Getting started with Memberships

What's a membership?

A membership is a recurring billing plan for your club, league, or program. Members subscribe and are charged automatically on their billing cycle—no more manual invoicing or chasing payments.

Memberships are perfect for:

• Club dues — monthly or annual fees for club members
• Training programs — recurring payments for ongoing coaching or classes
• League fees — season-based subscriptions for league participation
• Gym or facility access — monthly access passes

Create a membership

First, create a membership by entering a name for your membership.

Add pricing plans

After creating a membership, add one or more pricing plans. Each plan defines:

• Plan name — a descriptive name like "Monthly Plan" or "Annual Membership"
• Price — the recurring amount to charge
• Billing interval — how often to charge (monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.)
• Plan closes — optionally stop offering one plan on a specific date or exact local time
• Maximum subscribers — optionally cap how many active subscribers that plan can accept

You can offer multiple plans for the same membership, letting members choose what works best for them—for example, a monthly plan at $25/month or an annual plan at $250/year (with a savings incentive).

You can also set a Membership closes date on the membership itself. Use that when the whole membership should stop accepting new subscribers. Use Plan closes when only one plan should end while other plans stay available.

If you set a close date and leave the time blank, the membership or plan stays available until the end of that day in its local timezone.

Billing intervals

Plans support four basic intervals: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly.

Combine an interval with an interval count for custom billing cycles:

• Monthly — Month, interval count: 1
• Quarterly — Month, interval count: 3
• Semi-annual — Month, interval count: 6
• Yearly — Year, interval count: 1
• Weekly — Week, interval count: 1
• Bi-weekly — Week, interval count: 2

Connect with Stripe

To accept membership payments, you'll need to connect with Stripe. Stripe handles all payment processing securely, and you'll receive automatic payouts to your bank account.

Your organization's name will appear on members' credit card statements, building trust and recognition.

Add products to checkout

From the membership's Edit page, open Setup > Products to attach products like starter kits, jerseys, merch, or other one-time extras.

Members can add those products during signup. Product charges are collected in the initial checkout, while the membership plan continues recurring on its normal billing cycle.

Create products once and reuse them across memberships from Dashboard > Orders > Products.

Give members a lower booking price

A booking page can charge members less, or nothing for bookings their dues include. Open the booking page, choose Edit > Member pricing, enter the Price for members, and select the memberships that qualify. A participant with an active subscription to one of them pays the member price. See member prices.

Publish and share

Once you've added at least one pricing plan, publish your membership to make it available for subscriptions.

Share your membership page directly with members, or embed it on your website. Members can also find it on your Playpass homepage.

How members subscribe

1. Member visits your membership page
2. They select a pricing plan
3. They're redirected to Stripe Checkout to enter payment details
4. After payment, they receive a confirmation email
5. They're automatically charged on each billing cycle

Members manage subscriptions from Registrations in Your Playpass. Open the membership's subscription receipt to see Next billing, Payment history, and Cancel subscription. Use the person filter to find a membership for a saved family member.

Managing subscriptions

From Dashboard > Memberships you can:

• View all active and past subscriptions
• Filter by membership or status
• Open a subscription to see Next billing and Payment history
• Open the subscription's More > Cancel subscription action to stop future renewals

The Memberships sidebar destination opens the subscription list. To create or edit the memberships and pricing plans you offer, choose the Memberships tab in that section.

Message subscribers

You can send an announcement to active subscribers for a membership.

From the Memberships tab in Dashboard > Memberships, open the membership's menu and choose Message subscribers. You can also open Dashboard > Memberships, filter to one membership, and choose Message subscribers.

Playpass creates an announcement draft with that membership audience already selected. You can edit the subject and message, send yourself a test email, and send now or schedule it for later. Subscribers receive the final message by email and in their Playpass inbox.

