Plans for Subscription Payments: How to Set Them Up

Plans for subscription payments let customers pay a set amount every month, quarter or year for ongoing access to your content or service, with each payment charged automatically. The easiest way to implement them on a WordPress site is a membership plugin that creates the plans, connects a payment gateway like Stripe or PayPal, and handles renewals for you.

Subscriptions keep growing: in October 2025, Juniper Research forecast that global subscription spend will rise from $722 billion in 2025 to $1.2 trillion by 2030. If you’re a content creator and want to monetize your knowledge, subscriptions are one of the best ways to go about it. And while implementing plans for subscription payments can seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be.

This guide covers the basics of plans for subscription payments and then shows you how to set them up on WordPress, step by step.

What Are Plans for Subscription Payments?

Plans for subscription payments are plans or contracts that allow customers to pay a certain amount each month or year in exchange for a service or product. They are typically set up as automatic payments, meaning that customers are not required to pay manually each month. This can be a great way to monetize content and services, as it allows customers to pay for ongoing access to your content.

Why Do You Need Subscription Payment Processing?

Subscription payments are easy — for you and for those who consume your content too. There are several benefits that make subscription payment processing a very good option for content creators and membership site owners, and some of the best ones include:

It’s Hassle-Free for Subscribers

Subscribers don’t have to worry about making manual payments each month, as plans for subscription payments take care of that automatically. This makes it easier for them to stay on top of their payments and gives them peace of mind.

Helps You Predict and Grow Your Income

Although people can cancel their subscriptions, there are ways to still predict (and grow) your revenue from your membership site. Looking at metrics such as Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) can help you figure out how much money you will get. Furthermore, it can also help you determine what works and what doesn’t, so you can double down on the plans that are working for your business.

You Can Create Add-On Subscriptions

Want to boost your revenue even more? Add-ons (such as exclusive content or merchandise) can be an amazing way to do just that. This can be a great way to make plans for subscription payments even more attractive and engaging to your customers, as they will have access to more of your content.

Helps You Control Customer Churn & Scale

Managing plans for subscription payments manually can be a daunting task, especially if you’re trying to control customer churn. With plans for subscription payments, you can automate customer onboarding, billing, and even cancellation. For instance, you can ask members for a reason when they cancel their subscription, which gives you a better idea of how to improve your community and content and keep more people from leaving.

This makes it easier for you to scale as well, since automated plans for subscription payments let you manage more customers in less time.

It’s Secure and Inspires More Trust

Subscription payments are usually handled through secure payment systems, such as PayPal, Stripe, or others. This adds an extra layer of trust for customers, who know their payments are safe and secure.

Plus, plans for subscription payments also help you inspire more trust in your customers. When they can see that their payments are taken care of automatically each month, and they see that they can cancel at any time, they know that you’re a legitimate business and are more likely to subscribe.

How Subscription Payments Work

Essentially, subscription payment plans are set up as automatic payments. This means that customers can sign up for plans and their payments will be taken care of automatically each month, quarter, or year. Behind the scenes, a payment gateway stores the customer’s payment method and charges it on schedule, and your membership software keeps their access active as long as the payments go through. The software that runs these charges is often called recurring billing software.

Most often, membership sites and subscription businesses offer customers a variety of plans they can choose from. Furthermore, they also offer the option to pay monthly or yearly, often with a discount for yearly payments (this guide to membership pricing strategy covers how to set those discounts).

The plans for subscription payments can also be set up to charge customers in different increments, such as weekly or bi-monthly. However, it all depends on your business model and strategy.

How to Use Subscription Payments for a Membership Site

Membership sites can be monetized in multiple ways. Indeed, subscriptions are just one of the ways to make money from a membership site.

The best way to use plans for subscription payments is by offering different membership plans and packages that are tailored to different audiences. For instance, if you run a cooking membership site, you might want to offer plans that cater to beginner chefs, intermediate chefs, and advanced chefs.

Furthermore, you can also offer add-ons such as exclusive content or a box subscription with cooking tools, posters, or utensils.

