Custom Start Date for WooCommerce Subscriptions

Customize Subscription Start Dates

Want to sell a subscription but also wanted to book it for a later start? Now you can!

Give your customers the flexibility to choose when their subscription begins – past, present, or future.

Complete Flexibility for Subscription Start Dates

Set specific start dates

Set up one or multiple specific dates to start the subscription. Let your customers select from predefined dates that work best for your business operations.

What it looks like in the product page:

Setup a fixed delay period

Need a cooling-off period or some preparation time before starting a subscription? Set up a delay in days, weeks, or months between the first payment and the start of the subscription.

What it looks like in the product page:

Let your customers choose a date in a calendar

Want to let your customer choose the exact day they want to start the subscription? You can do it with this plugin. Your customers can book their subscription anytime and start it when they are ready.

What it looks like in the product page:

More settings to customise your subscription

Flexible Payment Timing

Collect the first payment immediately—or schedule it to align with the product start date. The choice is yours.

Smart Date Management

Automate your calendar with cut-off windows and buffer periods. Past dates disappear automatically, and only valid options are shown to customers.

Control the Calendar View

Add as many start dates as needed and choose how many are visible to your customers. Give them options—without overwhelming them.

Optional Start Date Visibility

No need to display the start date on your product page. Set it discreetly in the background while keeping the buying experience clean and simple.

Cart & Checkout

Your customers will see the future start date and updated renewal date in their cart and checkout

How it works

1. Set up a custom date in the product options or offer your customer the option to choose a start date.
2. Upon checkout the subscription is created and scheduled to start at the custom date setup. Your customer will not be active or have access to any of your services until the start date.
3. The subscription will start on the selected start date set in the future and all the services will be available from this custom date.
4. Future payments will automatically be scheduled in line with the custom start date.

Why do you need it?

• Offer subscriptions as gifts for special occasions. Gift subscriptions can be bought ahead of time and will not start until the time of the gift giver’s choice.
• Starts subscriptions at a fixed date. It is ideal for a situation like a course or a school term. Let students enroll all year long and align their tuition payments with the start of the term.
• Offer a seasonal service or product for sale at any time of year. Subscriptions will not start until the special season. You can market them all year long and have customers secure their subscriptions in advance.

FAQ

What happens between the purchase date and the start of the subscription?

The subscription is scheduled, the customer will not have access to any product or services available to active members/subscribers until the start date. Then the subscription will be activated automatically.

Can the payment be taken on the start date?

Yes. You have the choice to take the payment for the first period and shipping either on checkout or on the start date. The sign up fees are billed on checkout.

Can a customer buy several subscriptions with different start dates?

Yes. The plugin groups subscriptions based on their start dates and billing periods. Each product with different start dates will be considered as a single subscription and managed separately but they can be bought together in one checkout. However the initial order’s tatus (parent order) will have the status ‘processing’ from the earliest start date.

Can the start date be changed?

Yes, as long as the subscription has not started and has the status ‘Scheduled’ the admin/shop manager can change the start date. All the other dates (next payment, end of trial, expiration) will be recalculated based on that new date

Does it work with all subscriptions?

Our plugin allows you to set up custom start dates for simple and variable subscriptions created with the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin. We plan to expand it to work with more subscription plugins soon.

Does it work with product bundle?

Unfortunately our plugin is not compatible with product bundles. We plan to expand it to work with it in a future release.

Is it compatible with HPOS (High Performance Order Storage)?

Yes!

Requirements

Minimum PHP version: 5.2

WooCommerce and WooCommerce Subscriptions