How To Get FREE Subscription Boxes

“How can I get free subscription boxes?” I’ve been reviewing subscription boxes for almost 6 years, and that’s the question I hear the most! Good news! I’ve got all the answers for you – whether you have a blog or not!

Here are 5 different ways to get free subscription boxes, from easiest to hardest:

1. First Month Free Subscription Boxes

If you haven’t already, make sure to take advantage of all the first-month free subscription box offers. You aren’t committed to keeping these subscriptions (you can always cancel before you are charged for the next month), so this is the easiest way to start getting free subscriptions immediately.

Here are some popular subscription boxes with free first-month deals:

Graze

Graze is a mini-snack subscription box that sends a customized selection of treats weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

They offer over 100 different snacks that you can rate online, which, over time, helps tailor your subscription to your particular snacking preferences. (Regularly $11.99 for 8 snacks per box).

Get your first 4-snack box free (just pay $1 shipping), no coupon required, just use this link. 

Check out all of our Graze reviews to see what you can expect from this subscription.

Gwynnie Bee

Gwynnie Bee is a clothing rental subscription service for women sizes 2-32. (Regularly $49-79 a month)

Get your first month for free, no coupon required, just use this link!

Check out our Gwynnie Bee reviews to learn more about this subscription box.

Nadine West

Nadine West is a subscription styling service for women sizes Small to 3X.

Subscribers fill out a style quiz and are sent an outfit (2-4 items, usually 1 apparel item plus accessories) every month based on their style preferences. There is no styling fee, but there is a shipping fee ($9.78) that is credited toward the cost of anything you keep. Their items are priced lower than other styling services, ranging from $10 – $25 per piece.

Use referral code NADINE to waive shipping fees on your first box! That means you can get your first box totally risk-free, with no styling fee and no shipping fee (normally $9.78). You’ll pay only for items you decide to keep!

Check out our Nadine West reviews to see what you can expect from this subscription box!

Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club is a monthly razor blade subscription service. (And they now offer grooming products like shave cream, hair products, etc.) Subscriptions start at $6 a month for their most popular model (the 4X) and you get a free handle with your first month.

Get a starter kit including razor handle, blades, and trial sizes of several shower & shave products for just $5 with free shipping! No coupon needed, just use this link!

Check out our Dollar Shave Club reviews to see what you can expect with this subscription!

Rocksbox

Rocksbox (regularly $21/month) is a monthly subscription box for jewelry rental.

Receive 3 pieces of hand-selected jewelry in every box. Wear them as long as you like, and then return them in a pre-paid shipping envelope to swap them out for a new set. Subscribers also get $21 in “Shine Credit” each month that they can use towards buying the jewelry to keep (Shine Credits do not roll over).

Use this link to get your first box for FREE with coupon code mysubaddictxoxo!

Check out our Rocksbox Reviews to learn more about this subscription!

Curology

Curology (regularly $19.95/month) is a unique and totally personalized prescription skincare subscription service that targets acne and pairs you with a licensed dermatologist and sends you prescription medication every month or every other month.

Get your first month of Curology for free, no coupon needed!

Check out our Curology Reviews to learn more about what to expect from this box!

Hubble Contact Lenses

Hubble is a monthly subscription box for affordable, daily contacts (regularly $30/month for 30 pairs).

Get your first box (15 pairs) free! Just pay $3 shipping!, no coupon required, just use this link

Check out our Hubble Contact Lenses Review to learn more about what to expect when you sign up!

And if you want even more deep discounts + cheap boxes, check out our list of the 50 subscription boxes you can try for $10 or less.

One thing to keep in mind: Some subscriptions will email you a reminder before you are charged after you free trial, but not all of them. Make sure to add the date you’ll be charged again to your calendar so you have a reminder to cancel if you decide you don’t want to keep it.

2. Subscription Box Referral Programs

Take advantage of referral programs. No blog needed for this one! Just share your referral links with friends and on social media. (Before I even started MSA, I was getting free boxes through referral credits just for sharing my referral links on Pinterest!)