Payments and fees

Memberships use the same payment processing as registrations:

• Stripe processing fees — deducted from each payment (varies by country, typically 2.9% + $0.30 in the US)
• Playpass fee — same percentage as your registration plan

You can view all payments in your Stripe dashboard. Choose Reports in a membership's More menu to see its revenue, current members, and members who joined or canceled. See Reports.

Email notifications

Members automatically receive emails for:

• Subscription confirmed — when they first subscribe
• Payment received — after each successful payment
• Payment failed — if a payment doesn't go through (with retry information)
• Subscription canceled — when their subscription ends

You'll also receive notifications when members subscribe or cancel.

Advance renewal reminders

Playpass sends a receipt after each successful renewal, but does not send its own advance renewal reminder. Stripe can send those reminders when Send emails about upcoming renewals is enabled in your connected account's subscription email settings. Choose the notice period under Prevent failed payments > Upcoming renewal events. See Stripe's renewal reminder documentation.

Select the Stripe account connected to your organization and check whether reminders are enabled. Reminder delivery depends on those account settings.

FAQ

What happens when a monthly or annual membership period ends?

A paid recurring membership renews automatically at the end of each billing period. For example, a yearly plan charges the saved payment method for another year unless the subscription has been canceled. Members do not need to renew manually. See Advance renewal reminders for email notice options.

Can members cancel their subscription?

Yes. On the website, open Your Playpass > Registrations, select the membership's subscription receipt, and choose Cancel subscription. In the iOS app, start from the Registrations tab.

For paid subscriptions, cancellation stops future renewals and leaves access active through the end of the paid billing period. Free subscriptions end immediately. A member who canceled their own paid subscription can choose Resume subscription on the same receipt before the period ends, while the membership and plan are still offered.

Can one parent subscribe multiple children?

• Yes. A parent can use one Playpass account to subscribe different saved players separately.
• On the website, manage saved profiles from Profile & Settings > Family > Players. In the iOS app, tap your profile picture and use Family. You can also add a player during membership checkout.
• The parent account still owns billing, receipts, and sign-in, while the selected player name appears on the membership receipt and in your dashboard.

What happens if a payment fails?

Stripe automatically retries failed payments using Smart Retries. The member receives an email notification to update their payment method. You can see the subscription status in your dashboard.

Can I offer multiple memberships?

Yes. Create as many memberships as you need—for example, separate memberships for "Adult League", "Youth Program", and "Facility Access".

Can I stop taking new subscribers on a certain date or time?

Yes.

• Use Membership closes to stop the entire membership from accepting new subscribers.
• Use Plan closes to stop only one pricing plan.
• Add a Specific close time if it should end at an exact local hour instead of the end of that day.

This works well for limited enrollment windows, season launch pricing, or plans that should expire before a program begins.

Can I change prices for existing subscribers?

Pricing plans are locked once the first subscriber joins. This protects existing subscribers from unexpected price changes. To offer new pricing, create a new plan.

Do memberships work with waivers?

Yes. From the membership's Edit page, open Setup > Waivers.

You can include all waivers marked as required, or select only specific waivers for that membership. Members sign the waivers during subscription checkout, and those signatures are stored with their membership subscription and waiver history.

Can I limit the number of subscribers?

Yes. Each pricing plan can have its own Maximum subscribers limit.

Leave it blank for unlimited subscriptions, or enter a number if you want that plan to stop accepting new subscribers after it fills.

What's next?

• Review subscriptions from Dashboard > Memberships, or choose its Memberships tab to create and edit membership plans
• Learn how to check in members and review attendance
• Learn about setting up online payments with Stripe to accept payments online
• Learn about creating a registration activity for one-time payments
• Give members a lower price on booking pages
• Compare registration activities, memberships, and bookings to choose the right setup
• Learn about creating a storefront to sell products outside of memberships too
• Learn about creating a referral program to reward members for inviting friends
• Learn about creating a waiver template to collect signed documents
• Learn about creating a schedule for your players and teams

Have questions or need help? We're ready to assist at support@playpass.com.