Free Trials FAQ

  • Updated

How it works

Free trials let potential members try out your membership for a 7-day trial period before they’re charged.

  • Choose your tier(s). You can offer a 7-day trial for any or all of your tiers. We recommend starting free trials with your most popular tier
  • Free trial members get all the benefits in their tier, including past posts (but not Merch for Membership). They’ll provide a form of payment at signup but won’t be charged until the end of their trial period
    • Note: Anyone joining a free trial tier will automatically start on a free trial. For this test, they won’t be able to bypass the trial. This means you won’t see earnings for a free trial tier until members are charged at the end of their trial period
  • See how free trials help you grow. You can see which of your members joined through a free trial in Relationship manager and how many converted into paying members at the end of their trial in Insights

Who can enable free trials?

Creators who use subscription billing can enable free trials. Creators whose work is categorised as Adult content must complete ID verification before free trials are available to them.

If you have questions about your eligibility, please get in touch with our support team with your inquiries.

Turning on free trials:

  1. Visit the Membership tab of your Page
  2. Scroll down to the Membership tiers section and hover over your chosen tier to edit that tier 
  3. Toggle on free trials and hit save. You can turn off free trials for new visitors at any time (when turned off, any members with an existing free trial will finish out the remainder of their trial period)
  4. Repeat the process to turn on free trials for multiple tiers
  5. Promote your free trial anywhere you promote your membership to encourage members to join

Note: You must be enrolled in subscription billing to offer free trials.

FAQ

  • Free trials are available to people who have never subscribed to you before. Members are allowed one free trial per account and form of payment to each creator.

    Former members won’t have the option to start a free trial – they’ll only have the option to join and pay upfront for a tier with a free trial.

  • At this time, Free Trials is only available for those on subscription billing.

  • Visitors to your page will see Start free trial instead of Join now on your chosen trial tier(s). Anyone joining a free trial tier will automatically start on a free trial.

    At checkout, they will need to enter a payment method but won’t be charged anything until the trial ends. They will then have immediate access to all the benefits in their tier, including past posts.

    Free trial members will also receive a confirmation and welcome email (with the tier’s welcome note if you have one), just as paying members do today.

    You will also receive the new member notification email, which will specify that the member is on a free trial.

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  • At the end of the trial period, the member’s payment method will be charged for a full month and again monthly on that same date unless they cancel. They will receive an email confirming their payment and the standard welcome email from you.

  • If a member decides to cancel their free trial, they can still enjoy all the membership benefits until the trial period ends.

    If they choose to sign up again after cancelling, they’ll have to pay the membership amount for whichever membership tier they choose, regardless if it’s the same tier they had tried for free or a different one. The new membership starts immediately upon rejoining, and the previous free trial ends.

  • You can filter by a member’s free trial status in the Relationship manager and message them accordingly.

  • To see how your free trials are performing, visit Insights. You’ll see a new Free trial activity section, which shows within your chosen time period how many free trials were started, completed, converted into a paying member at the end of the trial or cancelled. 

    Note: Some started trials may be in progress, so they aren’t yet eligible to be considered as Converted.

    Free trial members will not count in your New member count until they’ve been charged for their first payment.

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  • To turn off a free trial for a tier, visit your Membership tab to edit the tier and toggle off free trials. New members will no longer be able to join via a free trial. Members with an existing free trial will finish the remainder of their trial period.

  • All free trials turn into monthly subscriptions at the end of the trial period. Members who wish to become annual members will need to edit their membership in their Active memberships tab.

  • Custom pledging is not supported on free trials.

  • Members on tiers that offer Merch for Membership will not start earning toward merch rewards until their first payment.

  • Your integrations and webhooks will be given access to free trials just like paid members. Each integration may be different in how access is granted and removed.

    For Discord, members will be granted appropriate roles for access based on tier eligibility. If they cancel, they will have their roles removed accordingly.

  • Yes. However, members who join tiers with free trials will only be eligible for a Special Offer if they become a paid member at the end of their trial.

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