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Some subscription businesses want to charge monthly but deliver less frequently — for example, a plant club that charges £10/month and ships a plant every two months. Shopify’s subscription rules don’t support this natively, but there’s a practical workaround.

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Why Shopify blocks it

Shopify requires the billing interval to be a whole-number multiple of the delivery interval. You can prepay for more frequent deliveries (bill every 2 months, deliver monthly), but you cannot charge more often than you deliver (bill monthly, deliver every 2 months). This is a platform rule that applies to all Shopify subscription apps, not an Appfox limitation.

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What Appfox supports natively

Appfox prepaid plans support the Shopify-native direction: billing period as a multiple of fulfillment frequency. Example: You want to deliver products monthly but collect payment every 2 months.
1

Create a Prepaid or Advanced Prepaid plan

In the app, click Plans → Create Subscription Plan.
2

Set the plan type

Choose Prepaid or Advanced Prepaid from the Plan Type dropdown.
3

Configure frequencies

  • Fulfillment Frequency: Every 1 month
  • Billing Period: Every 2 months
Customers pay every 2 months and receive a delivery every month. This is fully supported and creates a standard Shopify subscription contract.
For more on plan settings, see Subscription plans.

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Workaround for bill monthly, deliver bimonthly

If you need to charge monthly but deliver every 2 months — the reverse scenario — here’s the operational pattern that works with Appfox today.

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Set up the plan

1

Create a Pay as you go plan

Go to Plans → Create Subscription Plan and set Plan Type to Pay as you go.
2

Set monthly billing

Configure the billing frequency to Every 1 month.
3

Price the product at the monthly rate

Set the product price to your monthly membership amount (e.g., £10).

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Handle fulfillment manually

Because Shopify creates an order every month, you’ll need to manage fulfillment based on your delivery schedule:
  • Odd billing cycles (months 1, 3, 5, …): Do not fulfill the order. You can leave it unfulfilled, mark it on hold in your fulfillment system, or cancel fulfillment. This represents the monthly “membership” charge.
  • Even billing cycles (months 2, 4, 6, …): Fulfill the order normally and ship the product.
You will receive a Shopify order every month. Your fulfillment team must distinguish between membership charges (no shipment) and delivery cycles (ship the product).

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Customer communication

Because customers are charged monthly, they’ll see a recurring charge every month in the customer portal. Make sure your product page copy clearly explains:
  • They’re charged every month
  • They receive a delivery every 2 months
  • What happens in the “off” months (e.g., “Your monthly membership keeps your spot in the queue”)
Consider using custom email templates (see Emails) to remind customers of the delivery schedule after each charge.

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Handling skipped cycles

If a customer wants to skip an upcoming delivery cycle, you can pause the subscription before the next charge and resume it afterward. See Subscriptions for how to pause and resume.
Appfox does not support order skipping from the customer portal. Pause and resume is the recommended approach.

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Alternative approaches

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Flip to prepaid

If monthly charges aren’t a business requirement, flip the model:
  • Ship every month
  • Bill every 2 months (£20 per charge)
  • Market the effective monthly price (e.g., “£10/month, billed every 2 months”)
This is Shopify-native and doesn’t require manual fulfillment discipline. Another option: advertise the bimonthly price up front and frame it as a bundle.
  • Charge £20 every 2 months
  • Deliver one product every 2 months
  • Market it as “Two months of membership for £20”
This is honest, Shopify-native, and avoids operational complexity.

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What not to expect

Appfox does not currently support:
  • Native “bill more often than you deliver” plans
  • Customer-facing skip buttons in the portal (pause/resume is the supported pattern)
If your business model requires charging monthly for bimonthly deliveries, the Pay as you go + manual fulfillment workaround above is the recommended path.
For setup help or questions, contact support@getappfox.com.