How to migrate subscriptions from Stripe to Fast Subscriptions
Connect Stripe to Shopify, move your customers' saved cards across, then rebuild their subscriptions in Fast. Nobody has to re-enter their card details.
The whole process in four steps
- Connect Stripe to Shopify as a legacy gateway, alongside Shopify Payments.
- Export a customers CSV from Stripe with the email, customer ID and card ID.
- Import that file in Fast so each saved card attaches to the right customer.
- Recreate the subscriptions in Fast, then cancel them in your old app.
Before you start
Four things need to be in place. If any is missing, the import will not find your customers.
An active Stripe account with the saved cards you want to move
The payment methods have to already exist in that account. Fast cannot create them.
Shopify Payments set up as your main gateway
New subscriptions bill through Shopify Payments. Stripe only carries the migrated ones.
At least one payment method enabled for subscriptions
Otherwise Shopify has nothing to bill migrated subscriptions against.
Access to export customer data from Stripe
You need to be able to download a customers report from the Stripe dashboard.
This one matters most.The Stripe account you connect must be the same account that holds your existing subscribers. A different account will not have their saved cards, and nothing can be moved.
Step 1. Connect Stripe to your Shopify store
Shopify Payments handles new subscriptions. Stripe is connected alongside it as a legacy gateway, purely so the existing saved cards keep working.
Set up Shopify Payments as your main payment gateway, if it is not already. Everything new will bill through it.
In Fast Admin, clickConnect Stripe. You land on the Stripe Card Payments page in Shopify. ClickInstall.
Enter the email registered to your Stripe account and click Continue.
Choose the business account holding your subscribers and click Connect. Check this carefully — the wrong account means no cards to migrate.
You return to Settings › Payments, where Stripe Card Payments now shows as Active. Refresh the page if it does not appear straight away.
Back in Fast, click Refresh. Both prerequisites should now read Completed. Until they do, the migration tool stays locked.
Stripe becomes your secondary processor. Existing subscriptions keep charging the cards already saved there; every new subscription bills through Shopify Payments.
Step 2. Export your customers from Stripe
You need a CSV with three fields present for every customer. Missing any one of them and that customer's payment method cannot be moved.
Matches the customer to a Shopify record, or creates one.
Stripe customer ID
An alphanumeric string starting with cus_
Stripe payment method ID
Starts with pm_, card_ or src_
In the Stripe dashboard, go to Customers and click Export.
Set Date range to All so no subscriber is left out.
Check that the columns include ID, Email and Card ID, then click Export.
If the Card ID column is blank
That customer has no default payment method set in Stripe. OpenStripe Dashboard › Customers, set a default card for them, then export again.
Step 3. Import the payment methods into Shopify
Keep the exported CSV open in another tab. You will copy two IDs per customer into Fast.
In Fast Admin, go to Settings › Migrate customers and payment methods, and select Stripe.
Open your exported CSV in another tab.
For each customer, enter their first name, last name and email, then paste the Stripe customer ID and payment method ID.
Click Save Customer. Repeat for each subscriber, or use the bulk option below.
What if the customer is not in Shopify yet?
If the email already exists, the Stripe card is added to that customer. If it does not, Fast creates the customer for you. Either way you do not need to import customers separately first.
More than 100 customers?
Do not do it by hand. Send us the file and we will run it.
Email your exported Stripe CSV, or a restricted Stripe API key, tomigrations@fastsubscriptions.com with these five columns present. We import and match every customer for you.
Step 4. Rebuild the subscriptions
With the cards in place, recreate each subscription against the saved Stripe payment method.
In Fast Admin, open Create subscription manually.
Pick the customer and select their migrated Stripe payment method.
Enter the products, quantities, prices, billing interval, next billing date and shipping address exactly as they are today.
Save. The customer is emailed a link to their portal, where they can manage the subscription themselves.
Cancel the old subscriptions
Once you have confirmed the migrated subscriptions look right, cancel them in your previous app. If you skip this, customers will be charged twice.
Check before you go live
Next billing dates match the old app for every subscriber
Discounts and legacy pricing carried across correctly
Every customer had a default card set in Stripe before export
A test charge on one subscription succeeds
The old app's subscriptions are cancelled, not just paused
Customer portal link works from the notification email
Need help?
Migration support is free and included. If anything above does not match what you are seeing, tell us and we will take it from there.