Definition
Membership (recurring billing)
What is a membership?
A membership is an ongoing subscription a customer pays on a recurring schedule — monthly or yearly — in exchange for ongoing access, such as gym entry or a club. Billing renews automatically.
A membership turns a one-off sale into predictable, recurring revenue. The customer's card is charged automatically each period, failed payments are retried, and cancellations are self-served, so the business spends no time chasing renewals or reconciling who has paid.
Memberships suit any business built on regular attendance or ongoing access: gyms and studios, clubs, supper and wine clubs, and creators selling a subscription. They are distinct from a multi-use voucher, which is a one-off purchase that runs down to zero rather than renewing.
On Zillo, memberships run on Stripe Subscriptions under the hood, so billing, retries, and the customer's self-service portal are handled for you. Members get a QR pass they scan to check in, and plans can include a capped allowance per period — for example twelve classes a month — with each check-in counted against the cap and the count resetting automatically on renewal.
Because billing is recurring, the key levers are the price, the interval, any free trial, and the per-period allowance. Set those when you create the plan and Zillo handles the rest, paying out to your bank minus a flat 3% per charge.
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