AI Summary
Would you like to let customers try your subscription before they pay for it? With a trial period, customers enter their card when they sign up, but they aren’t charged until the trial ends.
WPForms lets you add a trial period to any Stripe subscription plan in your form. This tutorial will show you how to add a trial period to your Stripe subscriptions and manage trial signups in WPForms.
Before you get started, be sure to install and activate WPForms on your WordPress site. You’ll need WPForms 2.0.4 or higher to use trial periods.
You’ll also need to connect Stripe to your site and turn on Stripe webhooks. WPForms uses webhooks to track each trial and to record the first payment when the trial ends. If you’re using WPForms Lite, see our guide to using Stripe with WPForms Lite.
Adding a Trial Period to a Subscription Plan
To get started, create a new form or edit an existing one to open the form builder. Your form needs a Stripe Credit Card field and a payment field, such as Single Item, that sets the subscription price.
Next, go to Payments » Stripe. Under Recurring Payments, toggle the Enable recurring subscription payments option to the on position. If you haven’t set up a subscription plan before, see our guide on enabling recurring subscription payments.
Then find the Trial Period setting in your plan, below Recurring Cycles. Enter the length of the trial in the number box. After that, choose Days, Weeks, Months, or Years from the dropdown next to it.
Stripe allows a trial of up to 730 days. That’s 104 weeks, 24 months, or 2 years. If you enter a bigger number, WPForms changes it to the maximum for the unit you chose. Leave the setting at 0 to charge customers as soon as they submit the form.
Once you’ve set your trial, be sure to save your form.
Viewing the Trial on Your Form
When a plan has a trial, your form shows a short note under the Stripe Credit Card field. It tells customers they won’t be charged today, along with the amount and date of their first payment.
When a customer submits the form, Stripe saves their card and starts the subscription in a trial. No money is taken at signup. If the customer’s bank asks for card authentication, such as 3D Secure, it happens during signup.
When the trial ends, Stripe charges the saved card automatically. Your customer doesn’t need to do anything else.
Viewing Trial Subscriptions
To see your trial signups, go to WPForms » Payments. Each trial signup shows a total of $0.00, since nothing was charged yet. The Subscription column shows the plan price and how often it bills, with a clock icon while the trial is active.
Click a payment to open its details. In the Subscription Details section, you’ll see the plan price under Billing Cycle. The Renewal Date shows the day the trial ends and the first payment is due. The subscription status is Trialing.
When the trial ends and Stripe charges the card, the first payment appears in the Payment History section, and the status changes to Active. To end a subscription before the trial is over, click Cancel in the Subscription Details section.
For more on the Payments screen, see our guide to viewing and managing payments.
Using Trial Smart Tags
WPForms includes 2 Smart Tags for trials. You can add them to your notification emails and confirmation messages to remind customers when their trial ends.
- Trial End Date: Shows the date the trial ends and the first payment is due, such as November 10, 2026. Its Smart Tag is
{trial_end_date}. To change how the date looks, add a format, such as{trial_end_date format="d.m.Y"}. - Trial First Payment: Shows the amount of the first payment, such as $10.00. Its Smart Tag is
{trial_first_payment}.
For example, you can add this line to your confirmation message: Your free trial ends on {trial_end_date}. Your first payment of {trial_first_payment} is due then.
Both Smart Tags stay empty when a submission doesn’t include a trial. To learn more, see our guide to using Smart Tags in WPForms.
Setting Up Conditional Logic (Optional)
With conditional logic, you can give a trial only to customers who enter a code. Everyone else is charged right away.
First, go to Fields and add a Single Line Text field to your form. Give it a label your customers will understand, such as Trial Code.
Next, go back to Payments » Stripe. In your first plan, leave Trial Period at 0. Then toggle on Enable Conditional Logic and set the rule to process the plan if your code field is empty. Customers who leave the code blank get this plan and pay right away.
After that, click Add New Plan, enter a name such as 7 Day Trial, and click OK. Set its Trial Period to 7 Days. Then select your Email field under Customer Email, since each new plan needs its own customer details.
Finally, toggle on Enable Conditional Logic for this plan and set it to process if your code field matches your code, such as 7DAYS. Repeat these steps for any other trial lengths you want to offer, then save your form.
If a customer’s answers match more than 1 plan, WPForms processes the first plan that matches. For more ways to use rules with payments, see our guide to conditional logic for Stripe payments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below, we’ve addressed some of the most common questions about trial periods for Stripe subscriptions.
Why does my trial signup show $0.00 in Payments?
No money is taken when a customer starts a trial, so the signup is recorded as $0.00. The first payment is added as a separate payment when the trial ends. Since nothing was charged at signup, there’s nothing to refund for it.
What happens if my customer’s first payment fails?
The subscription status changes to Past Due, and Stripe tries to charge the card again. If a later attempt works, the status goes back to Active. If Stripe stops trying, the subscription is canceled and shows as Cancelled in WPForms.
Will my customers get a reminder before their trial ends?
WPForms doesn’t send trial reminders. However, Stripe can email your customers before their trial ends. To turn this on, see Stripe’s guide to trial reminder emails.
Why don’t I see the trial note on my form?
The note only appears when every customer who submits the form gets a trial. It’s hidden when one-time payments are turned on or when any plan in the form has no trial, as in the trial code setup above.
If your plans have different trial lengths, the note only says that customers won’t be charged today.
Can I use a trial period with a set number of recurring cycles?
Yes. The trial comes first, and then Stripe bills every cycle you set. For example, a plan with a 30 day trial and 12 monthly cycles gives your customer 30 free days followed by 12 payments.
That’s it! You can now add a trial period to your Stripe subscriptions and keep track of trial signups in WPForms.
Next, would you like to customize the emails your customers receive after they subscribe? Check out our tutorial on setting up form notifications for all the details.
