Memberships

A membership is a plan your customers pay for again and again until they cancel: "Unlimited yoga, every month", "Comfort Club, two tune-ups a year", "Weekly bread share". They join on your site with a card, and the money goes straight into your own Stripe account. SiteBrite takes no cut of it.

Memberships are an add-on of their own, not part of the Business plan. Turn it on from your dashboard's Plan page. Joining needs Stripe connected: see Connect Stripe. Members don't need an account or a password: everything about their membership is on their own member page, linked from every email we send them.

Gyms, studios and dance schools: read this first

Many states have laws of their own for memberships at health clubs, fitness, yoga and Pilates studios, martial arts schools and dance schools. Some give members a few days to change their mind after joining, ask the business for a bond, or let members cancel when they move away or can't take part for health reasons. We can't check these for you, and your memberships are your business's own contracts.

If your business is one of these, the Memberships screen shows a note about it first. Tick I've read this and press Done before anyone can join. Then check what your state asks, and add anything it needs to your plan's Fine print.

Make a plan

1. Click Lists, then Memberships, then Add a plan.
2. Give it a Name, a Price and how often it's Charged: Every month or Every year.
3. Under What's included, write what members get, one thing a line. It shows on your site and on their member page.
4. Under Booking with it, choose what it lets members book:
   • Nothing to book: perks only, like a bread share, a supporter level or 10% off
   • Unlimited classes or visits
   • A number of classes each time it renews: write how many under Classes each time, and choose what happens to Unused classes: they end when the month or year does, or carry over for 1 to 3 more months.
5. For a plan that books, choose under Can be booked for what it covers, the same way as a class pack: anything booked on the site, event sign-ups, events in one category, appointments, or one appointment.
6. Add a Memberships section to a page, so people can join. Publish.

A plan that books needs the Bookings add-on (or the Business plan) too.

We write the terms. Next to each plan, your site shows what someone agrees to before paying, like "Renews every month at $89 until you cancel. Cancel online anytime." For a plan with classes, it also says how many and when unused ones end. You can add to it with Fine print, but you can't change or remove what we write. Each member's page keeps the exact words they agreed to.

Changing the price changes it for new members only. People who already joined keep the price they joined at.

To stop new people joining, turn off Open to join. Members already on it stay on it.

Joining

In the Memberships section, a customer clicks Join for and the price, adds their name and email, and ticks the box beside the terms. The box is never ticked for them. They pay on Stripe's checkout, and back on your site they see that they're a member. They get a welcome email with their member page and a check-in code for the door, and Stripe sends a receipt. You get an email too.

Someone who already has that plan can't join it twice: we email them the link to their member page instead.

Their member page

The link in every email opens the member's own page. It shows the plan, whether it's active, the next charge and its amount, what's included, the classes they have left, and their check-in code. From it they can:

• Update card, on Stripe's secure page. If a payment had failed, the new card pays what's owed right away.
• Cancel membership, in one step. No reason is asked and there's nothing to talk them out of it. It ends at the end of the period they paid for, and they aren't charged again.

The page works even if your site is down, because we run it, not your site.

Booking with a membership

When a member books something their plan covers, the booking form shows Use my membership (or Use my class pack or membership if you sell class packs too):

1. They tick it and use the email they joined with.
2. The first time, we email them a 6-digit code to type in. Their browser then remembers their email for 90 days.
3. It's booked, with nothing to pay.

• Unlimited plans cover one person per booking. Someone booking for a friend books one place with the membership and pays for the other, or books them separately.
• Plans with classes get their classes each time a payment goes through, as a class pack of their own. A renewal that isn't paid adds none, and a late payment adds them when it lands. Their classes show on your Class packs list too, labeled Membership classes. A booking for 2 people uses 2 classes.
• If someone has both an unlimited membership and a class pack, the membership is used first, so it doesn't spend classes they paid for.
• If they cancel a booking in time, or you decline it, the class or visit goes back.

You can book for a member by hand too: in Add a booking, turn on Use their membership.

At the door

Every member's page and welcome email show a check-in code. Scan it with Scan a code (on the Memberships screen, on Bookings, or on your dashboard's Business page). You see whether the membership can be used: active, with a payment failing, ending on a date, or ended.

• If they booked today's class, you see it listed. Press Check in next to it. Nothing more is used.
• If they just walked in, press Check in to record the visit, or for a plan with classes, choose the class and press Use 1 class.

See Check people in with a QR code.

When a payment fails

Stripe tries the card again over the next days or weeks. Your own Stripe settings decide how often and for how long. The member gets an email asking them to update their card, and the Memberships screen shows Payment failing. They can still book and come in meanwhile.

If it never goes through, the membership ends: when your Stripe settings give up, or after 21 days if they're set to keep trying. Then your dashboard's Needs you tells you, so you can follow up.

The Memberships screen

Open Memberships in the editor to see everyone who joined, newest first: their plan, status, when they joined, their next charge or end date, the classes they have left and how often they've used it. Search by name or email, or press Download for a spreadsheet.

• Cancel a member's membership for them. It ends at the end of what they paid for, and they get an email.
• Add someone who pays another way: for a member who pays cash at the desk. Choose the plan and the date they've paid until. Nothing is charged and nothing renews: it ends on that date unless you add them again. They still get a member page, so they can see it and cancel online. On a plan with classes, they get the classes for that whole time at once.

Refunds

Refund a payment in your Stripe dashboard. A full refund of a period's payment stops that period: its classes, and an unlimited member's bookings and visits, until the next payment goes through. The membership itself carries on unless it's canceled.

If you stop selling memberships

If you remove the add-on, cancel your plan or cancel the site, we ask first and tell you how many members you have. Once you go ahead, nobody is charged again, and every member gets an email. Members who already paid keep what they paid for until the end of their period, so a yearly member may keep coming for months. Their member pages keep working, and so does checking them in. Any refund is between you and them: the money is in your Stripe account.

This can't be undone. If you keep your plan after all, members have to join again.

You can't move a business to a new owner while it has members, since their payments go to your Stripe account. See Move a business to a new owner.

Without a website

A business with no website can sell memberships too, on its booking page and as an embed on another website. Make the plans in Lists › Memberships, as above.

When you leave

Download your site includes memberships.csv: your members, their plans and when each one next pays or ends.

Related: Class packs, Check people in with a QR code, Bookings, Connect Stripe.