How to Add Free Trial Subscriptions in WordPress (4 Methods)
WordPress trial subscriptions?
Subscriptions are fantastic for recurring revenue. Long-term subscriptions are hard to sell.
Add free trial subscriptions to your WordPress website to increase signups using this approach.
Add WordPress free trial subscriptions.
Why WordPress Free Trial Subscriptions?
Subscriptions on your website improve cash flow, payment accuracy, and payment speed. Customers typically prefer to test before they buy, especially for longer-term or more expensive subscriptions.
Thus, offering free trials for all subscriptions is advisable. You may offer a free month of your subscription box service or a week of online yoga courses.
Free-trial subscription boxes
If they like the free trial, customers may subscribe. Lead generation is possible even if shoppers don’t sign up. Send them unique promo codes or online push notifications.
Let’s add free trial subscriptions to WordPress. Use the quick link below to get to your preferred method.
Easy Digital Downloads (Free Software Trials)
Method 2. MemberPress (Free Membership/Course Trial)
Method 3. WooCommerce Subscriptions (Physical Product Free Trial)
Method 4. WP Simple Pay (Free Custom Service Trial)
Easy Digital Downloads (Free Software Trials)
Do you offer free digital product trials? You might sell online course, stock photography, digital audio, or other subscriptions.
Easy Digital Downloads simplifies digital goods free trial subscriptions. This plugin makes selling ebooks, PDFs, audio files, videos, and other digital products easy.
Even better, SiteGround customers have the Easy Digital Downloads plugin pre-installed, so you can start selling memberships and digital products right away.
This post shows you how to create a free all-access pass trial. Your online store’s digital products will look like this pass.
Easy Digital Downloads all-access pass.
Your online store customers can view, access, and download products after signing up for the free trial.
Customers can view their free pass products by clicking a link in their account.
Easy Digital Downloads unlimited pass.
Set daily download limitations, limit the free pass to select product categories, and more to prevent trial abuse.
Considering that, we’ll employ three extensions to create a user-friendly “all access” free trial. These three extensions require the Extended or higher Easy Digital Downloads license.
See our WordPress digital downloads tutorial for Easy Digital Downloads setup instructions.
Install EDD Extensions
Install extensions from Downloads » Extensions after setting up Easy Digital Downloads.
Installing EDD extensions
All Access, Free Downloads, and Recurring Payments are on this screen.
Click “Install” for each extension.
Installing EDD addons
WordPress Free Trial Subscription.
After that, establish a free all-access trial. Start at Downloads > Downloads in WordPress.
Click “Add New” here.
WordPress digital download creation
Name the subscription now.
Use something descriptive since customers will see this.
Easy Digital Downloads trial subscriptions
Scroll to “Download Options” next. Type 0.
Next, select “Enable free trial for subscriptions.”
Easy Digital Downloads free trial.
Turn this subscription into a free all-access pass for your whole online store.
Scroll to the “All Access” section and select “Convert this product into a “All Access” pass.”
Online store all-access pass
Limit Product Categories (Optional)
The free trial includes all your products by default. You can limit free trials to specific product categories. If you sell ebooks, you might offer some for free and others for paying subscribers.
Click the “x” next to “All Products” to limit the free trial to select categories.
Free trials for specific product categories
After that, select the “Type to search categories” dropdown and start typing the category you want in the free trial.
Click the right category.
Free trials for specific product categories
Limit Time
After that, you can decide if the free trial is permanent or temporary.
If you sell digital art and graphics, you may wish to choose “Never Expires” so buyers can download as many watermarked files as they desire. To remove the watermark, they must subscribe.
Easy Digital Downloads lets you limit downloads. You can utilize “Never Expires” and limit consumer downloads.
Select “Never Expires” from the “All Access Duration” selection to start an endless free trial.
Create a permanent free trial
Limit the time. This works nicely for digital products that take a while or that customers may want to access again.
If you sell online courses, you may provide a two-day free trial, forcing buyers to subscribe to finish their instruction.
