Please bring back free subscriptions

[asigno]

Hi

Please bring back the ability to setup a free subscription. 

As there’s no way now to have a tiered subscription page with a basic free memebership option. Also there’s no way to bypass the paid subscription to create a free registration if you enforce it through the registration process  

Thanks

[marina_ls]

Hello!

I guess you can get this setting a paid subscription with prize set to $0? Not sure because I'm not home to try it.

Regards

[asigno]

Hi, v4 took away the functionality to have $0 subscriptions. So there’s now no way to have a tiered subscription model with an entry level free membership. 

You have to now revert back to using commerce which has all the UX problems if you’re only using it for subscriptions. 

Or I’ve been told to create a custom page with the pages app, but I don’t think that would even work as you can’t directly link to a subscription cart page. 

[Adriano Faria]

On 3/6/2019 at 3:27 AM, asigno said:

Hi

Please bring back the ability to setup a free subscription. 

As there’s no way now to have a tiered subscription page with a basic free memebership option. Also there’s no way to bypass the paid subscription to create a free registration if you enforce it through the registration process  

Thanks

Jesus, just noticed this! Unbelieble!

On 3/6/2019 at 7:05 AM, marina_ls said:

I guess you can get this setting a paid subscription with prize set to $0? Not sure because I'm not home to try it. 

If I set to zero, will generate an invoice the same way if it has a price:

 

 

 

It should have a CONTINUE REGISTRATION WITHOUT PURCHASE A SUBSCRIPTION if the setting Force Subscription purchase when registering? is OFF, just like happens on products:

Ok, so I go to ACP and disable the setting Force Subscription purchase when registering?. So what happens, I go to registration screen.

Can't use this like that.

----------------------------------------

 

A simple condition in the Commerce register hook will do the job. Just check if the subscription setting Force Subscription purchase when registering? is DISABLED. If it is, then add the link above to the template. If it's ON, leave as it is now.

[asigno]

There's another thread on this here 

@Adriano Faria thanks I thought I had got around it by making the subscription a recurring one and it comes back, I didn't realize about the invoicing. I just don't understand the rationale on why IPB don't want to provide us with the ability to have a single page subscription form which includes a free offering. This should be standard.

 

 

[asigno]

7 hours ago, Adriano Faria said:

Jesus, just noticed this! Unbelieble!

I think many people haven't realised this, as I would have expected more people raising this issue on the forum.

[AlexWebsites]

46 minutes ago, asigno said:

There's another thread on this here 

@Adriano Faria thanks I thought I had got around it by making the subscription a recurring one and it comes back, I didn't realize about the invoicing. I just don't understand the rationale on why IPB don't want to provide us with the ability to have a single page subscription form which includes a free offering. This should be standard.

I have similar topic on this also:

as well as other suggestions in this post: 

 

[asigno]

Has anyone had a look at what this change actually entails in 4.4.3?

• Changed renewal terms to not allow $0 renewals.

 

[Matt]

10 hours ago, asigno said:

Has anyone had a look at what this change actually entails in 4.4.3?

• Changed renewal terms to not allow $0 renewals.

 

We saw an issue where someone had a paid subscription, but had entered "0" into the renewals cost box believing it would mean "no renewals" but it confused Commerce, so we just made it clearer that if you do not want renewals, toggle the yes/no field, and not just enter 0.

[Adriano Faria]

If you have subscriptions but wants to allow users to not buy a package (free registration), here goes a workaround that works:

It will add a link to regular registration screen if the user doesn’t want to purchase a subscription package. 

[Matt]

BTW, you can have free subscriptions in 4.4.

[Adriano Faria]

1 minute ago, Matt said:

BTW, you can have free subscriptions in 4.4.

Do we? 4.4.? At least it’s not an option in 4.4.2.

If you’re talking about the setting to force, then you don’t get it, again. I want to show subscriptions plans when registering but I don’t want to force people to buy so a link to the regular registration screen is missing. 

If I disable the setting, then someone register the account then later when the user finds the link to subscriptions, buy... not good!

[AlexWebsites]

2 hours ago, Adriano Faria said:

If you have subscriptions but wants to allow users to not buy a package (free registration), here goes a workaround that works:

It will add a link to regular registration screen if the user doesn’t want to purchase a subscription package. 

I've implemented this and it solves a pain point in terms of showing the subscriptions page as the first page of the registration process while still not requiring a purchase. Gives the option like products where at the bottom:

 

Thanks @Adriano Faria

[PPlanet]

3 hours ago, AlexWebsites said:

I've implemented this and it solves a pain point in terms of showing the subscriptions page as the first page of the registration process while still not requiring a purchase. Gives the option like products where at the bottom: 

While this works like a charm (Thanks @Adriano Faria) I haven't implemented this solution on my live site, as the whole signing up through check out process has another weakness imho. Once you choose a package it takes you to a registration screen that asks you (whether you want it or not) for name and address, and does not ask you to enter a Display Name. I wish it was the other way around, I wish it was like the normal sign up page where you enter a Display name and not your customer details with real name and address (which people could enter later if so they wish). I fear that if I was to ask real name and address at registration, many would not complete the process.

[asigno]

12 hours ago, Matt said:

BTW, you can have free subscriptions in 4.4.

You can now, it was removed for the first 4.4.0 as my free subs were turned in to products. I was told by IPB support that it was a business decision to remove free subscriptions as they weren't technically a subscription. Anyway I'm glad they are back and my sign up page is back to normal.

However, what people want and what is expected, is that you can have a 'free/normal' register block next to the paid subscriptions. So for example, if a user doesn't want to pay for your premium ad free option, they can sign up for a normal ad supported account but not have to go through the cart pages.

@Adriano Faria modifcation does this, but not as a block, only as a link at the bottom. To increase conversion rates, I want my users to be able to compare the free to the paid versions and the only way to do that is to show the difference in plans.

E.g

So when clicking on the free user register now button, it should go to the normal non subscription sign up process.

 

And also if subscriptions are forced for registration process, the link from the register button, should go directly to the subscriptions sign up page and not through this redirect which slows the page from loading.

 

[orp]

On 4/11/2019 at 4:03 PM, asigno said:

However, what people want and what is expected, is that you can have a 'free/normal' register block next to the paid subscriptions. So for example, if a user doesn't want to pay for your premium ad free option, they can sign up for a normal ad supported account but not have to go through the cart pages.

 

+1000! this would seem to be the most common use-case, yet it is not supported well. IPS team, please fix ASAP!

 

On 4/11/2019 at 4:03 PM, asigno said:

So when clicking on the free user register now button, it should go to the normal non subscription sign up process.

Exactly! extremely important because otherwise users are presented with real name & billing address fields, as well as every profile field even if you've selected the quick-registration option in the admin area.

 

On 4/11/2019 at 4:03 PM, asigno said:

And also if subscriptions are forced for registration process, the link from the register button, should go directly to the subscriptions sign up page and not through this redirect which slows the page from loading.

yes, that brief dialog is annoying and when it just flashes by it makes the site seem broken or sketchy

[Summit360]

When this feature was initially released I was excited to use it. 

As soon as I saw the registration flow for a free subscription I turned it off, it's terrible. 

As a developer myself, I know you have to release things and get feedback. IT won't always be right and the perfect release is never released.

I'd really like to hope to see this feature be useable soon. The most obvious pattern from our perspective as community owners, seems to have completely slipped past the user stories phase.

Fingers crossed 🙂