and not as much competition. Their customer service response time was good. Cons Way too high fees and rarely get responses to my email. Their help is pretty much non existent. Changes get made without notification. There are extra fees for my company as well as my customer as much as 40% Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Owner Food & Beverages Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best for newbies - bad for large shops" July 18, 2019 4.0 Pros CrateJoy is tremendously easy to use and offers a great all in one solution for starting a subscription box company quickly and easily. You don't need to know much about websites to set things up properly. Reports are useful and you have a lot of options and abilities in managing subscriptions and shipments. Cons Fees are quite high if you list your company on their marketplace. You're charged 11.25% of EVERY purchase made on a subscription started through their marketplace, not just one time. If you use the built in WYSIWYG builder, the sites all pretty much look the same - not a lot of templates available. Alternatives considered [Shopify](https://www.capterra.com/p/83891/Shopify/) Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Co-Founder & Editorial Director Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Love Cratejoy! " March 20, 2018 5.0 Pros Love that it's easy to use and it's so easy to jumpstart a subscription box! The templates are great and love that subscribers have access to their own portal! Cons I wish there was an app! Except that, we love it. Also wish there were easier ways to change a subscriber's Email... Oh! And shipping! Had to switch to Pirate shipping - wish it could be just as cheap but still on Cratejoy Review Source RR Rachel R. Owner & Curator Entertainment Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Meh." June 16, 2021 2.0 Meh. It was easy enough to operate, but you're constantly submitting things for approval. They are providing a subscription service themselves and yet you don't get the customer experience you expect for paying such high monthly fees. Glad I only paid a month and a half of my membership as I didn't find it worth it. Marketing is free if you have social media and play your cards right. So really? Why pay for a marketplace that you beat yourself up over trying to get approval for. We all know investing in professional photos is important but some people do what they can with what they have to start because there is no pre-sale feature on Cratejoy. You can't penalize someone for that especially when you consider the expenses at the beginning of a business(that sounds like I had crumby pictures... after my first email back from them I took even more pictures and I edited them and made them look decent enough - at least until I can afford professional ones). Pros I had fun making my products in my store playing with layout and fonts and colours etc, and I liked seeing how my store was turning out. Cons In no particular order: - Customer service (with the exception of one staff member and a supervisor who helped me with a tax set-up thing). - Marketplace ad feature - Out of date articles and instructions on website (make references to features that are no longer there or aren't being used at the moment) - Emails for correcting things to get yoru shop up and running have links that go no where and are long paragraphs that you have to read through slowly to decipher the information (simple bullet points would suffice) - Marketplace fees... seriously those are outrageous and on top of that we pay monthly to post in it to hopefully sell our product... if you even get approval. Not a practical way for a start-up to be doing business with all of our expenses highest when we first start out. Alternatives considered [Shopify](https://www.capterra.com/p/83891/Shopify/) Reason for choosing Cratejoy I'm not a computer or website person. It seemed like the right thing to use to start my business and to sacrifice the fees... but I want my business to succeed so I left. I couldn't justify giving away that much $$$ because of marketplace fees. Review Source Charlotte T. Online visibility consultant / Social media marketing professional Used the software for: 2+ years ### "It's a brilliant piece of software and does things it would take me months to piece together." March 26, 2018 3.0 Pros You can pretty much set it up and leave it which leaves me plenty of time to get on with all the other stuff in the business. Cons Would really like a built in blog feature it's a pain having to gave it somewhere else and link it together. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer CEO Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "generally good" March 20, 2018 4.0 Easily run my subscription business. Pros The program is very easy to use and tracks subscriptions very well. It makes shipping a breeze especially when you have multiple subscription products. Cons I wish they had more one time shop features and options. There is no way for my customers to log in and rate my products without purchasing something even if they used a product in real life. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Co-founder & Designer Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Cratejoy was everything we needed to get started as a brand new subscription box company." March 7, 2018 5.0 Pros Cratejoy lays everything out, has several features, and is really the platform that you should start your subscription service on. Cons There are still some features that would be great to implement, like customization and allowing the customer to manage their survey answers within their account. Review Source Brittany B. Founder Arts and Crafts Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Outdated Software + BEWARE of Listing in the Marketplace" October 29, 2018 1.0 It was a bad experience. Pros Drag and drop. Easy to use. There are limited themes but they are all easy for beginners. It's easy to add Google Analytics and a Facebook Pixel. Cons Unfortunately, I have had nothing but bad experiences as a seller on this platform. First of all, they platform did not work correctly for me. There we're glitches that could not be resolved without contacting