Free and paid memberships
Offer memberships on your website, free or paid, monthly, yearly or once. Paid ones are bought through your shop checkout with your own payment account, and the membership starts the moment the order is paid.
PLANSFrom Growth
The problem it solves
- Members pay by bank transfer and you keep the list of who has paid in a spreadsheet.
- Renewals are chased by phone every month, and lapsed members keep their access.
- The membership platform you tried takes a share of every fee.
How it works
- Add a membership: Editor > Site tab > Members > + Add a membership. Give the name, what members get, the price (0 for free) and how it is paid.
- For a paid membership, turn the shop on and add a way to pay. The membership becomes a product on its own order line by itself.
- Visitors see the memberships on /join and on your members-only pages. They sign in first with a code by email.
- A free membership starts at once. A paid one goes to the checkout and starts when the order is paid.
- The membership runs a month or a year from that day, or with no end. A renewal paid early adds to the end date.
- From Scale, a monthly or yearly membership can renew by itself with a saved card or UPI AutoPay.
Everything it does
A membership
- Name and What Members Get, shown on /join
- Price: 0 makes it free; members join by signing in
- Paid: Every year (the default), Every month, or Once, no end
- Offered: untick to stop new joins without touching current members
- Order of the memberships on the page
Buying one
- Paid memberships go through the shop checkout, with the payment ways you set up
- Each membership gets its own product, named "Membership: <name>", kept at the membership price
- A paid order starts or extends the membership of the buyer's email, and notes it on the member
- The order shows on the member's account page with the shop's other orders
- Renewing before the end adds 31 days or 366 days to the current end date
What a membership opens
- Members-only pages ticked for that membership
- A page shows Your membership on the plans the member already holds
- A membership past its end date no longer opens those pages
In the back office
- Website > Members: membership and Member Until on each member
- Change a membership or its end date by hand, for a payment taken at the counter
- Members can be blocked at any time
Who uses it
Website ManagerSets up the memberships, their prices and the shop's payment ways.
Website EditorChooses which pages each membership opens and looks after members.
MemberJoins, pays at the checkout and sees the membership on their account page.
Where you use it
- Web: Editor > Site tab > Members; Website > Members
- On your website: /join, members-only pages, the checkout and /account
What you control
Settings
- Per membership: name, what members get, price, Every year (default) / Every month / Once, offered or not
- Who can become a member: anyone who signs in (default), or only people you add
Notifications
- Website Sign-in Code: to the visitor, by email, before they join
- The shop's order emails go to the buyer of a paid membership as for any order
- Not built: a reminder before a membership ends, unless it renews automatically
Questions
Do you take a share of membership fees?
No. Members pay through your own Razorpay, Stripe, PayPal, Cashfree or PayU account, or by UPI to your account. SmartMy takes no fee on sales.Does a paid membership need the online shop?
Yes. Paid memberships are bought through the shop checkout, so the shop must be on with a way to pay. Free memberships need no shop.What happens when a membership runs out?
It stops opening the members-only pages on its end date. The member sees the memberships again and can renew. There is no reminder email before the end yet, unless it renews automatically.Can memberships renew by themselves?
From Scale, monthly and yearly memberships can renew with a saved card or UPI AutoPay. Charges run through your own Razorpay or Stripe account, with a notice before each one.Can I give someone a membership without payment?
Yes. Open the member under Website > Members and set the membership and the Member Until date by hand.Related features
SELLING AND MEMBERSMembers: sign-in by email code and members-only pagesVisitors sign in on your website with a 6-digit code sent to their email, with no password to remember. You keep pages for signed-in members only, or for the members of one membership.BRANDS AND LARGER SHOPSAutomatic payments with a saved card or UPI AutoPayRepeat orders and membership renewals are charged by themselves to a saved card or UPI AutoPay, through your own Razorpay or Stripe account. The buyer is told the amount and the date before each charge, and failed charges are tried again.SELLING AND MEMBERSPayments through your own gateway, with no fee on salesTake payment through your own Razorpay, Stripe, PayPal, Cashfree or PayU account, by UPI to your own UPI ID, or cash on delivery. The money goes straight to you and SmartMy takes no fee on sales. An order is confirmed only when the full amount is paid.SELLING AND MEMBERSVisitor accounts: orders, addresses and wishlistBuyers sign in on your website with a code sent to their email. One account page holds their orders, delivery addresses, wishlist and subscriptions, on any device. Guests can still buy without an account.SELLING AND MEMBERSOnline shop on your websiteSell your products on your own website: a shop page, a page for each product, a cart and a checkout. Each order arrives as an ordinary sales order in your SmartMy records, with the payment, delivery and discount on it.
See your business on a real design.
Tell us what you do and what the site needs to do: bring enquiries, take bookings, show your work or sell. We will start your site from the closest design with you.