How to Use Subscription Payments in FlexiFunnels

Subscription payments let you charge customers recurring fees — monthly, yearly, or any interval you choose. Instead of a one-time $97 purchase, customers pay $29/month (or $299/year), and they keep getting charged until they cancel.

This guide walks you through setting up subscriptions, configuring billing cycles, offering free trials, and managing active subscriptions.

Why Subscriptions Matter

Subscriptions create predictable, recurring revenue. Instead of always chasing new customers, your existing subscribers pay you every month.

Real numbers:

• 10 subscribers × $29/month = $290 recurring revenue/month = $3,480/year
• Growing to 100 subscribers = $29,000/year recurring (no extra marketing work)

Common subscription products:

• Membership sites (course access, community, training)
• Software as a Service (SaaS) — tools, apps, platforms
• Coaching/accountability — monthly 1-on-1s, group coaching
• Content subscriptions — exclusive articles, videos, downloads
• Physical products — monthly boxes, recurring supplies

Prerequisites

Before you start, you need:

1. A FlexiFunnels account
2. A payment processor connected:
   • Stripe (recommended, works worldwide)
   • PayPal (US-based, simpler setup)
   • ⚠️ Important: Subscription payments work only in USD currently
3. Webhooks enabled in your payment setup (required for subscription tracking)

? Don't have Stripe/PayPal connected? Go to Settings → Integrations and set up your payment processor first.

Step-by-Step: Set Up Subscriptions

Step 1 — Create Your Product Pages

Before configuring the product, create the pages customers will see:

For digital/membership subscriptions:

• Sales Page — describes the subscription, benefits, pricing
• Checkout Page — where customers enter payment info
• Thank You Page — post-purchase confirmation

See Creating Product In FlexiFunnels To Sell for detailed page creation.

Step 2 — Create a New Product

Go to Products and click "Create New Product".

Choose:

• Digital Product (courses, software, digital assets delivered instantly)
• Membership Product (ongoing access to courses, community, content)

The subscription setup flow is the same for both.

Step 3 — Configure General Settings

In the product settings:

1. Add a Product Title (e.g., "Monthly Fitness Coaching")
2. Select Currency — must be USD (only option for subscriptions currently)
3. Confirm your Payment Provider — Stripe or PayPal
4. Click "Continue"

Step 4 — Enable Payment Provider

Make sure your Stripe or PayPal account is connected and authorized.

If not connected, go to Settings → Integrations to set it up.

Step 5 — Go to Pricing

Click the "Pricing" tab (or "Step 2: Pricing").

Click "Add Price".

Step 6 — Select Subscription

In the pricing form, you'll see payment type options:

• One-Time Fee (single charge)
• Subscription ← select this
• Pay Your Own Price

Click "Subscription".

Step 7 — Configure Subscription Details

Now fill in the subscription parameters:

Pricing Display Name

What you call this subscription tier. Examples:

• "Monthly Membership"
• "Annual Fitness Plan"
• "$29/Month Premium Access"

Currency

Auto-set to USD (only supported currency for subscriptions).

Billing Duration — Two Options

You can choose how long the subscription lasts:

Option A: Until Cancelled ✅ Most Common

• Customer keeps getting charged indefinitely
• They pay every billing cycle until they manually cancel
• Best for: memberships, SaaS, ongoing coaching

Example: $29/month until they click "Cancel My Subscription"

Option B: Fixed Number of Cycles ✅ Limited Subscriptions

• Customer is charged for a set number of times, then automatically stops
• Useful for: introductory pricing, limited-term commitments, trial-to-paid
• Example: "10 monthly payments = $290 total, then subscription ends"

Billing Frequency — How Often They're Charged

Choose how frequently billing occurs:

• Weekly — every 7 days
• Monthly — every month
• Quarterly — every 3 months
• Every 6 Months — twice a year
• Yearly — once a year
• Best practices:
  • Monthly is most common (easiest to understand, less commitment friction)
  • Annual is best for cash flow and retention (customers who prepay for a year are stickier)
  • Quarterly/Semi-annual are less common but work for some businesses
    
    

Price — The Recurring Amount

Enter the amount charged per billing cycle in USD.

Examples:

• $29 (monthly)
• $99 (quarterly)
• $299 (annual)

Free Trial — NEW Feature ✅

You can offer a free trial period before charging.

