Quick start in 10 minutes

By the end of this guide you will have the plugin installed, your license activated, one gateway connected in sandbox mode and a working subscription product on a test order. We assume a fresh WordPress 6.5+ with WooCommerce 9.0+.

1. Prerequisites

You need a WordPress site with WooCommerce activated and admin access. Recommended environment:

WordPress

6.5 or newer (tested up to 7.0).

WooCommerce

9.0 or newer with HPOS enabled.

PHP

8.1+ with bcmath, intl and openssl.

HTTPS

Required by all payment gateways. Self-signed in dev is fine.

Memory

256 MB minimum. 512 MB recommended for > 5,000 active subscriptions.

Run a quick environment check from the command line:

// Verify your stack matches the requirements
$ wp core version
6.7.1 (tested up to 7.0)
$ wp plugin get woocommerce --field=version
9.4.2
$ php -v
PHP 8.2.18 (cli)

2. Install the plugin

You can install the plugin three ways. Pick whichever fits your workflow.

$ wp plugin install ./advanced-subscriptions-for-woocommerce.zip --activate
Unpacking the package...
Installing the plugin...
Plugin installed successfully.
Activating 'advanced-subscriptions-for-woocommerce'...
Success: Plugin 'advanced-subscriptions-for-woocommerce' activated.

{
  "repositories": [
    { "type": "composer", "url": "https://plugins.joseconti.com/composer/" }
  ],
  "require": {
    "joseconti/advanced-subscriptions-for-woocommerce": "^1.0"
  }
}

3. Activate the license

You'll find your license key in My account → Licenses. Paste it into WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced Subscriptions → License and click Activate.

4. Connect your first gateway

Advanced Subscriptions natively supports four gateways for recurring billing: Redsys (bundled inside the plugin) and Stripe, PayPal and WooPayments (each via its official free WooCommerce plugin). Pick one to finish this guide.

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Payments and enable the gateway you want to use. The example below uses Redsys; the same idea applies to the others.

4.1 Enter your Redsys credentials

Paste the merchant code, terminal and signature key from your Redsys back office. Toggle Test mode on while you're verifying the integration.

1. Merchant code (FUC). 9 digits provided by your bank.
2. Terminal. Usually 1 for the production terminal, 999 for sandbox.
3. SHA-256 signature key. Visible in the Redsys "Configuration → Operational data" panel.
4. Currency. EUR by default. Change only if your account is multi-currency.

4.2 Optional: enable Bizum

Inside the Redsys gateway panel tick Bizum. Customers will see Bizum at checkout for one-off purchases.

4.3 Which gateway should I pick?

Four payment gateways are recurring-ready out of the box. Quick comparison:

Need the per-flow Spanish detail (Bizum vs. Inespay vs. PSD2 Light)? See the payment gateways feature page for the full compatibility matrix.

5. Create your first product

Go to Products → Add New. In the product data box pick Simple subscription and fill in the new Subscription tab.

Billing interval

How often the customer is charged. 1 month is the most common.

Length

Until cancelled for evergreen, or a finite count of renewals (e.g. 12 months).

Sign-up fee

Optional one-off fee added to the first order only.

Trial

Free period before the first paid renewal. Leave at 0 for now.

Anchor day

Day of the month renewals snap to. Leave unset; defaults to the order date.

Publish the product and place a test order from the front-end. After the gateway confirms, you'll see the new subscription in WooCommerce → Subscriptions with status Active and the next renewal scheduled exactly one month after the order date.

6. Verify the renewal

You don't need to wait a month to verify the engine is working. Two ways:

• From the subscription detail screen. Edit the subscription in WooCommerce → Subscriptions, change the Next payment date to a time within the next few minutes and save. The retry scheduler will pick it up at the next Action Scheduler tick.
• From Action Scheduler. Go to WooCommerce → Status → Scheduled Actions, filter by the advanced_scheduled_subscription_payment hook, find your subscription and click Run. The renewal fires immediately.

7. Developer cheatsheet

If you want to extend or automate the flow, here are the three most common entry points.

7.1 PHP hook example

Add a 5% loyalty discount automatically after the third successful renewal:

add_action( 'advsubs_after_renewal_paid', function ( $subscription, $renewal_order ) {
    if ( $subscription->get_payment_count() >= 3 ) {
        $subscription->apply_discount( 'LOYAL5', 'percent', 5 );
    }
}, 10, 2 );

7.2 REST API example

Read a subscription from your CRM. Enable the API in WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced Subscriptions → API and copy the secret key:

$ curl https://shop.example.com/wp-json/aswc-route/v1/aswc-view-subscription/482 \
    -H "X-ASWC-API-Key: <your_secret_key>"

{
  "id": 482,
  "status": "active",
  "next_payment": "2026-06-09",
  "total": "19.90"
}

8. Useful keyboard shortcuts

Inside the plugin admin screens:

• ⌘ K  — Open the global search.
• G S  — Jump to Subscriptions list.
• G R  — Jump to Renewals queue.
• ?  — Show shortcut overlay.

9. Troubleshooting

The two errors you might hit on a first install:

10. What's next

You have a live recurring subscription on a real gateway. From here, the most common next steps are: