Subscription Plugin Overview

Benecaster manages your podcast feed and subscriber authentication. It does not manage payments or subscriptions — that’s your membership plugin’s job. A bridge connects the two, letting Benecaster ask your membership plugin what it needs to know: who is subscribed, at which tier, and whether they’re still active.

Why a Bridge Is Needed

Benecaster is deliberately narrow in scope. Rather than building its own payment processing, subscription management, and billing system, it works with the membership plugin you already have — or the one that best fits your needs. This keeps Benecaster focused on doing one thing well (podcast feed delivery) while letting purpose-built membership plugins handle everything they do well (payments, trials, coupons, renewals, dunning).

The bridge is the contract between them. It’s a small, standardized layer that translates between your membership plugin’s data model and Benecaster’s understanding of a subscriber.

What a Bridge Does

When Benecaster needs to know about a subscriber, it asks the bridge. The bridge translates the question into whatever API calls or database queries your membership plugin requires and returns a standardized answer. Benecaster never talks to your membership plugin directly — it only talks to the bridge.

Specifically, the bridge handles:

Tier lookup — Given a WordPress user ID, return what subscription level they currently hold. The bridge translates your membership plugin’s native concept of “levels,” “plans,” or “memberships” into a tier slug Benecaster understands.

Active status check — Return whether the user’s subscription is currently active. A cancelled, expired, or paused subscription means no feed access.

Subscription events — Listen for events from your membership plugin (subscription activated, cancelled, changed, renewed, payment failed) and notify Benecaster so it can generate or revoke tokens in real time.

What Happens on a Subscription Event

When a subscriber signs up through your membership plugin:

1. The membership plugin fires a “subscription activated” event
2. The bridge catches that event and tells Benecaster: user ID, tier, show
3. Benecaster generates a token for that subscriber
4. The welcome email is sent with their private RSS feed URL

When a subscription is cancelled or expires:

1. The membership plugin fires a “cancelled” or “expired” event
2. The bridge notifies Benecaster
3. Benecaster marks the token as inactive
4. The subscriber’s feed returns empty on the next podcast app poll

This happens automatically. You don’t need to manually revoke access when a subscriber cancels — the bridge handles it in real time, as long as your membership plugin fires the relevant event promptly.

Included Bridges

Five subscription options are available — four external membership plugins and Benecaster’s own built-in membership system:

Plugin	Notes
MemberPress	Most commonly used with Benecaster. Recommended for new setups using an existing membership plugin.
WooCommerce Subscriptions	For podcasters already using WooCommerce for other commerce.
Paid Memberships Pro	Well-supported open-source option. Free core plugin.
Restrict Content Pro	Lightweight option; now part of the Sandhills Development suite.
Built-in Membership (Phase 2)	Stripe-powered tiers managed directly in Benecaster — no external membership plugin required. See Built-in Membership.

WooCommerce Memberships removed: Support for the WooCommerce Memberships plugin (distinct from WooCommerce Subscriptions) has been removed. Sites that previously had woo-memberships configured as their bridge will fall through to NullBridge automatically — existing subscriber feeds continue to work, but no new subscribers can authenticate via that bridge. An admin notice in your WordPress dashboard guides you to select a replacement bridge. WooCommerce Subscriptions is the closest migration target if you use WooCommerce for payment processing.

See Subscription Plugin Compatibility for a detailed comparison, including which features work with each bridge and recommendations for new setups.

One Bridge Active at a Time

Benecaster connects to one subscription plugin per site. If you have multiple supported plugins installed, Benecaster shows a picker during setup — choose the one that manages your podcast subscribers.

If you use different membership plugins for different purposes (for example, WooCommerce for physical products and MemberPress for podcast subscriptions), select the plugin that handles the podcast subscriptions. The other plugin is ignored by Benecaster.

Connecting Your Bridge

The Setup Wizard walks you through connecting a bridge during initial configuration. You can also change the active bridge at any time in Benecaster → Settings → Subscription.

The Bridge Picker

The Subscription tab shows only the membership plugins that are currently installed and active on your site — not the full list of supported plugins. If you have MemberPress and WooCommerce Subscriptions both installed, you’ll see both options. If neither is installed, you’ll see a list of supported plugins with installation guidance instead.

Selecting a bridge saves immediately — there’s no separate Save button for the bridge picker. Once you click a plugin name in the list, the bridge is connected and Benecaster begins listening for subscription events from that plugin.

