YITH WooCommerce Subscriptions adds recurring billing to WooCommerce at a significantly lower cost than the official WooCommerce Subscriptions extension. This guide covers the setup process from installation to your first live subscription product.
Step 1: Install and Activate
YITH WooCommerce Subscriptions is a premium plugin. Purchase from yithemes.com and download. Install via WordPress → Plugins → Upload Plugin and activate. Enter your license key in YITH Plugins → License Activation. The free version on WordPress.org covers basic functionality — Pro unlocks all billing frequencies, free trials, and gateway support.
Step 2: Configure General Settings
Go to YITH → Subscriptions → Settings. Key settings to configure:
- Manage failed payments — how many days to retry before cancelling
- Cancellation policy — whether customers can self-cancel and when
- Suspension policy — whether customers can pause and for how long
- Email notifications — renewal reminders, payment failure alerts, cancellation confirmations
Step 3: Verify Payment Gateway Compatibility
Subscription billing requires a gateway that supports tokenised/stored payments. Check YITH’s compatibility list at yithemes.com. Stripe for WooCommerce and PayPal with reference transactions are the most reliable options. Configure your gateway before creating subscription products.
Prefer to have someone handle the setup? Describe what you need and get a free estimate — no obligation.
Step 4: Create a Subscription Product
Go to Products → Add New. In the Product Data panel, select “Simple subscription” or “Variable subscription” as the product type. Configure:
- Subscription price — amount charged per billing period
- Billing period — weekly, monthly, annual, or custom
- Subscription length — number of billing periods, or indefinite
- Free trial — trial period in days before first charge (Pro)
- Sign-up fee — one-time charge added to the first payment
Step 5: Test the Subscription Flow
Use Stripe’s test mode to complete a test purchase. Verify: the subscription product adds to cart correctly, checkout shows the correct recurring price and terms, payment processes, and the subscription appears in YITH → Subscriptions → All Subscriptions with Active status. Check that renewal reminder emails are configured and test-mode renewal notifications arrive.
Step 6: Configure the My Account Subscription Area
Customers manage their subscriptions from WooCommerce My Account. Go to YITH → Subscriptions → Settings → Customer actions. Enable which actions customers can take: cancel, pause, change payment method. Configure the subscription management page appearance. Test from a customer account to verify the interface is clear.