This guide is for course providers who want to sell a membership or subscription, or give one away, from the Admin dashboard. It explains how to create the plan, choose which courses members get free, discounted or only for members, publish it and change it later. To see who has joined, add someone yourself or cancel a subscription, see Manage Membership Subscribers.
Membership: the plan you offer, with its price, how often it renews and its course benefits.
Subscription: one person's record of joining that membership, with its own dates, payment status and renewal setting.
A membership does not book a place or enrol anyone onto a course. After joining, the member still books or enrols on each course, and the membership benefit is applied at that checkout. Learners managing a membership they bought should use Manage a Membership You Bought.
Install the Memberships App (Cademy Memberships)
Use a System Admin account for Apps and the main Memberships area. A Course Owner who can edit a course can manage its membership benefits within that course, but cannot open the main Memberships area unless they also have System Admin access.
Open Apps in the Admin dashboard. Connect Stripe first if it is not installed; see Connect Stripe to Take Card Payments. Membership payments use the connected Stripe account.
Select Cademy Memberships, then Install.
After installation, open Memberships. The two tabs are Membership Plans and Subscriptions.
Your Cademy account plan is separate from the memberships you sell. See What Each Cademy Plan Includes and Costs for account-plan guidance; confirm the charges for your account before setting prices.
Create a Membership or Subscription Plan
Open Memberships → Membership Plans and select New Membership.
Enter a Name and Description explaining the included courses and benefits.
Enter the Price and check Currency. For the currencies a membership can use, see Choose the Currency for Your Course Prices. Do not save with Select... showing.
Choose Auto-renew: Never, Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly. Never is a one-off membership; a paid recurring membership charges at the chosen interval.
Add the course benefits described below. Review Advanced Settings, particularly dates and Published, before saving. Published starts on for a new plan; switch it off before the first Save Membership if you do not want a public listing.
Select Save Membership. Reopen the plan from Membership Plans and check its saved price, currency, recurrence and benefits.
For a free membership, enter a Price of 0 and choose Never. Set an End date if access should end on a particular date. If you need a zero-price membership with automatic renewal, ask Support to confirm the intended duration before offering it; do not assume the displayed recurrence extends free access automatically.
Choose Which Courses Members Get Free or Discounted (Benefits)
Benefits decide what a membership gives on each course. In the membership editor, select Add Benefit. The choices appear in this order:
Members Only Access: adds a membership requirement to the selected courses. It does not itself make the courses free.
Free Access: makes one eligible price option free for each Free Access benefit in a checkout. If the option is priced per place, that covers one place; if it is a group price covering several places, it covers one group option. It does not make every selected option free. A shared benefit is counted once across a basket containing several eligible courses.
Discounted Access: enter the percentage discount for the selected courses, up to 100. If several active memberships offer a percentage discount for the same course, the highest percentage applies; the percentages are not added together.
Choose the benefit, then use Search courses to select each course it covers.
For Discounted Access, enter the required percentage. Add further benefits if the membership needs different benefits for different courses.
Select Save Membership, reopen the plan and check the selected courses and amounts.
If a course must be strictly restricted to current members, ask Cademy Support to confirm the access rules for your booking flow before relying on Members Only Access. Do not treat that setting as a guarantee that expired or inactive subscriptions are rejected in every checkout.
Free Access and Discounted Access do not themselves restrict non-members from booking. Free and discounted benefits depend on the member's subscription being active and within its start and expiry dates.
Can a Membership Benefit Cover Most Courses Without Adding Each One?
No. A membership benefit lists individual courses. There is no option for all courses, for a whole course collection or for all courses except a few. To cover most of your courses, type each course name in Search courses under the benefit and select it; one benefit can hold as many courses as you need. When you create a course later, add it to the benefit too, either in the plan or from the course editor as described below.
Add a Course to a Membership From the Course Editor
Use this route when you are editing one course and want to connect it to a benefit that already exists. You need Course Owner access to edit the course; a Facilitator role alone does not provide this access.
Open Courses, select the course and choose Edit Course.
Open Settings → Memberships. This section is shown when the account has at least one membership.
Find the intended membership and benefit. The benefit labels include Free course access, Members only access and Discounted entry.
Select Add or Remove beside that benefit. Each action saves the membership change immediately; it does not wait for the course editor's Save button.
Reopen the course's Settings → Memberships and confirm the result. A course included in a benefit shows Remove; a course not included shows Add.
