In this episode, we're diving into how to enable free trials for subscriptions using Stripe and Laravel Cashier. We'll walk through the super-simple process of setting up a trial period—literally just adding a number of trial days to your code! Once that's done, Stripe and Cashier handle the rest for us, automatically charging the user when the trial ends and firing off relevant webhooks.
But we don't stop there. We'll improve the user experience by showing trial users exactly how many days they have left before their paid subscription kicks in. We clean up the database, test the trial sign-up, and see how subscription data gets stored — including the trial end date. From there, we add a "trial ends in X days" message to the nav dropdown (or wherever you want), with logic to only display it for actual trial users.
You'll also see some Blade template tips, including safely checking for authentication and subscription status, and using PHP to format how many days are left (and handling those pesky decimals). Plus, there are ideas on how to customize the display further, like showing "ends today" on the last day or sending emails when the trial expires.
By the end of this episode, you'll know how to add a trial period to your subscription flow, keep users informed, and manage everything on the backend—super useful for any SaaS app!