Can you change subscription prices in Ghost?

I knew that it was possible to change the 'list price' for a subscription in Ghost, by going to Settings > Memberships and editing the subscription here:

All my reading said that changes here didn't impact current members, and indeed, they don't. Someone who signs up keeps the price they sign up at, regardless of what you change the price to later.

Then I had a client ask whether it was possible to raise the price on current memberships. My first thought was 'no', but I was wrong. It's entirely possible in Stripe to change the price of a subscription. Here's how.

1) In Ghost, change the price of the tier. That'll cause Ghost to add a new price item over at Stripe. For my example, I'm going to change the yearly price from $52 to $60.

2) Go over to Stripe and click into products. Find your subscription tier product:

When I changed the price in Ghost, the new $60/year subscription appeared over here in Stripe.

Now I'm going to edit the subscriber in Stripe. Click "Customers" from the top menu, and then click the customer.

Next, click the edit symbol next to the subscription to your site.

I'm going to remove the existing product, and add the repriced product. I'm also going to uncheck 'prorate charges', because otherwise the user is going to get a BIGGER than expected charge, covering the current subscription period and the next one. Make sure it looks right, then click 'Update subscription'.

Head back to Ghost Admin and reload to see the member with the new price.

Looks perfect in Stripe and the Admin page.

Let's make sure it looks right for the user:

Also perfect!

Of course, just because you can do it, that doesn't necessarily mean it's great practice. If you are going to increase prices suddenly on your subscribers, you definitely need to be talking to them about it. Smarter people than me will need to weigh in on what's the best way to increase subscription pricing without having a mass exodus of customers.

Still, this sort of thing has a LOT of potential for the situation where you need to adjust the price for a customer for some reason. You can do that in Stripe! And it'll look right in Ghost, too!

Now, how do you do an across the board price increase? Stripe has an API, and it's doable programmatically.... If that client who asked about raising prices and kicked off this blog post decides to pay for the work, there may be a part two!

Update: Yep, that client decided to pay for the work. If you need bulk-repricing of subscribers, I've got it worked out, and can price adjust any number of Ghost subscribers for a flat fee of $100. Get in touch if you need help!

Hey, before you go... If your finances allow you to keep this tea-drinking ghost and the freelancer behind her supplied with our hot beverage of choice, we'd both appreciate it!

Buy me a tea ☕️