Community • 7 min read

Offer your community free or paid — how to set up access

In short

You decide how new members join your community. Whether as a free freebie community or a paid membership — you control how access works.

Link your community to an ablefy product and automate access, billing, and member management. This article shows you how.

🔐 How to set up community access

There are two ways for members to join your community.

1. Direct join via foroom

Simply share your community link or send an email invitation. Members can join your community directly, or send a join request through your landing page first.

This works especially well for:

• private communities

• first tests with foroom

• free communities without an ablefy integration

Member management is handled manually.

Community settings with request to join, community link, and approval required toggle — Direct join with community link and “Approval required” option

2. ⭐ Automated community access via ablefy (recommended)

Create a new ablefy product or link one of your existing products to your foroom community. This automates community access and lets you control monetization at the same time.

Through your ablefy product's pricing plan, you define how members join:

• 🆓 Free (€0)

• 💳 One-time payment

• 🔄 Monthly or yearly subscription

This lets you offer the same community flexibly as a free lead magnet, standalone membership, or add-on to an online course.

Product selection in foroom with a linked ablefy product — Product selection in **foroom** + selection of a linked **ablefy** product

Automatic member management after linking

Note

The linked product must have sales approval enabled in ablefy before it can be selected in foroom.

Once your community is connected to an ablefy product, foroom handles member management automatically:

✅ Product purchase → instant community access

✅ Subscription cancellation or expiry → access is revoked automatically

✅ No manual invites or activations

Linked ablefy product with automatic access management in foroom — Linked **ablefy** product with automatic access management enabled

👀 What visitors see

Every community automatically gets its own landing page with a personal link. You can share it wherever you promote your community — for example on social media, in newsletters, podcasts, on your website, in freebies, or directly in your ablefy products.

Depending on your settings, visitors can register directly or send a join request first. Here is how the two variants look on the landing page:

🌱 The right community access for your business

Community interior with rooms, discussions, and member list — Active community with engaged members

Whether a free lead community, an exclusive member community, or a paid community offer — with foroom, you decide how people become part of your community.

The direct ablefy integration handles purchase, community access, and member management automatically, so you can focus entirely on building your community.

👉 Set up community access now