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Lesson 5 of 10 · 1:11 · Intermediate

Sell one-time plans

Charge once instead of on a subscription.

Where this fits

Your pricing table sells subscriptions. One-time plans use the same buttons, with one difference in the attribute.

By the end of this lesson you can

  • Add a one-time price to a button with data-ms-price:add
  • Send new members to signup first, then on to checkout
  • Know that existing members go straight to checkout

Heads up: Buying a one-time plan doesn’t cancel a member’s existing subscriptions. The next lesson shows how to make it.

Lesson notes

How it works

How one-time plans differ from subscriptions

A one-time price charges once instead of on a schedule. It suits lifetime access, digital products, courses and one-off sales. It has an amount, an optional setup fee and an optional expiration, after which Memberstack removes the plan. You create it like any price: open the plan, add a price and choose One-time instead of Recurring.

There is only one attribute for one-time plans: data-ms-price:add="prc_your-price-id". data-ms-price:update does not work with one-time payments, because there is no subscription to swap.

What happens when someone clicks a one-time button

Like any paid price, the buyer needs an account. So give the button data-ms-modal="signup" or link it to your signup page. A new visitor signs up first, then checkout starts. A member who is already logged in goes straight to checkout.

Buying a one-time plan doesn't touch anything else the member has. That's the point of add: it adds a plan without updating existing subscriptions.

  1. Create a price on your plan and choose One-time.
  2. Copy its prc_ ID.
  3. Add data-ms-price:add with that ID to your buy button.
  4. Add data-ms-modal="signup" or link the button to your signup page.
  5. Publish and test as a new visitor and as a logged-in member.

Upgrading from a subscription to lifetime access

If a monthly member buys your lifetime plan, their monthly subscription keeps running by default. Memberstack doesn't cancel it for you. The next lesson sets up a Plan Logic rule that does. Members can also buy the same one-time plan more than once, so hide the button from people who already own it with gated content.

Refunds happen in Stripe. To take the plan away, open the member in Members, go to Plans & Permissions and edit the one-time plan to remove it.

Before you move on

0 of 5

Tick these off on your own site. Done with all of them? You’re ready for the next lesson.

Up next: Next, you’ll stop a member’s monthly subscription automatically when they buy your one-time plan.

Common questions

Can I use data-ms-price:update for a one-time payment?

No. One-time prices only work with data-ms-price:add. Update is for switching recurring subscriptions.

Does buying a lifetime plan cancel a member's monthly subscription?

Not by default. Add a Plan Logic rule on the one-time plan that cancels recurring prices when it's purchased.

Can a one-time plan include a free trial?

No. Memberstack doesn't let you combine a free trial with a one-time payment.

Keep going

Checked against the Memberstack docs

TranscriptAuto-generated captions
  1. 0:00

    One-time plans work a little differently than subscriptions in Memberstack. Here you can see that we only have one attribute type, namely data-ms-price:add. This means that whenever someone clicks on this button , the app will try to add a plan without updating any of the existing subscriptions. Follow these instructions. We will copy this attribute, go here to our project, and click the button that should launch the checkout process or lead the user to registration. In this case, we already have this attribute.

  2. 0:31

    So, we’ll go ahead and grab the ID, copy it, and paste it. And then before publishing, we need to either set up a modal window to display the registration, or we can add a link to our registration page. There is a form here where they can create an account. Now I will publish. And then for new members, this will take you to the registration page, and after registration, the order process will start. And for existing members, this will simply trigger the checkout process. If

  3. 1:01

    you have any questions or need help with one-time plans , you can leave a comment on this video or check out the help center for more information. Thank you for watching and have a nice day.

This is v1 of Memberstack University, built from the tutorials we’ve put so much work into over the years. We’d like to make a more organized series.