Membership pricing and trials

Choose between trial periods, introductory pricing, and member-specific discounted periods, and understand how they affect recurring membership billing.

Recurring memberships can move through several prices over their lifetime. A new member may begin with a calendar-day trial, continue through a set number of introductory-priced renewals, and then move to the normal recurring price. You can also add free or discounted periods to an individual member later.

These tools all change what the member pays, but they serve different purposes and follow different timing rules:

Trial period: a free or discounted number of days at the very start of a recurring membership.
Introductory pricing: a free or discounted price for a set number of the new member's first renewal periods.
Goodwill pricing: free or discounted future billing periods granted to one existing member.

Trial periods

Offer free or discounted calendar days before the normal paid contract begins.

Introductory pricing

Set a launch price for a new member's first renewal periods.

Goodwill pricing

Grant free or fixed-price future periods to an individual member.

Choose the right pricing tool

If you want to...	Use	Why
Let a new customer try the membership for an exact number of days	Trial period	Trials use calendar days and postpone the start of the paid commitment
Charge a smaller amount for the first few renewals	Introductory pricing	The offer follows complete billing periods and then returns to the normal price
Give one current member a free billing period or temporary lower rate	Goodwill pricing	The adjustment applies only to that member's upcoming recurring charges
Suspend benefits as well as charges	Membership pause	Discounted pricing changes the charge but does not suspend membership benefits
Discount reservations made by members	Membership benefit	Reservation discounts and custom pricing affect bookings, not membership renewals
Reduce only the initial purchase price	Purchase discount	Applicable discounts and promo codes affect checkout, not later recurring charges

See Membership pauses when the member should temporarily lose benefits or access. See Memberships for membership benefits and the full product configuration.

The recurring price lifecycle

When all three stages are present, billing follows this order:

Membership starts
  → trial price for the configured number of calendar days
  → introductory price for the configured renewal periods
  → normal recurring membership price

Goodwill pricing is not a separate automatic stage. When you add it to a member, it joins that member's Pricing order after any active discounted periods that were added earlier.

Example

Normal price: €50 every 30 days
Trial: 14 days for €10
Introductory pricing: first 2 renewals at €30 each
Goodwill pricing added later: 1 free renewal

The member pays €10 when joining. At the end of the trial, their first renewal is €30. The second renewal is also €30. The next renewal is free, from the goodwill pricing added later. Billing then returns to €50.

Introductory pricing does not replace the initial purchase. Without a trial, the member pays the normal membership price when joining, and the introductory price begins with the first renewal.

At-a-glance comparison

Feature	Trial period	Introductory pricing	Goodwill pricing
Configured for	The membership product	The membership product	One member
Available for	Recurring memberships	Recurring memberships	Active recurring members with periods left
Unit	Calendar days	Complete billing periods	Complete billing periods
Price	Free or one fixed tax-inclusive price	Free or fixed tax-inclusive price per period	Free or fixed tax-inclusive price per period
Who receives it	First-time customer purchasers and staff-added members	First-time members of that membership	The selected member
Initial purchase affected	Yes	No	No
Paid commitment affected	Starts after the trial	Continues normally	Continues normally
Benefits available	Yes	Yes	Yes
Can be added after joining	No	No	Yes
Can be stopped for a member	By cancelling during the trial	Unused periods can be deactivated	Unused periods can be deactivated

Eligibility for new-member offers

For customer purchases, trials and introductory pricing are first-time offers for a specific membership. A customer is not eligible if they have held that same membership before, even when the earlier membership has expired or been cancelled. The same prior-membership check also controls membership purchase discounts and promo codes.

This rule is tied to the membership product, not to the customer being new to your venue. A returning customer can still receive an offer on a different membership they have never held.

Thril checks eligibility again when the customer signs in and at checkout. An offer that appears while browsing anonymously may therefore disappear after sign-in if the customer has previous history for that membership.

Goodwill pricing has no first-time rule because staff add it directly to an eligible member. When staff add a member manually, the selected payment status controls the initial payment. The configured trial is applied even if that person held the membership before, while introductory pricing remains first-time only.

Billing periods, charges, and pauses

Introductory and goodwill pricing are used in Pricing order, oldest active adjustment first. One discounted period is used when Thril creates that renewal charge. If payment later requires customer action or fails, the outstanding payment keeps the discounted amount; the period is not returned to the queue.

A renewal skipped by a payment-pausing date-based pause or a period-based pause creates no charge and therefore does not use an introductory or goodwill period.

A benefit-only date pause is different: recurring billing continues, so the discounted period can still be charged and used even while membership benefits are suspended.

Changes to trial or introductory pricing apply to future members. They do not rewrite an existing member's trial end, assigned introductory periods, normal recurring price, or commitment.