Likewise, if you run a membership site for digital marketers, you can offer plans based on the size of their business (start-up, small business, medium and/or enterprise plans) or plans that offer different levels of understanding of various online marketing channels.

How you set up your subscription plans depends on your business model, but whenever suitable, adding a corporate subscription plan can also help you grow your business. For instance, if you’re an online personal trainer, you can offer corporate subscription plans for businesses, which allows you to maximize your revenue without putting in more time and effort.

How to Set Up Plans for Subscription Payments on WordPress

If your membership site is on WordPress, one of the easiest ways to set up subscription plans is with Ultimate Membership Pro. It is sold as three annual plans (see current prices):

Pro: one site, with recurring subscriptions, content restriction, drip content and the built-in payment gateways
Full Package: three sites, and adds the Pro add-ons, group memberships, pay per post, two-factor authentication and three more gateways (PayFast, Paystack and Razorpay)
Agency: up to 10 sites, with everything in Full Package plus VIP support and help with setup

To implement plans for subscription payments with Ultimate Membership Pro, you will:

Install and activate the Ultimate Membership Pro plugin.
Connect a payment gateway such as Stripe or PayPal (see all supported payment gateways).
Create a Membership for each plan and set it to bill every few days, weeks, months or years, or split the price into a set number of payments.
Add a free or lower-priced trial if you want one, plus coupons for promotions.
Restrict your content to the Memberships that should see it, then test the checkout.

With the built-in gateways, members are then charged automatically every period (bank transfers are the exception, since you confirm those yourself). You can see every billing option on the subscriptions feature page.

Selling Subscription Plans Through WooCommerce

If you already run a WooCommerce store, you can also link a Membership to a WooCommerce product, and the Membership is added when the order is completed. Keep in mind that WooCommerce memberships don’t renew with automatic charges: reminder emails invite members to buy the next period. For automatic recurring billing, sell the Membership through the built-in checkout instead.

This tutorial shows the WooCommerce payment integration. It was recorded with an older version of the plugin, so some screens may look different today.

Conclusion

Plans for subscription payments give your members a hassle-free way to pay and give you predictable, growing revenue. Start with a few clear plans, pick a payment gateway that charges members automatically, and review your MRR and churn regularly to see which plans work best. On WordPress, a membership plugin handles the plans, the payments and member access in one place.

Plans for Subscription Payments: FAQs

What are subscription payments?

Subscription payments are recurring charges that customers agree to pay on a membership site or other online business in exchange for ongoing access to a product or service. They are usually billed monthly, quarterly or yearly and are charged automatically until the customer cancels.

How do I make a payment subscription in WordPress?

Use a membership plugin with recurring payments. In Ultimate Membership Pro you connect a gateway such as Stripe or PayPal, create a Membership, and set it to bill every month, year or any other period. Members are then charged automatically. You can also sell Memberships through WooCommerce, but those renew through reminder emails rather than automatic charges.

What are the main types of subscriptions?

Subscriptions can be grouped by billing period and by how usage is charged. Common types include:

Monthly plans: customers pay for a product or service every month
Annual plans: customers pay once a year, often at a discount compared with monthly billing
Freemium plans: customers access limited content for free and upgrade to a paid plan for more
Fixed usage subscriptions: a set amount of the product or service per billing period
Unlimited usage subscriptions: unlimited access for a flat fee
Pay-as-you-go subscriptions: customers pay based on what they use

What’s the difference between a recurring payment and a subscription?

A recurring payment is the automatic charge itself, taken from a customer’s card or account on a schedule. A subscription is the agreement behind it: the customer pays a set fee each month, quarter or year in exchange for ongoing access. Most subscriptions use recurring payments, but recurring payments can also cover installment plans that end after a set number of charges.

Can I offer a free trial on a subscription plan?

Yes. Trials let new customers try your content before the first full payment. In Ultimate Membership Pro you can add a free or lower-priced trial to any Membership, for a set period or a number of billing cycles. PayFast, Paystack and Razorpay do not support trials, so check your payment gateway before you plan one.

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The Easiest Way to Implement Plans for Subscription Payments

What Are Plans for Subscription Payments?