Subscriptions

What is the Subscriptions feature?

Subscriptions lets you collect recurring monthly revenue from people who use your marketplace. Today the feature covers seller subscriptions (sellers pay you to list); buyer memberships will live in the same tab in a future release.

A typical seller-subscription marketplace has plans like:

• Free - $0/mo, higher commission rate (e.g. 10%), maybe limited to a small number of listings
• Starter - $49/mo, lower commission (e.g. 5%), more listings
• Pro - $99/mo, even lower commission (e.g. 3%), unlimited listings

You choose how many tiers, the price, the commission rate, and whether each tier caps listing creation. Sellers pick a plan, enter their card, and start listing. Money lands in your Stripe account each month.

Setup in 3 steps

Subscriptions are billed via your regular Stripe account (not Stripe Connect). Three one-time setup steps before you can charge sellers:

Creating a plan

Open Store Settings → Subscriptions, flip the master toggle on, then click Add plan. The first thing you pick is the Plan type:

• Flat access - sellers get unlimited listings, you just charge them the subscription fee. The standard SaaS shape.
• Quota-based - cap listing creation by a monthly token allowance. Useful for premium listing types (real estate, vehicles, accommodation).

Each plan then has:

When you save a plan, Prometora automatically creates the matching Stripe Product and Price on your regular Stripe account - you never need to touch the Stripe dashboard for plan management.

Listing quotas (optional tokens)

Most marketplaces don't need listing caps - a flat monthly plan with unlimited listings is the standard SaaS shape. But for some marketplaces (premium rentals, real estate, vehicles), capping listing creation by tier is the right move.

When you create a Quota-based plan, the seller gets a fixed token allowance each billing period. Listings consume tokens by the per-listing-type cost you configure (default 1 token per listing). When a seller's allowance is empty, they're blocked from creating more listings until next renewal or until they upgrade plan.

Token costs per listing type are configured directly in the Subscriptions tab, in the “Token cost per listing type” section. For example, you might set a standard listing as 1 token and an accommodation listing as 3 tokens.

Free ($0) quota plans auto-renew on the same monthly cadence via a daily cron - sellers on the free tier get their tokens refilled at the start of each new period without any Stripe charge.

How sellers subscribe

1. Seller signs up on your marketplace (or is invited as a managed seller).
2. Before they can create their first listing, they're prompted to pick a plan from your published tiers.
3. For paid plans, they're redirected to a Stripe-hosted checkout to enter their card. For free plans, they pick it instantly.
4. After they subscribe, they can manage everything (update card, cancel, view invoices) via the Stripe Customer Portal, opened from their seller dashboard.

Self-serve billing (Stripe Customer Portal)

Sellers on paid plans get a Manage billing button on their dashboard that opens the Stripe Customer Portal. From there they can update their card, view invoices, cancel their subscription, and (if enabled) switch plans - all without contacting you.

One-time setup: the Customer Portal has to be activated in your Stripe Dashboard before it works. Open Stripe → Settings → Billing → Customer portal and activate the default configuration. The Subscriptions tab in your dashboard has a one-time hint with this link.

Free-plan sellers don't see the button - there's no Stripe customer object for $0 plans, so there's nothing for the portal to manage.

Past-due handling

When a seller's renewal payment fails (expired card, declined transaction), Stripe automatically retries via its built-in Smart Retries - typically 4 attempts over ~3-4 days. During this window:

• Their subscription status moves to past_due
• They keep their listing privileges (can still create new listings, tokens still decrement normally) - Smart Retries IS the grace period
• Their seller dashboard shows a prominent red “Payment failed” banner with an “Update billing” button (opens Customer Portal)
• Stripe emails them automatically at each retry step

If all retries fail, Stripe marks the subscription cancelled. At that point the seller is blocked from creating new listings until they pick a plan again. Existing listings are never affected regardless of subscription status - they stay published, bookable, and payable.

Per-seller commission overrides

You can override a specific seller's commission rate independently of their plan's commission. This is set in Store Settings → Managed Sellers by clicking on the commission column for a given seller.

Commission resolution order at checkout (most specific wins, left to right):

Sellers with a per-seller override see a “Custom commission rate” tag on their plan picker so it's clear their rate doesn't change with plan switches.

Switching plans & price changes

Sellers switching plans: they go through the plan picker again, the old subscription is cancelled, and a new one starts. Token balances do not carry over - the new plan grants its full allowance immediately.

You changing the price of an existing plan: Stripe prices are immutable. When you update a plan's price, Prometora automatically archives the old Stripe Price and creates a new one. Existing subscribers continue at their original price until they cancel or switch - the new price only applies to new subscribers.

Archiving a plan: Existing subscribers keep their plan and continue receiving allowance resets. New sellers can't pick an archived plan.

Common questions

Do I have to charge sellers? Can I skip Subscriptions entirely?

Yes - Subscriptions is fully optional. Many marketplaces only charge a commission on transactions and never bill sellers. Keep the master toggle off and the feature is invisible to your sellers.

Can a seller be on multiple plans at once?

No. Each seller has one active subscription at a time. Switching plans cancels the old one.

What happens if a seller's payment fails?

See the Past-due handling section above. Quick version: Stripe Smart Retries handle automatic re-attempts over ~3-4 days, the seller keeps full functionality during that window, and Stripe emails them at each step. If all retries fail, the subscription is cancelled and they need to pick a plan again.

Can different sellers be on different commission rates?

Yes - that's exactly what the commission override field on each plan does. Sellers on the Pro plan can pay you a different commission rate than sellers on the Free plan.

Do I need both regular Stripe and Stripe Connect?

Depends on your marketplace:

• Multi-vendor + Subscriptions: yes, both. Stripe Connect for buyer-to-seller payments, Regular Stripe for seller-to-you subscriptions.
• Single-vendor + Subscriptions: just Regular Stripe.
• Multi-vendor + no Subscriptions: just Stripe Connect.

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