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←  Fourthwall Blog
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Apr 23, 2024
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3
min read

Introducing Free Membership Accounts

Grow your community like never before by allowing members to subscribe to your content for free
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Table of Contents

We're thrilled to announce an exciting addition to our platform: Free membership accounts! This fantastic new feature will allow you to grow & engage with your community like never before.

How do free accounts work?

On top of paid memberships, you can now offer a free option for supporters who aren’t quite ready to commit to a recurring monthly charge, but would like to stay connected and receive updates from you.

Free account users will receive updates on newly released public posts (when you create posts marked as viewable by “Everyone”) and can interact with them in the form of likes & comments. On their feed, they’ll also see members-only content in a locked state that will prompt them to upgrade their account to a paid membership.

Think of this almost as a free tier that can be used to keep supporters updated while also encouraging them to upgrade to a paid membership tier. 

What are the benefits of offering free accounts?

There are several benefits to offering free accounts on your membership site:

  1. Community growth - You can speed up your community growth by offering a free option for supporters who’re not yet ready for a paid commitment. Providing good content and reminding them that they can unlock even more, such as members-only posts or direct messages, can be used as an upselling tool to convert them into paid members
  2. Greater reach & engagement - With public posts and more supporters subscribed to your website, you’ll be able to reach more people and your engagement will automatically be greater
  3. Win former members back - If a member cancels their paid subscription, their account will automatically become a free account. With this, they’ll be able to view public posts, which you can use to help win them back into a paid membership

How do I offer free accounts?

Free accounts are automatically enabled on your account. There are two groups that all automatically have access to your public posts: Former members, and people who begin checkout but don’t proceed with the payment.

However, you can control whether or not you promote this free account option by visiting the Memberships / Settings tab:

If you enabled Memberships after April 23, 2024 then this promotional option will be automatically enabled. If you enabled Memberships before that date, you’ll need to toggle it on manually.

Once you select the  “Show free account signup link” option, a “Start with a free account” link will be displayed above your Tiers in all the different locations (e.g. tiers section of your site, become a member page, etc).

Can I disable free accounts?

You can hide the promotion of free membership accounts, but they’ll continue to exist in your system as former members will automatically be granted free accounts. To hide the promotion, just visit the Memberships / Settings and select the “Hide free account signup link” option.

Get started today

We're so excited to see how you use this new feature. To learn more, head to our help center article. If you’re not already using Fourthwall to power your Memberships, now’s a great time to join Fourthwall and enable memberships!

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Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to use Fourthwall?

There are no monthly fees, no upfront costs, and no contracts to use Fourthwall. You set your prices and choose your own margins. Here is how our pricing and splits work when you sell:

  • Products from our product catalog. All products in our product catalog have a publicly listed flat fee, which gets deducted from the selling price you set. There are no extra percentages/margins. You keep 100% of profits.
  • Products you ship yourself. No fee (0% fee)
  • Digital products. 3% flat fee
  • Subscription memberships. 5% flat fee

Additionally, all US-based credit card transactions have an added 2.9% + $0.30 payment processing fee (same as Shopify). Fees vary for PayPal and other providers. Learn more.

How much money do I make on sales from the Fourthwall catalog?

Product costs are listed directly in our product catalog.

If a t-shirt is listed in our catalog at a $10 cost, we will automatically deduct that amount from your profits whenever you make a sale. You can sell products for any price you want.

For example, if you sell the shirt for $22, you'll make $12 in profit on each unit sold. If you sell it for $50, then you'll make $40 in profit on each unit sold.

Does Fourthwall ship worldwide?

Yes! Fourthwall works with manufacturing & fulfillment partners around the globe in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Japan.

Shipping rates are dynamically determined by the size of package and destination. We work with most major carriers and pass through the true cost of shipping. That means that you can offer low-cost, fast shipping to your fans. Most items have a delivery window of 5-8 days.

Be sure to browse our product catalog to find products that are fulfilled out of your target regions to provide the fastest & cheapest shipping for your community.

Does Fourthwall handle sales tax?

Fourthwall operates as the "Merchant of Record", which means that we're responsible for handling all sales taxes. This includes nexus registration, collecting sales tax, and remitting this to US states & other countries.

That way you can focus on designing products and promoting your shop, not taxes.

Can I connect a custom domain to Fourthwall?

Yes. You can connect a custom domain or subdomain on Fourthwall. Learn More.

Does Fourthwall offer artwork & design support?

If you need help finding an artist or designer, check out our design community.

This is a vetted network of exceptional designers that can help you make great quality designs for your audience. We also recommend tools like Canva or Kittl.

Does Fourthwall provide customer support for my orders?

Yes. For any product from our product catalog, we'll handle all customer support for you.

From answering general order questions to making address changes, our team is there to ensure that your buyers are treated with the same level of care that you would personally give them. We have a 12-hour or less average reply time, including nights and weekends.

For any items that you source on your own and ship from home, however, you'll need to do customer support.

Can you show me examples of storefronts on Fourthwall?

Yes! Over 200,000 sellers use Fourthwall to power their storefronts. This includes creators, podcasters, artists, musicians, startups, non-profits, and more.

Get inspired and browse all examples sites.

What integrations does Fourthwall have?

Fourthwall supports many free integrations, including:

  • YouTube Product Shelf (Merch Shelf)
  • TikTok Shop
  • Facebook and Instagram Shopping
  • Twitch Product Gifting
  • StreamElements and Streamlabs stream alerts
  • Zapier
  • Klaviyo
  • Mailchimp
  • And many, many more

See all apps & integrations.

Are there any requirements to join Fourthwall?

There are no requirements to join Fourthwall! Sign up now.