The five offers
Every cancel attempt is a negotiation. Unchurn ships with five offers, ordered by concession size — the smallest reversible give first, an outright exit last. The engine scores each one against the subscription and the customer’s reason, then routes the customer to the offer that fits. The order on this page is the typical waterfall; most teams ship it unchanged.
Discount
The bet: price was the objection. A short discount buys another billing cycle to prove the value.
What happens on Stripe. Unchurn mints a coupon scoped to the session, applies it to the subscription, and verifies the discount is attached by reading the subscription back. Coupons expire in one hour so they can’t be shared or replayed. You configure a per-customer cooldown to prevent the same customer from cycling the cancel flow to stack discounts.
Intelligent discount mode. When enabled, the discount depth is calculated automatically from the customer’s LTV, tenure, plan, prior-discount history, and cancellation reason — so you stop overpaying customers who would have stayed for less.
Anti-pattern. Discount as the only offer trains price-sensitivity. Customers learn that clicking cancel earns a discount, and your effective ARR quietly drops.
Pause
The bet: the customer has a temporary situation — a layoff, a project gap, a quiet quarter. Forcing the cancel loses a future renewal you would have won back automatically.
What happens on Stripe. Unchurn pauses billing for the duration the customer picks. New invoices during the pause window are voided rather than back-billed. When the pause ends, billing resumes automatically — no merchant action required.
Anti-pattern. Pause on annual subscriptions. It doesn’t make financial sense and the offer doesn’t appear for them.
Plan switch
The bet: the customer wants the product at a smaller scope. A downgrade keeps them on Stripe and inside the funnel for a future upgrade.
What happens on Stripe. Unchurn switches the subscription to a target price you’ve pre-approved in the dashboard. The new price applies on the next invoice with no immediate charge or credit.
Anti-pattern. A plan switch with no real cheaper tier is theatre. Customers see it as a downgrade trap and click through to cancel anyway.
Trial extension
The bet: the customer ran out of runway before reaching the aha moment. A few extra days let activation catch up.
What happens on Stripe. Unchurn extends the customer’s trial-end date by the number of days you’ve configured. Live mode caps the extension at one per customer; test mode does not enforce the cap so you can re-run the flow during development.
Anti-pattern. Extending a trial for a customer who has taken no action during the original trial. More time won’t change the outcome.
Cancel
The bet: a clean exit beats a forced retention. The customer has decided; the last screen is the last moment to remind them what they lose and the lightest path to return.
What happens on Stripe. Unchurn schedules the cancellation for the end of the current billing period. The customer retains access for what they already paid for.
You configure the loss-aversion bullets shown on the final screen, the copy, and optionally a final offer (typically a deeper discount than the waterfall version) for customers who reach the cancel confirmation.
Anti-pattern. Confirm-shaming or multi-step “are you sure?” loops at the cancel step. Customers remember a clean exit.
For the exact subscription shapes each offer applies to, see Supported subscriptions.