Start a subscription business

A subscription charges the same customer repeatedly for goods, services or digital content, usually by renewing automatically unless they stop it. That brings predictable income, but you must build the sign-up, billing and exit before launch, because consumer law covers each of them.

The rules below protect consumers. A business that subscribes to another business is outside them.

Decide the terms customers will see

Settle these before you design anything else, because each one is information you must give customers, and some of them trigger extra duties:

• the price, how often it is charged and what it covers
• whether there is a minimum term, and how a customer ends the contract afterwards
• whether there is a free or discounted trial, and what it converts to
• whether the contract renews for a month at a time or for a year or more

Rules that apply to every online or phone sign-up

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, before the customer orders you must give your identity and contact details, a description of what you supply, the price including all taxes, the minimum length of the contract and the billing period, and the conditions for ending it. You must tell them they can cancel within 14 days. For a service or for digital content that is not supplied on a physical medium, those 14 days run from the day the contract is made. If you do not tell them, the right to cancel lasts up to 12 months longer.

The price you show must be the total price, and the final button must make clear that the customer is committing to pay.

Services must be performed with reasonable care and skill under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and these rights cannot be contracted out of.

Build for the subscription rules planned from 1 January 2027

Part 4, Chapter 2 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 contains rules for consumer subscriptions, but it is not in force until the government commences it. The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade laid draft regulations before Parliament with its guidance on 19 October 2026, and they must be approved before they take effect.

The guidance says the rules would apply only to subscriptions entered into on or after that date, so existing contracts stay under the 2013 Regulations. They cover goods, services and digital content that renew automatically, including a free or reduced-price trial that converts to a paid contract. They do not cover business-to-business contracts, and they exclude areas such as utilities, financial products, telecoms, childcare and residential lettings.

If you take sign-ups after that date, you will have to:

• give a set of key information together, close to the point of commitment, covering how often and how much you charge, any minimum term, what the customer pays if a trial converts, how to end the contract and when you will send reminders
• send reminder notices in writing before renewal payments, roughly every six months for weekly and monthly contracts, before a trial or discounted period ends, and, with an extra earlier reminder, before a renewal for 12 months or more
• let customers end the contract at any time in a straightforward way, including online if they can sign up online, without steps that are not reasonably necessary, such as a compulsory feedback form
• confirm the end of the contract in writing, within 24 hours if they ended it online or within 3 working days otherwise
• allow a 14-day cooling-off period when the contract starts and another after a trial ends or a contract renews for 12 months or more, and send a cooling-off notice at the start of the renewal period
• not take a renewal payment before the period it covers has begun

The Competition and Markets Authority can investigate breaches directly and fine up to the greater of £300,000 or 10% of global turnover, and customers can cancel and seek a refund where a trader breaches certain duties.

Collect payments and track churn

Choose a payment provider that handles recurring payments, retries failed payments and lets you manage cancellations, and test the whole billing cycle, including a failed payment and an exit, before you launch.

Track churn, the share of subscribers who leave in a period, from the first month. Measure customers who choose to leave separately from those lost to failed payments, because they need different fixes. At a steady 5% monthly churn you lose about 46% of your subscribers in a year.