Path to selling SaaS and digital subscriptions
What to set up, and in what order, to charge for software or digital content by subscription, with a free trial, plan changes, the customer portal and notices to your system.
For a SaaS, a platform or digital content charged every month, Vipter handles the recurring charge, the retries when the card is declined and customer self-service. On your side, you still need to connect your system to grant and remove access.
Before you start
- The store activated. See choose the plan and activate the account.
1. Connect a provider that handles subscriptions
The renewal charges the card saved on the first purchase, so the provider must accept this kind of charge. Stripe, Pagar.me and Paystack handle subscriptions. Asaas does too, as long as your Asaas account manager enables card tokenization. Mercado Pago doesn't charge subscriptions. Each provider's screen in PaymentsProviders shows what it does. See how payments work and the step-by-step for Stripe or Pagar.me.
2. Create the subscription product
In CatalogProducts, create the product with Product type set to Virtual subscription (SaaS / platform). It is recurring and doesn't ask for a delivery address. Once created, the product can't become a one-time payment. See product types and create a product.
3. Create the offer with the cycle and the trial
In the offer you set:
- Billing cycle: monthly, yearly or another interval.
- Free trial: days of use before the first charge.
- Different first charge (setup): a different first amount, such as a setup fee.
- Cycle limit: for plans with a fixed number of charges.
Cycle and trial don't change later
The billing cycle and the trial period cannot be changed once the offer is created. To change them, create another offer.
4. Group the plans in a family
If the customer can move from one plan to another (Basic, Pro, Business), create one product per plan and put them all in the same family in CatalogProductsFamilies. The family sets how the change is charged: at the next renewal, by the prorated difference or at the full price right away. Subscriptions without plan changes don't need a family.
5. Turn on the customer portal
In GeneralSettingsCustomer portal, turn on the portal and choose what the customer can do on their own: cancel, change plans, update the card. They sign in with the purchase e-mail and a 6-digit code. Share the portal's address in your system and in your e-mails.
6. Notify your system
Register an endpoint in GeneralIntegrationsWebhooks to receive the subscription events, such as subscription.created, subscription.renewed, subscription.dunning, subscription.upgraded, subscription.cancelled and subscription.expired. With them, your system grants, adjusts and removes access. See webhooks.
7. Follow up and test
Subscriptions are in SalesSubscriptions. A declined renewal puts the subscription in Dunning while Vipter tries again.
Before promoting, test the store with an end-to-end subscription: the purchase, the event in your system and the cancellation through the portal.
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