When managing recurring purchases or memberships, you may find that customers want to stop using your service. In those cases, they might choose to cancel or pause their subscription, but how does each option affect your business and the customer? Here's a breakdown of the differences.
Cancelling a Subscription
Cancelling a subscription is a permanent termination, requiring the customer to resubscribe and opt in if they wish to use the service again. Once a customer cancels their subscription through the client portal, the system will automatically stop billing and mark their status as cancelled.
Once a subscription is cancelled, even if done manually, you can't revert this status. Clicking the three dots next to it will only give you the option to view the subscription.
Pausing a Subscription
Pausing is a temporary suspension of the service and billing, allowing you to resume at a later date without needing to resubscribe. It gives you more flexibility when it comes to management, as you can reactivate it manually or automatically without the customer having to go through the subscription process again.
To manually pause a subscription, click the three dots next to it and select Pause.
Select the pause duration. Selecting indefinite (1) will pause the subscription until further action is taken manually, and selecting custom date (2) will let you set an automated restart date for the subscription.
Select how you want to handle the invoices, then click confirm.
Beyond these mechanical differences, you can set your own rules if needed. For example, you might delete a customer's information when a subscription is cancelled, or remove access to content straight away. Those additional details are entirely up to you.