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Create and manage membership plans

Membership plans are the memberships your community offers to its members. They define what a member pays and how often they are billed. You can create paid plans for regular sign-up, or a free plan for a selected group of members. A plan can also include optional upgrades that members can book with their membership.

Membership plans are separate from your community's coapp plan, which belongs to the community's coapp account.

To create and sell plans, your community needs billing to be set up and connected to Stripe. Create any tax rates you need before creating a plan. See Connect Stripe to coapp.

Create a membership plan​

  1. In the web app, open Manage > Monetization > Plans.
  2. Select Create in the upper-right corner. If you do not yet have any plans, select Create first plan instead.
  3. Under General, add a Name and Description. You can also add a plan image.
  4. Set the Cancellation notice period in days, then choose whether the plan is Active or Inactive and Visible or Hidden.
  5. Under Pricing, enter the price, choose the billing period, and select the applicable tax rate.
  6. If appropriate, add optional upgrades. Members can book these in addition to their plan.
  7. Select Create.

The plan appears in the plans list. A visible, active plan can be offered to members; an inactive plan cannot be used. Use the Active, Inactive, Visible, and Hidden filters to find a plan later.

Billing dates when members sign up themselves​

When a member signs up and purchases a monthly plan themselves, the billing cycle starts when they subscribe. It does not automatically move to the first of the next calendar month. For example, a subscription started on October 15 normally renews on November 15.

Anchor date and Prorate are controls in the admin membership-assignment form, not plan-wide settings for self-sign-up. To start an individually assigned membership mid-month and bill on the first thereafter, follow Bill an assigned membership on the first of the month.

There is no self-sign-up setting to charge a full calendar month's contribution for a partial joining month and then renew on the first. Check that the available schedule fits your community's contribution rules before offering the plan.

Cancellation timing for monthly memberships​

The cancellation notice is a number of days, not a rule such as “end of the following calendar month.” coapp adds the notice to the request date. If it fits before the current billing period ends, the membership ends at that period's end. Otherwise, it ends at the next monthly billing boundary on or after the notice has elapsed.

Calendar-month timing therefore applies only when that membership's billing date is the first. With billing on the first and 28 days' notice:

  • A cancellation on October 2 reaches October 30 and ends at the November 1 boundary.
  • A cancellation on October 10 reaches November 7 and ends at the December 1 boundary.

A fixed 28-day or 30-day notice does not reliably mean “end of the month following the request.” Members see the calculated cancellation date before confirming. For individual exceptions, admins can schedule a cancellation for a specific date. Admins can also enable cancellation emails.

Offer a free plan to selected members​

To make a free membership available without listing it alongside your regular plans:

  1. Create a plan as described above and set its price to 0.
  2. Set its visibility to Hidden.
  3. In Manage > Monetization > Plans, open the three-dot menu on that plan and select Copy shareable link.
  4. Send the link only to the members who should use the free plan.

A hidden plan does not appear in the regular visible-plan list, but people with its shareable link can open it. Treat the link accordingly. If you need to assign a plan directly to a member instead, use the member-management flow described in Connect Stripe to coapp.

Edit, duplicate, or share a plan​

Open Manage > Monetization > Plans and use the three-dot menu on a plan:

  • Copy shareable link copies that plan's direct link.
  • Edit opens the plan editor, where you can update its general settings, pricing, tax rate, and optional upgrades.
  • Duplicate creates a copy of the plan. The copied plan starts hidden, so review it and make it visible only when it is ready.

Changes to existing memberships can affect billing. Before changing a plan that members already use, review the membership and invoice guidance in Connect Stripe to coapp.