Sotion
Access

Paywall

Charge for access to pages on your site from the Paywall page. You connect your own Stripe account, add the prices you want to sell, and set the pages they open to Paid (Stripe). Visitors pay on Stripe Checkout and are signed in as soon as the payment goes through.

Paid memberships are part of the Pro plan and above, and of the 7-day free trial. We take no cut of your sales, so only Stripe's own fees apply.

Before you start

  • A Stripe account. Payments go straight to it, and it is free to create at stripe.com.

  • At least one product with an active price in Stripe. A price can be one-time or a recurring subscription.

  • An access group for your paying members, for example "Paid members". Create it on the Access Groups page.

Stripe is the only payment processor we support. Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy cannot be connected.

Connect Stripe

Each site has its own Stripe connection, and you can connect the same Stripe account to several sites.

  1. From your site dashboard, open Paywall in the sidebar.

  2. Click Connect Stripe.

  3. Sign in to Stripe and approve the connection.

Stripe sends you back to the Paywall page, which now shows an Offerings list.

Add an offering

An offering links one Stripe price to the access groups a buyer joins. Add one offering for each price you sell, for example a monthly and a yearly subscription that grant the same group.

  1. On the Paywall page, click Add Offering.

  2. Under Stripe price, select a price. The list holds the active prices of your connected Stripe account.

  3. Under Grant access groups, select the groups the buyer joins.

  4. Click Add Offering.

Offerings go live as soon as you add or remove them.

Put pages behind the paywall

A page asks for payment once its access control is Paid (Stripe) and you have published the change. Child pages follow their parent unless you override them, so one parent page can cover a whole section.

  1. Open Access Control in the sidebar.

  2. Click the Access Control cell of the page you want to sell.

  3. Select Paid (Stripe).

  4. Select the access group your offering grants.

  5. Click Publish at the top of the dashboard.

What visitors see

A visitor without access sees your paywall page instead of the content. It lists each offering with its price, and a Buy button for a one-time price or a Subscribe button for a subscription.

  1. The visitor clicks Buy or Subscribe.

  2. They enter their email and payment details on Stripe Checkout.

  3. They return to your site's home page, signed in.

We also email them a sign-in link for their next visit. Every buyer appears in your member list with the access groups of the offering they bought.

How paying members sign in again

Paying members sign in with their email from the Already a member? form on the paywall page. We email them a sign-in link, and they are not charged again. Someone who has not paid does not get a link and has to buy first.

When a subscription ends

We remove a member from the groups an offering granted when their subscription is cancelled or becomes unpaid in Stripe.

  • A single failed payment does not remove access. Stripe retries it, and access goes only if the subscription ends up cancelled or unpaid.

  • A member who loses access keeps it until their current session ends, which is 24 hours by default. Change the session length on the Login Page.

  • One-time purchases do not expire.

  • A member you have blocked stays blocked, even if they pay again.

Refunding a payment in Stripe does not remove access. Remove the member, or take them out of the paid group, on the Members page.

Change the paywall page text

The paywall page uses your site's logo and brand colour. Three fields below your offerings on the Paywall page set its text:

  • Heading

  • Subheading

  • Member login button, the button on the Already a member? form

Use a Payment Link to sell from outside your site, for example from an email or a social post. Create the Payment Link in Stripe for a price you have added as an offering. When someone pays through it, we add them as a paid member of that offering's groups and email them a sign-in link.

Disconnect Stripe

Disconnect when you stop selling on a site or want to connect a different Stripe account. Open Integrations in the sidebar, click Disconnect Stripe and confirm.

Visitors can no longer buy until you reconnect. Members keep the access they already have. While Stripe is disconnected we are not told when a subscription is cancelled, so remove those members yourself.

Troubleshooting

The Paywall page asks me to upgrade

Paid memberships need the Pro plan or above. During the 7-day free trial they are available on every account.

My price is not in the Stripe price list

The list holds only the active prices of the Stripe account you connected. Create the product and price in Stripe, check that the price is active, then open Add Offering again.

The paywall page has nothing to buy

The page is set to Paid (Stripe), but no offering grants its access group. On the Paywall page, add an offering that grants the group you selected for the page in Access Control.

A buyer paid but cannot open the page

Check that the page's access group in Access Control is one of the groups the offering grants, and that you clicked Publish after changing it. Then ask the buyer to enter their email in the Already a member? form to get a new sign-in link.

A visitor sees the paywall on a page that should be free

The page is following its parent's setting. In Access Control, click the page's row, set it to Public, then click Publish.

Was this helpful?
Was this helpful?