Creating a subscription form

In this guide, we’ll show you how to create and customize a subscription form on your WordPress admin to accept recurring payments for a product or service.

What is subscription payment form?

A subscription form is a type of payment form that allows users to sign up for recurring payments or subscriptions. Instead of making a one-time payment for a product or service, your subscribers, members, or donors opt to subscribe, agreeing to make regular, usually scheduled payments. Subscriptions are commonly used for services, memberships, digital content, and other offerings that involve ongoing access or benefits.

Creating a subscription form in 8 easy steps

We recommend going through the following steps:

Switch to test API mode
Create products/prices on the Stripe dashboard
Create form
Add products to form
Insert form shortcode into a page
Test-drive form
Customize form
Switch to live API mode

1. Switch to test API mode

This tutorial assumes that you’ve already configured your Stripe API keys. If you haven't, you can refer to our article to learn more about how to configure Stripe API keys.

You can switch to test mode on the WP Full Pay → Settings → Stripe account page in WP admin:

Switch the plugin to test API mode

2. Create products/prices on the Stripe dashboard

To embed Stripe subscription form to your WordPress page, you need to add recurring payment product on the Stripe dashboard.

First, make sure that you’re in test mode also in Stripe.

To add a recurring payment product, go to the Products → Overview page, and press the “+ Add product” button:

Create recurring products on the 'Products / Overview' page on the Stripe dashboard by pressing the '+Add product' button

Fill in the essential fields of the product and price, and press the “Save product” button:

When creating a Stripe recurring product, fill in the essential fields, and press the 'Save product' button

Please make sure that:

The product name is entered
Standard pricing is selected as the pricing model
Recurring price is selected as the price type

You can create price variations for your recurring product, and you can create as many products as needed.

3. Create a form on WordPress admin

Press the “Add form” button to create a subscription form on the WP Ful Pay → Forms page in your WP admin.

Create a new subscription form by pressing the 'Add form' button on the 'Full Stripe / Forms' page

On the next page, enter form name and display name, and select a form layout, and press the “Create & edit form” button:

You can enter name and display name for the subscription form, plus select the form layout

Inline forms VS Checkout forms

Refer to our article to learn more about the difference between inline and checkout form layouts.

4. Add products to form

Once your newly created form is saved, you’re redirected to edit the form.

You can add your recurring products to the form on the “Payment” tab by pressing the “Add plan from Stripe” button:

Press the 'Add recurring products from Stripe' button on the 'Payment' tab to add products to the form

The dialog fetches the recurring products from Stripe, you can select one product at a time:

You can select one recurring product at a time, and proceed to the next step

In the last step of adding a recurring product, you can configure some additional properties of the plan:

You can configure additional properties of the subscription plan

This is how these properties change the behavior of the plan:

The optional setup fee is charged up front, together with the first recurring fee.
You can specify a free trial period in days. If there is a setup fee then it’s charged up front, then the free trial starts, and the first recurring fee is charged at the end of the trial.
A billing anchor day can be set up for monthly subscriptions only. When the billing anchor day is turned on, you can specify whether the first recurring payment of the subscription should be prorated until the anchor day.

NOTE: if you use the "End subscription after..." option, make sure you have set up webhooks. Stripe does not have a concept of "number of charges" so the plugin is keeping track of when to cancel subscriptions by listening to webhooks from Stripe

When the form is saved, you’re ready to try it out.

For all customization options of the form, please go to the Customization section.

5. Insert form shortcode into a page

You can obtain the form shortcode on the WP Full Pay → Forms page.

Please visit our dedicated knowledge base article on how to use shortcodes.

6. Test-drive form

Once the form shortcode is inserted into a page, you can open the page, and test your form.

The form is fully-functional in test mode, and you can make payments using test cards to simulate every possible payment outcome.

No need to refund your payment after testing either.

7. Customize form

Now that the form is up and running, you can customize the form if needed:

8. Switch to live API mode

When you’re ready to go into production, there are only a few things left to do:

Copy your Stripe products to live mode
Switch the plugin to live mode
Re-add the plans on the “Payment” tab of the subscription form.

You can flip the switch on the WP Full Pay → Settings → Stripe account page in WP admin:

Switch the plugin to live API mode