Choose a time limit from the “All Access Duration” menu. Then enter a number.
WordPress all-access pass duration change
Limit downloads daily, weekly, monthly, or annually.
Enter a Download Limit. This protects your site against free trial abusers. If you sell Excel or Google Spreadsheets in WordPress, you might limit downloads during a free trial.
Easy Digital Downloads allows customers to download unlimited products by default. Enter a number in the “Download Limit” column.
The dropdown lets you choose a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual limit.
Limiting free trial downloads
Optional Free Trial Variable Pricing
Variable price on online marketplaces? Then the free trial should offer particular price variants.
If you have Standard and Deluxe price variations, you may wish to offer Standard in the free trial and save Deluxe for paying users.
Easy Digital Downloads variable pricing
Easy Digital Downloads automatically includes all versions in its free trial if variable pricing is set.
Find “Total Price Variations” and enter the number of free trial variations. Depending on the quantity, your online store will display the variants.
Variable-priced digital items
Select each version for the free trial.
Customizing Purchase Confirmation Page and Email
Easy Digital Downloads displays a Purchase Confirmation page after a free trial customer downloads a product.
Online purchase confirmation screen.
It will also email a confirmation.
Click here to utilize your All Access Pass appears on the Purchase Confirmation page and email. Customers can download free products from this page.
Change the link wording in the “Receipts: All Access Link Message” box.
Easy Digital Downloads purchase receipt customization.
You can also edit Easy Digital Downloads’ free product download page.
Create a new WordPress page and add this shortcode:
1
[downloads all_access_customer_downloads_only=”yes”]
This displays all free trial products. Next, add text, photographs, a contact form, or anything else.
WordPress free trial subscription instructions
See our WordPress shortcode placement guide for more information.
Add the page URL to the “Receipts: Link URL” column after publishing.
Digital download purchase receipt link customization
Click “Publish” when the free trial is ready.
Premium Subscription
After that, create a premium “all access” subscription. Customers can upgrade to this membership after their free trial.
Downloads » Add New to create a premium subscription.
In the “Pricing Options” area, name and price the subscription.
WordPress digital product price choices
Under “Download Prices,” you can make this a subscription, add a sign-up charge, and more.
Scroll to “All Access” afterward. Follow the same steps to transform the subscription into an all-access pass, add a download restriction, and more.
After setting up the premium all-access subscription, click “Publish” to make it live.
Remove Free Trial Checkout
Get as many signups as possible after creating the free trial subscription. However, letting people start the free trial without checking out is a smart idea.
Easy Digital Downloads can hide the checkout screen for free products, including your free trial subscription.
Downloads » Settings » Marketing to do this. Next, choose “Free Downloads” to hide checkout.
Hide checkout for free trials and downloads
After that, use “Button Label” to set the text for free downloads.
‘Download Now’ is default.
Customizing the all-access download pass
Customize this.
Enter the “Button Label” field.
Customizing free download and trial subscription CTAs
More settings can improve lead generation. Even when people sign up for a free trial or download a free product, you can capture their name and email. Keep things simple to attract the most signups.
After making your changes, click “Save Changes” to view the modified button text on the free trial product page.
Free trial subscriptions for websites
Send Expiration Emails
Leads from free trials should be converted into clients.
You may want to email individuals when their free trial expires. They’ll acquire a premium subscription to keep using your digital content.
Easy Digital Downloads supports all top email marketing services. The Recurring Payments addon can also send reminder emails.
Download » Settings to use this extension. Click “Emails” and “Recurring Payments.”
Online subscription recurring payments.
Select “Send Expiration Reminders” on this screen.
Select ‘Add Expiration Reminder’ afterward.
Create an online subscription expiration reminder.
This opens an email topic and message screen.
Template tags personalize emails. Easy Digital Downloads will replace these tags with customer names, expiration dates, and subscription names.
The little text editor displays all template tags.
Personalize emails with template tags.
Easy Digital Downloads will notify all consumers, not just those on your free trial.
Click Add Reminder Notice when your information is correct.
