To enable the subscription part of your website, you must create at least one subscription plan to allow your members to sign up. The plan must not include a promo code.
Creating a subscription plan
- In the control panel.
- Click on Subscription Plans.
- Click the Create new subscription plan button.
Subscription Plan Title
Give your payment plan a title. The title you enter here will be displayed to your visitors when they go through the sign up process.
Payment Frequency
The payment frequency fields sets the duration of the subscription.
You can choose from weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. You can also choose to multiply these. Stripe also offers a daily recurring payment.
With Stripe, annual subscriptions must renew yearly.
Recurring Payment
If your subscription plan is set to Recurring, the member payment will be taken at regular intervals as set in the payment frequency field above.
If Recurring Payment is set to No, at the end of the payment frequency, the subscriber will be sent the expiry warning emails created in the Automated Emails section.
Lifetime Access
To create a subscription plan that grants lifetime access for a one time payment, set Recurring Payment to No.
A field will appear that you can check yes to: One-time payment plan with life-time access.
Recurring Times
This option is available only when PayPal is your only processor.
It sets the number of times a subscription payment will recur. For example, if your subscription plan is for lifetime access after three monthly payments, this is how it would be set:
Payment Frequency: 1 Month
Recurring Payment: Yes
Recurring Times: 3
Promotional Code
Promotional codes are generally used in conjunction with a discounted offer. They can also be useful for tracking where your subscribers are being referred from.
The promo code plan only becomes visible to the subscribers after they enter the promotional code on the subscribe page.
Available to
Setting the subscription plan to be available to Everyone allows all new subscribers to sign up to this subscription plan.
New Members means existing members will not be able to renew on this plan.
Setting the plan to Existing Members means only renewing members will be able to access the payment plan.
Days free
Use this option to include free trial days on a subscription plan.
Note: Subscribers will still be asked to enter their card details in the subscription process but the funds will not be taken until the end of the number of free days stated here.
Free days, can only be offered on Recurring plans.
The maximum number of free days for Paypal is 28.
For Stripe, the number of free days is 730.
Amount
Enter the amount of the subscription plan.
The currencies are set in the 'Payment Processor' section within your site settings.
Groups
Member groups are necessary if you plan to offer multiple subscription levels. If you have set up Member Groups, they will be listed here. The subscriber will have access to the content assigned to the ticked Member Group.
How to create a free plan
To create a free plan, enter 0.00 into the Amount field. The member will not be required to enter card details and the Pay Now button text will display Subscribe when a free plan is selected.
If you have ticked Credit Subscription Length and are also offering paid plans, set the free plan to monthly recurring. This is because the Credit Subscription Length option adds the remaining time of the original subscription to the new subscription plans expiry date.
If a user joins a free annual plan and then immediately upgrades to a paid monthly the expiry date will be thirteen months in the future.
MailChimp Lists
If you have set up a MailChimp integration, assign the plan to a list. Subscribers will be automatically added to this MailChimp list. If they cancel their membership, they will be automatically deleted from the list.
Subscription Plan Status
Select Active to enable the plan to be joined by members. Disable plans to remove them from being available to subscribers.
When you disable a plan that still has active members, those members will continue to be billed until they cancel.
Click Save to save the plan.