How to Add Subscriptions to WooCommerce

Go to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress admin and search for "WPSubscription". Click Install, then Activate.

If you have the Pro version, instead use Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin to upload the ZIP file. After activation, a new "Subscriptions" menu item will appear under WooCommerce in the left admin sidebar — this is where you will manage all subscriptions going forward.

The free version covers core subscription functionality; the Pro version adds split payments, advanced dunning, multi-gateway support, and priority customer support.

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Payments. Enable a gateway that supports recurring payments — Stripe, PayPal, Paddle, Razorpay, or Mollie are all natively supported by WPSubscription.

Complete each gateway's authentication setup: API keys for Stripe, OAuth connection for PayPal, or account linking for Paddle. Without a compatible recurring-payment gateway, the initial subscription purchase will work but renewal charges will not fire at the next billing date.

Stripe is the recommended choice for most stores due to the best feature set for subscriptions including Smart Retries and Card Updater.

Go to Products → Add New. Set a product name (e.g., "Pro Membership — Monthly") and a price.

In the "Product data" panel, change the product type dropdown from "Simple product" to "Simple subscription" — this option is added by WPSubscription. Set the subscription price, billing interval (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually), and optionally a free trial length in days.

Write a product description explaining what subscribers get, how billing works, and how they can cancel — clarity here reduces support requests later.

Publish the product. Open the product page in a browser (use an incognito window to simulate a real customer) and complete a test purchase using your gateway's test mode — Stripe accepts test card 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future expiry and any 3-digit CVC.

After checkout, verify the subscription appears in WooCommerce → Subscriptions with an "Active" status, the correct next payment date, and the right billing amount. Also verify the customer received a welcome email and the subscription appears in the customer's My Account area.

Go to WPSubscription → Settings to configure retry behavior for failed payments (recommended: retry on day 1, 3, and 7), the number of days before renewal to send reminder emails (recommended: 3-7 days), and what self-service options customers have in their My Account area (upgrade, downgrade, cancel, pause). These defaults apply to all subscription products unless overridden per product.

Also configure renewal receipt emails — these post-charge confirmations build trust and reduce "what was this charge?" support tickets.

Once everything works in test mode, switch your payment gateway to live credentials (replace test API keys with production keys). Make one final real-money test purchase to confirm everything still works end-to-end.

Then monitor the first batch of real renewals closely — check WooCommerce → Subscriptions and WooCommerce → Status → Logs for any errors. The first month is when most configuration issues surface; after that, the subscription system runs largely on autopilot.