Can Free Subscription Show with Paid Options?

[PinPics]

I'm absolutely thrilled with the options available for setting up subscriptions, and thanks to the Help Guides, I've got two tiers basically set up. We want to end up with three tiers, and one is the basic tier and always free. If a member joins the site, they're automatically in the "basic" tier. They don't have to purchase anything, so I've set it up as free. However, to get it to show on the page alongside the other two paid tiers, I have to enable purchases. 

Is there a way that all three options can show, but the "Subscribe Now" button on the first tier end up removed or greyed out . . . or something. I'm really open to options, but I'd like all three sitting next to each other. Thanks!!

[Jim M]

What you will want to do here is have the registration require a subscription, this way, the user would select the Free option when registering (or select your other subscriptions). Then they would have the free option as selected when they go back to this screen.

You can force a subscription by going to ACP -> Commerce -> Subscription Plans -> Settings -> Require Subscription Purchase?

[PinPics]

I saw that option, but I wasn't sure if it would work. We have a current site with thousands of accounts. As soon as the IPS community is configured enough, we are going to switch on the OAuth to integrate accounts. From then on, we'll be using the IPS profiles and sign-in, etc. If I require a subscription upon registration, will it require that on all the old accounts, upon their first sign-in with the IPS profiles?

[opentype]

39 minutes ago, PinPics said:

We want to end up with three tiers, and one is the basic tier and always free. If a member joins the site, they're automatically in the "basic" tier. They don't have to purchase anything …

That’s how an IPS community works out of the box. But the system doesn’t treat free memberships as a “tier”. The members are just in the default user group without a subscription. And then they optionally choose to buy subscriptions. So you don’t have a free subscription or a paid subscription, you have no subscription or you have a subscription. 

Trying to add a free tier (i.e. actual subscription) might complicate things unnecessarily. If you don’t need it, don’t do it. The only downside I can think of is that you don’t get that view of having the free membership next to the actual subscriptions. 

[PinPics]

3 minutes ago, opentype said:

Trying to add a free tier (i.e. actual subscription) might complicate things unnecessarily. If you don’t need it, don’t do it. The only downside I can think of is that you don’t get that view of having the free membership next to the actual subscriptions. 

That's the concern. This will be our first time in over twenty years of having paid tier options. I'd really like the three tiers showing beside each other. I'll have a list in each showing the benefits belonging to each tier. By having all three next to each other, I hope to stop any "complaining" about the paid tiers -- since the community has always been completely free. But we're not actually eliminating any free services and only adding new features for the tiers.

Ideally, I'd like them to just have their membership without having to register for a free tier, but I think I really need an area that shows all three tiers next to each other.

[Joel R]

1. You could create a custom page with a custom database that compares the three subscription plans. I believe @opentype has a good template for this comparison page. 

(Behind the scenes, your database would be 3 records: one for each subscription, with different values for each custom field such as price, duration, benefits, etc.)

2. The other approach is articulating the "bundled" free subscription at time of registration.  

And then using the subscription page as designed.  

3. Showing a free tier was provided as client feedback many times during the initial rollout of subscriptions.