To disconnect the active bridge, use the Clear bridge selection link below the picker. This removes the bridge connection for the current show. Existing tokens are not revoked — subscribers continue to have feed access — but Benecaster stops receiving new subscription events from the disconnected plugin until a new bridge is selected.

When No Supported Plugin Is Active

If none of the four supported membership plugins are installed and active, the Subscription tab shows a list of supported options with a brief description of each, linking to the relevant setup guide. Install and activate whichever plugin fits your setup, then return to this tab — the bridge picker will appear automatically once a supported plugin is detected.

After connecting, configure your tier mapping — the step that tells Benecaster which of your membership plugin’s levels corresponds to which episode access tier. See Mapping Your Membership Tiers.

Using a Membership Plugin Not on This List

If your membership plugin is not among the four supported at launch, a developer can build a custom bridge. Benecaster defines a BridgeInterface contract that any membership plugin can implement — the bridge registers itself at boot and the rest of the system works exactly the same way as with the built-in bridges.

This is an advanced option intended for developers. A custom bridge is a PHP class, typically delivered as a small companion plugin alongside your main membership plugin. See Implement a Custom Bridge in the developer documentation for a complete, working example.

If you’d like to see official built-in support added for your membership plugin, submit a feature request via the Benecaster feedback portal. Requests that receive significant interest are prioritised for the add-on roadmap.

Content Drip and Access Scheduling

Most membership plugins include a feature that releases content gradually over the course of a membership — commonly called content drip, content scheduling, or access rules. A member who joins today gets access to some content immediately, then more after 7 days, more after 30 days, and so on.

This feature operates at the WordPress content layer. It filters which posts and pages a user can see based on how long they’ve been a member. It has no effect on Benecaster’s RSS feed delivery.

Benecaster builds feeds from its own availability system. When an episode should appear in a subscriber’s feed, you control that in Benecaster — not in your membership plugin. If you want to release podcast episodes on a staggered schedule (Premium subscribers hear an episode immediately, Basic subscribers hear it a week later, Free subscribers hear it a month later), use Benecaster’s availability dates. Membership plugin drip rules won’t do this.

The practical rule: Configure episode release timing in Benecaster. You can ignore your membership plugin’s drip or access scheduling feature for podcast content entirely.

Each supported plugin’s drip feature is noted in its setup guide:

• MemberPress — Drip feature (built-in)
• Restrict Content Pro — Content Drip module (built-in)
• Paid Memberships Pro — Drip add-on

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Compatibility with Membership Plugin Add-ons

Most add-ons for your membership plugin will not affect Benecaster. The bridge is a read-only consumer — it listens for events and reads membership state, but never writes to your membership plugin’s data. That separation means a new add-on installed on the membership plugin side generally has no impact on feed delivery or subscriber access.

There are two areas where friction can occur:

Add-ons that restructure member relationships. Some membership plugin add-ons — such as group accounts, team plans, or family subscriptions — change how the plugin represents who holds a membership. If a group add-on means the membership is held by a “group owner” user rather than the individual listener, the bridge may not see the individual as an active member. If you install an add-on that changes your membership plugin’s member model, verify that your subscribers still appear with the correct tier in Benecaster → Subscribers before announcing the change.

Overlapping welcome emails. When a subscriber signs up, both Benecaster and your membership plugin may send a welcome email — resulting in two messages in the subscriber’s inbox. Benecaster’s welcome email contains the private RSS feed URL and is the one subscribers need; the membership plugin’s email is typically account-related.

If you’d prefer to send only one email, or to combine the two, you have options:

• Settings → Email → Automated Emails: Each Benecaster email type has its own on/off toggle, per show. Turn off the Welcome email for the show where your membership plugin is already handling onboarding. No add-on required.
• Disable in your membership plugin: Most membership plugins let you turn off their own welcome email from their settings. This is the simpler option if you want Benecaster’s RSS delivery email to be the only one.
• Email Editor add-on: If you have Email Editor installed, it replaces the core toggle UI with its own — same per-type toggles plus full template customization so both emails can be styled to feel like one coordinated sequence.

Note: The Welcome email is the primary way subscribers receive their private RSS feed URL. If you turn it off, make sure they can still get their URL — for example, from the subscriber account page or from your membership plugin’s onboarding flow.

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For Developers

The benecaster_bridge_connected action fires each time a bridge is saved — whether from the setup wizard or from Settings → Subscription. It does not fire when a bridge is cleared. Args: (string $bridge_slug, int $show_id).

Use this hook to react to bridge connection events from an add-on — for example, to configure a default integration or pre-populate data from the newly connected plugin. See the benecaster_bridge_connected action reference in the developer documentation.

