Hosted Subscription Management
Enable self-service subscription management for your customers using Moneybird's hosted checkout and customer portal, allowing them to start subscriptions, change tiers, and manage billing independently.
Overview
Hosted subscription management allows customers to manage their own subscriptions through Moneybird's customer portal. This approach is ideal when:
- You want to minimize subscription management complexity in your application
- You need customers to self-service subscription changes, upgrades, and billing
- You want Moneybird to handle the checkout flow and payment collection
This differs from API-driven subscription management where all subscription operations are handled through your application.
Prerequisites
- You have an access token and your administration ID. See Getting started and Authentication.
- You have created subscription templates in Moneybird that define your subscription tiers and pricing.
- Moneybird Payments is enabled for automatic payment collection.
- You have configured workflows for your subscription billing.
Step-by-step
1. Set Up Subscription Templates
First, create subscription templates in the UI that define your subscription tiers, pricing, and settings. These templates will be used for the hosted checkout experience.
List existing subscription templates:
Code
Response:
Code
2. Create Hosted Checkout Links
Generate checkout links for customers to start subscriptions through Moneybird's hosted checkout flow.
Option A: Contact-specific checkout link (unique URL):
When you provide a contact_id
, you get a unique checkout URL for that specific customer:
Code
Option B: General checkout link (reusable URL):
Without a contact_id
, you get a general checkout URL that can be reused for multiple customers:
Code
This general URL can also be obtained directly through the Moneybird UI and used in website buttons, or email campaigns.
3. Redirect Customer to Hosted Checkout
Direct your customer to the generated checkout URL. The hosted checkout will:
- Allow the customer to review subscription details
- Collect payment information and set up automatic billing
- Create the subscription and payment mandate
- Redirect back to your application, if configured in your workflow.
4. Generate Customer Portal Links
After a subscription is created through hosted checkout, you can generate portal links for customers to manage their subscriptions.
Generate link to specific subscription:
Code
All portal links expire after 1 hour for security reasons.
Customer Portal Capabilities
When customers access the portal through your generated links, they can:
Subscription Management
- View current subscription details and billing cycle
- Upgrade or downgrade between available tiers (if
contact_can_update
is enabled) - Pause or cancel subscriptions
- Update billing information and payment methods
Invoice Management
- View all past and current invoices
- Download invoice PDFs
- See payment status and due dates
- Access payment history
Account Management
- Update contact information
- Manage payment mandates
- View upcoming charges and billing dates
Webhooks Integration
Monitor subscription changes and customer actions through webhooks:
subscription_created
: When customer completes hosted checkoutsubscription_updated
: When customer changes subscription tiersubscription_cancelled
: When customer cancels subscriptionsales_invoice_created
: When subscription invoices are generated
See Webhooks for setup instructions.
Next Steps
After implementing hosted subscription management:
- Set up webhooks to monitor subscription lifecycle events
Comparison with API Management
Feature | Hosted Management | API Management |
---|---|---|
Setup Complexity | Low - use templates | High - custom implementation |
Customer Experience | Moneybird-hosted portal | Custom UI in your app |
Subscription Changes | Self-service through portal | API calls from your app |
Payment Collection | Automatic via Moneybird | Manual API integration |
Customization | Limited to template options | Full control over UX |
Maintenance | Managed by Moneybird | Your responsibility |
Choose hosted management for faster implementation and reduced complexity, or API management for maximum control and custom user experiences.