A paywall in Heartbeat controls whether a member can access your community when their subscription lapses. This article explains how paywalls work, when to use them, and how to avoid common issues with this feature.
What a paywall does
When a member's subscription is canceled or expires, Heartbeat can respond in one of two ways depending on how you've configured the offer:
- Block Community Access – The member is locked out of the entire community. They see a "This is a paid community" screen with an option to resubscribe.
- Remove Offer Access – The member loses access to the group(s) tied to that Offer but stays in the community in a churned state.
You set this behavior per Offer. Edit your Offer and look for the On Cancellation option.
If I have multiple Offers and the member is paywalled in one of them, what happens?
Heartbeat's paywall logic is community-wide, not per-Offer. If any of a member's subscriptions triggers a paywall, they lose access to the entire community.
Example: A member subscribes to Offer A and Offer B. Offer A has Block Community Access enabled. The member cancels Offer A but keeps Offer B active. Despite having a valid subscription to Offer B, the member is fully locked out of the community because Offer A's paywall is active.
To resolve this, you can either:
- Update your existing Offers to not have any active paywalls
- Remove the member from the paywalled Offer so they can continue accessing your community
How to remove a paywall from a member
- Go to Settings > People > Members.
- Open the dropdown at the top left of the list and select Paywalled. Paywalled members don't appear in the default list. The Paywalled offer column shows which Offer is causing the paywall.
- Press the 3-dot menu on the member's row and choose Remove from Offer or Give Exemption.
Remove from Offer takes them out of that Offer and lifts the paywall. They lose that Offer's content but keep everything else, including any other Offer they're paying for.
Give Exemption lifts the paywall and gives them free, permanent access to that Offer's content.
The same options are on the Revenue tab of the member's page, on the row marked Paywall, and on the Paywalled tab of the Offer itself.
What happens when a member is paywalled?
When a member is paywalled:
- They no longer receive notifications or weekly digest emails
- They still appear in DMs, @-mentions, and member counts
- They can still be targeted by automated workflows
Channel-level access vs. paywalls
If what you actually want is to restrict specific channels or content to paid members, rather than locking people out of the community entirely, that's handled through Access Groups, not paywalls.
Channels with no Access Group assigned are open to all community members by default. To restrict a channel to a specific tier or Offer, assign an Access Group to it.
Frequently asked questions
A member says they can't access the community even though they're subscribed. What's happening?
Check whether they have another subscription – past or present – tied to an offer with Block Community Access enabled. If a previous subscription on that offer lapsed, it may be overriding their current active subscription.
Does rejoining with the same email fix a paywall?
No. A new subscription on a different Offer doesn't clear the paywall triggered by an old canceled Offer. Remove them from the paywalled Offer and their current subscription takes effect.
A member paid an overdue invoice but is still paywalled. Why?
When a renewal fails repeatedly, Stripe cancels the subscription. Paying the outstanding invoice afterwards doesn't restart it, so the paywall stays up. To let them back in, choose Give Exemption on their row. An exemption gives access without a subscription, so they won't be billed again. To have them paying again, ask them to subscribe through the Offer at its current price.
A member keeps buying the same Offer again. Why?
An exemption isn't a purchase. Give Exemption removes their purchase record, so nothing shows they already have the Offer and they can buy it again from your sign-up page. If they should be paying, choose Remove from Offer instead and have them buy it once. If they should have it for free, give the exemption and tell them they don't need to buy it.
What's the difference between paywalling and removing a member?
A paywalled member is still in your community – they just can't access it. They remain in your member list, can be targeted by workflows, and can resubscribe. Removing a member takes them out of the community entirely.
Can I force a paywall to be shown to a member?
Yes! Paywalls are set at the Offer level, which means that only members within that Offer will see a paywall. To show a paywall to members that aren't yet in the Offer, you first need to add them in by using the "Add Members" button.
Then, you'll be able to see an option to show a paywall for any selected users: