ReCharge powers subscription billing for tens of thousands of Shopify stores. For stores with a subscription product — whether it's a monthly box, a consumable on auto-replenishment, or a membership — ReCharge isn't an optional add-on. It's the core of your recurring revenue model.
When ReCharge has an outage, the impact depends heavily on timing. A platform issue during your scheduled renewal processing window is far more damaging than one in the middle of a quiet afternoon.
Step 1: Confirm it's ReCharge, not your Stripe integration
Check status.rechargepayments.com. ReCharge's status page breaks down issues by component: the Checkout widget, the Customer Portal, the API, and Webhook delivery.
Signs of a ReCharge outage:
- Subscription checkout widget not loading or throwing errors
- Customers unable to access the Customer Portal to manage their subscriptions
- Renewal charges failing across multiple customers simultaneously
- Webhooks not firing to Klaviyo or your fulfillment system after renewals
- ReCharge admin dashboard loading errors or missing subscription data
Note: ReCharge uses Stripe as its payment processor. If Stripe is also experiencing issues, the combined effect can be harder to diagnose — check both status pages.
Step 2: Determine whether active renewal processing is affected
ReCharge processes subscription renewals in batches throughout the day. If the outage coincides with your renewal processing window (visible in your ReCharge admin), renewals may fail silently — no charge, no fulfillment trigger, no customer notification.
In your ReCharge admin, check:
- Orders section for any "failed" renewal attempts during the outage window
- Whether failed renewals will be automatically retried or need manual intervention
- Whether webhooks for completed renewals were delivered to your downstream systems
Step 3: Pause subscription-specific ads if the checkout is broken
If the ReCharge checkout widget is non-functional and you're running ads promoting your subscription product, pause them. Sending paid traffic to a broken subscription checkout wastes spend and creates frustrated potential customers.
Your regular (non-subscription) product checkout on Shopify may still work normally — only the ReCharge-powered subscription checkout is affected.
Step 4: Check your Klaviyo and fulfillment triggers
ReCharge typically triggers email flows and fulfillment orders via webhooks. During an outage, those webhooks may fail to deliver even for renewals that did succeed. After recovery, check:
- Whether renewal confirmation emails went out via Klaviyo for charges processed during the outage
- Whether fulfillment orders were created in ShipStation or your 3PL for subscription renewals
- Manually trigger any missing fulfillment orders for renewals that didn't generate a shipment
Step 5: Communicate with affected subscribers if renewals failed
If customer renewals failed during the outage and ReCharge's retry logic doesn't catch them within 24-48 hours, reach out proactively. Subscribers whose renewal failed may not know — and may be expecting a shipment that won't arrive. A short email explaining the technical issue and confirming their next renewal date is far better than a complaint about a missing order two weeks later.
How to get alerted when ReCharge goes down
ReCharge doesn't push notifications to merchants when their platform has an incident. You find out from a subscriber's complaint, a missing renewal, or a fulfillment gap.
StatusBird monitors ReCharge every 2 minutes and sends you an SMS when any status change is detected — so you know about a checkout or billing issue before it affects your renewal batch. Start monitoring free.
ReCharge outage checklist
- Confirm on status.rechargepayments.com (and status.stripe.com if billing is affected)
- Check whether the outage overlaps with your renewal processing window
- Pause subscription-specific ads if checkout is broken
- After recovery, audit failed renewals and missing webhooks
- Manually trigger missing fulfillment orders for renewals that succeeded without webhook delivery
- Contact subscribers whose renewals failed and won't auto-retry