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Membership Plans and Client Groups

In Training Tilt there are two related—but different—ways to organize and control what clients can access. Used together, you get an automated setup where payment status controls access.

Cam Langsford avatar
Written by Cam Langsford
Updated over 3 weeks ago

In Training Tilt there are two related—but different—ways to organize and control what clients can access:

  • Client Groups = segmentation + permissions (who can see what)

  • Membership Plans = billing + entitlements (who’s paying for what, and what they get)

Used together, you get an automated setup where payment status controls access.

What are Client Groups?

Client Groups are labels you assign to clients so you can control access and targeting.

What Client Groups are used for

  1. Restricting content visibility

    • You can link a group to content (videos, recipes, shared files, custom pages and menu items, etc.) so only clients in that group can see it.

  2. Controlling feature access (permissions)

    • In Feature Security, you can set Allow Access and/or Deny Access groups per feature.

    • If no rules are set, everyone can access it.

    • If Allow Access is set, only those groups can see the feature/menu item.

    • If Deny Access is set, that group is blocked even if they’re also in an Allow group (deny wins).

  3. Targeting communication

    • Some features (like announcements) can be targeted to specific groups so only those clients see them.

How clients get into a group

  • Manual: add clients to a group by editing the group or editing the client.

  • Automatic (recommended): use a membership plan to add/remove clients to/from a group based on subscription status.

What are Membership Plans?

Membership Plans are how you sell access to your platform and collect payments.

A membership plan can:

  • Take recurring payments (weekly/monthly/etc.), and depending on settings/gateway, can support things like trials or fixed-length access.

  • Grant access to specific training/nutrition plans (Plan Access).

  • Assign clients into one or more groups automatically (Group Membership tab).

Payment gateways mentioned in the docs include Stripe, PayPal, and 2Checkout.

How they combine (the “power move”)

The clean pattern is:

Membership Plan → automatically assigns Client Group(s) → groups control access to content + features

Training Tilt supports exactly this flow:

  • When a client signs up to a membership plan, they’re added to the linked group(s) automatically.

  • When they cancel (or the plan expires), they’re removed automatically.

This is the difference between:

  • “I have to remember to manually change access when someone upgrades/downgrades”

  • vs

  • “Access is always correct because it follows payment status”

Recommended setup

1) Create groups that represent access levels (not just random segments)

Think in terms of what the group unlocks, for example:

  • Base Members

  • Premium Coaching

  • HYROX Program

  • Nutrition Add-on

2) Link at least one group to every membership plan

Training Tilt explicitly recommends having at least one group per plan so you can manage security later.

Example:

  • Membership Plan: Premium Coaching

    • Groups assigned: Premium Coaching

    • Feature Security: Allow Premium Coaching to see Videos / Recipes / whatever you want gated

    • Content: Restrict premium videos/files to Premium Coaching

3) Use Feature Security to gate entire areas

If you want certain clients to not even see a menu item (e.g., Videos), Feature Security + groups is the right tool.

Practical examples

Example A: Free members vs paid members

  • Group: Free

  • Group: Paid

  • Membership Plan: “Membership”

    • Adds to Paid

  • Feature Security:

    • Videos = Allow Paid

    • Recipes = Allow Paid
      This keeps the platform clean for free users and premium for paid.

Example B: One membership, multiple program tracks

Use a base membership group + optional program groups:

  • Membership Plan: “Endurance Club”

    • Adds group Club Member

  • Then you manually (or via add-ons/products/workflows) add:

    • Marathon Track

    • Triathlon Track

    • HYROX Track
      And restrict content accordingly. (Same membership billing, different delivery.)

Example C: Targeted announcements

If you’re posting weekly instructions just for one cohort:

  • Announcement → select group(s) so only those clients see it.

Integrations tip (if you use email/CRM automation)

Group membership matters because it can drive tags/events into marketing tools. Training Tilt notes group-related tags are especially useful with membership-linked integrations because they’re added/removed when members subscribe/cancel.
Examples of tools mentioned include ActiveCampaign and Intercom.

Quick “which one do I use?” checklist

Use Client Groups when you want to:

  • Restrict a specific piece of content to certain people

  • Hide/allow entire features or menu sections

  • Target announcements or other comms to a subset

Use Membership Plans when you want to:

  • Charge recurring (or fixed-length) access

  • Bundle plan access (training/nutrition plans)

  • Automatically place paying clients into the right group(s)

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