Set Up and Manage Free Trials

A free trial is an optional, popular marketing tactic that lets users try paid features of your app for a limited period. After the trial, users are charged automatically and need to opt out if they don’t want to pay to continue using the paid features of your app.

Apps with stable, recurring fees that are billed monthly or yearly and use the Wix billing system can have free trials fully managed by Wix. This includes:

• Displaying a free trial’s availability at various touch points on the Wix App Market.
• Taking payment details when a user opts in for the free trial (this increases conversion).
• Notifying the user by email when a free trial is purchased, canceled, and about to end.
• Automatically charging the user when the free trial ends (users can immediately cancel the free trial at any point on their Wix subscriptions page).

Set up a Wix-managed free trial

To set up a Wix-managed free trial you need to:

• Activate a free trial and set the number of days in the Wix Dev Center.
• Understand how to monitor a user’s free trial status, i.e. When their trial has started.
• Set up some simple UI states within your app that display your app’s availability.

Step 1 | Activate a free trial in the Wix Dev Center

1. Go to the Pricing page in the Wix Dev Center.
2. Enable Free Trial.
3. Input the amount of days you want to offer the trial for (up to 30 days).
4. Click Save.

Note that the free trial won't be activated for users until a new app version has been submitted, approved and published.

Step 2 | Detect a user’s free trial activity

• Use App Instance to detect if a user is on a free trial and check how many days they have remaining in the trial. You can use this information to activate and deactivate your app’s paid features accordingly.
• Use the Paid Plan Purchased, Paid Plan Changed, and Paid Plan Auto Renewal Canceled webhooks to get notified about plan activity.

Step 3 | Set up UI states within your app

We recommend that you set up the following ‘availability’ states within your app:

1. When a user adds the app for the first time you can present a CTA to begin the free trial. The app can be fully locked or operate with limited functionality.
2. When a user cancels a free trial (this can be the same state / message as the above).
3. When a user tries to install the app again or on another site, because a trial is only available once per Wix account (this can be the same state / message as the above).

Step 4 | Test your free trial flow

After you've activated a free trial as described in step 1:

1. Add a recurring pricing plan in the Dev Center and save it.
2. Listen to relevant webhooks such as Paid Plan Purchased.
3. Install the app on your site and check the App Instance: isfree should be true.
4. Upgrade the app with free trial for the new recurring pricing plan you just created.
5. Check that you receive the Paid Plan Purchased webhook and the relevant fields in App Instance are updated.

Transition from a self-managed free trial to a Wix-managed free trial

When your new app version is published with a Wix-managed free trial:

• Any users that are currently enrolled in the self-managed free trial will be offered the new free trial as well. Your app can prompt users to move to the new free trial and end their current one.

Set up a self-managed free trial

When a free trial is activated in the Wix Dev Center, Wix displays a free trial’s availability in various places on the Wix App Market. However, it’s the app’s responsibility to:

• Manage the user experience.
• Notify users when a free trial is purchased, canceled, and about to end.
• Charge users when the free trial ends.

Step 1 | Activate a free trial in the Wix Dev Center

1. Go to the Pricing page in your app’s dashboard in the Dev Center.
2. Enable Free Trial.
3. Input the amount of days you want to offer the trial for (up to 99 days).
4. Click Save.
5. Your app needs to be submitted, approved and published for changes to take place.

Step 2 | Set up UI states within your app

You need to set up the following ‘availability’ states within your app:

1. App is added, trial started. Usually the app has its features active during the trial days. You can also show a counter of how many days are left.
2. Trial ended after X days. The app should be locked or minimal.

See also

• Set up a freemium model
• About pricing plans and business models