Cratejoy Support. Second, in the marketplace, they take way too much of a cut of sales. It would not be possible for most businesses to profit using this platform. Third they do not protect their sellers from bad buyers. IE - Reviews are everything. If any shopper decides to leave a bad review it will absolutely ruin you. And they won't help you. I was negatively reviewed by someone who was lying about her experience. I have no idea why. Cratejoy would not help me. Shoppers are actually incentivized to leave a negative review - it will only benefit them because they can get anything they want for free. Cratejoy does not require that it's truthful. Cratejoy does not require that they contact you first. They allow anyone to post anything they want. Review Source MG Mia G. Owner Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good function for a multifaceted business" March 20, 2018 5.0 Pros I like how easy Cratejoy makes rebilling my subscription customers. I've never had a problem with the integrations. Cons I don't like the limitations on design. I had to swap to another front end to be able to have the design and aesthetics I wanted. Review Source AS Amanda S. owner Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great company that is very helpful" March 23, 2018 5.0 Pros What I like about this software is the ease of use and helpfulness from the staff. I like that my own customers are kept organized. Cons What I dislike about this software is that every once in a while, I need immediate help with something but there is no phone number to contact staff. Review Source WJ William J. Ceo Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "It's been a great experience. Best value for the business. " March 20, 2018 4.0 Pros The coupon and ease of design. It allows for more than one platform of store locations (merchandise listing and store's website). Cons Locked into old version of templates and can't update the template unless you switch to a different one. Review Source RC Rose C. Massage Therapist Cosmetics Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "A wonderful place" January 20, 2020 5.0 My experience with cratejoy has been great. when searching for new subscription boxes, i go to cratejoy and search for anything i might be looking for and they never disappoint. cratejoy is a wonderful company and i highly recommend them! Pros I like cratejoy because there are so many options in finding a subscription box for yourself. Easy to use and navigate the site. Cons There is nothing i can say to dislike cratejoy. The are a great company providing wonderful options for people looking for subscription boxes. Review Source LH Lorna H. Owner Used the software for: 2+ years ### "An Overall Satisfying Experience" March 27, 2018 5.0 Pros CrateJoy by far was my first choice for the subscription box e-commerce world, particularly due to its ability to allow for intense customization. I could design my store exactly how I intended to, complete with various color schemes, pictures, and text inserts with fancy fonts. My products were always displayed in their best light and the Marketplace added extra exposure to help build my customer base. Additionally, allowing exposure to each individual shop's social media platforms created an unlimited potential for exposure to customers as well. Cons New features can always be added, such as a more efficient way to handle shipments. There are times when the software can be a bit buggy and the shipping labels won't calculate or else are priced expensively in comparison to actually going to the nearest USPS and mailing from there. Also, the display of which shipment labels to print for which shipments (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) could be a bit confusing. I also was not a fan of buying shipping in set increments. More information must be acquired from the customer to prevent fraud, as I lost money in this regard. Additionally, I believe cancelled subscribers should be removed from the database to prevent the customer list from being too bulky. It is also a pain to not be able to edit live product information and instead have to create a new product listing. Review Source BJ Brandon J. Owner Entertainment Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Cratejoy has been a true game changer for my subscription box business!" June 21, 2018 5.0 Cratejoy is truly invested in your success. Their Customer Success and Marketing teams are top notch and go above and beyond to help you succeed. In addition, their marketplace is a phenomenal asset. If you're thinking about starting a subscription box, I highly recommend you sign up with Cratejoy! Pros As a back end payment processor, Cratejoy is very straightforward and easy to use. Their marketplace is a true asset and worth every penny as well. In addition, their Marketing Team and Customer Success Team truly want to see you succeed. From helping me get started to having my box featured on CNN, they've helped nurture my box's success every step of the way. Cons Personally, I dislike Cratejoy's website builder. It lacks features, looks very cookie cutter, and is difficult to customize. I built and run my website with a different platform and have opted to use Cratejoy only for checkout. I also was disappointed with their referral program as it felt pretty bare bones and lacked most features and options. Even with these issues, overall I have found Cratejoy to be an amazing platform to work with. Their teams are wonderful and they're truly invested in your success. While some aspects of the software are far from perfect, overall I believe the pros far outweigh the cons. Review Source Scarlett S. CEO Used the software for: 2+ years ### "All-in-one platform for subscription boxes " March 23, 2018 4.0 Pros One stop shop for everthing you need for a subscription box business including recurring payments, integration with Pirateship for commercial USPS pricing, website templates, etc Cons Lacking some website add-on functionality that platforms like Shopify have. They charge transaction fees on top of the payment processor fees. Review Source PM Peter M. owner Retail Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Misleading fee structure, no