Paid subscriptions

Connect Stripe, create paid tiers with monthly and annual prices, and see what readers are paying for.

Paid subscriptions let readers pay you for your publication. Payments go through your own Stripe account and are paid out to your bank by Stripe.

Step 1: Connect Stripe

You need a connected Stripe account before you can create any paid tier.

Go to Paid Subscriptions and click Manage plans, or go to Settings > Payment Accounts.
Click Connect to Stripe. You're taken to Stripe to set up a Stripe Express account.
When you finish, Stripe sends you back to Inkwave.

In Settings > Payment Accounts you'll see one of these:

Connected: you're ready to take payments. Use View Stripe Dashboard to see payouts and earnings.
Verification pending: Stripe still needs something from you. The page lists what's missing, for example "Accepting payments is not enabled" or "Payouts to your bank account are not enabled". Finish these in Stripe.

Step 2: Create a tier

A tier is what readers buy, such as "Premium". Each tier can have a monthly price, an annual price, or both.

Go to Paid Subscriptions > Manage plans and click New tier.
Tier Details: give it a Name, a Description and a list of Benefits (for example "Ad-free reading"). Benefits are shown to readers on your plans page.
Plans & Pricing:
- Monthly Subscription: the monthly price. It must be at least $1.
- Annual Subscription: choose Add price manually to type a yearly price (at least $1), or Add discount to take a percentage (1% to 100%) off twelve months of the monthly price. Leave both unselected for no annual plan.
Check the Preview and click Create tier.

Prices are in US dollars.

Managing tiers

Each tier on Manage plans shows its prices and an Active or Inactive badge.

Edit changes the name, description, benefits or prices. Changing a price only affects new subscribers. People already paying keep the price they signed up at.
Disable takes the tier off sale. Nobody new can buy it. Enable puts it back on sale.
Delete removes the tier and its plans. A tier that still has active subscribers can't be deleted. Disable it instead.

What readers see

Readers buy a plan on your website's upgrade page, or anywhere you've placed a Plans block on your site.

Each active tier with at least one price is shown with its name, description, benefits and a button for each price, such as monthly and yearly.
The reader enters their email and card details to pay.
Disabled tiers aren't shown.
If Stripe isn't connected, readers see: "Paid plans aren't available yet — this publication hasn't connected payments."

When you set up a newsletter, the Email audience and Web audience sections let you choose All subscribers, All free plan subscribers or All paid plan subscribers. On the Subscribers page, the tier filter lets you show Free tier or Any paid tier.

Seeing how it's going

The Paid Subscriptions page has two tabs:

Overview: key numbers, your paid subscribers, and a breakdown by tier.
Reports: revenue by tier, cancellations, recurring revenue and churn.

Cancelling a reader's subscription

Open the reader from Subscribers and go to their Billing tab. It shows their Status, Tier, Amount, Current period and Invoice history. Click Cancel subscription and confirm. The subscription ends at the end of the current billing period, so the reader keeps access until then.

Your plan

Paid subscriptions are included in some Inkwave plans only. If your plan doesn't include them, you can't create new tiers or switch a tier back on, and readers can't start new paid subscriptions. People who are already paying keep their subscriptions.

Troubleshooting

I can't see New tier. Connect Stripe first. The button appears once Stripe onboarding is complete.
"Complete Stripe Connect onboarding before managing paid tiers". Your Stripe connection isn't finished. Go to Settings > Payment Accounts and complete it.
I can't delete a tier. It still has active subscribers. Use Disable to stop new sales.
Readers can't pay. Check that Stripe shows Connected with no missing items, that the tier is Active and has a price, and that your plan includes paid subscriptions.
I changed my price but existing readers still pay the old one. That's expected. Price changes only apply to new subscribers.