### [[NEW] Stripe Subscription Trials in WPForms - Win Customers Over Before the First Payment!](https://wpforms.com/introducing-wpforms-stripe-subscription-trial-periods/) **Published:** November 5, 2026 **Author:** Syed Balkhi **Excerpt:** Typing a card number into a subscription form takes about ten seconds, but agreeing to be charged right away takes much longer. For a monthly membership, a class pass, or a retainer, paying on day one is a lot to ask of someone who has never tried what you offer. So many decide to think about it, but probably never come back… A free trial is how subscription businesses get past that moment, and offering one has usually meant a membership plugin or a separate subscription platform. But now your form can make that offer itself, in one line under the card field: "You won't be charged today." **Content:** Typing a card number into a subscription form takes about ten seconds, but agreeing to be charged right away takes much longer. For a monthly membership, a class pass, or a retainer, paying on day one is a lot to ask of someone who has never tried what you offer. So many decide to think about it, but probably never come back… A free trial is how subscription businesses get past that moment, and offering one has usually meant a membership plugin or a separate subscription platform. **But now your form can make that offer itself, in one line under the card field: *“You won’t be charged today.”*** ## Every Stripe Subscription Plan Gets a Trial Period! Today, I’m thrilled to announce **Trial Periods for Stripe Subscriptions**, a new setting on every Stripe recurring plan that holds a subscriber’s first payment until their free trial ends! Type a number, pick days, weeks, months, or years, and save. Subscribers still enter their card, but nothing is charged that day. When the trial ends, Stripe takes the first payment on its own. And the best part? It is on every WPForms plan, including Lite, with nothing extra to install! ### Everything the Trial Period Setting Can Do For You The Trial Period setting sits on each recurring plan under **Payments » Stripe** in the form builder, right below Recurring Cycles. - **Choose How Long the Free Trial Lasts:** Type a number and pick days, weeks, months, or years, from 7 days to the two years Stripe allows. Leave it at 0 and the plan bills at signup, as it does today. ![Form for a subscription plan: yearly with a 7‑day free trial; yearly recurrence; unlimited cycles; trial period 7 days; customer email field](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Choose-How-Long-the-Free-Trial-Lasts-1024x680.png "Choose How Long the Free Trial Lasts - WPForms") - **The Card Is Saved and Verified, Not Charged:** Subscribers enter their card as usual and, if their bank asks, confirm it right on the page. Stripe holds the card, and nothing is charged until the trial is over. ![Subscription details for a trial signup with the Trialing status](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/payment-single-trial-1024x347.png "Trial Subscription Details - WPForms") - **Your Form Says So in Plain Sight:** Under the card field, every subscriber reads “You won’t be charged today,” followed by the exact amount and date of their first payment, taken from your form’s total. ![Trial note above the form total saying the customer won't be charged today](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/frontend-trial-note-1024x354.png "Trial Note on the Frontend - WPForms") - **Trialing and Past Due at a Glance:** New statuses in WPForms » Payments show who is inside a trial, with the first-payment date as the Renewal Date, and flag a first charge that failed while Stripe retries it. ![Trial signup in the Payments list with a alt=](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/payments-overview-trial-1024x83.png "Trial Signup in Payments - WPForms") - **Trial Dates and Amounts in Your Emails:** Two new Smart Tags, {trial\_end\_date} and {trial\_first\_payment}, drop the trial’s end date and first-payment amount into any notification or confirmation, so your welcome email can say exactly when billing begins. ### What This Looks Like for Your Business Picture someone reaching your subscription form late one evening. They read “You won’t be charged today,” see the date of their first payment, enter their card, and click submit, without any hesitation. Nothing is charged, the card is saved, and the signup appears in **WPForms » Payments** marked Trialing, with that date beside it. Two weeks later, Stripe takes the first payment and the status turns Active, on the day your welcome email said it would! ### Who Is the Trial Period Setting Perfect For? It is for anyone who sells something people would rather try before paying for it. Here’s who will love it: - **Small business owners** running memberships, class passes, or retainers who want new clients to try the first two weeks free, with billing starting on its own. - **Marketers** who want a lower-commitment way into a paid newsletter, community, or course, and the trial end date in the welcome sequence through the new Smart Tags. - **Developers and agencies** whose clients ask for “free trial, then bill monthly” and want it as a setting on the form the client already manages, with no membership plugin to maintain. ### Set Up a Trial Period Before Your Next Signup Make sure you are running the latest version of WPForms, then follow along. #### Step 1: Open Your Subscription Form or Build One Open your subscription form from **WPForms » All Forms**, or build one from scratch. Under **WPForms » Settings » Payments**, leave **Enable Webhooks** checked so WPForms hears from Stripe when a trial ends. ![Enable Webhooks toggle on; text explains Stripe webhooks with a docs link; REST API (recommended) selected and PHP listener option shown below.](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/enable-stripe-webhook-1024x455.png "enable stripe webhook - WPForms") #### Step 2: Set Up the Recurring Plan In the builder, go to **Payments » Stripe** and turn on **Enable recurring subscription payments**. Give the plan a name, choose its **Recurring Period**, and point **Customer Email** at your Email field. ![enable recurring payments](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/enable-recurring-payments-1024x299.png "enable-recurring-payments - WPForms") #### Step 3: Type the Trial Length and Save Right below **Recurring Cycles**, find **Trial Period**. Type the number, pick **Days**, **Weeks**, **Months**, or **Years**, and click **Save**. Leave it at 0 on any plan that should bill at signup. ![Trial Period set to 14 days in a Stripe subscription plan](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/builder-trial-period-1024x634.png "Setting a Trial Period - WPForms") #### Step 4: Publish and Watch the First Trial Land Publish the form. The next subscriber reads “You won’t be charged today,” enters their card, and appears in **WPForms » Payments** as Trialing, with their first-payment date beside it. ![Subscription details for a trial signup with the Trialing status](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/payment-single-trial-1024x347.png "Trial Subscription Details - WPForms") ### Here’s What Makes This Truly Special A free trial usually comes bundled with a membership plugin or a subscription platform, each with its own checkout, dashboard, and monthly bill. With WPForms and its Stripe integration, it is one more setting on the recurring plan you already built, saved with the rest of your form. And a trial signup is a real subscription from the first minute. The card is saved and verified at submission, Stripe holds it, and the first payment follows on the date the form promised. You get to make your case through the experience you deliver, while WPForms handles everything for you! ### Ready to Offer Your First Free Trial? **Trial Periods for Stripe Subscriptions are on every WPForms plan, including WPForms Lite.** Update to the latest version of WPForms, open a recurring plan under **Payments » Stripe**, and your first free trial is one number away! On WPForms Pro and Elite, WPForms adds no fee of its own to Stripe payments, so more of each renewal stays with you. New to WPForms? [Get WPForms today](https://wpforms.com/pricing/) and join more than 5 million website owners who trust WPForms to power their forms. As always, thank you for your continued support of WPForms. We are always working to make WPForms the easiest way to turn a visitor into a paying subscriber. We can’t wait to see what your first free trial brings in. Syed and the WPForms Team **P.S.** The last person who left your subscription form may have been one free trial away from yes. Type a number into **Trial Period**, and the next one reads “You won’t be charged today.” [Get WPForms today](https://wpforms.com/pricing/) and set it up in about a minute. **Categories:** Announcement **Tags:** recurring subscriptions, stripe lite, trial period in stripe, wpforms lite, wpforms pro ---