Charge a setup or joining fee with introductory pricing
Tobias Gundry
Updated
Use introductory pricing to include a setup or joining fee in the first payment of a recurring membership. Set the introductory price to the normal membership price plus the fee, and use an introductory length of 1 billing period.
For a $45 weekly membership with a $50 joining fee:
| Payment | Amount |
|---|---|
| First week, including the joining fee | $95 |
| Second week and each week after that | $45 |
The member pays one combined first payment. Describe the joining fee in the plan description so they understand why the first payment is higher.
Create the membership plan
- Open Products → Plans and select Add Plan, or Create membership plan if this is your first plan.
- Enter a name, description and class inclusions. In the description, explain the fee and ongoing price, for example: “$95 for your first week, including a $50 joining fee, then $45 weekly.”
- Set Price to the normal recurring amount — $45 in this example — and choose Weekly as the Billing period.
- Turn on Introductory pricing.
- Set Introductory price to $95: the $45 first week plus the $50 joining fee.
- Set Introductory length to 1. This keeps the higher amount to the first payment only.
- Review What a new member pays. It should show $95 for the first week and $45 per week after that.
- Review the description and inclusions, then select Create.
For a monthly membership, use the same approach with Monthly and a length of 1: the first month includes the fee, and the normal monthly price starts at the next renewal.
Before you offer the plan
Introductory plans cannot be edited after creation. If the fee, ongoing price or inclusions need to change, create a replacement plan. Deactivate the old one when you want to stop new purchases.
During the first billing period, pauses, plan changes and billing changes are unavailable. Cancellation remains available under the plan’s terms. Automatic pause cannot be combined with introductory pricing.
This fee applies when someone buys this plan as a new membership. You cannot add it to an existing membership using Change Plan.
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