Plan configuration

Streams Manager offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to defining your plans. In this context, plans are products you sell for a certain period of time. To define you plans, open Payments & Plans on the main menu and click on Plans. By default, the system adds a few default plans which you can edit to suit your needs or remove. There is no limit on the number of plans you can add however, keep in mind that all active plans will show up in the plan selection dropdown on the checkout page and pricing section of the home page (if show pricing section is enabled). Also, ensure that there is exactly one plan marked as default. WhenStreams Manager detects that a user shares one of your Plex servers but that user is not yet tracked inStreams Manager, the system will import the user and assign it to the default plan. In addition, if you plan on offering free trials, there needs to be exactly one plan marked as trial.

By default all plans you create will become available in pay as you go mode. To enable a plan in recurring mode, it is required to configure Stripe price ID and payPal plan ID. See Recurring plans setup for information on how to configure recurring plans.

Plan settings are as follows:

• Plan name - specifies the name of the plan that users will see on theplan selection dropdown on the checkout page and pricing section of the home page (if show pricing section is enabled)
• Plan cost - specifies the cost of the plan
• Library types included in the plan - iIndicates the types of libraries included in this plan. At least one library type is required.Streams Manager will share libraries in selected group with users who select this plan
• Maximum concurrent streams/devices - iIndicates the maximum number of concurrent streams/devices the plan allows. WhenStreams Manager detects that a user is using more concurrent devices than specified by their plan, their stream will be stopped, a message will be sent to the user and a warning will be logged against their account. Please see HowStreams Manager enforces streaming limits article that explains how the streaming enforcement works.To enforce this limit, your Plex account must have Plex Pass.
• Plan duration in months - iIndicates the duration of the plan in months. Actual duration is a sum of months, days and hours
• Plan duration in days - iIndicates the duration of the plan in months. Actual duration is a sum of months, days and hours
• Plan duration in hours - iIndicates the duration of the plan in months. Actual duration is a sum of months, days and hours
• Stripe price ID - indicates the Stripe price ID of the recurring plan setup in Stripe. When specified, this plan will become available in both pay as you go and recurring mode. This is required if you want to use Stripe to use this plan in recurring mode. See Recurring plans setup for information how to configure recurring plans.
• PayPal plan ID - indicates the PayPal plan ID of the recurring plan setup in PayPal.When specified, this plan will become available in both pay as you go and recurring mode. This is required if you want to use PayPal and allow this plan to be used in recurring mode.
• Active - indicates whether this plan is active and whether to showin the plan selection dropdown on the checkout page and pricing section of the home page. Inactive plans are still accessible to administrators when manually adding a user and users who have a recurring payment plan (i.e. they are grandfathered in).
• Default plan - indicates whether this plan is a default plan.WhenStreams Manager detects that a user shares one of your Plex servers but that user is not yet tracked inStreams Manager, the system will import the user and assign it to the default plan
• Allow transcoding - indicates whether this plan will allow any media transcoding (4K transcoding is controlled at the server level). To enforce this limit, your Plex account must have Plex Pass
• Allow downloads - indicates whether this plan will allow mobile device downloading. Please see HowStreams Manager enforces download limits article that explains how the download enforcement works
• Trial plan - indicates whether this is a trial plan used for free trials
• Display order - indicates the order in which plans are shown to the user. Plans with lower display order are shown earlier in the list

Recurring plans setup

Each active plan you create will be availablein the plan selection dropdown on thepay as you go checkout page and pricing section of the home page. If you wish to offer the same plan as a recurring plan as well, you will need to populate the Stripe Price ID and/or PayPal Plan ID fields.

Stripe recurring plan setup

Stripe uses slightly different terms to describe how their service works. In case of Stripe, a Stripe product is either a product or service you sell and a Stripe price is a concept that combines the Stripe product, cost for the product and amount of time the product/service is valid for. It is recommended to create Stripe products that are equivalent to plans inStreams Manager and create a Stripe price for a Stripe product that matches the plan cost and duration inStreams Manager. Then copy the Stripe price ID and paste into the plan details inStreams Manager. To see how to create Stripe product and price, please see Stripe documentation. Once the plan has been updated with Stripe price ID, the plan will show in the plan selection dropdown on the Recurring checkout.

PayPal recurring plan setup

PayPal uses more standard terms to describe how their service works. Similarly to Stripe, PayPal uses products and plans. Just like with Stripe, it is recommended to create PayPal products that are equivalent to plans inStreams Manager and create a payPal subscription for that product that matches the plan cost and duration inStreams Manager. Then copy the payPal plan ID and paste into the plan details inStreams Manager. To create PayPal product and plan, please follow these steps:

• Login to your PayPal account. You need to have a PayPal business account to take advantage of recurring plans
• Click on Pay & Get Paid in the main menu and then Subscriptions on the right
• Click on Subscription plans in the left navigation bar
• Click Create Plan button
• Scroll to the bottom and click Create a subscription product
• Fill in product details including the description and ensure it closely matches the name of the plan inStreams Manager so you can correlate the two
• For product type, select Digital goods
• For industry category, select Software
• Leave other fields blank
• Click the Next button and your product will be created and you will redirected to the create plan page
• Select the product you just created by clicking the circle next to it
• Scroll down and click on the Next button
• Select Fixed pricing and click the Next button
• Enter plan name that closely correlates to your plan name inStreams Manager and click the Next button
• Select the currency you wish to use (this should match the currency selected inStreams Manager on Payment Gateways settings page)
• Leave "Charge a one-time setup fee" unchecked as it is not supported byStreams Manager. However, a single trial period is supported. You set the cost to a value or to zero and also set the duration. Once someone subscribes to this plan,Streams Manager will create a first payment entry for the user to cover the trial periodfirst (payment will be the cost of the trial period) and once the subscription payment is made,Streams Manager will import that payment via transaction sync and extend the subscription as normal. There is no special setup needed inStreams Manager for it to detect that a plan has a trial period
• Set the subscription period and price/cost to match the plan duration and cost inStreams Manager
• Tax calculation should be set to "Don't calculate tax"
• Click the Next button
• Click the Turn Plan On button
• You will get an option to create PayPal buttons. We can skip this so click "Do this later" in the bottom left
• You will be redirected to Subscription plans where you can see your newly created subscription plan. Right above the plan is the plan ID is gray font that starts with P- (P dash). Copy this ID ensuring no leading or trailing spaces are copied and paste into PayPal plan ID field on Plan edit screen inStreams Manager
• Repeat this process for other plans you wish to offer as recurring plans

Once the plan has been updated with PayPal plan ID, the plan will show in the plan selection dropdown on the Recurring checkout.