Lifetime subscriptions charge the customer once and grant them ongoing access with no renewals. They are useful when you want the subscription benefits (memberships, downloads, protected content, analytics) but with a single up-front payment instead of a recurring charge.
When to use lifetime subscriptions
Pick a lifetime subscription when:
- You sell a one-time license or lifetime deal (LTD).
- You offer founder or early-bird pricing with no renewals.
- You want to grant permanent access without managing recurring billing.
- You migrate legacy customers who paid once under your previous model.
If you need any form of recurring payment, use a simple or variable subscription instead.
Creating a lifetime subscription
- Go to Products → Add New.
- Enter a name and description.
- In the Product data panel, select Simple subscription.
- Set the Subscription price to the one-time lifetime amount.
- Set the Billing period and Billing interval to any value (they will not be used).
- Under Length, select Lifetime.
- Click Publish.
Selecting Lifetime tells Milo Subscriptions to charge the customer once at checkout and skip scheduling any renewals. The subscription is created with status Active and remains active indefinitely.
What happens after checkout
- The customer pays the lifetime price at checkout.
- A subscription is created with status Active and no next payment date.
- The subscription grants access to downloads, roles, and any other entitlement tied to it.
- No renewal emails or reminders are sent.
Cancelling a lifetime subscription
Lifetime subscriptions do not renew, so cancellation is rarely useful. That said:
- Admins can cancel a lifetime subscription from the subscription detail page. The status changes to Cancelled, and any entitlements granted by that subscription are revoked.
- Customers can cancel from their My Account page if self-cancellation is enabled. Most stores disable cancellation for lifetime products, since a cancelled lifetime subscription cannot be restored through a renewal.
To disable self-cancellation for a specific product, use the Cancellation filters under Hooks and filters.
Refunds
If a customer requests a refund on a lifetime purchase, refund the original order from WooCommerce → Orders as you would any order. After the refund, cancel the associated subscription to revoke access.
Gifting and transferring lifetime subscriptions
With the Gift Subscriptions add-on, you can sell a lifetime subscription as a gift to be redeemed by another user. The recipient receives a code and redeems it to activate the subscription on their own account.
To manually transfer a lifetime subscription to a different customer, edit the subscription from Milo Subscriptions → Subscriptions and change the customer field.
Reporting
Lifetime subscriptions show up in analytics differently from recurring subscriptions:
- They count once in revenue on the month of the purchase.
- They do not contribute to MRR.
- They do appear in active subscriber counts for as long as they remain active.
If you want to track lifetime sales separately, filter by product in Analytics.
Example configurations
Lifetime membership
- Subscription price: $299
- Length: Lifetime
- Customer pays $299 once and gets ongoing member access.
Lifetime plugin license
- Subscription price: $499
- Length: Lifetime
- Grants downloads and updates indefinitely through the License Server add-on.
Founder tier with a sign-up bonus
- Subscription price: $0
- Sign-up fee: $199
- Length: Lifetime
- Customer pays $199 at checkout and has no further charges.
Next steps
- Fixed expiry: end a subscription on a specific date instead of never.
- Downloads: grant file access to active subscribers.
- Statuses: see how lifetime subscriptions fit into the status lifecycle.