A membership plan is what customers buy to become members. It links your membership product, sets how often members pay and how long they stay, and tags them so they get their perks. Setting one up takes two steps: first the plan itself, then its perks, such as member discounts and members-only content.
Before you start
Decide what members will buy. You can pick an existing Shopify product or create one while you set up the plan. See Choose or create your membership product.
Make sure your store uses a payment provider that supports Shopify subscriptions, such as Shopify Payments. See Shopify's requirements for memberships.
Create the plan
In your Shopify admin, open Apps → Appstle Memberships, then click Plans & Perks.
Click Create Membership Plan.
Name the plan and set its tags
In Membership Information, fill in these fields:
Membership name (required): the name of the plan, for example Coffee Lovers Club.
Customer Tag Name: the tag Appstle adds to your members' Shopify customer profiles. Appstle uses it to identify members and apply their perks. Customers don't see it. Appstle fills it in from the membership name, and you can change it. Use one tag of 1 to 255 characters that no other plan uses.
Order Tag Name: the tag Appstle adds to every order for this plan. Use 1 to 40 characters.
Choose the membership product
Under Membership Listing, click Select Membership Listing and pick the product or variant customers buy to join. Select only the membership product here: you choose which store products members get perks on in the next step. To create the product from this page instead, click Create New Membership Listing.
Important: Make the membership product subscription-only in Shopify, so customers can't buy it as a one-time purchase. Open the product in your Shopify admin, select Only sell this product with these purchase options under Purchase options, and click Save.
Set the renewal cycle
Under Renewal Cycle, choose how often members are billed and how long the membership lasts:
Setting | What it does |
Lifetime Membership | Creates a membership with a 99-year billing cycle, the longest Shopify allows. The renewal frequency is set automatically and locked. |
Renewal Frequency | How often members are billed. Enter a number, then choose Days, Weeks, Months or Years. |
Display Name | The name buyers see on the product page, in the cart and at checkout. Make it clear that this is a recurring membership, for example "Coffee Lovers Club monthly". |
Cancellation Policy | How many orders a member must pay for, including the first, before they can cancel. The default is 1. |
Automatic expiration | The maximum number of billing cycles. After the last one, the membership is paused or expires, depending on your settings (see Things to know). Leave it empty if the membership should keep renewing. |
Add a trial or a discount (optional)
Under Trial Offer and Discounts, you can offer a trial or a discount on the membership price. You can't use both on the same plan.
Offer Trial? lets customers join for free or at a reduced price for a set time. Fill in Trial Period Description (shown on the product page) and Trial Period (a number and Days, Weeks, Months or Years). Then set Discount Offer during trial period and Discount Offer after trial period ends. For a free trial, enter 100 with Percent off(%). To charge the full price after the trial, enter 0 with Percent off(%).
Delay first charge until next billing cycle date applies when the trial is shorter than the billing cycle. For example, a customer joins on January 1 with a 1-week trial and monthly billing. With this off, the first charge is on January 8, when the trial ends. With this on, it is on February 1.
Offer Discount For Membership discounts the membership purchase only, not other products. Enter the amount in Membership Discount Offer and choose Percent off(%), Amount off or Fixed Amount, which charges a set price instead of a discount. To change the discount later, turn on Want to change discount on Membership Plan afterwards?, then enter After Cycle(s) and the new discount.
Members get their perks during a trial only if Allow membership perks during trial is on in More → Shop Settings → Member Settings.
Limit who can buy the plan (optional)
Under Specific Tags, turn on Require Specific Tags so only customers with those tags can view or buy the plan, or Exclude Specific Tags so customers with those tags can't. Type each tag in lowercase and press Enter. For example, exclude customers tagged "bronze tier" from a "silver tier" plan.
Set a renewal day and upgrade options (optional)
Under Advanced Settings (not shown when the plan renews in days):
Set specific renewal Day? bills all members of this plan on the same day, such as the 1st of the month. Choose the day (and the month, for yearly plans), then optionally set Cutoff days: how many days in advance an order must be placed to count for the next cycle.
Include this selling plan in upgrade and downgrade options lets members choose this plan in the customer portal when they upgrade or downgrade. It is on by default. See Let members upgrade or downgrade.
Ask members extra questions (optional)
Under Additional Questions, click Add Additional Question to collect information when someone joins, such as a delivery preference. Give each question a Field Label and choose its type: Text Field, Dropdown, Checkbox, Radio Groups or Date Field. The answers appear on the member's record under Memberships → select a membership → Edit → Attributes. See Ask members additional questions.
Save the plan
Check the Summary panel on the right, then click Save. Appstle takes you to the second step, Set Up Perks, where you add discounts, members-only access and other benefits. See Add perks to a membership plan.
What customers see
On your product page, the membership widget lists the plan by its Display Name. The same name appears in the cart and at checkout. If the plan has a trial, the Trial Period Description shows on the product page too.
Things to know
When a membership reaches its Automatic expiration limit, Appstle pauses it if Pause memberships after reaching the automatic expiration of the plan is on. If that setting is off, the membership expires. Find it in More → Shop Settings → Membership Settings.
FAQs
Can I offer a free trial?
Yes. Turn on Offer Trial?, set the Trial Period, and enter 100 with Percent off(%) in Discount Offer during trial period.
Can I offer a trial and a discount on the same plan?
No. Offer Discount For Membership is hidden while Offer Trial? is on. You can still discount the price after the trial in Discount Offer after trial period ends.
How do I offer monthly and yearly options?
Create one plan per option. For example, give your membership product a Monthly and a Yearly variant, then link a monthly plan to the Monthly variant and a yearly plan to the Yearly variant. See Choose or create your membership product.
Will changing or deleting a plan affect my current members?
Their billing doesn't change: changes to the renewal frequency, discount or trial apply to new members only.
Perks are different. They follow the plan's customer tag, so changes to a plan's perks reach current members right away. If you delete a plan, current members keep their memberships but lose that plan's perks. If you change the Customer Tag Name, Appstle swaps the old tag for the new one on current members.