A Hypothetical Scenario

Picture this: it's the start of a new year, and I'm subscribed to a Netflix plan. I've realized I’ve spent too much time binge-watching (who hasn’t?), so I resolve to take a break from Netflix for a few months. I don't want to cancel my subscription outright, as I know I’ll return eventually. Instead, I wish for the option to pause it.

Unfortunately, Netflix doesn’t allow for this. So, what’s my next step? More generally, what does the user experience look like?

Here's how I envision it:

1. I cancel my Netflix subscription.
2. Eventually, I resubscribe when I succumb to temptation once more.

From a user perspective, the ability to pause a subscription may not seem critical. It’s convenient, but many might think it’s no hassle to just cancel and rejoin later. So, what’s the big deal?

To grasp this, we must consider the business perspective. Customer retention is crucial; maintaining existing customers is generally less costly than acquiring new ones or bringing back those who have canceled.

However, many customers who cancel don’t return. This is precisely what businesses aim to avoid: losing customers. So, how can we mitigate cancellations? By offering the option to pause subscriptions!

Thus, we understand the importance of pausing subscriptions. Now, let’s explore how to implement this feature.

Approach 1: Cancel and Resubscribe

There are two primary methods for canceling a subscription via Stripe’s API. The straightforward method is to delete the subscription using its ID, which results in immediate cancellation. Alternatively, you can set the cancel_at_period_end parameter to True to cancel at the end of the current billing cycle.

If a subscription is set to cancel at the end of the billing period, and the customer decides to resubscribe beforehand, you can simply reactivate it by setting cancel_at_period_end back to False. However, if a subscription is canceled immediately, it cannot be reactivated, necessitating the creation of a new subscription upon resubscription.

Creating a New Subscription

According to Stripe's API documentation, subscriptions enable recurring charges to customers. To create a subscription for an existing customer, you need their customer ID and a plan ID.

Creating a plan is straightforward. For instance, while Netflix's standard plan doesn’t actually cost $1299 a month (which would definitely require a long pause!), it is priced at $12.99/month, as the amount must be a positive integer in cents.

Approach 2: Using 100% Off Coupons

To create a coupon, you can use the Coupon.create() method, specifying its duration as needed. For our case, we want the coupon to last as long as the subscription is paused, so we set the duration to "forever" and the discount to 100%.

Applying and Removing the Coupon

To associate the coupon with an existing subscription, retrieve the subscription and update its coupon value with the created coupon ID. When the customer wishes to resume their subscription, simply remove the coupon by setting the coupon value to None.

Approach 3: Implementing a Trial Period

Stripe’s API allows for billing cycle changes through trial periods. For example, if a customer’s next billing is set for May 23rd and you introduce a trial period until June 1st, they won’t be charged on May 23rd.

If a customer wants to pause their subscription until January 1st, 2020, you can update the subscription by adding a trial period until that date. To do this, set the trial_end value to the Unix timestamp for the first day of 2020.

Adding a trial period ensures no charges occur while it’s active. If the customer wants to resume early, simply update the trial_end value to the current date.

A note on proration: setting the prorate value to True credits customers for unused time. For instance, if a customer pauses their Netflix subscription midway through the billing period, they should be compensated for the remaining days.