accountability" August 8, 2020 4.0 Cratejoy has been a huge mistake for my company. In the end, after using it for a year I guess we are about break-even on our sales but we are missing 10% of our revenue because I was misled when I signed up for Cratejoy. They offer different fee plans and different subscriptions. At the time, I was led to believe that if we signed up for a subscription, we could avoid paying the absurd 11% fees per transaction through them. I went forward and launched everything and as far as I could tell, I was paying the lower rate because that is what was showing in my Cratejoy admin account. However, I eventually discovered that we had been paying the much higher rate all along. I had to see this in my Stripe account to realize it because absolutely everything else I saw from Cratejoy showed the lower rate. In the end Cratejoy has accepted no accountability for the lost revenue and I intend to stop using them as soon as I can without ruining subscriber relationships. BUYER BEWARE! Pros Cratejoy is pretty easy to roll out and offers a solid subscription e-commerce service. Cons It does not offer robust reporting or integrate with other apps and platforms very well, unless you are a full fledged developer. Alternatives considered [Shopify](https://www.capterra.com/p/83891/Shopify/) Review Source KF Katie F. Owner/CEO Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Cratejoy makes running my subscription business a breeze! " March 29, 2018 5.0 Pros Cratejoy's ability to manage dozens to thousands of subscribers plans easily and effectively each month makes running my subscription business a snap. It's super easy to use without any major training and they are constantly adding new features or upgrading existing features to make the software even better. Their customer service department is pretty responsive and available should you have any issues or questions. I can't imagine running a subscription-based business without Cratejoy. Cons Cratejoy could be expanded upon to feature more reporting and accounting features. It does currently need to run concurrently with an accounting software which is an additional cost. Review Source CG Chris G. CEO Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Cratejoy is the only platform I would run a subscription box company with." March 26, 2018 5.0 Pros Easy to setup, use and manage. It's the only platform that allows me to ship a progressive sequence of boxes. The marketplace also brings a lot of leads to the site. Cons The platform is definitely missing a few features. For example, there are no multiple shipping options for the customer, blog integration, and there are some limitations with web development/integration. Review Source KM Katie M. Artist Arts and Crafts Used the software for: 2+ years ### "I want to love it but I spend more time battling with the backend and with customer support..." March 20, 2018 4.0 Great to have recurring income ! Pros For the customer side, it works great. It's easy for them to use. Payment system works great. The designs they provide look great. At the begging when I first started two years ago, the tech support was super helpful. Cons Customer service was great two years ago, now it has gotten worse and slower. I was told I need to hire a developer to install an email capturing popup on the main page. A site shouldn't be that difficult to use. The backend could be a lot easier to use. I tried to upgrade to one of their new designs so I could take advantage of their new upsell functionality and my website broke and I had to revert back to the old design in order to get it working again. Review Source TM Tiffany M. owner Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "I love it." March 26, 2018 5.0 Pros Cratejoy is very simple, straight forward and easy to use. I enjoy how I can easily see how my sales are doing as well as change products in a moments notice. I love this software because it is affordable and gives me everything I need to operate my online business well and professionally. Also, everything looks very nice online and the checkout process is very user friendly for my customers. Cons The only thing I would like to see improvements on is the text and display style of the content information for each product. It is a bit challenging to change around my content. Also, I would love an easy way to add a blog to my site so that I can share more information with customers. Review Source SB Sandra B. CEO Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Really good for monthly subscription boxes" September 9, 2021 5.0 I think for a monthly subscription box it is fantastic and easy. Pros Very templated and easy to set up. Customer service responded quickly. Cons Not enough customization. There could be more templates and also ways to set up. Alternatives considered [Shopify](https://www.capterra.com/p/83891/Shopify/) Reason for choosing Cratejoy This seemed even more straightforward. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Operations Manager Consumer Goods Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Cratejoy Brings Great Joy! " June 5, 2019 5.0 Pros Cratejoy is an excellent platform for smaller, startups to put their subscription service out there and equally compete with other services. Cratejoys interface, both for the users and for the companies, is very friendly and makes it easy for companies to make sleek looking pages promoting their subscriptions. Cons The downside to Cratejoy is that you not only pay a monthly fee but you also pay a fee for each sale. Review Source EN Erika N. Founder Used the software for: 2+ years ### "It's super user friendly and gets the job done efficiently." March 26, 2018 4.0 Pros I love how non technical people can figure out the backend with coding. I also think the options for managing subscriptions is nice. Cons I wish there more ways to export information that you collect. I also think it would be nice to have built in ways to communicate with the customers almost like a mailchimp feature. I had more complaints when I first started using Cratejoy but it seems like you really strive to improve on the site and have done so already. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.