Title: Chala Subscriptions for WooCommerce
Author: bytloop
Published: Hagayya 28, 2026
Last modified: Hagayya 28, 2026
---
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# Chala Subscriptions for WooCommerce
By [bytloop](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bytloop/)
[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/chala-subscriptions.1.0.0.zip)
* [Details](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/chala-subscriptions/#description)
* [Reviews](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/chala-subscriptions/#reviews)
* [Installation](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/chala-subscriptions/#installation)
* [Development](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/chala-subscriptions/#developers)
[Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/chala-subscriptions/)
## Description
**Chala** (pronounced CHOH-la, Bengali for “to keep going”) turns any WooCommerce
product into one that bills on a schedule, using the payment gateway you already
have configured.
Sell a product that bills weekly, monthly or yearly, and let Chala handle the rest:
taking the renewal payment on time, retrying it when the card declines, emailing
the customer, and giving them a place to pause or cancel without opening a support
ticket.
Every amount is stored as an integer in the currency’s smallest unit, so JPY (no
decimals) and KWD (three) are as correct as USD. Every webhook is de-duplicated
before it is acted on, because payment providers deliver the same event more than
once. Every subscription order is a real WooCommerce order under High-Performance
Order Storage.
Built by the team behind [Nishchoy Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/nishchoy-reviews/)
and [Uttor AEO](https://wordpress.org/plugins/uttor-aeo/).
#### Features (free)
* **Subscription products** — recurring daily / weekly / monthly / yearly, billed
every period or every Nth period
* **Free trials** — delay the first payment by any number of days
* **Sign-up fees** — a one-time charge taken with the first payment
* **Fixed-length subscriptions** — stop automatically after a set number of payments
* **Stripe integration** — full support for saved cards, SCA/3DS, and automatic
renewals
* **PayPal integration** — Reference Transactions for renewals
* **Manual renewal** — for merchants who invoice offline
* **Customer portal** — subscribers manage their own subscriptions in My Account(
pause, resume, cancel, update payment method, update address)
* **Merchant admin** — full subscription list with filters, individual editor,
manual creation, bulk actions
* **Automatic renewals** — powered by Action Scheduler, idempotent by design
* **Failed payment retries** — retry on a fixed schedule, with a cap you set
* **MRR dashboard** — see active count and monthly recurring revenue at a glance
* **Email notifications** — subscription started, renewal successful, renewal failed,
cancelled, and more
* **Full audit log** — every subscription state change recorded with who/what/when
* **Migration from official WooCommerce Subscriptions** — one-click, dry-run first
* **HPOS-native** — first-class WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage support
* **REST API** — headless-friendly, works with block-based checkout
* **WP-CLI commands** — `wp chala list`, `wp chala renew`, `wp chala export`
* **Gateway self-test** — `wp chala gateway-selftest ` charges your
sandbox,
replays the charge to prove a retried renewal will not bill twice, and refunds
it. It refuses to run against live credentials.
* **Data ownership** — everything in your WordPress database, no third-party servers
#### Pro version
[Chala Pro](https://chala.bytloop.com/) is a separate plugin that adds five more
gateways (Authorize.Net, plus Razorpay, Mollie, Paystack and Square as experimental—
see the FAQ), multiple plans per product, prorated upgrades and downgrades, configurable
dunning retry ladders, subscriber-only coupons, cohort retention analytics, cancellation
save flows, and priority support. Everything described above is in this plugin and
stays that way.
#### Works with Nishchoy Reviews and Uttor AEO
Chala integrates with our other plugins when they are installed. Nishchoy Reviews
can request a review from long-term subscribers. Uttor AEO adds recurring price
information to your subscription products’ schema markup. Neither is required.
#### Migration from WooCommerce Subscriptions
If you’re on the official plugin, migrate in three steps:
1. Install Chala alongside the official plugin.
2. Run `wp chala migrate --dry-run` to preview.
3. Run `wp chala migrate --commit` to import.
Full guide at [chala.bytloop.com/migration](https://chala.bytloop.com/migration).
#### Security
Chala takes money-handling seriously. Payment method tokens are encrypted at rest.
