How access & monetization works
Status: Available The one concept to understand before anything else: how you sell access and what your members get.
This is the core idea behind TribeCrafter. Once it clicks, everything else (products, plans, groups, courses, blogs)
makes sense. Most of the other guides link back here.
The one rule: you sell access, not items
You never put a price on a course, a group, or a blog directly. Instead, you create a product or a plan, and you choose
what that product or plan unlocks. The course or group is the thing your members get; the product or plan is how they
get it.
There are exactly two ways to sell:
1. One-time products: a single payment
A product is bought once. The member pays, and they get the access you attached to it.
That access can be:
- Lifetime: it never expires. The member keeps it forever.
- Time-limited: it lasts for a set period (for example, 3 months), then expires.
You set this up in Products (/admin/content/product).
2. Subscription plans: a recurring payment
A plan is a subscription billed monthly or yearly. Access lasts as long as the subscription is active. If the member
cancels or their payment stops, the access goes away.
A member can have one active subscription at a time. If they switch to a different plan, the old subscription ends and
the new one takes over.
You set this up in Plans (/admin/content/plan).
Quick comparison
| | One-time product | Subscription plan | |---|---|---| | How it's paid | Once | Recurring (monthly or yearly) | | How
long access lasts | Lifetime, or a fixed period | As long as the subscription stays active | | How many at once | A
member can hold several | One active subscription per member | | Where you set it up | Products | Plans |
Choosing what a product or plan unlocks
When you create a product or plan, you decide what content it gives access to. For each content type (groups, courses,
blogs) you have two ways to choose:
- Everything of a type: unlock all groups, or all courses, or all blogs. This includes anything you add later.
- Specific items: pick the exact groups, courses, or blogs to include.
You can combine these across types. For example: unlock all courses and one specific group.
The override rule: if you choose "everything of a type" for a type, that wins over any specific picks for that same
type. So if you set "all courses" and also picked one specific course, the member gets all courses anyway. The two
settings combine across types but the "everything" setting always wins within a type.
What members get for free, always
A lot of your community is free to every signed-up member, no purchase required. This is the always-free baseline:
- Signing up and creating their profile
- The newsfeed (reading, posting, commenting, reacting, polls)
- Following and connecting with other members
- Direct messages (1:1 chat)
- Browsing free content: free groups, public blogs (in full), and the public details of your courses and groups
The entire social layer is always free. Members never pay to interact.
What's gated behind a product or plan
These are the things a member only gets after buying a product or being on the right plan:
- Paid courses: the lessons are locked until the member has access (free courses can be joined directly without buying
anything)
- Paid groups: a group whose Type is paid, unlocked by attaching it to a product or plan (free groups are open to join
directly)
- Premium blogs: the full article is shown only to members with access; everyone else sees a short summary
A quick note on terms: a group has a Type: free or paid. A free group is open to join directly, with no purchase; a paid
group is unlocked by including it in a product or plan. Blogs work the same way: a blog is either public (readable by
anyone) or premium (unlocked by bundling it into a product or plan).
Related
- What is TribeCrafter
- Your go-live checklist
- Create a one-time product
- Create a subscription plan