Users are discussing the challenge of offering free trials or subscriptions without requiring a credit card. pfaffman notes that even with a free coupon or $0 plan, users must still enter credit card details, which may deter trial signups — though it could help prevent spam. They suggest allowing group requests as an alternative. justin agrees, noting that if a subscription doesn’t involve Stripe, it shouldn’t require card entry, and suggests adding users manually via the Subscriptions interface, though questions how many users actually want free memberships. JQ331 reinforces the point, arguing that not requiring a credit card upfront is now an industry standard and would be a valuable enhancement to the Subscriptions plugin, improving user experience and conversion for free trials.
I’ve finally moved a site to using live credit cards but would still like to be able to give first-time testers a way to try things for free. I thought a free coupon would work, but you still have to enter a credit card.
Or perhaps, having them enter a credit card is a good spam deterrent.
I thought that maybe a $0 plan could let people try for free, but that doesn’t work either. The apply-the-coupon-before-getting-a-credit-card-number logic might be difficult or impossible, but maybe there’s a way to allow a free ($0) plan not ask for a credit card number?
I guess the solution is to just let people request to join the group.
I’d think this makes the most sense. If a request doesn’t need to go through Stripe, then it shouldn’t. There could be an option to simply add a user to a group from the Subscriptions interface, but I’m not sure how many people are looking for free memberships.
I had mentioned something earlier that is similar to this, and just want to highlight it again. If you want to provide a free trial to users, it is a huge plus (and becoming the industry standard) to not require they enter a credit up front. I would think it would be one of the best features to add to the excellent subscriptions plugin.