Subscription: Everything you need to know to create and set up your product

Creating a subscription product on Hotmart is an excellent way to generate recurring revenue while consistently delivering value to your customers. With this model, you can keep subscribers engaged and loyal by offering content on a schedule that works for you—weekly, monthly, semi-annually, or more.

This article walks you through the entire process of creating and setting up a subscription product on Hotmart, ensuring it’s ready to launch and succeed.

How do subscriptions work?

Subscriptions allow creators to provide continuous access to their content through recurring payments, which can be weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. As long as subscribers keep their payments up to date, they’ll have uninterrupted access to the product’s content—just like with streaming services. If a payment isn’t completed, access to the content is paused until the payment is resolved.

The payment amount and frequency are determined by the creator and communicated to the buyer at the time of purchase. Charges are typically scheduled for the same day the buyer subscribed to the plan unless they choose to change the date or the subscription includes a free trial. Creators can also decide how many payments to charge—whether indefinitely until cancellation or for a limited number of billing cycles—depending on their strategy.

For more information, we recommend checking out the following articles:

• How to create and set up subscription plans and coupons
• How to set up and offer subscription plan upgrades
• How does the subscription dashboard work?
• Check out the section dedicated to subscribers to understand the buyer's perspective: Subscription and Recurring Payments

How to create a subscription product?

The first step to creating a subscription on Hotmart is creating your product. During this process, you’ll set up essential details like the product name, subscription cycle, payment methods, guarantee period, and the sales pages where your product will be available.

Here’s the step-by-step guide to successfully creating your subscription product.

❯ Creating a Subscription From Scratch

The first steps to create your Subscription on Hotmart are:

1. Log in to your Hotmart account at https://app.hotmart.com. If you don't have an account yet, create one by following the steps in this article.
2. On the side menu, click on Products and then My Products.
3. In the upper right corner, select + Add Product.
4. On the new screen, choose Subscription as your product format.

❯ Adding Information to Your Subscription

After selecting the online event format, you will be redirected to a new page. On it, fill in the fields in the Information tab:

• Product Name: Enter the name of your subscription product.
• Description: Create a detailed description for event participants (minimum 200 characters).
• Product Image: Add an image in JPG, PNG, or GIF format (maximum 5 MB).
• Additional Information: Select the language, category, and market related to your subscription.

After filling in this information, click Continue.

❯ Pricing Your Subscription

In the Pricing tab, define the financial details of your subscription: 

• Guarantee: Define the guarantee period for buyers to request a refund (7, 15, 21, or 30 days).
   
  a. Note: For subscription products, the guarantee only applies to the first payment. Automatic renewals are not covered. In other words, you can only request a refund for the initial purchase within the guarantee period.
   
• Plans: Define the recurrence/cycle (number of charges) and periodicity (weekly, monthly, semi-annually, etc.). To create a plan, click on New plan and fill in the fields:
   
  a. Plan information: Add a name and description for the plan. This will make it easier to locate if you create more plans later.
  b. Base price: Set the currency, the amount for each recurring payment, and the payment frequency. Additionally, choose the available payment methods for the plan and define how charges will be processed—whether they will continue until the customer cancels the subscription or you can define a limit. For example, if you set a maximum of 8 charges for a weekly subscription, the buyer will be billed 8 times, once per week. Learn more here.
  c. Subscription recovery: If your subscription is annual, you can enable Subscription Recovery. This feature helps recover declined payments caused by insufficient funds on the card. Learn more about how it works in this article.
  d. Trial period: Offer a trial period to your subscribers in one of two ways:
   
  → Free Trial: The first subscription charge occurs after the trial period you set, allowing the buyer to access the content at no cost during the trial. Subsequent charges will always align with the date of the first payment made after the trial.
  → Test Drive: The initial charge takes place after the trial period you specify. However, subsequent payments are based on the date the customer signed up rather than the date of the first payment.
   
• Hotmart One Project: Indicate if you want to collaborate with the project which donates part of your sales to a charity in Brazil.
• Advanced Options (VAT Settings): To sell your subscription worldwide, choose how VAT will be displayed. You can either include the tax in the final product price shown to the buyer or itemize it separately on the payment page, displaying both the product price and the tax amount clearly.  

