Subscriptions and active access
Selling courses as a plan rather than a one-off purchase: access lasts while the subscription is active, and stops when it is not.
What is required
WooCommerce subscriptions must be installed. Without it, a subscription product behaves like an ordinary purchase and subscription-based rule types are unavailable.
The two ways to express it
A permission rule — Subscription based on any of these products, optionally with a status condition and a start-date condition. This is the flexible route and the one to prefer.
The paid-course setting — when the product associated with the course is a subscription, the student must additionally have an active subscription to it. A cancelled, expired or on-hold subscription does not grant access.
Active means active
The check is on the subscription's current state, not on whether a payment was ever made.
| Subscription state | Access |
|---|---|
| Active | Yes |
| On hold | No |
| Cancelled | No |
| Expired | No |
| Pending cancellation | Depends on how the rule is written |
A student whose renewal fails loses access at the moment the subscription leaves the active state — immediately, and without notice from POM LMS.
Tell students what happens when a plan ends
Because the transition is silent and immediate, the expectation has to be set elsewhere:
- in the plan's own description;
- in the course's no-access message, which is what a lapsed student will read;
- in your terms.
Write the no-access message so it works for a lapsed subscriber as well as a newcomer:
This course is included with an active plan. See the plans, or sign in if you already have one.
Progress survives
A student who lapses keeps their recorded progress. If they resubscribe, they return to exactly where they were.
That is worth saying in your renewal messaging — it is a genuine reason to come back.
Rules that combine a subscription with timing
Subscription rules can include a start-date condition — a subscription that started more than N months ago, or less than that.
Together these express staged access: a plan that unlocks the advanced course after three months, or an introductory course only available in the first month.
Two cautions:
- Test both sides of the boundary, with accounts that sit either side.
- Note when the behavior changes, because nothing warns you when a rule's window moves past your test accounts.
Several plans, one course
Use Subscription based on any of these products and list every plan that should include the course. One rule, selected on each course the plans cover.
That is the maintainable structure for a catalogue: plans are defined once as rules, and courses select the rule that matches their tier.
Switching plans
When a student switches plans, what matters is the state of the subscriptions at the moment they open a course. A rule naming both plans keeps access continuous across an upgrade; a rule naming only one does not.
Check upgrade and downgrade paths with real accounts before launching a tiered catalogue.
Verify
- Configure the course with a subscription rule.
- Sign in as a student with an active subscription: the course opens.
- Cancel that subscription and reopen the course: blocked, with the no-access message.
- Reactivate it and confirm access and progress both return.
- Test an on-hold subscription if your payment flow produces that state.
- If the rule is time-based, test either side of the boundary.