Subscriptions

The Subscriptions add-on allows you to offer students flexible access to your courses through recurring payments and membership plans. Instead of purchasing individual courses, learners can subscribe to a plan that grants access to selected courses, bundles, categories, or the entire site. Administrators can easily create and manage different subscription types, set pricing and billing periods, and control which content each plan includes, providing a convenient and automated way to run a sustainable learning platform.

What is the difference between Subscriptions and Memberships?

In MasterStudy LMS, both Memberships and Subscriptions provide recurring access to courses, but they differ in how that access is structured:

Memberships are broader and usually define access based on content grouping. For example, a membership plan can include all courses in a specific category, or even the entire site. Students who join a membership can access everything included in that plan as long as their payment is active.
Subscriptions are more plan-based and focus on giving access through recurring payments tied to a specific course or group of courses. A subscription is linked to a single course and automatically renews at a chosen interval.

Addon Settings

The Subscriptions addon integrates MasterStudy's native subscriptions and membership system into your LMS. As the addon uses the native payment methods of MasterStudy LMS, it will not be available if you are using Paid Memberships Pro or WooCommerce on your website. You have to deactivate these plugins to use the native membership system using the Subscriptions addon.

Moreover, only Stripe and PayPal payment methods can be used for subscription and membership purchases. Check one more time that you have provided their credentials correctly.

To activate the addon and give the subscriptions feature to your LMS, follow WP Dashboard > MasterStudy > Pro Addons and enable the Subscriptions addon:

You can reach the addon setting by clicking the gear icon on the Pro Addons page on the top right corner of the addon card, or by following WP Dashboard > MasterStudy > eCommerce > Subscriptions:

Allow Instructors to Create Course Subscriptions - the setting enables instructors to set up subscription plans for their courses in Course Builder.
Manage Memberships - the button directs you to the Membership Management tab, where you can create, edit, and organize various membership plans.

Membership Plans

Membership plans on the website can be managed by following the Membership Plans tab:

On this page, you can see all the available membership plans on your site. Here is the breakdown of the table by columns:

Plan Title – displays the name of the membership plan as it appears to users on the website.
Access Type – defines the level or scope of content access provided by the plan, such as sitewide or category-based.
Renewal Period – shows how often the membership renews automatically, for example, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Certificate – indicates whether completing courses under this plan includes certificate eligibility.
Trial – displays the trial duration offered to new subscribers before the first payment is charged.
Price – shows the membership cost, including the current price and any discounted or previous price.
Status – allows enabling or disabling the membership plan to control its availability for users. You can use the toggles to control. Disabled plans will not be accessible to students.

Create a New Membership Plan

Membership plans will be created for the entire site (all courses) or some specific course categories unless it's not restricted in course settings.

To create one, on the Memberships tab, just click on the Add New Plan button:

On the opened page, you have to customize your own plan using the plan settings. On the left side, you can see the preview of the plan in real time. Start by providing the General Info:

General Info:

Title – sets the name of the membership plan displayed to users on the website.
Short Description – provides a brief explanation or tagline for the plan.
Membership Access Type – defines the scope of access, such as sitewide and category-based.
- Sitewide – gives access to ALL COURSES on the website by purchasing the plan.
- Category-based – gives access to all courses in the selected course categories only.
  - Select Categories – lets you choose specific course categories that will be available under this plan. The section appears if the category-based access type is chosen.

Next, we have to set up the pricing for the plan:

Pricing

Price ($) – determines the amount students pay for the plan (if there is no sale).
Billing Interval – sets how often the payment recurs, such as daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Billing Cycles Type – specifies whether the subscription continues until canceled or for a fixed number of cycles.
Number of Cycles – defines the total number of billing periods if the plan is limited. Available if the Limited Billing Cycles Type is chosen.
Offer Sale Price ($) – enables a discounted price for the plan.
Sale Period – allows you to schedule the start and end date and time for the sale price.

