Answers to the most common questions about subscription billing, renewal cycles, cancellations, and plan changes in WP SmartPay Pro.

Which gateways support subscription billing?

Recurring billing requires a gateway that supports scheduled charges. In WP SmartPay Pro, these are:

  • Stripe — full subscription support including free trials and installments
  • Paddle — handles subscription billing as merchant of record
  • Mollie — recurring payments via SEPA, iDEAL, and cards (EU)
  • Razorpay — subscriptions via UPI AutoPay and cards (India)

PayPal Standard, bKash, Toyyibpay, Paytm, and Authorize.Net support one-time payments only.

What happens when a subscription renewal fails?

  1. The gateway attempts to charge the customer's saved payment method.
  2. If declined, the subscription status changes to Failing.
  3. SmartPay sends an automatic Payment Failure email to the customer.
  4. The gateway retries (Stripe: Smart Retries over 4 days; Paddle: retries for up to 4 weeks).
  5. If all retries fail, the subscription changes to Cancelled and any connected membership access is revoked.

Can a customer update their payment method?

Yes. Customers can update their payment method from the Customer Account Page (a page with the [smartpay_account] shortcode). From there they can update their card via a Stripe-hosted or Paddle-hosted secure interface. The new card is charged on the next renewal.

Can a customer cancel their own subscription?

Yes, from the Customer Account Page. Clicking Cancel Subscription cancels the subscription at the end of the current billing period — the customer retains access until then. Immediate cancellation is also available.

Admins can also cancel from SmartPay → Subscriptions → (subscription detail) → Cancel.

How do I pause a subscription instead of cancelling it?

SmartPay does not have a built-in pause feature. As a workaround:

  1. Cancel the subscription now (status → Cancelled).
  2. When the customer is ready to resume, create a new subscription for them via SmartPay → Subscriptions → Add New.
  3. For Stripe-powered subscriptions, you can also use the Stripe Dashboard to pause the subscription directly — SmartPay will sync the status on the next webhook event.

Can I change the price of an active subscription?

Changing the price of a subscription plan form affects new subscribers only — existing active subscriptions are not retroactively changed. To change the price for an existing subscriber:

  • Stripe: Update the subscription in the Stripe Dashboard — price change takes effect at next renewal.
  • Paddle: Use the Paddle Dashboard to update the subscription plan.

SmartPay will reflect the new amount in the next payment record created by the webhook.

How do free trials work?

  1. Create or edit a subscription form.
  2. In the form settings, enable Free Trial and set the trial duration (e.g., 7 days).
  3. When a customer subscribes, no charge is made immediately.
  4. After the trial period ends, the gateway charges the first payment automatically.
  5. If the customer cancels during the trial, no charge is ever made.

Stripe and Paddle support free trials. Mollie trials require a €0.01 mandate confirmation.

What's the difference between "Cancelled" and "Completed" subscription status?

  • Cancelled — The subscription ended before the intended billing period (customer cancelled, payment failed, or admin cancelled).
  • Completed — The subscription ran for its full intended duration. This only applies to fixed-term subscriptions (e.g., 3-month installment plans) where a billing count limit was set. After all installments are paid, the status becomes Completed automatically.

Can I offer both monthly and annual billing on the same form?

Not within a single form — each SmartPay form has one billing period. The recommended approach is to create two separate forms (monthly and annual) and embed them side by side on the pricing page using shortcodes. Use a coupon code to apply a discount to the annual form if desired.