A tier is a thing a reader can be: free, or one of the paid levels you sell. Everything about them lives under OwlDraft → Membership, behind one tab bar — Access, Stripe, Tiers and Signup portal.
1. Access
Two decisions, and both can be changed later.
Who can sign up
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Anyone can sign up for a free account | The usual answer. Readers get a free account, land on your list, and can be sold to later. |
| Only people I invite | Invitations ship in a later release; for now this behaves as nobody. |
| Nobody — sign-ups are closed | Existing members keep their accounts; no new ones are created. |
Default post access — what a new post is set to when you create it:
- Public — anyone can read it.
- Members — any signed-in reader.
- Paid — paying members only.
This is only the starting point. Any post can override it from the editor sidebar, and most publications leave the default on Public and mark the occasional piece paid.
Click Save access.
2. Tiers
Every site has a free tier. It cannot be removed and has no price — it is what a reader is the moment they confirm their email address.
To add a paid one, click Add a tier:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | What the reader sees. Supporter, Member, Founding member. |
| Description | One line under the name on the pricing card. |
| Benefits | One per line. Each line becomes a bullet on the card. |
| Monthly price | Leave blank to not offer monthly. |
| Yearly price | Leave blank to not offer yearly. |
| Visibility | Untick to keep a tier off the pricing page — useful for a legacy or private plan. |
The currency comes from your connected Stripe account; you do not pick it here.
Click Save tier. If Stripe is connected, the tier’s product and its prices are created at Stripe in the same moment, and the screen says so. If it is not, the tier is saved anyway and the screen tells you to connect Stripe to put it on sale.
Two or three tiers is plenty. A yearly price at roughly ten months of the monthly one is the usual shape.
Changing a price later
Changing a price creates a new price at Stripe and archives the old one. Existing subscribers keep the price they signed up at. That is grandfathering, and it is almost always what you want — nobody gets a surprise increase.
Removing a tier
Existing subscribers keep their subscription until it ends at Stripe. Nothing is cancelled behind their back; the tier simply stops being offered to new readers.
3. The pages readers land on
Tiers are only half the job — the other half is the four pages the selling happens on. Under OwlDraft → Signup portal, point each one at a page:
| Page | What goes on it |
|---|---|
| Sign in | Where a returning reader asks for a sign-in link. Put the Sign in / Sign up block on it. |
| Sign up | The plans, and the box a new reader types their address into. Every Subscribe button on the site points here. |
| Account | A reader’s own screen: their details, their plan, their billing and their emails. Put the Account block on it. |
| Welcome | Where a reader lands the moment they have paid. Thank them, and say what to read first. |
All three blocks — Sign in / Sign up, Account and Newsletter — are Publisher’s own, and sit under OwlDraft in the block inserter. The Sign up page uses the same Sign in / Sign up block as the Sign in page, with its plans turned on.
Publisher never creates these pages for you — a page appearing in your site without you making it is a surprise. Create them under Pages, drop the block in, publish, then assign them here. If you imported the demo, they already exist and are already assigned.
4. Check the whole thing
OwlDraft → General reads the install back to you: whether the licence is active, whether a post can go out as an email, whether Stripe is connected, how many members are paid and how many are free. Nothing on it changes anything — every card says where the change is made.
When every line on it is green, you are open for business.