Create and link subscriptions in App Store Connect

When you finish this page, your memberships exist as subscriptions in App Store Connect, each one linked to what it grants on your site, and ready to test in TestFlight.

“Linking” a subscription to Memberside means one thing: the Product ID you type into App Store Connect is the same text you type into Memberside → In-App Purchases. There is no button that connects them. A product ID that matches is linked; one that differs by a single character is not.

Before you start

• Your Paid Apps Agreement is Active. Without it, nothing you create here loads in the app, not even in the sandbox.
• Your app has a record in App Store Connect, with the same bundle ID as your Memberside build. See Getting ready for iOS builds.
• You are signed in to App Store Connect as an Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, Developer or Marketing user.
• You know what you are selling: each plan, its length and its price. A Gold membership sold monthly and yearly is two subscriptions.

Subscription or one-off

Choose before you create anything — App Store Connect cannot convert one into the other.

You sell	Create it as	Where in App Store Connect
A membership that renews every week, month or year	Auto-renewable subscription	Monetization → Subscriptions
Lifetime access, or anything bought once and kept	Non-Consumable In-App Purchase	Monetization → In-App Purchases

A lifetime membership created under Subscriptions is the commonest mistake here. It renews, it cannot be “bought once”, and Memberside treats it as the wrong kind of product.

Create the subscription group

A group holds every version of one membership — monthly, yearly, Silver, Gold. A member can hold only one subscription in a group at a time, which is what lets them upgrade or downgrade instead of paying twice.

1. In App Store Connect, open Apps and choose your app.

2. In the sidebar, under Monetization, click Subscriptions.

3. Click the add button (+).

4. Enter a Reference Name, such as Membership. Only you see it.

5. Click Create.

Use one group for all your membership tiers. Two groups would let a member subscribe to Silver and Gold at the same time.

Add a subscription to the group

1. Click the group’s name, then click Create.

2. Enter a Reference Name, such as Gold monthly. Only you see it.

3. Enter the Product ID. Use lower case, no spaces, and something you will recognise later: com.yourclub.gold.monthly. Write it down — you paste it into Memberside below.

4. Click Create.

5. Under Subscription Duration, choose the length, such as 1 month, and click Save.

6. Under Subscription Prices, set a price. Apple fills in every other country from it.

7. Under Availability, choose the countries where it is sold.

8. Under Display Name and Description, click Add and enter the name and description members see on the purchase sheet.

9. Under Review Information, upload a screenshot of the screen in your app that sells it. A screenshot from the builder preview is fine for the first submission.

10. Click Save. The status changes from Missing Metadata to Ready to Submit.

Repeat for every plan in the group. Then click Edit Order on the group and drag the plans so the most valuable is at the top — level 1. Apple uses that order to decide what counts as an upgrade.

Product IDs are permanent

A product ID can never be changed, and once deleted it can never be used again, in this app or any other. Check the spelling before you click Create.

The group also needs its own display name. On the group’s page, under Display Name and Description, click Add.

Link it to Memberside

1. In App Store Connect, open the subscription and copy its Product ID.

2. In your WordPress admin, open Memberside → In-App Purchases.

3. Under What your products grant, click Add a product.

4. Set Type to Renews until cancelled.

5. Paste the ID into App Store product ID.

6. Choose what it grants, then click Save.

Add your products in Memberside covers every field on that form. If you sell on Google Play too, put the Play product ID on the same row, so both stores grant the same thing.

Submit it with your app

Apple reviews your first subscription alongside an app version. Until it is approved, it works in TestFlight and the sandbox but not for real members.

1. On the subscription’s page, click Add for Review.

2. Choose the app version you are about to submit.

3. Add the subscription group and every other subscription you want reviewed in the same submission.

4. Click Submit for Review once the build is attached to that version.

After the first one is approved, you can add more subscriptions without a new app version.

Test it before you submit

1. On Memberside → In-App Purchases, switch on Accept Apple sandbox purchases.

2. In the builder, press Build and install the new build from TestFlight.

3. Buy the subscription in the app. TestFlight builds always use the sandbox, so your own Apple Account is not charged.

4. Check the member now has the role on your site.

In TestFlight, every subscription renews once a day, whatever its length, six times and then stops. To watch renewals and lapses in minutes instead, create a sandbox tester under Users and Access → Sandbox in App Store Connect — with an email address that is not already an Apple Account — and sign in with it on the iPhone under Settings → Developer. The full checklist is in Setting up in-app purchases.

Switch Accept Apple sandbox purchases off again before you launch.

Google Play

Play Console has its own subscriptions, with base plans instead of groups. The steps are in Setting up in-app purchases, and the Play product ID goes in the same Memberside row as the Apple one.

When it doesn’t work

The status stays Missing Metadata. A required field is empty — usually the localization, the price or the review screenshot. Open the subscription and look for the section with a warning.

The app shows no price, or “does not offer this product yet”, in TestFlight. In order of likelihood: the Paid Apps Agreement is not Active; the subscription is not Ready to Submit; you created or changed it less than an hour ago and the sandbox has not caught up; or the product ID in Memberside differs from App Store Connect.

The purchase sheet opens, but the member gets no role. Accept Apple sandbox purchases is off, or the bundle identifier under Your app in Memberside does not match the build.

A member could subscribe to two tiers at once. The tiers are in different subscription groups. Create the missing tier in the main group; you cannot move a subscription between groups.

Apple asks where Restore Purchases is. Your app has one on its settings screen. Point the reviewer at it in your review notes.

Helpful links

Apple’s own guides, written for account owners rather than developers:

• Offer auto-renewable subscriptions
• Create consumable or non-consumable In-App Purchases
• Submit an In-App Purchase
• Create a Sandbox Apple Account
• Testing subscriptions and In-App Purchases in TestFlight
• Google: Understanding subscriptions