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Gift subscriptions allow one member (the giver) to purchase a paid subscription on behalf of another person (the recipient). Outpost handles the purchase, delivery, and activation end-to-end.
Gift Subscriptions settings showing tier eligibility, default duration, and pre-built autoresponder action toggles

The Gift Subscriptions settings page

Go to Subscriptions → Gift Subscriptions to configure the feature.

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How it works

1

Giver purchases a gift

The giver visits your gift subscription page, enters the recipient’s email and an optional personal message, and pays via Stripe. Gift subscriptions are one-time purchases: they do not auto-renew. The purchaser can also choose to have this start in the future - e.g. for a birthday present.
2

Recipient is notified by email

Outpost emails the recipient to let them know about the gift, including the giver’s name and personal message (if provided), with a link to sign in and start reading. If the gift was scheduled for a future date, this email goes out on that date.
3

Access is set up automatically

The recipient’s membership is activated automatically when the gift is delivered. There’s nothing for them to redeem and no payment information required. They simply sign in (or create their account) to start reading. For scheduled gifts, this happens on the chosen start date.
4

Subscription lifecycle

After the gift period ends, the recipient’s subscription expires. They can choose to continue by adding their own payment method and subscribing. The Autoresponder can send reminders to the giver before the gift sub expires to see if they want to re-give, and then to the recipient, if the buyer doesn’t give, to buy for themselves.
Gift subscriptions are one-time purchases and do not auto-renew. When a gift is about to expire, both the giver and recipient can receive reminder emails encouraging renewal or conversion to a self-paid subscription.

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Scheduled gifts

Givers can schedule a gift to be delivered on a specific date (useful for birthdays, holidays, or other occasions). The giver pays immediately, but the recipient isn’t notified and their access doesn’t begin until the scheduled date. Outpost uses your site’s timezone to decide when the scheduled day has arrived. On that day, the recipient’s membership is activated and their gift email is sent between 10am and 8pm in your site’s timezone; givers choose a date, not a specific time of day. Set your timezone under Settings → Publication Details.

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Gift subscription management

In Members, gift givers and gift recipients are labeled:

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Gift lifecycle statuses

Each gift subscription moves through these statuses:

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Autoresponder integration

The Autoresponder’s Gift Subscriptions tab includes 9 pre-built email actions: The “ending soon” emails to the giver can each include a different offer to make re-gifting more appealing. See Autoresponder → Gift Subscriptions tab for details.

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Frequently asked questions

No. If the recipient already has an active paid subscription, Outpost blocks the purchase and points the buyer to the member portal instead, since there’s no point paying for access they already have. To give an existing paid member extra time or free access, use a Complimentary Subscription instead.
Refund handling depends on your Stripe settings and policies. Refunds need to be processed through your Stripe dashboard. If a gift is refunded, the recipient’s access is revoked.
There’s no redemption step, so the recipient’s membership is set up automatically when the gift is delivered: the access is waiting for them whether or not they open the email. They can sign in any time before the gift period ends. (Until a scheduled gift’s start date arrives, it simply stays pending and the recipient isn’t notified.)
For free access grants, use Complimentary Subscriptions instead. Gift subscriptions always involve a payment from the giver.
No. Gift subscriptions are one-time purchases. When the gift period ends, the recipient can choose to subscribe on their own. The Autoresponder sends reminders to both the giver and recipient before expiry.
A scheduled gift starts on the date the giver chooses, measured in your site’s timezone. On that day, the recipient’s membership is activated and their gift email is sent sometime between 10am and 8pm (site time); givers pick a date, not a specific time. Until then, the gift stays pending and the recipient isn’t notified. Set your timezone under Settings → Publication Details.
Yes. The purchase goes through, and when the gift activates it gives the recipient a fresh complimentary period for the gift’s length. Because that resets their complimentary access to the gift’s duration, avoid gifting a member whose existing free access you want to leave untouched (for example, someone who’s part of a group or institutional subscription). To simply grant or extend free access, use Complimentary Subscriptions instead.
All four give a member access without that member paying, but they’re set up differently:
  • Gift: one member buys a paid subscription for another person, purchased through Stripe.
  • Complimentary: you grant free access to an individual, with or without an end date.
  • Group and Institutional: an organization sponsors access for many members at once.
Gifts and individual complimentary subscriptions are usually time-limited: they have an end date and trigger reminder emails before they expire. Group and institutional subscriptions are typically open-ended and don’t send expiry reminders.
Gifting the same tier again to someone who already holds an active gift is allowed at any time: it isn’t blocked while their current gift still has time left.When a repeat gift is delivered, Outpost sets the recipient’s expiry date to the new gift’s full term measured from the delivery day, rather than adding it on top of the time remaining. If the recipient still holds a gift from a different giver that runs longer, Outpost keeps that later date instead.If the new gift pushes the expiry date out, the recipient gets a “membership extended” email rather than the full first-gift welcome, and the giver is thanked for extending rather than for starting something new. Both are separate actions on the Autoresponder’s Gift Subscriptions tab, so you can word them yourself. If either one is turned off, the matching first-gift email is sent in its place.Because the new term replaces the time remaining rather than adding to it, a repeat gift can leave the recipient with less access than they had. That happens whenever their current expiry date is further out than the new gift’s term, which is most likely when they also hold complimentary access from another source. Outpost keeps the later date only when the longer-running gift came from a different giver. It does not do that when the same giver gifts the same person again.When the new date isn’t later than the recipient’s current one, Outpost doesn’t email the recipient at all, so they get no notice that the date moved. The giver still receives the extension thank-you.Gifting a different tier than the recipient’s current active gift isn’t allowed: the purchase is blocked until the existing gift ends.
That’s a general “something went wrong” message shown when the gift checkout can’t be created. The most common reasons:
  • The recipient is already an active paid subscriber (gifts to existing paid members are blocked).
  • The recipient already has a complimentary subscription that wasn’t itself a gift.
  • The recipient already has an active gift on a different tier than the one being purchased.
  • The buyer used the same email for both the giver and the recipient (you can’t gift yourself).
  • A payment or setup issue (for example, gift pricing isn’t configured or your Stripe connection is unhealthy).
If buyers hit this repeatedly, confirm gift subscriptions are enabled and priced under Subscriptions → Gift Subscriptions and that your Stripe connection is working.
When someone buys a gift, Outpost creates a member record for the buyer so it can send them the purchase thank-you, the “gift delivered” notice, and renewal reminders before the gift expires. A buyer who isn’t a paying subscriber appears as a free member, which the Members list labels “Lifetime”: that only means “free, no expiration,” not a paid lifetime plan. The record stays after the gift ends; Outpost doesn’t delete members automatically.If the buyer is already a member (free or paid), their existing record is reused and their own membership is left unchanged. Buying a gift never alters the buyer’s own subscription.

Complimentary Subscriptions

Free access grants (different from paid gifts)

Autoresponder

Automated gift-related emails for givers and recipients

Tiers & Pricing

The subscription products available as gifts

Offers & Discounts

Attach discount offers to gift re-purchase reminder emails