How to set up and use multiple subscription tiers

One of the many advantages to offering paid subscriptions to your audience is being able to establish multiple levels of memberships for your publication. This allows for differentiated tiers (for example, Bronze, Silver, or Gold), each offering unique price points, perks, access levels, and payment plans; creating endless opportunities for you to monetize your publication. 

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Watch and learn: How to set up paid subscriptions in beehiiv

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How to set up multiple tiers of paid subscriptions

1. From the left panel Dashboard, scroll to the bottom and click on Settings.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. From the Settings options in the left panel, select Publication, and then click in the Paid Sibscriptions tab on the right side.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. If you haven’t already, you’ll see a notice that you’ll need to connect to your Stripe account first.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Once you’ve connected your Stripe account, under Configure Paid Subscription Tiers, toggle on the option to Enable Paid Subscriptions for your readers.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Click on the Create New Tier button to configure your first paid subscription tier.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. A tier creation menu will appear where you can configure the following:

   Tier Details

• • Give the new tier a Name (required).
  • Under Preview Text, you can add a description for the new tier that will be displayed to your subscribers (optional).
    
    
    
    
    

    Tier Plans & Pricing 

• • Set the plan type(s), choose from: 
    
    • Monthly Plan
    • Annual Plan
    • One Time Purchase
    • Name Your Price*
  • Be sure to toggle on the options that you'd like to include. 
  • Set a price for each plan.
  • Add Button Text for each one. 
  • Set the type of currency for all, found in the top right corner of the form.
    Choose from these currencies:
    
    • USD: United States Dollar
    • AUD: Australian Dollar
    • BRL: Brazilian Real
    • CAD: Canadian Dollar
    • EUR: Euro (used by multiple countries including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, etc.)
    • GBP: British Pound Sterling (United Kingdom)
    • INR: Indian Rupee
    • MXN: Mexican Peso
    
    
    
    
    
    *If you enable the Name Your Price option, all other plans (Monthly, Annual, and One-Time) will be disabled. You’ll receive a warning regarding this and will need to click on the Confirm Changes button to continue. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Tech Note: Stripe limitations prevent the use of the Name Your Price option in these countries: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand.

    Plan Benefits (optional)

• • This is where you highlight what your subscribers get access to with the new tier.
  • You can add multiple benefits to each plan.
    • Enter in the description of each benefit and then click on + Add benefit. 
  • This information will automatically be featured on your Upgrade Page tier cards.
    
    
    
    
    
    

    Advanced Options (optional)

• • You can also choose to add an (optional) Redirect URL.
  • Doing so will bring them to the specified URL once a subscriber completes the subscribe flow.
    
    
    
    
    
    7. When finished adding the details of your new tier, review your configurations and then click on the Save Tier Changes button.
    
    8. Once saved, the new tier will be featured on your Upgrade Page. 

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How to edit paid subscription tiers

After creating multiple paid subscription tiers, you can further customize them using the Website Builder in your account where you’ll also have access to the Layout tab.  

From the left hand panel Dashboard, go to Design > Website Builder. The Website Builder will open on the Home Page, click into the dropdown menu options at the top of the builder and select Upgrade Page instead. Then switch the left panel options to the Layout tab.

The subscription tier aspects that you can edit include: 

• The plan card colors
• The page color 
• The headline text
• The tier benefits on each card

Please refer to this article for more details on customizing your Upgrade Page using the Layout tab.

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Where to use paid subscription tiers in your account

After you’ve added subscription tiers to your paid offerings, there are a variety of places throughout the app where you can access tier-specific audiences.

From the Post Builder, you can:

Specify the audience when creating a post 

• Go to the Audience page of the Post Builder.
• Under Email Audience, click into the dropdown options and make a selection. 
• Under Web Audience, click into the dropdown options and make a selection.
• On the right you’ll see a Summary of your choices.

Create content to only be seen by your paid tiers

• While creating your newsletter and using the Post Builder, you can add content visibility settings to display certain sections to specific paid tiers. 
• To access these in the post editor, click on the 6 dots icon next to the + sign for the section, and then select Visibility from the menu options. You’ll be presented with several visibility options that you can toggle on or off.
  
  
  

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From Segments, you can:

When using the Segmentation tool, you can create segments for your paid tiers.

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From Automations, you can:

When creating or editing your Automation workflows, you can select specific tiers using the Upgraded trigger.

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From an individual subscriber profile page, you can:

While you can’t change a subscriber’s status, you can view and confirm the exact tier and plan that they are currently on via the subscriber profile page found in your Subscribers.

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Frequently asked questions about paid subscriptions

What happens to existing paid subscribers if I change the price of my subscription?

When you update the price of a paid subscription, the new price will only apply to new subscribers who join after the change. Existing subscribers will continue at their current price unless they cancel and re-subscribe.

Can I pause the paid subscription instead of canceling it?
Yes, you can technically toggle your paid subscriptions on or off at any time in your account from Paid Subscriptions > Configure Paid Subscription Tiers. However, since subscribers pay for monthly or annual access to paid content, consider the impact of pausing within these the paid time frames that have been established.