How it works
Free trials let potential patrons 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 patrons 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 patrons are charged at the end of their trial period
- See how free trials help you grow. You can see which of your patrons joined through a free trial in Relationship manager and how many converted into paying patrons 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 categorized 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:
- Visit the Membership tab of your Page
- Scroll down to the Membership tiers section and hover over your chosen tier to edit that tier (click the pencil icon)
- Toggle on free trials and hit save. You can turn off free trials for new visitors at any time (When turned off, any patrons with an existing free trial will finish out the remainder of their trial period)
- Repeat the process to turn on free trials for multiple tiers
- Promote your free trial anywhere you promote your membership to encourage patrons 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. Patrons are allowed one free trial per account and form of payment to each creator.
Former patrons 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 patrons will also receive a confirmation, and welcome email (with the tier’s welcome note if you have one), just as paying patrons do today.
You will also receive the new patron notification email, which will specify that the patron is on a free trial.
-
At the end of the trial period, patrons’ 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.
-
They will still have access to their benefits through the end of their trial period.
-
You can filter by a patron’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 patron at the end of the trial, or canceled.
Note: some Started trials may be in progress, so they aren’t yet eligible to be considered as Converted.
Free trial patrons will not count in your New member count until they’ve been charged for their first payment.
-
To turn off a free trial for a tier, visit your Membership tab to edit the tier and toggle off free trials. New patrons will no longer be able to join via a free trial. Patrons with an existing free trial will finish out the remainder of their trial period.
-
All free trials turn into monthly subscriptions at the end of the trial period. Patrons 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.
-
Patrons 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, patrons who join tiers with free trials will only be eligible for a Special Offer if they become a paid patron at the end of their trial.