Manage Memberships opens the main area for System Admins. If you need a new benefit and cannot open that area, ask a System Admin to create it.
Subscription Should Give a Member a 100% Discount but the Booking Was Charged
A member's free or discounted price is worked out at the course checkout. If a member was charged for a booking when their subscription should give free access or a 100% discount, check each of these:
The course is in the benefit: open the plan from Memberships → Membership Plans and check that the course is selected under a Free Access or Discounted Access benefit. Members Only Access alone does not reduce the price.
The subscription is active today: open Memberships → Subscriptions and check the member's Start date, Renewal / Expiry date and Status. A subscription that starts in the future, has expired or is inactive gives no benefit.
The booking uses the member's email: the member must sign in with the email address their membership is under before booking. A booking under another email address or account is not linked to the membership.
One free price option per Free Access benefit: each Free Access benefit makes one price option free, which is one place or one group price. Other places, price options or courses in the same basket are not covered by that benefit.
Ask the member to check the final total before paying. If they have already paid the full price, see Refund a Customer in Full or in Part.
Membership Settings: Start and End Dates, Free Trial and Signup Form
Open the membership from Memberships → Membership Plans and select Advanced Settings. Review these options before Save Membership:
Start date: an optional future start for new subscriptions. A future paid recurring membership asks the learner to set up payment details before charging begins. Confirm the subscription dates after setup. For a paid Never membership, a future Start date does not defer checkout payment, even if the summary says Pay on that date. Ask Support before offering a future-start one-off membership when payment timing matters.
End date: an optional end for the membership. Check the resulting subscription's expiry separately, especially when using a scheduled start or recurring payments. Subscriptions you add yourself have their own dates.
Published: controls whether the plan appears on the Memberships tab of your Cademy website. Turning it off does not cancel subscriptions or block purchases through the direct membership link.
Membership signup form: chooses the form learners complete when joining. The default form asks for first name, last name and email address. If the form shows fields only when conditions are met, a hidden field is not required; see Show or Hide Form Questions Based on Answers.
Confirmation email template: chooses the learner's confirmation template. The default option is Cademy Default Confirmation Email. Other messages, such as future payment setup and cancellation, use separate system emails.
Free trial period: appears for recurring memberships without a fixed Start date. Enter the trial length in days. A paid membership still requires payment details. Before sharing, check the configured trial length. After a learner joins, check that subscription's trial end and payment schedule.
Membership Owners: lets you select users or groups. Ask Support to confirm the actual notification recipients before relying on this selection; selecting owners alone does not establish who receives membership emails.
After saving, reopen the plan and inspect the saved settings. Do not promise a payment schedule solely from the plan's description: check the actual subscription and Stripe record when dates or payment amounts differ.
Publish a Membership and Share Its Link
Open the saved plan in Memberships → Membership Plans.
For a public listing, open Advanced Settings, turn Published on and select Save Membership.
Select Share in the plan editor to open its direct membership checkout. Check the name, price, currency, recurrence, dates and trial information before copying the link.
To share the page listing your published memberships, return to Membership Plans and use that page's Share link. The membership cards show Join, or Start Free Trial when a trial is configured.
Unpublishing removes the public listing only. An unpublished plan's direct link still allows signups. If you need to stop all new signups, contact Support before relying on an unpublished plan.
See What a Membership Looks Like From a Learner's Perspective
To check what learners see, open the links from the steps above in a private browser window, where you are not signed in. The Share link on Membership Plans opens the list of published memberships with their Join or Start Free Trial buttons. The Share link in a plan opens that membership's checkout, with its name, price, renewal and trial. Also open one of the courses in a benefit: its booking area shows the membership message described in the next section.
Remove the Membership Block or Message From Course Pages
A course in a benefit shows a membership message, or block, in the booking area of its course page. There is no separate setting to hide it; it follows the benefit:
Free Access or Discounted Access: the page says Free access available with a membership., Discounted access available with a membership. or Discounted & Free access available with a membership., with links to log in or view memberships. It shows only for published memberships. To hide it, turn Published off for the membership (current members still get the benefit at checkout), or remove the course from the benefit (members then lose the benefit on that course).
Members Only Access: visitors who are not signed in as members see Subscribe before you can book: (or enrol) with a Join for or Subscribe for button showing the price, and Log in if you have a subscription when they are signed out. When several memberships qualify, the page shows You need a membership to book this course. with a Get a membership link. This shows even when the membership is unpublished, because it is the requirement itself. To remove it, remove the course from the Members Only Access benefit.
