How to set up and use Paid Subscription tiers

One of the many advantages to offering Paid Subscriptions to your audience is being able to establish multiple levels of memberships for your publication. This allows for differentiated tiers (for example, Bronze, Silver, or Gold), each offering unique price points, perks, access levels, and payment plans; creating endless opportunities for you to monetize your publication. 

1. From the left panel dashboard, go to Monetize > Paid subscriptions.
    

2. Underneath the main stats, click on the Paid Tiers tab.
   
   

   

   Connect to Stripe

3. If you haven’t already, you’ll be prompted to connect to your Stripe account first.
   
   

   

   Enable Paid Subscriptions

4. Once you’ve connected your Stripe account, under Configure Paid Subscription Tiers, toggle on the option to Enable Paid Subscriptions for your readers.
   
   

   

   Create a subscription tier

5. Click on the Create New Tier button to configure your first paid subscription tier.
   
   
   
6. A tier creation menu will appear where you can configure the following:

• Give the new tier a Name (required).
• Under Preview Text, you can add a description for the new tier that will be displayed to your subscribers (optional).
  
  
  

• Set the plan type(s), choose from:
  • Monthly Plan
  • Quarterly Plan (billed every 3 months)
  • Annual Plan
  • One Time Purchase
  • Name Your Price
• Be sure to toggle on the options you’d like to include.
• Set a price for each plan.
• Add Button Text for each one. 
• Set the type of currency for the tier, found in the top right corner of the form.
  Choose from these currencies: 
  • USD: United States Dollar
  • AUD: Australian Dollar
  • BRL: Brazilian Real
  • CAD: Canadian Dollar
  • EUR: Euro (used by multiple countries including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, etc.)
  • GBP: British Pound Sterling (United Kingdom)
  • INR: Indian Rupee
  • MXN: Mexican Peso
  • NZD: New Zealand Dollar
    
    
    

If you enable the Name Your Price option, all other plans (Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and One Time) will be disabled. You’ll receive a warning regarding this and will need to click on the Confirm Changes button to continue. 

This is where you can highlight what your subscribers get access to with the new tier.

• You can add multiple benefits to each plan tier.
  • Enter in the description of each benefit and then click on + Add benefit.
• This information will automatically be featured on your Upgrade page and/or Pricing block tier cards.
  
  
  

You can enable direct integrations with select third-party apps like Discord.

• You can also choose to add an (optional) Redirect URL. Doing so will bring subscribers to the specified URL once they complete the subscribe flow.
• If you wish, you can toggle on the Gift option to allow users to buy a subscription for someone else.
  
  
  

7. When finished adding the details of your new tier, review your configurations and then click on the Save Tier Changes button.
   
   
   
8. Once saved, the new tier will be featured on the Upgrade page and/or Pricing block of your publication site. 
   
   To adjust the appearance of your Upgrade page and/or Pricing block, click Design Upgrade Page in the upper-right corner of the tier creation page. This opens the Website Builder, where you can edit the design.
   
   
   

Once saved, you can edit the details of your Paid Subscription tiers from the Paid Tiers tab where they were created. 

1. From the left panel dashboard, go to Monetize > Paid subscriptions.
2. Underneath the main stats, click on  the Paid Tiers tab.
3. Go to the tier and click the 3 dots menu, then select Edit. You can also Archive or Delete the tier from here. 
   
   
   

Once you’ve set up and enabled Paid Subscriptions in your account, you can customize how the tiers are presented on your publication site in the Website Builder. 

Refer to this guide for in-depth instructions on customizing the Pricing block and featuring it on your Upgrade page or elsewhere on your site.  

After creating Paid Subscription tiers, you can further customize them using the legacy builder where you’ll also have access to the Layout tab. However, only Admin or Owner user roles will be able to access the Layout tab.

1. From the left panel dashboard, go to Website > Builder (Legacy).
2. The legacy builder will open on the Home Page, click into the center dropdown menu options at the top of the builder and select Upgrade Page instead. 
   
   
   
3. Switch the left panel options to the Layout tab.
   
   The subscription tier aspects that you can edit include:

• The plan card colors
• The page color
• The headline text
• The tier benefits on each card

Please refer to this article for more details on customizing your Upgrade page using the Layout tab. 

In addition to the dedicated Paid Subscriptions section where you create and manage your tiers, there are several places throughout the app where you can view or access your tier-specific audiences.

Specify the audience for email and web 

1. Go to the Audience page of the Post Builder.
2. Under Email Audience, click into the dropdown options and make a selection.
3. Under Web Audience, click into the dropdown options and make a selection.
4. On the right you’ll see a Summary of your choices.
   
   
   

Create content to only be seen by your paid tiers

• While creating your newsletter and using the Post Builder, you can add content visibility settings to display certain sections to specific paid tiers.
• To access these in the post editor, click on the 6 dots icon next to the + sign for the section, and then select Visibility from the menu options. You’ll be presented with several visibility options that you can toggle on or off.
  
  
  

When using the Segmentation tool, you can create segments for your paid tiers.

When creating or editing your Automation workflows, you can select specific tiers using the Upgraded trigger.

While you can’t change a subscriber’s status, you can view and confirm the exact tier and plan that they are currently on via the subscriber profile dashboard that you can access from your Subscribers list.

What happens to existing paid subscribers if I change the price of my subscription?
When you update the price of a Paid Subscription, the new price will only apply to new subscribers who join after the change. Existing subscribers will continue at their current price unless they cancel and re-subscribe.
Can I pause the paid subscription instead of canceling it?
Yes, you can toggle your Paid Subscriptions on or off anytime by navigating to Monetize > Paid Subscriptions > Paid Tiers > Configure Paid Subscription Tiers in your account. However, keep in mind that subscribers pay for monthly, quarterly, or annual access to your paid content. Pausing your subscription tiers could impact the value they expect within their active subscription periods.
Important Note: Turning off or disabling Paid Subscriptions in beehiiv does not stop active paid subscribers from being charged in Stripe. To fully pause or cancel billing, you’ll also need to manage those subscriptions directly in Stripe. For help with that process, reach out to Stripe Support.