Easy Digital Downloads: Reminder message.
When subscriptions expire, Easy Digital Downloads should notify clients. However, your WordPress hosting server may be misconfigured or email providers like Gmail may use filters that incorrectly label your emails as spam.
Your emails should land in the inbox, not the spam bin, to increase conversions. To increase email deliverability, we recommend a WordPress SMTP plugin and provider.
WordPress SMTP plugin WP Mail is the finest. It connects WordPress to a mailer. Your expiration reminder and other messages will always reach the customer’s inbox.
Method 2. MemberPress (Free Membership/Course Trial)
Membership websites offer premium material, online courses, features, and community access. Visitors can’t see WordPress’s members-only services because they’re behind a paywall.
To give visitors a chance to experience before they buy, consider offering a free trial. MemberPress simplifies this.
MemberPress is an all-in-one membership plugin that lets you receive payments, add limitless membership levels, create gated content, restrict access by level, and more. You may also create unlimited free trials for different membership levels.
Install and activate the plugin. Our WordPress plugin installation tutorial can assist.
Payment methods, members-only material, price pages, and more are now available. Our ultimate WordPress membership site tutorial has step-by-step instructions.
Create a membership plan with a free trial after setting up your site.
New Membership Level
Start at MemberPress » Memberships in WordPress. Click “Add New.”
WordPress membership subscription addition
The membership plan now has a title, optional description, featured image, and more.
Our comprehensive WordPress membership site guide has further information.
MemberPress membership levels for websites
After that, type in the price.
After the trial, members pay this.
MemberPress subscriptions
Only recurring memberships get free trials. We’ll cover a workaround for charging members a one-time fee.
Thus, select “Recurring” from the “Billing Type” menu.
WordPress recurring memberships.
Set the recurring payment billing interval. After the free trial, members will be charged this often.
Select monthly or annual billing from the “Interval” dropdown.
Setting membership subscription billing intervals
Change intervals? Try “Custom.”
Custom interval controls are now available.
Membership site billing interval customization
Free Trial Membership Subscription
After that, check “Free Trial.”
Enter the trial duration in the “Trial Duration” field. For a one-month trial, type “30.”
Adjusting a free membership trial
After that, enter the “Trial Amount,” the subscription trial period’s pre-tax cost. Enter “0” here.
Finally, click or uncheck the “Allow Only One Free Trial” box to limit buyers to one free trial. If you tick this box, consumers who cancel and re-subscribe will not get another free trial.
To prevent free trial abuse, leave the item ticked. If your trial is brief, you may wish to give many free trials.
Allow numerous free trials per member.
Coupons will override this setting, allowing several free trials to the same consumer.
Optional: Lifetime Membership
Recurring memberships can only have free trials. By modifying MemberPress settings, lifetime membership trials are possible.
Check the “Limit Payment Cycles” box and set “Max # of Payments” to 1.
Limiting MemberPress payments
Select “Lifetime Access” from the “Access After Last Cycle” selection.
After the trial, clients must pay a lifetime cost.
One-time memberships
Free Trial Membership Subscription
After then, you can modify membership levels.
After setting up the membership, click “Publish” to make it live.
Publishing a free-trial membership level
MemberPress » Memberships shows potential consumers the membership. This screen displays your new membership level.
Click the “View” link after hovering over the membership level.
WordPress membership preview
WordPress opens a new tab for membership signups.
Add a free trial to more membership levels? Just repeat the steps above.
After adding a free trial to your membership site, encourage people to sign up. This may include advertising the free trial in your email newsletter, making WordPress popups, marketing it on social media, and more.
Method 3. WooCommerce Subscriptions (Physical Product Free Trial)
Use Easy Digital Downloads to sell digital products online. WooCommerce is the world’s most popular eCommerce platform for selling physical goods.
WooCommerce doesn’t accept free trial memberships. WooCommerce Subscriptions can easily add this missing feature.
