Subscriptions let you sell ongoing access with monthly or yearly billing through Stripe or PayPal. This guide is for store owners configuring products and helping customers, not for writing payment code.
Create A Subscription Product
- Edit or create a product.
- In Product Details, set Product Type to Subscription.
- In Pricing, enter a Monthly Price, a Yearly Price, or both on each license tier. Leave a field empty if you do not offer that period.
- Optionally, under Subscription options in Product Details:
- Trial period (days) — number of free days before the first charge (0 or empty = none)
- Setup fee — one-time amount charged with the first billing period
- Attach the download file as usual.
- If the product also needs license keys, enable them in License Settings. Subscription licenses stay valid while the subscription is active and renew when billing renews.
- Publish the product.
On the product page, customers choose monthly or yearly before adding to cart. Trial and setup fee details appear under the price when configured.
Before you sell subscriptions for real money, connect Stripe and/or PayPal and register webhooks. Renewals and post-trial charges depend on those connections. See Set Up Stripe and Set Up Paypal.
Trial period and setup fee
Optional fields on every subscription product. See Product Pricing for examples of how amounts combine.
Trial period
Customers receive downloads and license access right away. The subscription status is Trialing until the trial end date. Checkout may show $0 due today; the payment gateway still saves a payment method for the charge when the trial ends. Customers can cancel during the trial from My Account to avoid being charged.
Setup fee
Charged once, together with the first subscription payment. If there is no trial, that happens at checkout. If there is a trial, the setup fee and first recurring payment are charged when the trial ends.
Checkout shows a billing schedule (due today, due when trial ends, recurring amount) so customers understand the timing before they pay.
What Happens After Purchase
When checkout completes for a subscription product:
- A subscription record is created in your store
- Recurring billing is set up at Stripe or PayPal
- Download access (and license keys, if enabled) is granted right away
Renewals are handled by the payment provider. Your site updates access when payments succeed or fail, primarily through webhooks. When a recurring payment succeeds, the customer may receive a Subscription Renewal email (if enabled under Settings → Emails). When a payment fails and the subscription becomes past due, they may receive a Subscription Payment Failed email.
What Customers Can Do
In My Account → Subscriptions, customers can:
Cancel
Stops future billing at the gateway. They keep access until the end of the period they already paid for, or until the trial would have ended if they cancel during a free trial.
Restart
Starts a new subscription through checkout if they cancelled or expired. Trial and setup fee settings on the product apply again to the new purchase.
What You See In Admin
Avenia Digital Products → Subscriptions lists status, billing period, and next payment information.
You can revoke access on your site so downloads and licenses stop working. That does not cancel billing at Stripe or PayPal. If charges should stop, cancel in the gateway dashboard or have the customer cancel from My Account. See Access Control.
Statuses In Plain Language
Trialing
Free trial in progress; access works. The first charge (setup fee plus recurring price, if any) happens when the trial ends unless the customer cancels first.
Active
Paid up; access works.
Cancelled
Will not renew; access continues until the paid period ends (or until the trial would have ended if cancelled during a trial).
Expired
The period ended; access has stopped.
Past due
A renewal payment failed. Downloads and license validation stop while the subscription stays past due. The customer can start a new subscription from My Account → Restart (that runs a new checkout).
Failed Payments
If a Stripe or PayPal renewal fails, webhooks mark the subscription past due and the customer may receive the Subscription Payment Failed email (Settings → Emails — enabled by default). Access does not continue while the status is past due. The email points them to My Account, where they can restart (purchase again) after updating their payment method with the provider if needed. My Account does not include an in-site “update payment method” screen.
Manual And Comp Subscriptions
Orders you create by hand (see Orders and Customers) can grant subscription-style access without automatic gateway renewals. They end on the date shown unless you extend them. Use this for trials, partners, or offline arrangements.
Mixed Carts
Mixed carts (one-time + subscription products together): not allowed with Stripe or PayPal. Customers must check out those types separately.
Multiple subscription products in one cart: allowed with Stripe. PayPal checkout in this plugin supports one subscription product at a time (each PayPal approval creates a single billing subscription). If both gateways are enabled, checkout still shows Stripe and PayPal, it does not hide PayPal or force Stripe. Customers with more than one subscription in the cart should choose Stripe, or remove extras before paying with PayPal. See Troubleshooting.