Tips and Tricks #17: How to Programmatically Manage Trials With Zoho Subscriptions

Tips and Tricks #17: How to Programmatically Manage Trials With Zoho Subscriptions

Offering trial subscriptions has become an integral part in gaining a prospective customer's trust, especially in SaaS based businesses. In this post, we'll be taking a look at how you can take control of this using Zoho Subscriptions.

This article is part of a series of tips and tricks that we post every week. Go ahead and check out last week's post about charging a late fee to your subscribers, in case you missed it.

Trial subscriptions can help boost your sales

Zoho Subscriptions provides two methods through which you can sign users up for a trial--hosted payment pages and via the API.

Hosted payment pages let you sign users up for a trial subscription easily. These pages require users to enter their payment details along with some other basic information.

In case you want to allow your users to sign up for a trial without asking for their payment information upfront, you can go for the API route. This can increase potential sign-ups from users that want to try your product with no strings attached. It also gives them the freedom to provide their payment details only after they're satisfied with your product.

If you have a web application where your customers can sign up for a trial, you can setup Zoho Subscriptions in such a way, where one of the APIs programmatically creates a new trial subscription every time a new user signs up from your website. This enables you to track and manage your trial subscriptions with in-depth reports, email notifications for your subscribers and also allows you to collect your subscribers' payment information via secure hosted pages when they're ready to move to a paid plan.

Here's how to set it up:

We'll be using one of our powerful REST APIs to create subscriptions automatically in Zoho Subscriptions.

When your users sign up for a trial from your web application, you can programmatically call the create subscription API to enter them as a customer in Zoho Subscriptions and create a trial subscription for them with a selected plan automatically.

Once this is done, you can configure email notifications in Zoho Subscriptions to remind your customers about their trial subscription's expiry date and other information.



You can also use Zoho Subscriptions' reports, which can help you gain important business insights. Reports like Subscription Details can be customized to view the details of your trial subscriptions with ease.



For added convenience, our trial-specific default view filters let you quickly view your trial subscriptions right from the Subscriptions list page.



Stay tuned for next week's post, where we'll be taking a look at how you can collect your customer's payment information, extend their trials if needed and move their subscription from the Trial status to the Live status in Zoho Subscriptions.

Cheers,
Varun Steven
The Zoho Subscriptions Team


    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, We've been coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your business. In continuation to the previous post, this week we will be seeing about how you can implement the Refer and Earn Workflow system to acquire more customers. Why are Referrals important? Customer Acquisition is crucial for any business to sustain itself in a constantly evolving market. It involves persuading new consumers to purchase your products. Customers

    • Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a custom function workflow every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation of this previous blog, this week we will be seeing about Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date. Business Scenario: In general, for any business, the customers make payments via online as well as offline. In case of subscription where the automatic collection of charge is enabled (aka online subscription), the customer's

    • Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation to the previous blog, this week we will be seeing how you can use SMS reminders for your Subscription Business. Using SMS messages for your Subscription Business: While managing your subscription business, more often than not, you need to keep your customers informed about upcoming renewals, payment reminders and cancellations. By keeping them informed in advance, you can

    • Tips And Tricks - Announcement

      Hello everyone, Every business is unique and each of them follows a specific workflow. While managing your customers' subscriptions with Zoho, you might have some needs unique to your business. Custom Functions helps you address such needs. This is a start to a series of posts, where we will be coming up with a custom function workflow every week that addresses specific business scenarios. Watch this space for further updates! Also, if you have any specific business scenario which needs to be addressed,

    • Tip #6 : Accessing external URLs from Zoho Subscriptions

      Hello everyone, We have been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which you can implement for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about implementing the Approval Workflow system. This week, let's look at how you can access external URLs with the help of Custom Link. Business Scenario: Every business functions differently and has its unique requirements. At times, businesses might want to access other websites or applications by appending specific information

      • Recent Topics

      • Introducing 8 New Connectors in Zoho DataPrep!

        We’ve just made data management even easier - Zoho DataPrep now supports 8 new external connectors to help you build more robust, scalable ETL pipelines. Why it matters: ✅ Broader data access ✅ More automation, less manual work ✅ Smarter pipelines, better

      • First day of trying FSM in the field.