This plugin adds a WooCommerce “simple subscription” product type. Add this product type to any item or create subscription items. You may send shoppers a sample subscription box from your online boutique business or let them try a product before buying it.
Instead of a “Add to cart” button, subscription products have a “Sign up now” button.
WooCommerce-created free trial.
The WooCommerce checkout page displays subscription information.
Your trial duration is included.
WooCommerce free trial subscription.
Log into WooCommerce and access the new “My Subscriptions” section to manage all subscriptions.
They may view the subscription status, pricing, start date, and more here. This page lets customers cancel, reactivate, and renew subscriptions without contacting you.
WooCommerce subscription management.
Thus, a free trial user can easily upgrade to a premium subscription.
This guide assumes you have a WooCommerce store. If not, check out our comprehensive WooCommerce made simple guide.
Next, install and activate WooCommerce Subscriptions. Our WordPress plugin installation tutorial can assist.
The plugin activates free trial subscriptions in WooCommerce. Products » Add New.
WooCommerce product creation.
This product can now be created like any other WooCommerce product. You can add a WooCommerce product gallery, title, and description.
Scroll to “Product Data” after entering this information.
WooCommerce product data entry
Select “Simple subscription” from the selection.
This adds subscription and free trial settings.
New Simple Subscription WooCommerce product type
Start with the ‘Subscription price.’
Choose a subscription length from the dropdown options. After the free trial, the subscription will cost $20 per month.
Pricing WooCommerce subscriptions
You can now select a subscription duration. The expiration period does not include the free trial. If you provide a one-month free trial, the subscription will last two months.
Give the customer lifetime access. Select ‘Never expire’ from the ‘Expire After’ selection.
WooCommerce subscription expiration.
Add a sign-up fee.
Be aware that WooCommerce charges this fee whether the buyer buys a subscription or a free trial. We advise against charging a sign-up charge for free trial subscriptions.
WooCommerce signup fee option
After that, enter the dropdown that says “days” by default and choose an option to set the free trial length.
After that, enter the free trial duration in days, weeks, months, or years. The free trial lasts 90 days, 52 weeks, 24 months, or 5 years.
WooCommerce trial creation
You can now make other product adjustments. To activate the trial, click “Update” or “Publish” when the product and subscription are ready.
Follow the same steps to create free trial memberships for other products.
Get as many signups as possible after adding subscriptions to your WooCommerce website. Therefore, let visitors use their preferred payment method.
The free Stripe Payment Gateway for WooCommerce plugin lets you accept Visa, MasterCard, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and more.
The onboarding wizard will help you add payment methods and enable express checkout after installing the plugin.
Stripe for WooCommerce
Method 4. WP Simple Pay (Free Custom Service Trial)
Freelancers, consultants, trainers, and other business owners sell subscriptions. If you manage a yoga studio, give a one-month free trial of your specialized training program.
WP Simple Pay is great for custom service trials. The best WordPress Stripe payment plugin allows you collect payments, manage invoices, and give free trials without a shopping cart or online store.
Note: WP Simple Pay’s free version accepts credit cards, Apple Pay, iDEAL, and more. This guide uses the premium plugin because it permits free trials.
Install WP Simple Pay.
Install and activate WP Simple Pay first. Our WordPress plugin installation tutorial can assist.
The plugin launches the setup wizard upon activation. Click “Let’s Get Started”.
WP Simple Pay setup wizard
Then insert the license key. Your account on WP Simple Pay has these information.
Click “Activate and Continue” afterward.
WordPress plugin licensing
Stripe-WordPress Integration
Next, link WP Simple Pay to Stripe. Selling custom services online with Stripe, a popular payment gateway, is easy.
Click “Connect with Stripe” to begin. You can then log in to your Stripe account or register a new one.
WordPress-Stripe integration
The setup step will ask you to specify WP Simple Pay emails after joining Stripe. Payment receipts, upcoming invoices, and payment notifications can be emailed.
Enter the email address where WP Simple Pay will send messages.
WP Simple Pay email setup
Click “Save and Continue” to finish.
