Subscription offers: who gives the first one free, and where they say it
Checked 2026-10-15 on phone-size pages. Research only: nothing on our site was changed.
- Nobody else gives the first bottle free with free shipping. I verified 10 brands that give the first one free and then bill a subscription. Every one charges something at checkout: shipping or a "processing fee" ($3 to $9.99 where the page shows it). None of the 15 supplement brands we checked on 10-05 does it either.
- Subscription discounts in our space are small: 10% to 25% off (Thorne, Seeking Health and MethylPro 10%, Triquetra 15%, Neupril 25%). Ours is the free first bottle, then 15% off on every refill.
- Where they say it: 18 of 23 brands put it in the plan box right above the buy button. 10 add a line directly under the button. No brand puts it in the headline.
- Our page already says it 3 times (top card, FAQ, bottom box). The $50.99 price only shows near the bottom of the page.
Who else gives the first one free
Closest first. All found through live ads (Meta Ad Library, GetHookd, Foreplay) and checked on the brand's own page.
Original Glow (face cleanser)
"Try Reset free. Just pay $3.99 shipping." Then $12.99 every 4 or 6 weeks.
Says it in the first screen: the photo badge reads "Try Free, with subscription", and the full terms sit above the buy button.
SciaticaCenter (knee cream)
"Subscribe and get your first bottle of Knee Relief Cream completely FREE, then $39.99 per month."
$0.00 on the page, plus a "small processing fee" at checkout. The terms are in a small grey box below the first buy button.
Seventh Sense (sleep gummies)
"Get A FREE 10 Day Supply (Just Pay $5.99 Shipping)." Then $38/mo after a 15-day trial.
Spelled out as 3 numbered steps in the first screen, and again in a line under every buy button.
Munchkin (baby formula)
"Your first can (worth $39.99) is free, just pay $9 shipping." Then 2 cans for $71.98 two weeks later, then monthly.
Inside the pre-selected plan box, above the button, with the renewal price.
Sleepgram (sleep supplement, near miss)
"Pay just $6.99 today · FREE shipping." Then $49/month.
The monthly price first shows 62% of the way down the page.
Also, all charging shipping
Dinovite (dog supplement, $8.95, terms only in a popup after the tap), Vidrate (UK, £3.99), Luv Livia, Bewilderment, Splendies, Scentbird (subscription boxes, $3 to $9.99). Ancestral Supplements and Fuel Health say "first month free" in their ads, but the page sells Buy 2 Get 1 bundles. TriVita, Onekind, Fractal Forest and Loïs Lee give a free first unit with no subscription. No telehealth brand offers a $0 first month.
Subscription discounts in our space
| Brand | Subscription deal | Where the page says it |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Health Lab | First bottle free, ships free; then $50.99 every 2 months (15% off $59.99) | Top card, FAQ, bottom box |
| Neupril | Extra 25% off, box pre-ticked | Tick box above the button: "Subscribe & Save an Extra 25%" |
| Triquetra | 15% off, subscriptions ship free | Top bar + plan card |
| MethylPro (ARG) | 10% off, pre-selected | Option above the button |
| Seeking Health | 10% off | On the button: "Add Subscription To Cart, $18" |
| Thorne | 10% off, one-time is the default | Price line: "or $39.60 with subscription (10% off)" |
| Happy Mammoth | 14% off | "Why subscribe?" box above the options |
| The Fullest (saffron) | Up to 20% off + free shipping | Everywhere: 23 times, every button |
| Thesis (calm) | Up to 62% off the first order, then $79/mo | "then $79/mo" on every plan card |
| Primal Queen | "Get 1st month free" ($78, then $117 every 3 months) | 67% down the page; renewal price only at checkout |
| Everyday Dose | Starter kit $49 + gifts | Under the button: "Renews at $66/mo" |
| RYZE | $27 first delivery | Under the button: "$36 Refill Ships in 30 Days" |
| Nutrafol | Free gift with subscription | First block: "FREE when you subscribe" |
| Hiya | 50% off the first order | Under the button: "Delivered Fresh Monthly" |
| AG1, IM8, Ritual, Rho, Arrae, Grüns, Obvi, BiOptimizers | Free gifts, or 12% to 40% off | Mostly the plan box above the button |
| Seed | No discount (subscription only) | "30-day supply delivered monthly" above the button |
| Deplin, EnLyte, Nutricost | No subscription | n/a |
Where they say it's a subscription
26 brands, 39 pages, the ones their live Meta ads send people to.