Here are some popular subscription boxes that have referral programs:

• FabFitFun: Get $15 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Box of Style: Get $20 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Birchbox: Get $5 credit to use in their shop for every friend that signs up.
• Ipsy: Get 250 points you can redeem for free beauty products for every friend that signs up.
• Boxycharm: Get $5 credit to use in their shop for every friend that signs up.
• Home Chef: Get $30 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Gwynnie Bee: Get $25 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Candy Club: Get a free box for every friend that signs up, up to 5 free boxes.
• Love with Food: Get a free bonus snack box and $10 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Hello Fresh: Get $20 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Winc: Get $26 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Allure Beauty Box: Get a free gift when a friend signs up.
• Daily Harvest: Get 3 free cups when a friend signs up.
• Le Tote: Get $25 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Kiwi Crate: Get $10 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Nature Box: Get $20 in credit for every friend that signs up.
• Fabletics: Get $20 in credit for every friend that signs up

One thing to keep in mind: Most of these boxes require you to have an active subscription to earn free credits. If you’re thinking of canceling at any point, cash in your credits first!

3. Subscription Box Giveaways

Enter subscription box giveaways. This method isn’t a sure thing, but there’s no risk and your odds are pretty good in the new subscription box industry vs other areas.

Just make a wishlist of all the subscription boxes you are interested in and follow them on social media. (You can create a wishlist on our site and add boxes while browsing the directory if you like!) There are lots of small-scale subscription boxes that want to beef up their social media following, and they use giveaways as a way to do that. Since a lot of these boxes have followers in the thousands or only hundreds, you have pretty good odds!

And here at My Subscription Addiction, we do giveaways every weekend, so make sure to check back every Saturday. (Or sign up for our daily newsletter if you want to make sure you don’t miss it!)

4. Swap Subscription Box Items

Swap the subscription box items you don’t want for the ones you do. If you subscribe to several boxes, you might have a stash of items that you aren’t going to use. Instead of letting them collect dust, trade them on our subscription box swap site to get the items you actually want!

One thing to keep in mind: The swap site is completely free to use, but you will have to pay for the cost to ship your items, so keep that cost in mind when making swap decisions. Check out this swap tutorial to get started.

5. Start A Subscription Box Review Blog

Get companies to send you free boxes in exchange for a review on your blog. I started My Subscription Addiction almost 6 years ago, and I’ve received thousands of free boxes in that time!

Here’s how to start a subscription box review blog:

1. Go with a free service. I started out with Blogger, but eventually moved to WordPress and am still with them today. No technical expertise required!
2. Once your blog is set up, start creating content! (If you want to do this at little to no cost, sign up for the free subscription boxes at the top of this post and review those. And you can get more than one review out of certain boxes. The free month of Gwynnie Bee can equal 4 separate shipments/reviews if you ship things back quickly!)
3. Write the kind of review you would find helpful and want to read. You can get great pictures with just your phone and filtered sunlight. We’ve found that the more photos we take demonstrating items, the better the review. This Stitch Fix review is a great example: 
4. Post as consistently as you can. Learn how long it takes you to write and take pictures for a review, and how many reviews you can publish a week. When a company is considering sending you a free box, they’ll want to see that you have an established site. I recommend posting reviews for at least a month or two before you approach any company for a free box.
5. Reach out to your favorite boxes and request complimentary boxes for review purposes. Here’s an example email you could send:

Hi!

I’m reaching out to see if you send complimentary boxes to bloggers. I review subscription boxes on my blog: [make sure to include the link so they can check out your blog] and I’d love to review [name of subscription box].

In exchange for the box, I would provide an honest review on my blog. Reviews are typically posted within [amount of time you feel comfortable with] after receiving the box.

If you aren’t familiar with [name of your blog], it’s my favorite hobby and I’m especially proud of [one of your strengths – photography, Instagram followers, writing style, etc.]

Want a more passive approach? Create a subscription box focused Instagram account using images from your blog, and follow all the subscription box companies! They’ll likely check out your account, and if they like what they see you’ll get a DM from them asking how they can send you a free box.

One thing to keep in mind: Make sure to disclose to your readers if you received a box for free in exchange for a review.

P.S. If you start a subscription box blog, let me know! I’ll follow you!