The scenario
A course store on WooCommerce sells one membership-style subscription to 300 active subscribers at $29 a month, $104,400 a year. Payments run through Stripe. Courses are either protected WooCommerce content or delivered by an LMS such as LearnDash. Prices are list prices on 2026-10-30, before tax.
WooCommerce describes its core platform as free and open source on its WordPress.org listing, with paid extensions sold separately. The Stripe gateway plugin is listed on WordPress.org with a download button and no price.
Software and email lines
| Line | Price | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce core | Free | $0 | Open-source plugin |
| WooCommerce Subscriptions | $279 for 1 year, or $446.40 for 2 years | $279, or $223.20 a year on the 2-year plan | Includes updates and support; 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Stripe gateway plugin | No price listed on WordPress.org | $0 | Supports recurring payments with Subscriptions |
| Postmark Basic | $15 a month for 10,000 emails | $180 | 300 subscribers generate far fewer than 10,000 a month |
| Amazon SES (alternative) | $0.10 per 1,000 emails | Under $5 | More setup work |
| LearnDash, optional | $350 a year for 1 site | $350 | Only if courses use an LMS |
Hosting
Subscriptions renewals run as scheduled actions: the renewal documentation names the woocommerce_scheduled_subscription_payment event in Action Scheduler. Automatic renewals charge through the gateway used for the original purchase. That makes reliable scheduled-task execution and uncached checkout more important than raw traffic for a 300-subscriber store.
Staging is the other hosting requirement. WooCommerce's staging documentation says Subscriptions records the URL where it was first activated, treats a changed URL as a staging site and disables automatic payments there to prevent duplicate charges. All three plans below list staging. The same document warns about the reverse case: a move to a new server on the same domain does not trigger staging mode, so the old server will keep processing renewals unless you change its URL or disable Action Scheduler's default queue runner there.
| Plan | Price | Annual | Fits because | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SiteGround GrowBig | $4.99/mo first 12 months prepaid, renews $29.99/mo | $59.88 first year, $359.88 renewal | Staging and daily backups; about 100,000 visits by SiteGround's estimate | CPU limits not published |
| Kinsta Single 35k | $30/mo billed annually | $350 | 35,000 visits, free standard staging | 2 PHP threads |
| Kinsta Single 65k | $42/mo billed annually | $500 | 4 PHP threads for checkout and renewals | Visit overage $0.50 per 1,000 |
Annual totals
| Line | SiteGround GrowBig | Kinsta Single 65k |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting (renewal year) | $359.88 | $500.00 |
| WooCommerce Subscriptions | $279.00 | $279.00 |
| Postmark Basic | $180.00 | $180.00 |
| Total, no LMS | $818.88 | $959.00 |
| Total, with LearnDash | $1,168.88 | $1,309.00 |
| Stripe fees, $29 monthly billing | $4,107.60 | $4,107.60 |
Payment fees: monthly versus annual billing
Stripe lists 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful domestic card charge, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% if currency conversion is required. Every renewal is a separate charge, so the fixed 30 cents repeats 12 times a year on a monthly plan.
At $29 a month, 300 subscribers make 3,600 charges a year. Each costs $0.841 plus $0.30, or $1.141, for $4,107.60 a year: 3.9% of revenue. Offer a $290 annual plan instead and the same 300 subscribers make 300 charges at $8.71 each, $2,613 a year on $87,000. The fee rate drops to 3.0%, though revenue drops too because of the two-month discount.
International cards add up. If 20% of the monthly charges are international, that is 720 charges x $29 x 1.5% = $313.20 a year extra.
| Billing | Charges a year | Revenue | Stripe fees | Fees as share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $29 monthly | 3,600 | $104,400 | $4,107.60 | 3.9% |
| $290 annual | 300 | $87,000 | $2,613.00 | 3.0% |
| $29 monthly, 20% international cards | 3,600 | $104,400 | $4,420.80 | 4.2% |
Failed payments and what they cost
When an automatic renewal fails, the subscription goes on hold and the customer can be emailed a renewal invoice to pay from their account. WooCommerce Subscriptions also offers an automatic retry system that can retry failed payments several times and email customers. Turn it on: each recovered subscriber at $29 a month is worth $348 a year, more than the Subscriptions license.
- Enable the retry system before launch and test a failing card on staging with test keys.
- Confirm your gateway supports automatic renewals for the payment methods you offer; WooCommerce notes that some additional payment methods do not.
- Check scheduled actions are running after any host move; a stalled queue means no renewals.
- Keep the renewal receipt and failed-payment emails on a dedicated sending service so they reach inboxes.
Questions before you decide
How much does WooCommerce Subscriptions cost per year?
WooCommerce lists the 1-year plan at $279 and the 2-year plan at $446.40, which is $223.20 a year. Both include updates and support, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Will my staging site charge subscribers twice?
WooCommerce Subscriptions records the URL where it was first activated. If the URL changes, it treats the site as staging and switches subscriptions to manual renewal to prevent duplicate payments.
What do Stripe fees cost on 300 monthly subscribers?
At $29 a month and Stripe's 2.9% plus 30 cents, 3,600 charges a year cost about $4,107.60. Annual billing at $290 reduces that to about $2,613.
Which gateways support automatic renewals?
WooCommerce's gateway documentation says Stripe and WooPayments support automatic renewals via card payments and PayPal Payments supports them via PayPal accounts and card options.
Sources & verification
Product details and prices can change. Check the linked provider before buying.
- WooCommerce: WooCommerce Subscriptions Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- WooCommerce: Subscriptions payment gateways Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- WooCommerce: Subscriptions renewal process Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- WooCommerce: how Subscriptions handles staging sites Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- WordPress.org: WooCommerce plugin Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- WordPress.org: WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Stripe: pricing Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- SiteGround: web hosting plans Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Kinsta: pricing Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Kinsta: PHP threads and memory Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Postmark: pricing Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Amazon SES: pricing Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- LearnDash pricing (Liquid Web software) Accessed 30 Oct 2026
Sources link directly to providers. Product buttons may use separately labeled affiliate links. Read our disclosure.