Concept/how-to
Subscriptions and Recurring Access
Configure recurring products, customer access, payment state, and supported bundle changes.
Recurring payment and recurring entitlement
Subscriptions connect monthly/yearly pricing and Stripe checkout to ongoing product access. A customer library can show the recurring products and supported account actions. Plugin validation must use the current entitlement state rather than a one-time stored purchase boolean.
Subscription checkout uses Stripe, not PayPal. The managed failed-payment recovery window is 14 days. Trial eligibility, ownership earned from paid invoices, paid-through cancellation, and package-specific enforcement remain separate decisions. Legacy failedPaymentGraceDays settings do not change the managed recovery deadline.
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Lifecycle distinctions
| State or action | What to check |
|---|---|
| Active / renewed | Provider confirmation and the current paid access period |
| Failed payment / recovery | The server-issued 14-day recovery deadline and current entitlement, not a legacy grace setting or permanent offline access |
| Cancellation | Effective date and whether access continues through the paid period |
| Expired / revoked / refunded | Product entitlement and package-specific enforcement |
| Plan change | Preview, conflicts, proration, immediate/scheduled effect, and confirmation |
| Manual grant | Access grant versus customer-authorized billing setup; not permission to charge silently |
Bundles and installments are different
A subscription bundle groups the permitted recurring products under its versioned offer and supported plan-change flow. A one-time product bundle is another commerce model. Rent-to-own is an installment agreement and currently cannot start production live checkout.
Paid products, subscriptions, and bundles must remain at least $9.99 after discounts, before tax. Free claims follow the redemption model rather than a discounted paid checkout.
Check access in the customer's actual package
Billing confirmation, paid-through access, and permanently earned products are distinct. Verify the final HISE/JUCE or custom client against the intended subscription type. A payment record does not prove that every older offline build has already refreshed its entitlement.
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Access or ownership
Renewal prices and customer control
Monthly and annual plans renew at their regular list price. A subscription promotion discounts the initial payment only. Supported price increases require at least 30 days of advance notice before taking effect; decreases do not require that waiting period. Applicable checkout tax is recalculated for renewals using the configured tax rules.
Customers can update payment details, cancel at the end of the paid period, and reactivate an eligible plan before it expires. Standalone subscriptions and subscription bundles have distinct account actions. Independent plans can coexist when their product access does not conflict; overlapping plan changes are checked before confirmation.
Manually granted access is not permission to start charging a customer. Converting a manual grant to billing requires the supported payment setup, preview, and explicit confirmation.
A fixed payment-recovery window
An unpaid renewal starts a 14-day recovery episode. Reminder opportunities fall on days 0, 5, 10, and 13, subject to eligibility and delivery readiness. Customers can update their payment method from their account. Eligible automatic collection attempts remain subject to provider limits and the current payment state; this is not a promise of a charge attempt every day.
Rental suspension is not subscription cancellation
After the 14-day recovery deadline, an unpaid rental/access subscription has its license suspended, not automatically canceled. The subscription and billing continue, further renewal invoices can arise, and eligible recovery of outstanding payments continues. Suspension does not stop billing or forgive unpaid invoices. Customers who want to stop future renewals must use the supported cancellation action; cancellation does not erase an existing balance.
Rental access is restored after provider-confirmed payment and reconciliation of all outstanding invoices. A newer paid invoice alone does not clear older arrears. Closed or uncertain invoices can require billing review rather than automatic restoration.
A keep-your-products plan has a different outcome: an unresolved renewal can end the recurring subscription after reconciliation, while products already earned from unreversed qualifying payments remain owned. No new permanent products are earned from an unpaid invoice. Pending or uncertain payments are reconciled before another collection attempt; do not start another checkout to bypass recovery. Plugin enforcement follows the installed package and its signed offline/online rules, not an instant remote change to every distributed binary.
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Renewal and recovery guide
Subscription recovery
Payment updates, notices, deadlines, and access effects.
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Two subscription models
Selected products versus all products describes bundle membership, not a third ownership model. A trial, unpaid invoice, or manually granted access is not proof of permanent paid ownership.
| Model | Offer and API value | What the customer keeps |
|---|---|---|
| Own the products | Subscription bundle with fulfillmentMode: keep_products | Qualifying paid invoices earn permanent ownership under the plan. Ending future billing does not erase already earned products; a reversal of the qualifying payment can reverse that ownership. |
| Lease the products | Standalone product subscription, or subscription bundle with fulfillmentMode: access | Recurring access while entitled. Cancellation preserves the paid-through period. An unresolved recovery suspends the license while billing continues; cancel separately to stop future renewals. Separate purchases are unaffected. |
Keep existing subscribers on their billing interval
Monthly and annual offers use different billing cadences. If a standalone subscription or a linked subscription bundle has active, trialing, past_due or unpaid contracts, changing its monthly/yearly interval is blocked. Create a separate offer for the new cadence rather than changing the period beneath current subscribers.
The settings and versioned-bundle APIs return 409 SUBSCRIPTION_BILLING_INTERVAL_LOCKED for this condition. Reload the existing offer and retain its interval. This guard does not convert ownership models, cancel existing subscriptions or migrate payment-provider billing authority.
Permanent gifts and paid subscription ownership
A timed manual keep-products grant gives the customer permanent ownership of the products included when the developer makes that grant, without a payment. That original product snapshot remains owned after subscription cancellation, expiry or incomplete billing setup. Explicit developer access removal can revoke the grant. New products added later are not retroactively included.
A lifetime manual grant instead provides complimentary ongoing subscription access; it is not the timed-grant ownership model or evidence of a paid invoice. Ordinary access-only grants and unpaid checkout trials also do not create paid ownership.
Paid keep-products invoices establish their own product snapshots. Refunding or reversing a paid purchase affects that purchase, not an independent manual ownership grant. Future paid subscription benefits still require the separate billing setup, preview and customer confirmation; a gift is not permission to charge a card.
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