1. Check "Offer a free trial period"
2. Enter the trial duration in days (e.g., 7, 14, 30)
3. Customers won't be charged during the trial

How it works:

• Customer sees "Try free for 14 days" on your sales page
• They enter their payment info at checkout (no charge yet)
• After 14 days, they're automatically charged
• If they don't like it, they can cancel before the trial ends

Best practices:

• 7–14 days for most products (enough time to experience value)
• 30 days for complex products (courses, software)
• Don't offer too long a trial (reduces conversion)
  
  

Step 8 — Save and Continue

Click "Finish Setup" or "Save & Continue" to move to the next section.

Step 9 — Complete Product Configuration

After pricing, configure the rest of the product:

For Digital Product:

• Product Basics (name, description)
• Sender Information (who emails them after purchase)
• Thank You Page (post-purchase confirmation)

For Membership Product:

• Product Basics
• Sender Information
• Assign Bundle (which courses/content they get access to)

See After Purchase Settings In Product Settings for details.

Step 10 — Connect Pages to Product

On your Sales Page:

1. Add a button (e.g., "Subscribe Now")
2. Click the button's action settings
3. Set the action to "Go to Next Step in Product" or "Purchase Product"
4. Select your subscription product

This wires the button to your checkout.

• On your Checkout Page:
  1. Add an Order Form element
  2. This is where customers enter payment info
     
     

Step 11 — Publish All Pages

Publish your Sales Page, Checkout Page, and Thank You Page.

Subscriptions only work on published pages, not in the editor preview.

Step 12 — Test the Flow

Before going live:

1. Go to your published Sales Page URL
2. Click the subscription button
3. Make a test purchaseusing test credentials from your payment processor:
   • Stripe test card: 4242 4242 4242 4242 (any future expiry, any CVC)
   • PayPal: Use a sandbox account
4. Verify the checkout works, trial displays correctly, and thank you page appears

⚠️ Test with real card info, not fake. Test cards should show as successful, not declined.

Managing Active Subscriptions

Once customers start subscribing, you manage them in the My Customers section.

Accessing Subscriptions

1. Go to Products
2. Click on your subscription product
3. Click "My Customers"
4. Click the "Subscriptions" tab

You'll see a table with all active and past subscriptions.

Subscription Details Shown

For each subscription, you see:

Filter by Status

Use the Status dropdown to filter subscriptions:

• Active — currently running, customer is being billed
• Pending — payment/setup incomplete (usually resolves in a few minutes)
• Cancelled — customer stopped the subscription, no future charges
• Refunded — payment was refunded to customer

This helps you quickly see subscription health.

Manage Individual Subscriptions

Click the gear icon (⚙️) next to any subscription to manage it.

You'll see two main sections:

1. Overview Tab

Read-only information about the subscription:

• Customer name, email, phone
• Subscription and payment gateway IDs
• Billing amount and frequency
• Timeline: when it started, next billing date, when (if) it was cancelled
• Product details

2. Manage Tab

Actions you can take:

Pause / Resume

• Temporarily stop charging the customer without cancelling the subscription
• They keep their access (for memberships)
• Resume anytime to restart billing
• Useful for: customers in hardship, seasonal pauses, grace periods

Extend Billing

• Delay the next billing date by a number of days
• Useful for: giving refunds/credits (extend due date instead of refunding), correcting billing issues, compensating customers for service issues

Cancel Subscription

• Permanently stop all future charges
• Customer loses access (for memberships) immediately
• Option to add a cancellation reason (optional notes)

Refund a Subscription Payment

Click the "Refund" button next to any subscription to refund the last payment.

The refund is processed through your payment processor (Stripe/PayPal) and appears in the customer's account.

Important Notes

• Subscription payments are currently supported only in USD
• Works with Stripe & PayPal only
• Always test before going live
• Make sure Webhook functionality is enabled in payment setup it's mandatory to capture subscription payments.
  

  Real-World Subscription Scenarios

  Scenario 1: Monthly Membership Course

  • Product: Fitness coaching membership
  • Price: $29/month
  • Billing Duration: Until Cancelled
  • Frequency: Monthly
  • Trial: 7 days free
  • Flow: Customer tries free → likes it → charged $29 on day 8 → charged every month until cancelling

  Scenario 2: Annual SaaS Product

  • Product: Project management tool
  • Price: $99/year (vs. $9/month monthly option)
  • Billing Duration: Until Cancelled
  • Frequency: Yearly
  • Trial: 14 days free
  • Flow: Customer tries free for 2 weeks → charged $99 once → charged again 365 days later

  Scenario 3: Limited-Term Coaching Program

  • Product: 90-day business coaching
  • Price: $297/month
  • Billing Duration: Fixed 3 Cycles
  • Frequency: Monthly
  • Trial: None (clear commitment)
  • Flow: Customer charged $297 × 3 months = $891 total → subscription automatically stops

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  Common Situations & Quick Fixes

  "I set up a subscription but the free trial isn't showing on the checkout page."

