Paid Access Forums: Charge Subscriptions for Sub-Communities

Why it matters

Free communities grow audiences. Paid forums turn them into revenue.

You built a community. You grew it. Now you want to monetize a slice of it without moving your best content to a separate platform, a separate login, or a separate payment layer.

Paid access forums solve that. You pick a forum, set a monthly price, and flip it to "paid." Members who subscribe get full access. Members who do not subscribe see the forum in the listing with a lock icon and a landing page that explains what they are missing. No separate tool. No extra login. No platform percentage.

How the subscription flow works

The entire flow, from discovery to payment to access, stays inside your community.

1. Admin creates a paid forum

Open the admin panel, create a forum (or edit an existing one), and set its access rule to "paid." Configure a monthly price. That is it. The forum is now gated.

2. Members discover the forum

Paid forums appear in your community's forum listings alongside free forums. A lock icon signals that the forum requires a subscription. Members can click through to the forum's landing page at /forums/{slug}/about to learn more before subscribing.

3. Members subscribe through Stripe Checkout

The landing page shows a "Subscribe" button. Clicking it sends the member to Stripe Checkout, connected to your tenant's own Stripe account. The member enters payment details and confirms. After payment, access is granted immediately. No manual approval step (unless you enable it).

4. Access renews monthly

Subscriptions renew automatically each month until the member cancels. When a member cancels, access continues through the end of the current billing period. No surprise cutoffs.

The forum landing page

Every forum, free or paid, gets a community landing page at /forums/{slug}/about. This page does heavy lifting for paid forums because it is the conversion surface that turns browsers into subscribers.

What the landing page shows

• Gradient hero. A visual header that sets the tone for the sub-community.
• About section. A description of the forum's purpose, written by the admin.
• Recent activity preview. A glimpse of recent threads so prospects see real engagement before subscribing.
• Community rules. The forum's code of conduct, visible before entry.
• Top contributors. Profiles of the most active members in the forum.
• Creator bio. A short profile of the forum owner or lead moderator.
• Info card. Quick stats: member count, post count, creation date.
• Sidebar with subscribe CTA. A persistent call-to-action with the monthly price and a one-click path to Stripe Checkout.

State-aware rendering

The landing page adapts to the viewer's relationship with the forum. It renders differently for at least five states:

• Non-member. Sees the full pitch with a subscribe CTA.
• Free member. Sees the pitch with a subscribe CTA (they are in the community but not subscribed to this forum).
• Paid subscriber. Sees the landing page with a "Go to forum" button and subscription management options.
• Booster. May see full access if the admin has configured booster-tier access for this forum.
• Admin. Sees the landing page plus admin controls for editing, pricing, and subscriber management.

Access gating

The paywall is real. It is not a soft gate or a "preview with blur" trick.

• Non-subscribers see the forum in listings with a lock icon.
• Clicking through shows the landing page with a subscription CTA.
• All threads and replies are hidden until the member subscribes.
• Admins and moderators bypass the paywall automatically.
• Server boosters at configurable tiers may also receive access.

Revenue model

The economics are simple. You keep 100% of subscription revenue.

• 100% to you. Every dollar from paid forum subscriptions goes to your tenant's Stripe account.
• Zero platform fees. Mobieus does not take a cut on paid forum subscriptions.
• Stripe processing only. Stripe charges its standard 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction. That is the only fee.

If you charge $10/month and have 200 subscribers, you collect $2,000/month. Stripe takes roughly $88. Mobieus takes $0. You keep $1,912.

Admin controls

Paid forums give you granular control over pricing, access, and visibility.

• Toggle any forum to paid. Switch an existing free forum to paid access from the admin panel. Or create a new paid forum from scratch.
• Set price per forum. Each paid forum has its own monthly price. You can run a $5/month general forum alongside a $50/month mastermind forum.
• View subscriber count and revenue. The admin dashboard shows active subscribers and revenue per forum.
• Manual approval mode. Optionally require admin approval before granting access. Useful for curated or application-only communities.

Who it is for

Pricing and availability