For building a fully custom bridge (integrating a membership plugin not in the built-in set), see Integrate a Membership Plugin Not in the Core Bridge Set.

To suppress a specific email type programmatically — for example, to suppress the welcome email only when a specific membership plugin add-on is active, or to route it through your own transactional email provider — use the benecaster_email_should_send_welcome filter. The filter fires after the per-show toggle check; if the email type is disabled in settings, the filter is never reached. See the [benecaster_email_should_send](/docs/benecaster_email_should_send/) filter reference.

Built-in Membership (Phase 2)

Benecaster’s built-in membership system lets you manage Stripe-powered subscription tiers directly in WordPress — no external membership plugin required. It appears as a selectable option in the bridge picker alongside the five external bridges.

When Built-in Membership Becomes Available

Built-in Membership is not available immediately after installation. It becomes selectable in the bridge picker once three conditions are met:

1. Stripe keys configured — at least one Stripe key set (test or live) is saved in Settings → Membership → Payments.
2. At least one active tier exists — create a tier in Benecaster → Memberships → Tiers before connecting the bridge.
3. Paid plan — Built-in Membership requires a Starter plan or above. It is not available on the free Launch plan.

Until all three conditions are satisfied, the bridge picker shows a prompt with links to the missing requirements. Once everything is in place, select “Built-in Membership” from the picker and Benecaster begins managing subscriptions directly.

Choosing Between Built-in and an External Bridge

Both approaches are fully supported and neither is going away. The right choice depends on your setup:

Use Built-in Membership if:

• You’re starting fresh and don’t already have a membership plugin installed.
• You want a simple setup — just Benecaster and Stripe, no additional plugin to configure.
• Your subscription needs are straightforward (per-tier pricing, annual and monthly billing, token-based feed access).

Use an external membership plugin if:

• You already have MemberPress, WooCommerce Subscriptions, or another supported plugin managing your subscribers — migration to built-in is unnecessary disruption.
• You need features beyond what built-in membership supports at V1: advanced couponing, group accounts, content dripping, complex access rules, or multi-currency pricing.
• You prefer to separate payment processing from your podcasting plugin.

External Bridges Are Not Deprecated

Selecting Built-in Membership does not deprecate or remove the external bridges. All five external bridges remain fully supported. A site uses one active bridge at a time — if you’re on MemberPress and working well, there is no reason to switch.

Switching from Built-in to an External Bridge

If you start with Built-in Membership and later decide you need a dedicated membership plugin, you can promote your subscriber records to that plugin. See the “Moving from Built-in Membership to an External Plugin” section below for details.

V1 Limitations

Built-in Membership V1 focuses on the core subscription lifecycle: sign-up, renewal, tier switching, cancellation, and feed access. Features planned for later releases include: multi-currency pricing, subscriber-chosen price points (NYOP), and automated migration from external plugins. See Built-in Membership for the full feature list and current V1 scope.

Moving from Built-in Membership to an External Plugin (Phase 2+)

If you start with Benecaster’s built-in membership and later decide you need a feature that a dedicated membership plugin offers — advanced couponing, team accounts, content dripping, or a specific payment flow — you can promote your subscriber records to an external plugin without leaving Benecaster.

The bridge handles the write path: because each bridge already knows how to talk to its plugin, it can also create member records in that plugin on your behalf. Your subscribers keep their existing feed URLs throughout — Benecaster simply switches which plugin it consults for tier information going forward.

What transfers automatically:

• Subscriber records (email, WordPress user account, current tier)
• Feed access — existing feed URLs are preserved; no subscriber action required

What cannot transfer — payment details:

Due to payment provider security requirements, active payment relationships cannot be moved from one system to another. This is a constraint of how payment processors work, not a Benecaster limitation. Your subscribers will need to re-enter their payment information in the new membership plugin.

To give subscribers time to do this, Benecaster applies a configurable grace period (default 30 days) after the switch. Feed access continues uninterrupted during the grace period. Before starting the promotion, let your subscribers know they’ll need to re-subscribe through your new membership system — most podcasters send a brief announcement email first.

Which plugins support this:

Not every membership plugin supports programmatic member creation. The promote wizard shows only the plugins that are installed, active, and confirmed to support it. The Subscription Plugin Compatibility page lists which bridges include write support.

How to do it:

The promotion wizard is in Benecaster → Settings → Subscription. It walks through: selecting the target plugin, mapping your tiers, previewing the subscriber count, running the transfer, and switching the bridge. The whole process takes a few minutes; your show stays live throughout.