  1. Did you enable "Offer a free trial" in pricing? (Must be checked)
  2. Did you enter a trial duration in days? (Can't be blank)
  3. Did you save and re-publish the checkout page? (Changes don't go live until published)
  4. Hard refresh your browser (Ctrl+F5) — sometimes cached pages don't show trial details

  "A customer was charged during the free trial — they shouldn't have been."

  1. Check the billing date carefully. The trial grace period ends at the end of Day X. If they signed up on Day 1 at 3 PM, Day 7 ends the next week at ~3 PM. This is sometimes confusing.
  2. If truly charged during trial: refund them immediately using the Refund button in My Customers
  3. Contact your payment processor (Stripe/PayPal) to verify trial billing is configured correctly

  "Subscription payments aren't processing — customers get an error at checkout."

  Checklist:

  1. Is your payment provider connected and authorized? (Go to Settings → Integrations)
  2. Are webhooks enabled in your payment setup? (Required for subscriptions — mandatory)
  3. Are you testing in USD currency? (Only supported currency)
  4. Are you using a supported payment processor (Stripe or PayPal)? Not all processors support subscriptions
  5. Did you test with Stripe test card (4242...) or PayPal sandbox account? Don't use real cards
  6. Try a different browser or incognito window (sometimes payment pages are cached)

  "I created a subscription but the status shows 'Pending' — should I worry?"

  Pending usually resolves automatically within a few minutes. It means:

  • Payment processing is in progress
  • Information is being synced between FlexiFunnels and payment processor
  • Or webhook delivery is delayed

  Check again in 5–10 minutes. If it's still pending after an hour, contact support.

  "A customer wants to cancel. How do I process it?"

  1. Go to My Customers → Subscriptions
  2. Find their subscription
  3. Click the gear icon (⚙️)
  4. Click "Cancel Subscription"
  5. Add a cancellation reason (optional)
  6. Confirm

  They're immediately unsubscribed and won't be charged next cycle.

  "A customer paid but isn't getting access to the membership content."

  1. Check their subscription status. Is it "Active"?
  2. If status is "Pending," wait a few minutes for webhook sync to complete
  3. Check if they've logged in to access the membership (sometimes first-time users miss login instructions)
  4. Go to After Purchase Settings and verify the bundle/content assignment is set up
  5. If still missing, manually add them to the membership via Membership → Members

  "I want to offer a discount for annual billing (e.g., $99/month or $999/year)."

  Create two separate subscription products:

  1. Product A: $29/month, Monthly billing, Until Cancelled
  2. Product B: $299/year, Yearly billing, Until Cancelled

  On your sales page, show both options. Customers choose which fits their budget.

  "Can I change the price of an active subscription?"

  Not automatically — FlexiFunnels doesn't have a price change feature.

  Workarounds:

  1. Cancel old subscription, create new one at higher price (customers may churn)
  2. Grandfather existing customers at old price, new customers at new price
  3. Contact your payment processor (Stripe/PayPal) to adjust pricing on active subscriptions

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  Best Practices

  • Test thoroughly before going live. Use test cards (Stripe 4242...) to verify the full flow
  • Clear trial messaging. Don't hide that a trial will convert to paid. Be transparent
  • Send a billing reminder email. Let customers know a few days before they're charged
  • Make cancellation easy. If customers have to jump through hoops to cancel, they'll leave bad reviews. Provide a clear "Cancel" link
  • Webhooks are mandatory. You MUST enable webhooks in your payment setup or subscription statuses won't sync correctly
  • Monitor Pending subscriptions. If a subscription gets stuck as "Pending" for over an hour, investigate (usually a webhook issue)
  • Keep USD only in mind. If you need other currencies, use one-time purchases instead of subscriptions (for now)

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  Subscription Payments vs. One-Time Purchases

  Aspect	Subscription	One-Time
  When to use	Ongoing access, recurring value	Single purchase, no ongoing
  Billing	Monthly, yearly, etc.	Once
  Revenue type	Recurring (predictable)	One-off
  Customer commitment	Moderate (can cancel anytime)	High (upfront)
  Examples	Membership, SaaS, coaching	Ebook, course, template
  Trial support	Yes (built-in)	No (separate offer)
  Complexity	Higher (pause, resume, cancel)	Lower (simpler)

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