Membership types and billing explained
Every membership site is built from Memberships: the plans people join to unlock your content. Before you create one, it helps to know the membership types Ultimate Membership Pro offers and how access, billing and renewals fit together. This page explains each choice with real examples, so you can pick the right setup for your plans.
When you are ready to build, follow Create your first Membership. You’ll find every option from this page in Ultimate Membership Pro›Memberships.
Access type: how long a member keeps access
The Access Type decides when a Membership starts and ends. It is the most important choice you make.
- Access
- Never ends
- Payment
- Free or one payment
- Good for
- Founding members, one-time course purchases
- Access
- A set number of days, weeks, months or years from joining
- Payment
- Free or one payment
- Good for
- A 30-day pass, a 1-year plan paid upfront
- Access
- Between a fixed start date and a fixed expiration date
- Payment
- Free or one payment
- Good for
- A conference, a season, a cohort course
- Access
- As long as the member keeps paying
- Payment
- Charged every cycle
- Good for
- Monthly and yearly subscriptions
Date Range in practice
Everyone gets the same dates, whenever they join. A member who signs up before the Fix Starting Date gets access on that date; a member who joins later gets access right away until the Fix Expiration Date.
Billing: free or paid
Free Memberships are activated as soon as the member registers. Payment Memberships go through the checkout and become active when the payment is completed.
The amount charged for a one-time Membership, or for each cycle of a Recurring Subscription. Taxes and coupon discounts are applied at checkout.
For Recurring Subscriptions: how often members are charged, for example every 1 month or every 1 year.
On Going charges until the member cancels. Limited stops after the Max no of Periods, which turns a subscription into an instalment plan, for example 3 payments of $99.
A free or discounted start, for a set period or for a number of billing cycles. See Offer a free or paid trial.
For recurring payments, we recommend Stripe Connect: cards on your own site, trials, renewals, upgrades with prorated charges and card changes by members.
Real examples
- Access Type
- Recurring Subscription
- Monthly plan
- $19 every 1 month, On Going
- Yearly plan
- $190 every 1 year, On Going
- Trial
- 7 days free on the monthly plan
- Access Type
- Date Range
- Dates
- Fix Starting Date and Fix Expiration Date of the cohort
- Price
- $499, one payment
- Free tier
- LifeTime, Payment Type Free
- Pro tier
- Recurring Subscription, $29 every 1 month
- Upgrade
- Members buy Pro from the pricing page or the Member Portal
- Access Type
- Recurring Subscription
- Price
- $99 every 1 month
- Recurring Subscription Time
- Limited, Max no of Periods 3
- When the last month ends
- End of Term Action can assign a LifeTime Membership
What happens when a term ends
For Limited Time, Date Range and Recurring Subscription Memberships, the Expiration & Lifecycle settings decide what comes next. LifeTime Memberships never expire, so they have none.
Extra days of access after a missed renewal or an expiry, so a late payment doesn’t lock the member out. Leave it empty to use the default in Settings›Public Workflow.
When the Membership expires: Do Nothing keeps it in the member’s account as Expired, Remove this Membership from Member deletes it, or assign a new Membership, for example a free tier.
When a member cancels a Recurring Subscription from the Member Portal: Do Nothing (recommended) keeps access until the paid period ends, or remove or replace the subscription.
The full lifecycle, with renewals, failed payments and the Renew and Cancel buttons, is in How renewals, cancellations and expiry work. What each state means is in Membership statuses explained.
Members with several Memberships
A member can hold more than one Membership at the same time, for example a yearly plan and a one-time workshop. Each one has its own start date, expiry and payments, and each unlocks the content restricted to it.
- To let members move from one plan to another and pay only the difference, set up Upgrade and downgrade with prorated charges.
- To show a plan only to the right people, for example the upgrade only to existing members, use Control who can buy a Membership.
- To send each Membership to its own page after login, and choose which one wins, use Redirect members after login.
More ways to shape a Membership
Hide a Membership from the pricing page while it stays active. Use it to stop selling an old plan: current members keep it, and you can still assign it by hand.
Give access on every day, on weekdays only or on weekends only.
New members see only posts and pages published after they joined, which suits newsletters and issue-based content.
Give new members a WordPress role, such as Subscriber or Author, when they register.
Troubleshooting
What is the difference between a recurring membership and a lifetime membership?
A Recurring Subscription charges members every cycle and keeps access open while they pay. A LifeTime Membership is free or paid once and never expires.
How do I give every member the same start and end date?
Choose the Date Range access type and set the Fix Starting Date and the Fix Expiration Date.
Can I sell a membership in instalments?
Yes. Use a Recurring Subscription, set Recurring Subscription Time to Limited and enter the number of payments in Max no of Periods.
Can a member have more than one Membership?
Yes. Members can hold several Memberships at once, each with its own dates and payments.
How do I stop selling a Membership without affecting current members?
Hide it with Show/Hide in Subscription Plan showcase. Current members keep it, and it no longer appears on your pricing page.
What happens when a member cancels a recurring Membership?
With Cancel Subscription Action set to Do Nothing, the member keeps access until the end of the period they already paid for.