Webhook receivers verify cryptographic signatures. Every renewal is idempotent —
replayed webhooks never cause double-charges. Every state change is audit-logged
for reconstruction. Full details at [chala.bytloop.com/security](https://chala.bytloop.com/security).
Chala never touches raw card data. Card entry happens in the payment gateway’s own
iframes or redirects, keeping your PCI compliance scope at SAQ A.
### External services
Chala talks to a payment provider only when you have configured that provider and
only to move money you asked it to move. It has no analytics, no telemetry, and
no phone-home of any kind. Nothing is sent anywhere if you use manual renewal.
#### Stripe
Used when you enable the Stripe gateway, to charge subscription renewals and to
store a reusable payment method.
Chala sends to `api.stripe.com`: the renewal amount and currency, the Stripe customer
and payment method identifiers created for that customer at checkout, an idempotency
key generated by Chala, and your site’s Stripe secret key for authentication. It
reads back the charge result. Renewal charges are sent when a subscription is due;
payment method lookups happen when a customer opens or updates a subscription. Chala
never sends or receives raw card numbers — card entry happens in Stripe’s own fields.
Stripe also sends webhooks back to your site to report payment outcomes.
This service is provided by Stripe: [terms of service](https://stripe.com/legal/ssa),
[privacy policy](https://stripe.com/privacy).
#### PayPal
Used when you enable the PayPal gateway, to charge subscription renewals against
a billing agreement the customer approved at checkout.
Chala sends to `api-m.paypal.com` (or `api-m.sandbox.paypal.com` in sandbox mode):
the renewal amount and currency, the billing agreement or vault identifier for that
customer, a request identifier generated by Chala, and your site’s PayPal client
credentials for authentication. It reads back the payment result. Requests are made
when a subscription renewal is due and when a customer updates their payment method.
PayPal also sends webhooks back to your site to report payment outcomes.
This service is provided by PayPal: [terms of service](https://www.paypal.com/legalhub/useragreement-full),
[privacy policy](https://www.paypal.com/legalhub/privacy-full).
### Source code
Chala ships no minified, obfuscated or compiled code that is not accompanied by
its source.
The admin and front-end scripts under `assets/` are the original, unminified source
and are what runs in the browser.
The one bundled script is `build/blocks-totals.js`, used by the block-based cart
and checkout. Its source is `assets-src/blocks/blocks-totals.js`, and the `webpack.
config.js`, `package.json` and `package-lock.json` that build it are all included
in this plugin. From the plugin directory:
```
npm install
npm run build
```
That rebuilds `build/blocks-totals.js` from that source, using [@wordpress/scripts](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@wordpress/scripts).
No repository access or additional tooling is required.
## Screenshots
[⌊Customer subscription list in My Account.⌉⌊Customer subscription list in My Account
.⌉[
Customer subscription list in My Account.
[⌊Subscription detail with cancel, pause, and update payment method options.⌉⌊Subscription
detail with cancel, pause, and update payment method options.⌉[
Subscription detail with cancel, pause, and update payment method options.
[⌊Admin subscription list with filters.⌉⌊Admin subscription list with filters.⌉[
Admin subscription list with filters.
[⌊Settings, including which gateways have been verified against the provider.⌉⌊Settings,
including which gateways have been verified against the provider.⌉[
Settings, including which gateways have been verified against the provider.
## Installation
1. Go to Plugins Add New in your WordPress admin.
2. Search for “Chala Subscriptions”.
3. Click **Install Now**, then **Activate**.
4. Follow the setup wizard: connect at least one payment gateway.
5. Create a subscription product from Products Add New Product data “Simple subscription”.
#### Requirements
* WordPress 6.3 or newer
* WooCommerce 8.0 or newer
* PHP 7.4 or newer (8.1+ recommended)
* At least one supported payment gateway configured
## FAQ
### Is this really free?
Yes. Unlimited subscriptions, unlimited products, trials, sign-up fees, custom billing
intervals, the full customer portal, the admin tools and the MRR dashboard. Nothing
here is time-limited or disabled until you pay. Pro is a separate plugin that adds
more on top.
### Will my existing WooCommerce Subscriptions data migrate?
Yes. Chala includes a one-click importer with dry-run mode. Test on staging first.