When finished, click Save and Continue to submit your subscription product.

❯ Setting Up Your Sales Pages

After the last step, you'll find more settings to complete and successfully submit your product.
On your product's dashboard, click on the Product Page tab and select where your subscription will be sold:

• Custom Sales Page: Customize your product's sales page using the Hotmart Pages tool. Learn more by clicking here. [Available only in Portuguese]
• Marketplace: By default, your product will be displayed on the Hotmart Marketplace. However, you can turn off this option if you prefer.
• External Sales Page: If you already have a sales page hosted on another provider, you can associate it with your product by entering the URL so the Hotlink redirects to that page.

Important: Don't forget to add information about the payment cycle on your marketing and sales pages. This ensures that your customers have a clear understanding of the subscription terms, including how often they will be billed, right from the beginning.

❯ Choosing your Subscription's Members Are

Click on the Course Management tab to choose whether your product will be available on Hotmart or on an external platform. Below is a detailed description of what you need to do for each alternative:

• Click on Access course management through Hotmart to add content and host your product in Hotmart Club, Hotmart's integrated members area.
• If you prefer to host the product outside of Hotmart Club, click on Switch to external members area and enter the required information (valid link, username, and password). This data is necessary for your product to be completed.

❯ Adding Content to Your Members Area

Access the selected members area and add your content:

• If your content isn't ready yet, be sure to add a complete lesson and a schedule that outlines the content of each lesson and its release date. This content must be accessible to students immediately after they purchase the product.
• If your content is ready to go, upload all of it to your members area
  • Note: If you add any video content hosted on other platforms (like YouTube and Vimeo), make sure the video is accessible and not password protected.
     

Once you've added the content, return to the Product Dashboard to complete the remaining steps.

❯ Product Submission and Review

To complete your product registration, please double-check your Personal Information on the dashboard. This step is essential when submitting your product. If you have any questions about how to add your information, consult this article.
Once completed, click on the Dashboard tab and click Submit Product. By submitting your product, you agree to Hotmart's Terms and Policies.
Your product will then undergo a review process, which typically takes about 15 minutes but may extend to one business day. Once approved, your product will be ready for sale.
If any issues arise during the review process, you'll receive a notification with details. Please refer to this article to understand the possible reasons and solutions.

Frequently Asked Questions

❯ How do subscription charges work?

The billing date is always the same as the subscription date, except for plans with a free trial (in which the first billing date is after the period you specify, and subsequent billing dates always follow the logic of the first billing date).

For example, if a quarterly subscription without a free trial is purchased on January 1, the next charge will be on April 1. However, the subscriber can change the billing date if they wish. To understand how subscription plans work from the buyer's perspective, you can read this article.

Note: After five consecutive overdue charges, the subscription is automatically canceled.

If you need more information, access the Subscriptions and Recurring Payments section in our Help Center. 

❯ How can I edit or remove plans in my subscription product?

If you need to edit or remove a plan, you can do so directly from your Product Dashboard:

1. Access your Hotmart account at https://app.hotmart.com/.
2. On the side menu, click on Products and then My Products.
3. Go to the I’m a creator tab and select the subscription product you want to set up.
4. On the product dashboard, click the Pricing tab on the left-side menu.
5. On the pricing screen, locate the list of plans you created and click on the three-dot menu, below the Actions column.
6. When you click on the three dots, select the Edit or Remove options. 

Changes to a plan do not affect subscribers who are already on that plan. The changes will only be applied to new sign-ups. For more information, access this article on creating plans and discount coupons.

❯ How can I manage my subscribers?

The Subscriptions Dashboard helps you track your subscription performance and subscriber payments. In it, you can check details about sign-ups, recovery, overdue payments, and more. To learn more, see this article.

❯ Can I cancel a buyer's subscription?

A subscription can be canceled in two ways: directly by the product creator or by the buyer. To learn how to cancel a buyer's subscription, access this article.