When a customer reaches the end of one of your flows and confirms that they still want to leave, churn.io handles the cancellation for you. The What happens after? settings let you decide exactly how that cancellation is processed, when the subscription actually ends, and where the customer lands afterwards. This article walks through each option and when to choose it.
You'll find these settings inside the flow editor, in the section titled What happens after? — it controls how the cancellation is processed and where users go next.
What should happen when a customer confirms cancellation?
This is the core decision. It tells churn.io what to do the moment a customer confirms they want to cancel. There are three options.
Cancel automatically
churn.io ends the subscription for you directly in your connected billing platform. The customer doesn't have to wait for anyone on your team to act — the cancellation is processed immediately and recorded against the session. This is the right choice for most businesses, because it gives customers a fast, self-serve experience and keeps your billing data accurate without manual work.
Send email to Support
Instead of ending the subscription itself, churn.io sends an email notification to your team so a person can review and handle the cancellation manually. Choose this if you want a human in the loop — for example, if you'd like to make one last save attempt over email, or if cancellations require an internal approval step.
Webhook only
churn.io doesn't touch the subscription at all. Instead, it notifies your own system that a cancellation happened, and your system decides what to do next. Choose this if you already have your own cancellation logic and you simply want churn.io to tell you when a customer has finished the flow. See the section on webhooks below for more detail.
💡 Just getting started?
If you're not sure, start with Cancel automatically. It's the simplest option and works out of the box once your billing platform is connected.
⚠️ Email and webhook behaviours are rolling out
The Send email to Support and Webhook only behaviours are marked as coming soon in the flow editor. For now, Cancel automatically is the option you can select.
When should the subscription end?
When you cancel automatically, you also control the timing of the cancellation. This answers the question When should the subscription end? and has two options.
At period end — The customer keeps access until the end of the billing period they've already paid for, and the subscription stops renewing afterwards. This is the customer-friendly default: nobody loses access they paid for, which reduces refund requests and complaints.
Immediately — The subscription ends right away, the moment the customer confirms. Choose this when you don't want continued access after cancellation, or when your billing terms call for an immediate stop.
Where should customers go after cancelling?
Once a customer finishes the flow, you can decide where they land. The available choices depend on whether you're configuring a widget (the pop-up inside your app) or a hosted cancel page.
For a widget flow:
Close pop-up modal — The pop-up simply closes and the customer stays where they were in your app.
Refresh page — The current page reloads, which is handy if your app needs to reflect the cancelled state straight away.
Custom link — The customer is sent to a URL you choose (for example, a thank-you or feedback page).
For a hosted cancel page:
Stay on page — The customer remains on the cancel page after completing.
Back to previous page — The customer is returned to wherever they came from.
Custom link — The customer is redirected to a URL you choose.
If you pick Custom link, enter the destination URL (such as https://yourapp.com/thankyou). Make sure it's a valid web address — the editor will flag it if the link is missing or malformed.
💡 Use the redirect to keep the conversation going
A custom link is a great place to send a short "sorry to see you go" survey, a re-activation offer, or a confirmation page that reassures the customer their request went through.
Notifying your own system with a webhook
If you choose the Webhook only behaviour, churn.io sends a notification to a web address you provide whenever a customer completes a cancellation. This lets your own system react in real time — for example, to update an internal dashboard, trigger your own win-back campaign, or run your own cancellation process.
The notification includes basic details about the cancellation so your system knows which customer and plan it relates to. churn.io only sends notifications to public web addresses, so internal or private addresses won't be accepted for security reasons.
A webhook is best suited to teams who want churn.io to capture and present the cancellation experience while keeping the actual subscription changes inside their own platform.