Sell courses and learning programs through recurring subscriptions, giving learners access to your content in exchange for regular payments.
You can set up a subscription while creating a new course or learning program or add one later as an additional pricing option.
In this guide, you'll learn how to create, configure, and manage subscription pricing options in LearnWorlds.
Subscription requirements
To use subscriptions in your LearnWorlds school, make sure you have:
- A Pro Trainer plan or higher.
- Integrated Stripe as your payment gateway.
Subscriptions are available for both courses and learning programs.
Create subscription plans
You can create a subscription in two ways: during product creation or from the Pricing page of an existing course or learning program.
Create a subscription during product creation
When creating a new course or learning program, you can select a subscription as its initial pricing option.
1. Go to Courses & Programs and start creating a course or learning program.
2. Enter the product details and select its access status.
3. Under Choose a pricing option, select Subscription.
4. Click Continue and configure the subscription price and billing interval.
5. Complete the remaining steps to create your product
You can edit the pricing option or add more options later, allowing you to offer subscriptions alongside other payment methods, such as one-off purchases.
Add a subscription to an existing course or learning program
If you've already created a course or learning program, you can add a subscription from its Pricing page.
1. Under Course settings or Program settings, select Pricing.
2. Click Add pricing option.
3. Under Pricing option type, select Subscription.
4. Configure the subscription settings under Setup, Availability, and Access.
5. Click Add to create the subscription pricing option
Configure your subscription settings
When adding a subscription from the Pricing page, you can customize its payment details, availability, and access settings.
Setup
Under Setup, configure the subscription's recurring payment details and basic information.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Pricing option type | Select Subscription |
| Status | Choose Draft to keep the pricing option unpublished or Public to make it available to eligible learners |
| Price | Set the recurring subscription amount |
| Billing interval | Define how frequently learners are charged |
| Trial period | Configure a trial period before recurring payments begin |
| Pricing option name | Enter a name for the subscription, such as Monthly subscription |
| Description | Optionally add a description that learners can see when selecting a pricing option |
For example, you can offer a monthly subscription for €25 or an annual subscription for €250.
Availability
Under Availability, define when, to whom, and for which purchases your subscription is available.
- Availability period: Set an optional start and end date to control when learners can purchase the subscription
- Target audience: Make the subscription available to everyone or restrict it to users who meet specific criteria
You can use these settings to offer a subscription to a specific group of learners or make it available during a limited enrollment period.
Manage subscription pricing options
Once you've created a subscription, you can manage it from the product's Pricing page. From this page, you can:
- Edit the subscription's available settings
- Change its status between Draft and Public
- Set a subscription as the Primary pricing option
- Reorder pricing options to control how they appear to learners
- Archive or delete pricing options when permitted
- Copy the Price ID and available checkout or add-to-cart URLs
Archive or delete a subscription
Archiving a subscription pricing option prevents new learners from purchasing it. Existing subscribers retain access according to their subscription terms, and recurring payments continue.
You can permanently delete a pricing option only if no learners are enrolled through it. Otherwise, you must archive it.
- If you add new courses to a subscribed learning program, existing subscribers automatically gain access to those courses.
- Changes to subscription pricing do not affect the amount existing subscribers pay. Updated prices apply to new purchases.
- Archiving a subscription pricing option does not cancel active subscriptions. You must cancel individual subscriptions separately to stop future recurring payments.
- If you change the number of trial days, price, and/or interval of a subscription, this will not affect the remaining trial days of the registered users.
- Your school sends a set of notification emails related to subscriptions, but Stripe offers additional options you may find useful, such as managing free-trial messaging, preventing failed payments, handling failed payments, and managing disputed payments.
- If a subscription includes a free trial and a coupon with a limited duration is applied at checkout, the coupon starts on the purchase date, not when the free trial ends. This means the coupon and the free trial run at the same time. For example, if a subscription includes a 30-day free trial and a 2-month free coupon, the learner receives 2 months free in total, not 3, because the first month of the coupon overlaps with the free trial.
Manage subscription plans
The Plans page provides an overview of active subscriptions and installment plans across your school. To access it, go to E-commerce → Plans.
There you will find a complete overview of all active subscriptions and installment plans across your school. In the plans page, you can monitor, review, and manage user payment plans directly from LearnWorlds; no need to log into Stripe.
Refer to this article for detailed steps on managing your subscription plans.
Users' subscription management
Users can manage their subscriptions via their Account page. They can view information about their active subscription plans and installment plans, including the next billing date. If they wish to stop their subscription, they can do so by clicking the Cancel button.
Make sure to check this guide for key tips and best practices around subscriptions.