A free trial will set up a subscription without charging the customer on checkout.
Free trials are only available for Multiple Payments and Subscription type products. To set up a free trial, add
the number of days the free trial should last when setting up the product pricing.
A Setup Fee is a one-time fee that is added to the cart at checkout. It can be added to any type of product, but
is usually used with Subscription or Multiple Payment products. The setup fee is charged at the time of checkout, so
even when combined with a free trial product, the customer will be charged the setup fee amount.
Common cases for using a setup fee:
It can be added to a free trial subscription product as a "financial commitment". For example to charge the customer
$1 during the free trial period
Charging a discounted first period of a subscription product - see below.
Trial periods for subscriptions can be combined with one time charges as well.
This may happen if you want to charge a one time fee or add-on at the same time as starting a trial.
Sometimes you want to incentive your customers to buy a subscription using a discount, but the discount should
only apply for the first period of the subscription. This can be achieved by combining a Free Trial with a
Setup Fee.
For example, say you want to set up a subscription of $100 but want to offer a 50% discount for the first month, so that
the customer pays only $50 when they sign up and then $100 per month for the rest of the subscription. This can be achieved by using
combining a free trial of 30 days with a setup fee of $50. The customer will therefore pay the $50 "setup fee" on checkout, and after
30 days the $100 subscription will start.
Here's an example of a $10 subscription product with a 10 day free trial, and a $5 setup fee.