How Trial.io works
- What is card pre-authorization, and why do I want it on a trial?
- A pre-authorization places a temporary hold on a customer's card without charging it. On a SaaS trial, requiring a card filters out users who have no intent to pay, which historically lifts trial-to-paid conversion by 2x or more. Trial.io places the hold at signup through Stripe and captures the payment automatically when the trial converts.
- What happens after the Stripe 7-day hold expiry?
- For trials longer than 7 days, Trial.io saves the customer's payment method before the hold expires, cancels the original hold, and queues a new off-session PaymentIntent for 2 hours before the actual trial end. The customer never sees a re-prompt. The flow runs entirely in the background via cron.
- Does the payment go through Trial.io or my Stripe account?
- Every capture lands directly on your Stripe account. Trial.io connects via OAuth and never sits in the funds flow. Your payout schedule, refunds, and Stripe ledger stay exactly as they are today.
- Can I use my own domain?
- Yes. Add a CNAME on Growth and Scale plans, and your signup page serves from trials.yourdomain.com (or any subdomain you choose). SSL is provisioned automatically.
Setup and integration
- How long does setup take?
- Most teams are live in under 10 minutes: connect Stripe via OAuth, customize a page, share or embed the link. No engineering work required for the standard flow.
- Do I need to write any code?
- Not for the hosted page. If you want to embed the form directly on your own marketing site, drop in a single script tag with your page ID. For deeper integrations, Trial.io exposes webhooks for every trial event.
- What if I already have a signup flow?
- You can keep it. Trial.io can run as a standalone hosted page, an embedded widget on your existing flow, or behind your own checkout via API. Most teams replace just the card-collection step.
Payments, refunds, and security
- Are card details stored on Trial.io servers?
- No. Card details are collected by Stripe Elements directly in the customer's browser and tokenized via Stripe. Trial.io is in PCI scope SAQ A: we never see, store, or transmit the card PAN.
- What happens if a capture fails?
- Failed captures trigger an automatic recovery flow with up to 3 retries and a customer-facing dunning email. You get notified in Slack and email, and you can override behavior per-customer from the dashboard.
- How do refunds work?
- Refunds happen in Stripe, exactly as they do today. Trial.io captures land on your Stripe account, and you can refund them from the Stripe dashboard or from inside Trial.io.
- Which regions and currencies are supported?
- Any region and currency Stripe supports for manual-capture PaymentIntents, which covers most of North America, Europe, and APAC. SCA / 3D Secure is handled automatically where required.
Pricing and billing
- Is there a free plan?
- Yes. The Starter plan is free for the first 100 trial signups per month. After that, you can stay on usage-based pricing or move to a flat monthly plan.
- Are there platform fees on captures?
- No. We do not take a cut of your captures. You pay Stripe their standard processing fee and Trial.io a flat subscription.
- Can I cancel anytime?
- Yes. Cancel from the billing tab and you keep access through the end of your current billing period. We do not pro-rate refunds for partial months. See our cancellation and refunds policy for details.
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