Full migration guide at [chala.bytloop.com/migration](https://chala.bytloop.com/migration).
### What happens if a renewal payment fails?
Chala retries on a fixed schedule up to a limit you set, emails the customer each
time, and puts the subscription on hold when the retries run out. Pro adds configurable
retry ladders and recovery analytics.
### Does it work with variable products?
Chala adds a simple subscription product type. Variable and grouped subscription
products are in Pro.
### Does it handle SCA / 3D Secure?
Yes, via Stripe’s Payment Intents API. Cards requiring authentication trigger the
appropriate flow.
### Is it HPOS-compatible?
Yes. Chala is built HPOS-native. Subscription orders and renewal orders are first-
class WooCommerce orders under HPOS. We never touch `wp_posts` for order data.
### Does it handle refunds?
Yes. Full and partial refunds are supported through the WooCommerce order admin.
Chargebacks are handled via gateway webhooks and update subscription status appropriately.
### Which gateways have been tested against the real provider?
Stripe and Authorize.Net have. Both have been charged repeatedly against the providers’
own sandboxes — real cards, real declines, real webhook signatures, real duplicate
detection.
PayPal (free) and Razorpay, Mollie, Paystack and Square (Pro) have not. Each is
written against its provider’s published API and covered by tests that assert exactly
what Chala sends — endpoint, authentication, idempotency mechanism, amount format,
and how each decline is read — but nobody has charged them for real.
The reason is eligibility, not effort. PayPal does not operate in the country this
plugin is built in, and the other four require a business registered in India, the
EEA, Africa, or one of Square’s eight supported countries. Those are walls, not
queues.
We are telling you because charging a real provider is what finds the bugs mocks
cannot. Doing it to Authorize.Net found four, including one that made the integration
completely non-functional — while every one of its contract tests passed.
**If you run one of these, you can settle it in five minutes.** With the gateway
in sandbox mode and one test subscription bought:
```
wp chala gateway-selftest paypal
```
It charges a stored payment method, replays the charge to prove a retried renewal
cannot bill twice, refunds it, and prints a report. It refuses to run against live
credentials — the gateway has to declare sandbox mode, and anything that does not
say so is treated as production. Send us the output and that gateway comes off this
list.
### Can I run multiple gateways for the same store?
Yes. Customers pick which gateway they want at checkout. Each subscription is tied
to a single gateway for its lifetime.
### Where can I get support?
Free support is available in the plugin’s [support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/chala-subscriptions/)
on wordpress.org. Pro customers get email support with a 24-hour response SLA.
### I’m a developer — where are the hooks?
The hooks reference lives at [chala.bytloop.com/docs/hooks](https://chala.bytloop.com/docs/hooks)
and in `/docs/hooks.md` in the plugin.
## Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
## Contributors & Developers
“Chala Subscriptions for WooCommerce” is open source software. The following people
have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
* [ bytloop ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bytloop/)
[Translate “Chala Subscriptions for WooCommerce” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/chala-subscriptions)
### Interested in development?
[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/chala-subscriptions/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/chala-subscriptions/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/chala-subscriptions/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/chala-subscriptions/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).
## Changelog
#### 1.0.0
* Initial release.
## Meta
* Version **1.0.0**
* Last updated **2 days ago**
* Active installations **Fewer than 10**
* WordPress version ** 6.3 or higher **
* Tested up to **7.1**
* PHP version ** 7.4 or higher **
* Language
* [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/chala-subscriptions/)
* Tags
* [paypal](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/paypal/)[Recurring payments](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/recurring-payments/)
[stripe](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/stripe/)[subscriptions](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/subscriptions/)
[woocommerce](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/woocommerce/)
* [Advanced View](https://gax.wordpress.org/plugins/chala-subscriptions/advanced/)
## Ratings
No reviews have been submitted yet.
[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/chala-subscriptions/reviews/#new-post)
[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/chala-subscriptions/reviews/)
## Contributors
* [ bytloop ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bytloop/)
## Support
Got something to say? Need help?
[View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/chala-subscriptions/)
## Donate
Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?
[ Donate to this plugin ](https://bytloop.com/)