        What we found. 1. with out a network connection we were unable to start a service call? 2. if you go to an appointment and then want to add an asset it does not seem possible. 3. disappointed not to be able to actually take a payment from within the app

      • How to Automate Email Sequence

        I'm having trouble trying to set up a workflow to automate an email sequence. Once a group of emails in a Task has been tagged by a certain tag, I want an instant email template to be sent. After 7 days with no response, another email template would be

      • Zoho Sprints Android v2.0.4 app update: Item reminders, archive Epics, Kanban projects, Epic progress

        Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.0.4) of the Zoho Sprints Android app update, we have introduced various new features. Let's take a look at what's new! Item Reminder Stay organized and never miss an important date with the all-new Item Reminder

      • Credit Management: #3 Setting Credit Limit for Customers

        Think about that one familiar customer of yours who always buys on credit. They usually pay on time, maybe a little late here and there, but not alarming. So, you are fine saying, "Sure, pay later." Then, one day, they place a significantly bigger order

      • Update on the client portal URL for Guest users

        We’re updating the way Guest users access their Connect network. As part of this change, all client organization portals used by Guest users will now be accessible through a dedicated domain specific to each data center. The access URLs mentioned here

      • Unable to see Zoho contacts in Zoho app on ios

        Hi Support Team, I am a new user, I have created my account and installed zohomail app on iOS 16 which works. I was also able to import my Gmail contacts into Zoho Contacts, which I can see. The problem is that I can’t see these imported cobalts in Zohomail

      • Task Due Date greater than 10 years.

        We use recurring tasks in Projects where every week, month, year etc Some of our projects are greater than 10 years and we are unable to set a new due date because the difference between start date and due date is greater than 10 years. As an example

      • Hosting external websites on Zoho?

        How can I host my external website on zoho? Do we have that option? I am currently with hostinger and am looking to switch to zoho. Kindly help. Thanks.

      • How to Add Time Formula Duration (hh:mm)

        Hi everyone — I’m trying to create a formula field in Zoho CRM that calculates the difference between a “Call Start Time” and “Call End Time” and displays the duration in HH:MM format (for example: 1:04 for one hour and four minutes). My current setup

      • How can I calculate the physical stock available for sale?

        Hey Zoho Team,  I've tried to calculate the physical stock on hand in various ways - but always receive a mismatch between what's displayed in Zoho Inventory & analytics.  Can you please let me know how the physical stock available for sale is calculated?

      • Marketing Tip #4: Build your email list early

        Email marketing has one of the highest returns on investment. Don’t wait until later; start collecting subscribers now. When you've got their attention, you can send them emails about offers, new product launches, seasonal greetings, and more. Try this

      • Is anyone else having trouble saving a custom image in their email signature, or is it just me?

        When I try to save the image I get an error that says "Operation Failed" I opened a support ticket two weeks ago and received a response that it would be debugged, but it still isn’t working

      • Zoho Desk Domain mapping / Cloudflare CNAME not recognized

        Hello, my website is behind Cloudflare and SSL. From the Cloudflare control panel I added a CNAME record such as support.mydomain.com pointing to desk.cs.zohohost.com but I'm stuck with the message "Make sure you've mapped the CNAME entry..."

      • I want to add my other zoho account in same pc

        why does zoho restrict me doing many things as i also want to add my second mail account bit its not allowing me to do that

      • Search in Zoho Community Not Working

        I realize this is a bit of a meta topic, but the search for the various Zoho Communities appears to not be working. I'm under the impression that they run on some version of the Zoho Desk platform, so I'm posting this here.

      • Capture Stripe’s Customer ID

        Does anyone know of a way to capture Stripe’s customer ID that is created when the form/payment is processed? I would like to have the customer ID stored in our CRM so we could utilize in some custom functions down the road.

      • Custom Modules - Where are Comments??

        In the standard ticket module and in the tasks module, we have an interactive comment box that we can post important details/notes and can tag others if needed. Where is this functionality for Custom Modules? Ideally, custom modules would have very similar,

      • Zoho ShowTime: Certificates of Completion - Award your learners with a sense of achievement

        In our increasingly competitive market, professional trainers need to differentiate themselves if they are to survive. One way to do this is to focus on innovation and deliver an ideal learning experience. By developing a renowned certificate program that provides learners with a specialized skill set for a particular industry, both trainees and future prospects will recognize the trainer's leadership in that field. This can help with long-term growth, revenue generation, and even marketing and branding.

      • IMAP Migration from Gmail

        I have been trying to import my email from a Gmail server and keep receiving the following error. I have reduced the security, activated imap and no improvement. The link to the Google support item has not helped. Unable to connect to your account. Please

      • Your Incoming has been blocked and the emails will not be fetched in your Zoho account and POP Accounts Click here to get unblocked.