- Plan box above the buy button: 18 of 23.
- A line directly under the button: 10 of 23 (the renewal price, "delivered monthly", or a cancel line).
- First screen, outside the buy box: only 4 (Triquetra top bar, The Fullest, Thesis header strip, Nutrafol banner).
- In the headline: none. Headlines sell the pain or the offer.
- Never say the word "subscription": Seed, Primal Queen, RYZE. They say "delivered monthly", "AutoShip" or "refill".
- Renewal price on the page: of the brands whose first order is cheaper than the renewal, only Thesis, Everyday Dose and RYZE show the renewal price.
Everyday Dose: renewal price under the button
Thesis: "then $79/mo" on every plan
RYZE: refill price under the button
Happy Mammoth: explains why before the options
Triquetra (methylfolate): plan card
Seeking Health (methylfolate): on the button
Primal Queen: "1st month free", plan shown late
Neupril: pre-ticked box, and a review on its own page
Neupril pre-ticks the subscription. Its own product page now shows reviews like this one.
Our page today
1. Top card, right under the first button
"Today: first bottle free, ships free. Day 60: refill ships. Then: a bottle every 2 months." No price.
2. FAQ, 84% down, closed until tapped
3. Bottom buy box, 90% down
"Then $50.99 every 2 months." in small grey text.
What buyers and operators say
Reddit and X only (people posting their own experience or numbers), plus Shopify's own pages. No blogs.
- Buyers get angry when it was hidden, not when it was shown. Of 58 Reddit buyers on free-trial offers, 21 were charged by surprise and 8 disputed the charge. Every surprise story had the terms behind a link or after the card was entered. 13 others said it's fine as long as the terms are shown.
- "If they had buried the subscription verbiage behind the Terms and Conditions … I would agree that this is a scam. As it is, the subscription wording is upfront, seems pretty clear to me." r/Scams
- "if I had known about the automatic enrollment I would not have opted for the free trial." Onnit New MOOD buyer, r/Supplements
- First renewals on free offers are low: 35% to 46% pay the first renewal, against about 75% for regular subscribers (Create gummies on X; a supplement owner on r/ecommerce whose CPA went up 5x when he switched from free to a small paid starter).
- Part of that is people who didn't know: one supplement founder says about 20% of people who cancel right after the first order "didn't know they were subscribing".
- Showing it didn't hurt sales in the few posted tests (conversion flat or up), though most of those numbers come from one agency.
- The real risk is Shopify Payments. Supplement subscription brands report being cut off at 0.07% to 0.2% chargebacks, and a Shopify VP lists "buried subscription terms" as a trigger. All 48 of our subscribers' cards are saved in Shopify Payments, so losing it could stop every renewal.
- Nobody posted a test of "on the page" vs "only at checkout", so there's no hard number for us on that exact question.
My recommendation
Keep the free bottle as the headline. Add the refill price to the top card, one line, nothing else.
Our top card already says it's a subscription. It just leaves out the $50.99, which only shows at the bottom of the page. The pages closest to ours (Original Glow, Munchkin, Seventh Sense, Everyday Dose, Thesis, RYZE) all put the renewal price next to the button. The few posted tests say that costs little or nothing in sales, and it protects the Nov 25 renewals and our Shopify Payments account.
Update: option 1 is live on all four ad landers and the plain product page since Oct 15, 12:59 UTC.
Mock-ups, round 2. All three keep every line short, and each fits on one line on small phones.
1. Price on the THEN line (my pick). Reads the way people say it: first one's free, then $50.99 every 2 months. Same words as our bottom box.
2. "Next bottle, $50.99" on Day 60.
3. "Second bottle, $50.99" on Day 60.
No "subscription" in the headline (no competitor puts it there), and no cancel or pause wording. If you OK it, it goes to staging first, then live, and we compare sales per day before and after.
Full data: AdMaker brands/clean-health-lab/research/subscription-offers-2026-10-15/ (free-first, landers, voices, ours).