Make your community paid to join

Make your whole community a paid product: visitors must subscribe to a plan before their account is created, and members need an active subscription to keep using the community. This is the Paid registration mode, often called a paid community, membership site, or paywall.

Who can do this: Community owners and admins. · Where: Web (admin console). Members can sign up on the web and in the app. · Plan: Available when your platform plan includes Paid memberships.

Before you turn on paid registration

You need both of these first:

1. A Stripe account that can take payments. On Admin → Monetization → Stripe Connect, Charges must show Enabled. See Connect Stripe and get paid.
2. At least one active Community access plan. In Admin → Monetization → Subscription Plans, create a plan with the plan type Community access (paid signup). The Registration page calls this a paid-access plan. See Create a subscription plan: pricing, trials, and benefits.

If either one is missing, the Registration page shows Before switching to paid mode with links to fix it.

Turn on paid registration

1. Go to Admin → Settings → Registration.
2. Under Registration mode, choose Paid.
3. Save your changes, then click Switch to paid to confirm.

The page then shows a Paid-access plan card (Paid-access plans if you have several) with each plan's price and trial and whether Stripe Connect is ready. Visitors see your plans in the order you set on the Subscription Plans page.

To stop charging for entry, choose another registration mode. Members then no longer need a subscription to get in.

What visitors see when they sign up for a paid community

1. The sign-up page shows your plan with a Subscribe button. If you offer several plans, it shows Choose your plan, with Monthly and Annual prices.
2. The visitor enters their account details and verifies their email.
3. They pay on a secure Stripe checkout page. If the plan has a free trial, it starts here.
4. They return to Confirming your subscription…, and their account is created and signed in.

If they leave checkout without paying, they see Payment was not completed and can try again. If your Stripe account can't take payments, visitors see that the community isn't accepting new members right now.

What members see when a subscription ends or a payment fails

In a paid community, access follows the member's subscription. A subscription that's active, in a free trial, or waiting on a failed payment counts. It can be to any of your plans, Community access or Member upgrade, including a complimentary one. Holding an access group without a subscription doesn't count.

• A payment failed: the member keeps access for now and sees a banner asking them to update their card.
• A cancellation is scheduled: the member keeps access until the period ends and sees a banner with Reactivate.
• No active subscription or trial: the member is taken to a Your subscription has ended page. There they can choose a plan and subscribe, reactivate a subscription that's set to end, or Sign out.

This also applies to people who joined before you switched to paid mode and don't have a subscription. When members cancel, they're warned that cancelling ends their membership of the community, not just paid perks.

Team access in a paid community

• Owners and admins always have access, with or without a subscription.
• Moderators, billing admins, and custom roles are treated like members. Without a subscription, they're asked to subscribe, and on the web they can't open the admin console either.

To give a team member free access, open Admin → Monetization → Subscribers, click Grant Complimentary, and choose the member, a plan, and a Duration (months). A member can hold only one subscription at a time, so this doesn't work for someone who already has an active subscription. See Manage subscribers, payments, and refunds.

Paid communities in the mobile app

• iPhone and iPad: in-app purchases aren't available, so the app shows Sign-up for this community isn't available in the app. Visitors sign up and subscribe on the web, then sign in to the app.
• Android: visitors subscribe through Stripe checkout.
• In both apps, members without an active subscription see Your subscription has ended. and can subscribe again.

Related articles

• Choose who can join: visibility and registration
• Ways to earn with your community
• Troubleshoot: members can't join or post