        When entering my account, this error is thrown at me, and I deleted a good part of my deleted messages, but I still can not unblock it, I would appreciate your help. reservas@lineasperutravel.com

      • Request for Creating Multiple Email Accounts on One Mobile Number

        Dear Zoho Team, I am planning to shift all my work-related communication to Zoho Mail because of its reliability and features. For my work, I need to create 3–4 separate email accounts for different purposes. Could you please confirm if it is possible

      • Signature issue

        Problem: The signature does not appear when replying or forwarding an email. solve issue: settintgs/Signature Check option place a signature above the content with quotation marks

      • mail admin not loading

        i am trying to login to mailadmin ... gears keeps rotating forever... its not a password issue whats so ever ... not cookies issues whatsoever from android app i can login but there so few things to do from there .. i changed ip address the same... i

      • Unify All Zoho Video Meeting Experiences into One Standardized Platform

        Hi Zoho Team, We would like to share an important user experience concern regarding the current state of video meeting functionality across the Zoho ecosystem. The Problem Within Zoho, there are multiple ways to initiate or schedule a video meeting: Zoho

      • Changing Account in Quote form does not update address information.

        I am trying to update the address information in a quote I've created. I corrected the address in the "Account" but that did not change in the quote. If I re-enter the Account Name in the Quote form, nothing updates. How do I fix this?

      • Zoho One Backup of entire account

        Hello, When using Zoho one is there a way to backup your entire account of all apps that you are using \ activively using in a single step or do you have to backup each applications data individually? Thanks,

      • Issue with “CC” and “Subject Details” of the initial mail when reply / replied all / forward using Zoho Mail Client (Desktop / Web Mail / Mobile App)

        It is observed that when I reply / reply all / forward a mail using Zoho Mail Client (Desktop / Web Mail / Mobile App), the “CC” and “Subject Details” are omitted from the mail which was replied/forwarded. However this is not the case with outlook mail

      • Unable to send Emails - 452 4.3.1 Temporary System Error

        Whene ever i request smtp server to send the email (without attachment). i recieve error "452 4.3.1 Temporary System Error"

      • I can't receive email

        I cannot receive any email sent to my Zoho email after the free upgrade plan trial is finished.

      • Help for the alisa adding

        Sorry, I would like to add a paypal alias on my domain email address. However, the system blocked it. How can I do it?

      • Lite plan attachment said 250mb but actually 25mb ?

        Lite plan attachment said 250mb but actually 25mb ? I can't attach over 25mb files, and can't receive mails has attached files over 25mb too

      • Old vs New Value for Deleted Lookup Values

        Suppose the following scenario, where a value in a lookup is deleted: 1. User has countries form 2. Form A has a lookup to countries form 3. User selects Italy in Form A and saves it with the Italy ID 4. Form A report shows Italy 5. Italy is inadvertently

      • Zoho email using a python or html template

        # main.py import smtplib import csv from email.mime.text import MIMEText from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart from config import SENDER_EMAIL, APP_PASSWORD, SMTP_SERVER, SMTP_PORT # email Subject email_subject = "🎉 Python + Zoho Mail HTML Email

      • customize payment page

        Is there a way to customize, other than the theme colour, the payment page that customers are taken to from invoices? I can't seem to find a way. I just don't like the formatting of the current page and would like to make it look better. I've looked at

      • Solution: How to send email using a python follow up this

        # Step One Setup Your App Password For this url {https://accounts.zoho.in/home#security/app_password} #How to genarate App password {https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/bigin/channels/email/articles/generate-an-app-specific-password#To_generate_app_specific_password_for_Zoho_Mail}

      • Are Environments Worth It?

        In concept, Environments in ZC is a great idea. I think the flow is pretty smart when you compare it to GitHub, especially for a low code audience. However, in practice, I've found it to be unpredictable, and I've only used it a few times. Aside from

      • Enhanced duplicate check for Leads in CRM

        Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce that you can now check for duplicate entries in leads by comparing them with similar records in the Contacts Module. Previously, when you added a lead, only the converted leads were checked for duplicates. This

      • Integration Request: Elementor

        Integrating Zoho CRM forms with Elementor, the most popular page builder on Wordpress, would be great. I use it for our site, goenergylink.com, and I have had to use Zapier webhooks to be able to connect it with Elementor. The one issue I have run into

      • Ability to Change Visibility of Published YouTube Videos

        Hi Zoho Social Team, How are you? We would like to request an enhancement in Zoho Social regarding the management of already published youtube videos. Currently, after publishing a youtube video through Zoho Social, there is no option to change its visibility

      • Next Page