Your first subscription product
A step-by-step walk-through of turning a regular WooCommerce product into a working monthly subscription. The 10-minute quick start already covers the basics; this page goes deeper into the product configuration itself, with explicit choices for the common cases.
Before you start
- The plugin is installed and the licence is activated. If not, run the quick start first.
- At least one payment gateway is enabled in WooCommerce → Settings → Payments and configured in sandbox/test mode. See Configure gateways.
- You know which product type you want — Simple, Variable or Multi-Product. The rest of this page assumes Simple subscription (the easiest first product).
1. Create the product
From WP-admin go to Products → Add New. Fill in the standard fields (title, description, featured image) like any product.
In the Product data box, change the dropdown from Simple product to Simple subscription. A new Subscription tab appears next to General / Inventory / Shipping.
2. Configure the subscription
Click the Subscription tab and set six fields. Recommended starter values for a generic monthly subscription:
| Field | Recommended starter value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Your price | The amount charged on each renewal. |
| Billing interval | Every 1 month | How often renewals happen. |
| Length | Until cancelled | Evergreen — the cycle continues until the customer cancels. |
| Sign-up fee | 0 | Avoid first-time friction. Increase later if needed. |
| Free trial | 0 days | Trial only if your business model requires it. |
| Anchor day | (empty) | Empty = renew on order anniversary. Set if you want a global billing day. |
Full field reference: Pricing fields explained.
3. Inventory and shipping
Subscription products behave like any product in WooCommerce: stock decrements per order (including renewals), shipping zones apply, tax classes apply. If your product is digital and has no shipping, tick Virtual in the General tab.
4. Publish and test
- Click Publish.
- View the product on the front-end and add it to cart.
- Check out using a test card. Confirm the order goes through.
- In WP-admin go to WooCommerce → Subscriptions. You should see the new subscription with status active and a "next payment date" one month away.
5. Verify the renewal cycle
You don't need to wait a month. Two quick ways to confirm the engine works:
- From the subscription: change the Next payment date to a couple of minutes from now and save. The plugin will charge on the next Action Scheduler tick.
- From the queue: go to WooCommerce → Status → Scheduled Actions, filter by
aswc_hooks, find the pending job and click Run. The renewal fires immediately.
If a new renewal order appears in WooCommerce → Orders with status processing/completed, the full stack is wired. Full details: How renewals work.
Common variations
Once the basic subscription works, the most common next moves:
- Offer monthly and annual at the same product — switch product type to Variable subscription and create two variations.
- Add a 14-day free trial — set Free trial to
14 days. The customer enters card details but isn't charged until day 15. - Anchor all renewals to day 1 of the month — set the global anchor in WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced Subscriptions → Start dates. See Anchor day.
- Reward customers after N renewals — enable the tier-based discount engine. See Tier-based discounts.
Relevant hooks
aswc_after_created_subscription— fires when a subscription is created. Hook here to send a welcome email or push to a CRM.aswc_subscription_product_types— filter the available subscription product types.