Lastly, enter the features you want to highlight in the plan and turn on additional settings according to your needs:

Plan Features –lists the benefits or privileges included in the membership plan. You can use dragging to reorder the features and to delete the features/
- Enter Feature – lets you add a new feature or highlight to the plan.
Trial Period (days) – sets a free trial duration before the first payment is charged.
Mark as Featured – highlights the plan on the website with a special label.
Do Not Provide Certificate – disables certificates for courses taken under this membership.

Once everything is ready, review them one more time and click on the Create button:

Now the plan is LIVE, and students can purchase it and get access to the courses that are included. You can check it from the Memberships page:

First, make sure you have the Memberships page from plugin settings. If it's not set up yet, you can generate it with one click.

Reorder, Modify, and Delete Plans

You can reorder, edit, and delete the plans right on this page using the specified buttons:

Plans appear on your website’s Memberships page in the same order as shown here. Make sure to arrange them carefully to display your plans in the most effective order.

How to Exclude the Course from Memberships?

If you have a course that needs to be excluded from memberships and should be purchased in a different way, there is a setting called Not included in membership in course settings.

Edit the course you need with Course Builder:

Move to the Pricing tab and enable the Not included in membership option.

Now this course is not accessible with any membership plan.

Subscriptions

Subscription is a recurring payment option that gives students continuous access to the course and learning materials as long as their payment remains active. It simplifies enrollment and billing by automatically renewing access at regular intervals, such as weekly, monthly, or yearly. Subscriptions help instructors and administrators offer flexible pricing, retain learners for longer periods, and manage course access automatically without manual renewals.

In short, the main purpose of a subscription is to charge students on a recurring basis (daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly) instead of selling lifetime access to a course.

Create a New Subscription Plan

Subscription plans are created individually for each course. A plan made for one course cannot be used for another. To provide access to multiple courses or categories together, use membership plans instead.

Edit the course with Course Builder:

Move to the Pricing tab and enable Subscriptions:

Click on the Add New button:

On the opened sidebar, provide the plan details, starting from the title to additional settings:

Title – sets the name of the subscription plan that students will see on the course page.
Price ($) – determines the amount charged to students for each billing period.
Billing Interval – defines how often the payment recurs, such as weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Billing Cycles Type – specifies whether the subscription continues until canceled or ends after a certain number of billing cycles.
Number of Cycles – sets how many times the payment will be repeated if the subscription is limited.
Offer Sale Price ($) – allows setting a discounted price for the plan.
Sale Period – lets you schedule the start and end date and time when the sale price is active.
Trial Period (days) – gives students a free trial for the specified number of days before the first payment.
Mark as Featured – highlights the plan with a custom label, making it more noticeable on the course page.
Do Not Provide Certificate – disables certificates for students subscribed to this plan.

At the bottom of the sidebar, you can see the real-time preview of the plan.

Once you are done, review one more time and click on Create:

You can add as many plans as you need:

Here is how it will look on the course page:

Modify and Remove Subscriptions

On the Pricing tab, you can see the active subscription for the course and delete or modify it with specific buttons:

Subscriptions and Memberships Management

Admin

Admin has access to monitor and manage all subscriptions and membership sales on the WP Dashboard >. MasterStudy > Subscriptions & Memberships page:

The page has been organized into two tabs:

Displays all subscription sales on the website with their status and other related info:

By clicking the View button, all related info of the purchased subscription/membership with payment history will be displayed:

Here is the result:

Additionally, the purchase will be available in the Orders page as well.

Cancel the Subscription/Membership

On the same page, the admin can cancel the subscription:

Once the plan is cancelled, the student will lose access to all course materials included in the plan.

Instructor

Instructors can also create and manage subscriptions and membership purchases for their courses directly from their dashboard by visiting the My Sales tab:

Under the Subscription tab of the My Sales page, an instructor can also manage (check/cancel) the subscription of their own courses as an admin.

Student

Students can also manage their purchased memberships and subscriptions on their dashboard:

Example Purchase of Membership/Subscription

Let's summarize and check how students will purchase the subscription/membership plan we created. We will purchase a course right from the course page:

Open the needed course and click on the Get Course button. You will see the available options: