ReCurr Plus Tutorial Series — Part 2: Flexible Trials

ReCurr Plus feature — Requires an active ReCurr Plus licence (RECPLUS-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX).
Standard licence holders get a fixed 7-day trial only. Plus unlocks 7, 14, 21, and 28-day options.

A free trial lets customers try your service before they commit. ReCurr uses a no-card trial model: the customer starts their trial instantly with no credit card and no payment at checkout. Before the trial ends, ReCurr emails them a one-click link to add their card and continue. If they do nothing, the trial simply ends and no charge is ever made.

Why no card up front? Removing the card requirement at signup dramatically lowers the barrier to trying your service, and it avoids the payment-gateway minimum-charge problem that blocks R0 card-saving on South African bank cards. The card is collected later — only when the customer chooses to continue.

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Before You Begin

• ReCurr Plus is installed and your Plus licence key is active
• PayFast is configured (used later, when a customer converts their trial — sandbox is fine for testing)
• You have a subscription product to add the trial to

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Step 1: Open the Product for Editing

1. Go to Products > All Products
2. Click Edit on the subscription product

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Step 2: Enable the Trial

In the General tab of the Product data section, scroll to the Free Trial section:

1. Tick Enable Free Trial — “Offer a free trial period before billing begins”
2. The Trial Duration dropdown will appear

Screenshot 1: The Free Trial section with the enable checkbox ticked.

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Step 3: Select the Trial Duration

Choose the trial length from the dropdown:

Option	Duration
7 days	1 week
14 days	2 weeks
21 days	3 weeks
28 days	4 weeks

Screenshot 2: Trial Duration dropdown expanded showing all four options.

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Step 4: Publish the Product

Click Update to save.

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Step 5: Verify on the Frontend

Visit the product page:

• The price should display as “Free for [X] days, then R[price]/month” or similar
• A trial notice should be visible to customers indicating when billing will begin

Screenshot 3: Product page showing the trial pricing notice.

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What Happens at Signup

1. Customer adds the trial product to cart
2. The checkout shows No card required and an Activate Trial button (instead of a payment step)
3. Customer fills in their name and email and clicks Activate Trial — no card, no payment
4. A subscription is created immediately with status Trial, and the customer gets instant access
5. Before the trial ends, ReCurr emails the customer a personal one-click link to add their card and continue
6. If the customer adds their card, the subscription converts to Active and normal recurring billing begins (with a pro-rata first charge on monthly plans)
7. If the customer does nothing, the trial ends and the subscription is cancelled automatically — no charge is ever made

Screenshot 4: Checkout page showing the “No card required — Activate Trial” panel.

Screenshot 5: My Account subscription view showing “Trial” status with the trial end date.

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Trial Email Reminders

As the trial approaches its end, ReCurr automatically emails the customer a reminder with a one-click “add your card” link so they can continue without re-entering anything:

Timing	Email Sent
72 hours before trial ends	“Your trial ends soon — add your card to continue”
48 hours before trial ends	Reminder with the one-click continue link
24 hours before trial ends	Final reminder before the trial ends

The link logs the customer straight in to a secure “add my card” page. These emails are sent automatically — no setup required. If the trial ends without a card being added, there is a short grace period during which the same link still works to reactivate.

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Admin View

In the ReCurr > Subscriptions dashboard, trial subscriptions show:

• Status: Trial
• Trial End Date column
• Next Payment date (same as trial end date)

When the trial converts to active, the status updates automatically.

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Important Notes

• No card is taken at signup — the trial starts immediately with no payment. The card is only collected later, when the customer chooses to continue via the one-click link in the reminder emails. PayFast is used at that conversion step.
• One free trial per customer (enforced) — ReCurr blocks a customer from starting a second free trial once they’ve used one (whether it converted, expired, or was cancelled). A repeat-trial customer simply checks out and pays normally instead.
• No action = no charge — if the customer never adds a card, the trial ends and the subscription is cancelled automatically. Nothing is ever charged.
• Cancellations during trial — if a customer cancels while on trial, the subscription moves to Cancelled and nothing is charged.
• Pro-rata applies at conversion, not during the trial — the first real charge happens when the customer adds their card and the subscription becomes active, not during the no-card trial period itself. Whether that charge is pro-rated depends on your store’s Pro-rata billing (monthly) setting (Subscriptions → Settings → General, v2.4.30): On (default) pro-rates the first charge and aligns renewals to the 1st; Off charges the full monthly price at conversion and renews on that calendar day each month.
• A card registered during the trial counts (v2.8.8) — if the customer registers a card with Update Card while the trial runs, the trial’s end charges the first payment to that card, exactly as for a trial that started with a card, and the R5.00 card registration comes off the renewal after it. The reminders and the card-update email say so.
• After a trial ends unpaid (v2.8.8) — its page in My Account offers Activate Subscription instead of Update Card: the first payment is due, and the activation page takes it, less any account credit (always leaving at least R5.00 to pay by card), priced from the subscription’s own price — the variation’s, the billing cycle’s, the quantity’s.
• Trials with a card (v2.8.8) — with Pro-rata billing Off, a monthly trial with a card is charged the full month when it ends, and the next payment falls a month later; the reminder before such a trial ends names the payment its end takes.

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What’s Next?

Up next: Plus Tutorial 3: Quarterly Discounts — Configuring discounted quarterly billing.

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Quick Checklist

• [ ] Free Trial enabled on the product
• [ ] Trial duration selected (7 / 14 / 21 / 28 days)
• [ ] Product updated
• [ ] Frontend “No card required — Activate Trial” panel verified
• [ ] Test signup completed — no card taken, subscription created with Trial status
• [ ] Trial end date correct in admin dashboard

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This is Part 2 of the ReCurr Plus Tutorial Series.

Tutorial	Topic
Plus 1. Billing Cycle Toggle	Monthly/annual toggle on one product
Plus 2. Flexible Trials	7/14/21/28-day trial options (you are here)
Plus 3. Quarterly Discounts	Configuring quarterly pricing and discounts
Plus 4. Plan Switching	Plan groups, customer upgrades and downgrades
Plus 5. Cancellation, Refund & Retention	Pro-rata refunds on cancel + retention save flow
Plus 6. Pause & Resume	Freeze a subscription and resume later
Plus 7. Variable Subscription Products	Sizes, plans and buy-once-or-subscribe as subscription options
Plus 8. Troubleshooting Variable Subscriptions	Every message, what causes it, where to look