Change a Membership's Price, Courses or Settings
Open Memberships → Membership Plans and select the plan.
Change the intended fields, then select Save Membership.
Reopen the plan to check the saved values. For a particular member, open Memberships → Subscriptions and select their row to check that subscription separately.
Changing the plan's price, currency or Auto-renew does not rewrite those values on existing subscriptions. However, existing subscribers use the membership's current course benefits for later bookings. Removing a course or changing a discount can therefore affect current members' future bookings. Review the terms you have offered before changing benefits.
A learner can also move their own recurring subscription to another of your recurring memberships from their account. See Manage a Membership You Bought.
Can Someone Have Multiple Memberships or Subscriptions?
Yes, a learner can join several of your different memberships and hold a subscription to each. They cannot join the same membership twice for the same period: while their subscription to it is active, joining again shows You already have this membership.
When you add someone yourself with New Subscription, the rule is stricter: Cademy refuses if they already have any active subscription with you that covers the chosen start date, and shows This student already has an existing membership with you that clashes. Members with several memberships get every Free Access benefit that includes the course, and the highest Discounted Access percentage.
Membership Discount Codes, Staff Memberships and Approval
These are common requests that memberships do not handle on their own, with what you can do instead.
Offer a Discount Code on a Membership Subscription
The membership checkout has no field for a promo code, discount code or gift card; those are entered only at a course checkout. To offer a membership at a lower price, for example 10% off, create a second membership plan at the lower price with the same benefits, leave Published off, and send its direct Share link to the people who should get that price. Renewals of that plan use its lower price. For promo codes on courses, see Create a Discount or Promo Code.
Give All Staff at an Organisation a Membership
Each subscription belongs to one person. There is no organisation-level membership that covers everyone at a company automatically, and no import for membership subscribers. You can:
add each staff member yourself with New Subscription, at no charge, as described in Manage Membership Subscribers;
create a membership with a Price of 0, leave Published off, and send its Share link to the staff so each person joins themselves;
skip memberships and give the organisation's staff a course discount instead: a Discount can use an organisation tag as a condition. See Create a Discount or Promo Code.
Approve People Before They Join a Membership
A membership has no approval step. Anyone who opens its link and completes the signup form, and payment for a paid plan, becomes a member straight away. The Membership signup form can ask questions, but answering them does not hold the subscription for your review. To control who joins, leave Published off and send the direct link only to people you have approved, or add approved people yourself with New Subscription. To end a subscription that should not have been created, see Manage Membership Subscribers.
Manage People Who Have Joined a Membership (Subscribers)
Checking subscriptions, adding members yourself, cancelling and membership payments are explained in Manage Membership Subscribers.
See Who Has Joined a Membership (Subscriptions List)
The Subscriptions list, its columns and each status are explained in Manage Membership Subscribers.
Add a Learner to a Membership Manually
The steps for New Subscription are in Manage Membership Subscribers.
Stop a Membership Renewing or End a Member's Access
Don't Renew and Deactivate are explained in Manage Membership Subscribers.
Check Membership Payments, Fees and Failed Payments
Transactions, fees, failed payments and refunds of membership payments are explained in Manage Membership Subscribers.
Find a Membership on a Contact
Membership badges and the Subscribed entry on a contact are explained in Manage Membership Subscribers.
If a Membership or Subscription Is Missing
What to check when a member or subscription is missing is in Manage Membership Subscribers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can one membership include several courses?
Yes. Select each individual course under the relevant benefit. A membership can have several benefits. Check the Free Access limit before promising that a basket containing several courses or places will be entirely free.
Can I add a whole course collection to a membership?
No. Membership benefits select individual courses.
Can I include all courses except a few?
No. Select each included course. There is no all-courses-with-exclusions option.
Can I offer a membership without recurring payments?
Yes. Choose Never under Auto-renew. A price above zero creates a one-off purchase; a price of zero creates a free membership.
Can I offer a free trial on a membership?
Yes, for a recurring membership without a fixed Start date. Set Free trial period in Advanced Settings. For a paid membership, learners still need to complete payment setup.
Will a new price change current subscribers?
No. Editing the plan does not rewrite existing subscription prices. Course-benefit changes are different: they can affect current members' later bookings.
Does unpublishing cancel subscriptions or stop direct-link sales?
No. It removes the public listing and the Free or Discounted access message on course pages. Existing subscriptions remain, and the direct membership link still allows signup.