Subscription Overview

Subscriptions let you charge customers on a recurring schedule through Stripe. PayPress creates the subscription checkout experience, records the local subscription, and creates order records for subscription payments and renewals.

Creating Subscription Plans

A subscription plan defines the recurring offer your customer buys, such as a monthly membership, annual service plan, or ongoing support package.

Subscription Checkout

Subscription checkout sends the customer to Stripe Checkout to start a recurring subscription. Stripe collects the payment method and creates the subscription.

Subscription Renewals

Subscription renewals are recurring invoice payments created by Stripe after the initial subscription checkout. PayPress records successful renewal payments as new local orders when the relevant Stripe invoice events are received.

Subscription Orders

Subscription orders are payment records created for the initial subscription payment and later renewal invoice payments. They appear in the same Orders area as one-time payments and donations.

Failed Renewal Payments

A failed renewal payment occurs when Stripe cannot collect payment for a subscription invoice. This can happen because the card is declined, expired, requires authentication, or is no longer available.

Retry Payment

Retry Payment lets an administrator ask Stripe to retry collection on an eligible subscription invoice directly from the PayPress Order Details page.

Cancel Subscriptions

Subscription cancellation is handled through Stripe. PayPress can display cancellation state and provide customer portal access where customers can manage their subscription if the portal is configured.

Customer Portal

The Stripe Customer Portal lets customers manage billing tasks such as updating payment methods, viewing billing information, or managing subscriptions depending on your Stripe portal settings.

Subscription Receipts and Invoices

Subscription payments usually produce Stripe invoice records. PayPress displays hosted invoice and invoice PDF links when Stripe provides them.

Subscription Pause Limitations

Stripe supports pause-related subscription behavior, but PayPress does not currently expose full pause-state visibility as a dedicated subscription feature.

Testing Subscriptions with Stripe Test Clocks

Stripe Test Clocks can help simulate subscription renewals and billing changes in Test Mode. They are useful when you want to confirm that PayPress receives renewal webhook events and creates renewal orders.