You may want to give new members the ability to try out or explore your paid plans with a Free Trial before they start paying for a monthly or annual subscription. Adding a Free Trial is optional when you're creating a new subscription plan, and the trial length is unique to each plan.
Note: Free Trials are not available for a one-time payment plan or a free plan.
Free Trials allow your members to get short-term access to your plan for a period of time without being charged. When someone starts a Free Trial, they will be prompted to enter their credit card details. However, they will not be charged until the Free Trial is up. Members are notified when their Free Trial is about to end, and they are responsible for managing their own subscriptions with the option to cancel anytime. Please note that if a member cancels their free trial, the system will cancel them immediately and won't let them finish their trial period.
Note for iOS devices: If a Free Trial is canceled through the App Store, then the member may retain access until the end of their Trial.
How to Set Up A Free Trial
Click on your profile picture in the top right corner > Admin > Plans > Plan List. You will be prompted to add a Free Trial when you’re setting up a new subscription plan or when you’re editing an existing subscription plan. The length of your Free Trial can be one of the following increments: 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year.
Once your Free Trial is active, all new members on the plan can take advantage of the trial period—no matter if they purchase on the web or on the iOS app. Members will receive an email notification three days before their trial is about to end (unless it's a 3-day Free Trial, at which point it will send 1 day before the trial is set to end).
How to Remove or Change the Duration of a Free Trial
To remove or change the duration of an existing Free Trial, click on your profile picture in the top right corner > Admin > Plans > Plan List > Select the Plan > Settings > Platform Information. You can then click on each individual platform to change its respective Free Trial duration (ie. to remove the Trial, select None).
Changing the Free Trial duration will only affect future members. Existing members of the plan will keep the Free Trial duration from the date that they signed up.
You can also add a Free Trial to plans that have previously been set up without a Free Trial. To do this, you'll want to follow the same procedure outlined above for changing the duration of an existing Trial.
Managing Failed Payment Methods for Members
If a member's payment method fails at the end of their Free Trial, they'll have a 7-day grace period during which the system will attempt the charge again one day after the first failed payment, then every two days until hitting day 7. If the system is unable to process the payment on the 7th day, the member will lose access to the Plan.
Those who purchased originally on an iOS device will have a 16-day grace period. Apple automatically handles all billing notifications through the App Store.