Free Trial Subscription Form
Create a free-trial subscription form now. Click “Create a Payment Form”.
Installing WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay includes many themes for “buy now, pay later” payment plans, contributions, accepting Google Pay in WordPress, and more.
Hover over the “Recurring Services with Trial Period Form” for a free trial. Click “Use Template” when it displays.
WP Simple Pay’s subscription and free trial template
The payment form editor appears.
Start by renaming and optionally describing the form. You can alter the description from “Try our service free for 30 days” to anything else.
Subscription form titles and descriptions
WP Simple Pay defaults to an on-site payment form. Show a payment button instead. The payment form pops up when visitors click the button.
Select “Open in an overlay modal” to create a popup.
Popup subscription form
By selecting “Type,” Stripe can host the payment form.
Select ‘Off-site Stripe Checkout form’.
Stripe hosting a subscription and payment form
WP Simple Pay redirects subscribers to its Payment Success Page. Select “Specific Page” or “Redirect URL” to redirect visitors.
Enter the URL or choose the page. Send subscribers to a personalised thank you page or a free trial management page.
WordPress payment success page change
Subscription Form Pricing
Select Payment when ready.
Choose live or testing payment mode here. Testing mode lets you buy memberships without being paid, making it ideal for online subscription testing.
Subscription form testing
After testing, return to this page and change the mode to “Live.”
Using the “Amount” settings, set your subscription price and currency.
Pricing a free trial subscription form
After that, pick how often WP Simple Pay charges subscribers.
Select day, week, month, or year from the “Billing Period” selection. Enter a number next to the dropdown menu.
WordPress subscription billing period setting
WP Simple Pay offers a 30-day trial by default.
Enter a number in the “Free Trial” section to lengthen or shorten the trial.
determining free trial length
You may charge subscribers for setup. For life coaches, this extra cost may cover the time and effort needed to add new clients to your admin system.
Enter an amount in the “Setup Fee” field to charge extra.
Setup fees on subscription forms with free trials
Scroll to “Payment Methods” afterward.
If you want to accept Klarna or ACH payments, click the box here.
Website payment methods
Offering many payment ways may increase subscriptions. Offer few options to avoid confusion.
A “Configure” link may appear depending on your payment type. Click “Configure” and follow the onscreen steps to set up the payment gateway or method.
WP Simple Pay adds payment methods
WP Simple Pay Subscription Form customization
After that, build the subscription form.
Click “Form Fields” to launch WP Simple Pay’s form builder.
WP Simple Pay subscription customization
The template takes client email and credit card information.
WordPress’ default form shown below.
WP Simple Pay subscription form.
Click choose to customize any default field.
The section expands to expose all the customizable parameters, including changing the field label or inserting placeholder text.
Customizing recurring payments
Remove subscription form fields.
Expand the field and click “Remove.”
Deleting subscription form fields
Do new subscribers require extra information? For instance, their tax ID or phone number.
Simply select a field from the “Form Fields” selection. Click ‘Add Field’ afterward.
Subscription form WP Simple Pay fields
Drag-and-drop lets you rearrange form fields.
To preview the form on your blog or website, click “Preview” while customizing it.
Previewing your WordPress subscription form and free trial.
Click “Publish” to save your form settings.
Add WordPress Subscription Form
Add the form to your WordPress blog using a block or shortcode.
The easiest way to show the subscription form is using a block.
Type “WP Simple Pay” after clicking the addition (+) sign.
Page/post editor block addition
Click to add the right block.
After that, select a form from the WP Simple Pay block’s dropdown menu.
Blocks for adding WP Simple Pay forms to your website
Click “Update” or “Publish” when finished.
Your website now has the subscription form.
WordPress subscription form.
Add the subscription form using shortcode. WP Simple Pay > Payment Forms in WordPress provides the shortcode.
Find the subscription form and click “Copy Shortcode” here.
Shortcode-based website subscription forms
Just insert the shortcode into any page, post, or widget-ready section. See our WordPress shortcode guide for step-by-step instructions on placing the shortcode.