Set up subscription products in EDD as usual (Download → Recurring Payments): billing period, number of payments, free trial and sign-up fee. Nothing needs to be created in Paddle.
What is supported
| Feature | Paddle Billing | Paddle Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Periods: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, every 6 months, yearly | Yes | Yes |
| Free trials | Yes | Yes (in days) |
| Sign-up fees | Yes (shown as a separate “Sign-up fee” line) | Yes (added to the first payment) |
| Limited number of payments | Yes (stopped in Paddle when complete) | Yes |
| One-time products in the same cart | Yes | Yes |
| Several subscriptions in one order | No: one per order | No: one per order |
| Currencies | All Paddle Billing currencies | USD, EUR, GBP |
One subscription per order
If a customer has two subscription products in the cart, EDD asks them to buy them separately, because Paddle bills each subscription on its own.
The subscription lifecycle
| What happens | In EDD |
|---|---|
| First payment confirmed by Paddle | Order Complete; subscription Active (or Trialling during a free trial) with Paddle’s next billing date as its expiration |
| Paddle collects a renewal | A renewal payment is added, the expiration moves to the next billing date, license keys are extended, and EDD sends its renewal email |
| A renewal payment fails | Subscription Failing; EDD sends its “payment failed” email; Paddle retries automatically |
| Paddle recovers the payment | Back to Active |
| Paddle gives up after its retries | Subscription Cancelled, and access ends |
| You or the customer cancel in EDD | Cancelled in Paddle too; access continues to the end of the paid period |
| Cancelled in Paddle (dashboard or Paddle’s customer pages) | Subscription Cancelled in EDD |
Pausing and resuming
On a subscription’s screen in EDD (Downloads → Subscriptions → View details) there is a Paddle box with Pause billing in Paddle and Resume billing in Paddle.
- Pausing takes effect at the end of the paid period. The customer keeps access until then and is not charged while paused.
- Resuming restarts billing in Paddle.
- Pauses made in the Paddle dashboard are noted on the subscription too.
- Paddle Classic does not allow pausing during a free trial, so the button is hidden then.
Updating the payment method
Customers manage subscriptions on your EDD account page (the [edd_subscriptions] page). For Paddle subscriptions, Update Payment Method sends them to Paddle’s secure page for that subscription, where they enter a new card. The link in EDD’s “update your payment method” emails works the same way, even if the customer is logged out.