Manage the complete lifecycle of your customer subscriptions from creation to recurring billing

Subscription Management

Subscriptions are automatically created when you assign a Plan to a Customer. They connect plans, customers, and billing cycles in an automated workflow that handles recurring billing, feature access, and usage tracking.

The Platform section is designed for go-to-market, finance, and operations teams. If you need implementation details, go to the Developer Library.

Quick start example

Here's how subscriptions work with Commet's plan-first model:

Create Plans: Define your pricing tiers (Starter, Pro, Enterprise) with features and prices
Assign Plan to Customer: Select a customer and assign a plan—the subscription is created automatically
Automatic billing: Once active, Commet automatically generates recurring invoices each billing period
Manage lifecycle: Upgrade, downgrade, or cancel subscriptions as customer needs change

The billing engine handles the entire cycle: Plan assignment → Subscription creation → Checkout → Activation → Recurring billing.

Why subscriptions matter

Automated recurring billing: Once active, subscriptions automatically generate invoices each period without manual intervention
Complete lifecycle control: Manage states, cancellations, and renewals from a single place
Full visibility: Access invoice history, payments, and customer details in real time
Plan-based simplicity: Subscriptions inherit all configuration from plans, making management easier
Automatic creation: No manual subscription setup needed—just assign a plan to a customer

Plan-first subscription model

In Commet, subscriptions are not created manually from the platform interface. Instead, they are automatically created when you assign a Plan to a Customer.

How it works

Create your Plans with all pricing, features, and billing intervals configured

Assign a Plan to a Customer — this automatically creates a Subscription

The Subscription starts in the appropriate status based on payment and trial settings

This plan-first approach ensures:

Consistency: All customers on the same plan get the same configuration
Simplicity: No need to manually configure each subscription
Scalability: Easily manage hundreds or thousands of subscriptions
Updates: Modify plans and future assignments use the updated configuration

Learn more about creating and managing Plans in the Plans documentation.

How subscriptions are created

Select or create customer

Navigate to Customers in the platform and select the customer you want to assign a plan to. If the customer doesn't exist yet, you can create them directly from the customer management section.

Important: The customer's email is used as the delivery address for the payment link and cannot be modified in the checkout. Make sure to use the correct email from the start.

Assign a plan

From the customer detail page, click Assign Plan or Change Plan. You'll see all available plans:

Public plans: Plans visible on your pricing page
Private plans: Internal plans not shown publicly (useful for enterprise deals)

Select the plan you want to assign. You can also choose:

Billing interval: Monthly, quarterly, or yearly (if the plan supports multiple intervals)
Initial seats: For plans with seat-based features, set the starting seat count
Skip trial: Optionally skip the trial period if the plan has one configured

Subscription is created automatically

When you confirm the plan assignment, Commet automatically:

Creates a Subscription for the customer
Links the subscription to the selected plan
Sets the billing interval and initial configuration
Generates a checkout link if payment is required

The subscription status depends on the plan configuration:

Trialing: If the plan has trial days configured
Pending payment: If payment is required to activate
Active: If no payment or trial is needed

Subscription lifecycle

Subscriptions go through different states during their lifetime:

State	Description	When it occurs
`Draft`	Subscription created but not activated	When created programmatically for review
`Trialing`	Customer in free trial period	When plan has trial days and trial hasn't ended
`Pending payment`	Customer received checkout but hasn't paid	Immediately after plan assignment if payment required
`Active`	Subscription is billing normally	After trial ends or payment is completed
`Paused`	Temporarily paused (no billing)	When manually paused by operations team
`Past due`	Payment failed, in grace period	When payment method fails
`Canceled`	Canceled, no longer billing	When customer cancels or subscription ends
`Expired`	Reached end date	When subscription reaches scheduled end

Subscription details

Each subscription includes complete information to manage the billing cycle:

Current plan information

Plan name: See which plan the customer is subscribed to
Billing interval: Monthly, quarterly, or yearly
Plan features: View all features included in the plan
Trial status: Check if subscription is in trial period

Billing information

Current period: Start and end dates of the current billing cycle
Days remaining: How many days until the next invoice
Next invoice date: When the next recurring invoice will be generated
Amount: Current plan price for the selected billing interval

Feature usage

For plans with metered or seat-based features:

Current usage: Track consumption in real-time
Included limits: See what's included in the plan
Overage: Monitor usage beyond included amounts
Seat counts: Current seat allocation per seat type

Learn more about how features work in plans in the Features documentation.

Checkout link

View current link: Access the payment link generated for the customer
Regenerate link: If the checkout expired or you need a new link, you can regenerate it (only available if the subscription is not active)
Delivery to customer: The checkout link is sent automatically to the customer's email. If you're using the SDK, you can also integrate the link directly into your onboarding flow.

Generated invoices

Complete history: View all invoices generated for this subscription
Automatic billing: Each billing period automatically generates a new invoice
Payment details: Review payment status, due dates, and payment methods

Customer information

Contact data: Quickly access the associated customer information
Subscription history: View all active and historical subscriptions for the customer
Billing configuration: Review currency, payment terms, and billing address

Managing subscriptions

Change plan (upgrade/downgrade)

Navigate to the customer detail page

Click Change Plan on the active subscription

Select the new plan

Commet automatically handles proration:

Credits unused time from the current plan
Charges for the new plan going forward
Adjusts the billing cycle accordingly

Automatic proration: Commet calculates credits and charges automatically when changing plans. The customer is charged or credited based on the time remaining in the billing period.

Cancel subscription

Navigate to the customer detail page

Click Cancel Subscription on the active subscription

Optionally provide a cancellation reason

Choose when cancellation takes effect:

Immediately: Stops billing right away
End of period: Continues billing until current period ends

Canceled subscriptions remain visible for historical tracking but no longer generate invoices.

Regenerate checkout link

If a customer hasn't completed payment and the checkout link expired:

Navigate to the subscription details

Click Regenerate Checkout Link

Send the new link to the customer

This is more efficient than reassigning the plan or creating a new subscription.

SDK integration

All the steps described above can be performed programmatically through our SDK. This is the recommended way to integrate Commet directly into your application.

Subscription lifecycle sequence diagram

For in-app integrations: If you're building an integration within your application, use the SDK instead of the platform interface. This allows you to completely automate the subscription flow and keep everything synchronized with your system.

Advantages of using the SDK

Complete automation: Assign plans and manage subscriptions directly from your code without manual intervention
Real-time synchronization: Keep your data synchronized with Commet automatically
Improved user experience: Integrate the checkout directly into your application without redirecting to external pages
Scalability: Manage thousands of subscriptions programmatically without interface limitations

Typical SDK flow

List available plans: Use commet.plans.list() to show customers available options

Assign plan: Call commet.subscriptions.create() with a planCode to create the subscription automatically

Get checkout: Access the checkout link from the subscription response

Monitor usage: Track feature usage and seat counts through the subscription details

Manage changes: Upgrade, downgrade, or cancel through the SDK

For complete code examples and full API documentation, visit the Developer Library.

Plans - Learn how to create and configure plans
Features - Understand how features work in plans
Usage Metrics - Track consumption for metered features
Seat Management - Manage seat-based features

Subscriptions

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