Quick answer: WooCommerce Subscriptions is a paid extension that lets a WooCommerce store sell products or services that renew on a schedule, such as monthly boxes, memberships, support plans or software licences. It handles billing periods, free trials, sign up fees, automatic renewal payments and customer self service. Before you launch, choose a payment gateway that supports automatic renewals, decide how upgrades, pauses and cancellations will work, and set up clear emails so customers always know when they will be charged.
Recurring revenue is attractive for any business. It makes income more predictable and turns one off buyers into ongoing customers. WooCommerce does not support subscriptions on its own, but the official Subscriptions extension adds the feature in a way that fits closely with the rest of the store.
What you can sell on subscription
Almost anything that is bought repeatedly:
- Physical products: coffee, pet food, beauty products, curated boxes.
- Services: maintenance plans, cleaning, coaching, support retainers.
- Digital products: software licences, downloads, online courses.
- Memberships: access to members only content or discounts, often paired with a membership plugin.
- Donations: regular giving for charities and community groups.
How the extension works
WooCommerce Subscriptions is developed by Prospress and sold through WooThemes, the team behind WooCommerce. Version 2.0, released in late 2015, added important changes, including buying several subscriptions in a single checkout and storing each subscription as its own record.
Subscription product types
It adds two product types:
- Simple subscription: one product with a single price and schedule.
- Variable subscription: a product with options, such as different sizes or billing periods, each with its own price.
Billing settings
For each product you set:
- Price per billing period.
- Billing interval and period, such as every month or every 3 months.
- Length, either until cancelled or for a fixed number of payments.
- Sign up fee, a one off charge at the start.
- Free trial, for a set number of days, weeks or months.
Customer self service
Subscribers can view their subscriptions in their account area, see the next payment date, change their shipping address or payment method, and cancel if you allow it.
Admin tools
Store owners can view all subscriptions, change their status, adjust next payment dates and process renewals manually if needed. Each renewal creates a normal WooCommerce order, so fulfilment works the same way as other orders.
Payment gateways
This is the most important decision. Automatic renewals need a gateway that can charge a saved card or account without the customer being present.
Gateways with automatic renewals
The official Stripe extension, PayPal Reference Transactions, Authorize.Net CIM and several others support automatic recurring payments. Check the list of supported gateways in the extension documentation before you commit, as features such as changing amounts or dates vary between gateways.
PayPal Standard
PayPal Standard works but has limitations, because PayPal manages the schedule on its side. Some changes, such as editing the renewal amount, are not possible.
Manual renewals
If your gateway does not support recurring payments, customers can be sent an invoice to pay each renewal manually. This works for some business to business plans but leads to more missed payments for consumer products.
Failed payments
Cards expire and payments fail. When a renewal payment fails, the subscription is put on hold and the customer is emailed a link to pay and update their details. Some gateways also retry on their side. Plan your process for subscriptions that fail repeatedly, including when access or shipping stops.
Setting up a subscription product
- Install and activate WooCommerce Subscriptions.
- Configure a supported payment gateway and test it in sandbox or test mode.
- Create a new product and choose “Simple subscription” or “Variable subscription”.
- Set price, billing period, length, trial and sign up fee.
- Review the subscription settings, including whether customers can switch between plans.
- Customise the emails customers receive for new subscriptions, renewals and cancellations.
- Place test orders, then simulate renewals to make sure everything works.
Decisions to make before launch
Upgrades and downgrades
The extension supports “switching”, where customers move between variations, such as from a small box to a large one. Decide whether switching is allowed and how price differences are handled: charge the difference straight away, or apply the new price at the next renewal.
Synchronised renewals
By default, each subscription renews on the anniversary of its start date. For a box that ships on the 1st of every month, you can synchronise renewals so everyone is charged on the same day, with the first payment prorated or charged in full.
Cancellations
Decide whether customers can cancel themselves or must contact you. Making cancellation awkward may keep a few subscribers briefly, but it causes complaints and chargebacks. A clear, simple process builds trust.
Shipping
For physical products, set up shipping so renewals use the right rates. Remember that shipping costs can change while a subscription is active.
Taxes
Renewals use the tax settings in force at the time of the renewal. If you sell digital products to customers in the EU, the VAT rules introduced in 2015 apply to subscriptions as well, so check your tax setup carefully.
Communicating with subscribers
Clear communication reduces cancellations and support requests.
- Before signing up: show the price, frequency and any fees clearly on the product page and at checkout.
- Confirmation: state what will be charged and when.
- Renewal reminders: for annual plans especially, a reminder before renewal avoids surprises.
- Failed payments: friendly, clear instructions to update payment details.
- Cancellation: confirm what happens next and when access or deliveries end.
Our guide to marketing automation covers how to build follow up emails beyond the basic store notifications.
Growing subscription revenue
Once the basics work:
- Offer a discount for longer billing periods, such as annual plans.
- Add subscription options to existing products, letting customers choose “subscribe and save” alongside a one off purchase.
- Use upsells and cross sells to add items to renewals. Our article on WooCommerce upsells explains the options.
- Track churn: how many subscribers cancel each month, and why. Ask cancelling customers a simple question about their reason.
Common problems
- Choosing a gateway that does not support the features you need. Check before launch.
- No testing of renewals. Problems often only appear on the first renewal date.
- Caching the account pages. Caching plugins must exclude cart, checkout and account pages.
- Unclear terms. Customers who did not realise a product renews will ask for refunds.
- Plugin conflicts. Test other extensions, especially those that change checkout, with subscriptions on a staging site.
FAQ
Is WooCommerce Subscriptions free?
No. It is a paid extension with an annual licence for updates and support.
Can I sell subscriptions and one off products in the same store?
Yes. Customers can buy both in the same order, and since version 2.0 they can buy more than one subscription in a single checkout.
Can customers pause a subscription?
Customers can suspend subscriptions if you enable this setting, and you can limit how many times they can do so.
Planning a subscription store?
We set up and customise WooCommerce subscription stores, from payment gateways to renewal emails and custom subscription rules. See how we help online stores turn visitors into customers.
