Entitlement management
DEFINITION
Entitlement management is the process of defining, granting, and automatically updating the access rights that determine which features, content, or services a subscriber can use based on their current plan or purchase. It keeps access consistent across web, mobile, and app store surfaces by centralizing those rights against the subscription record rather than hardcoding them into each product separately.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
RELATED TERMS
Entitlement management is the process of defining and controlling which features, content, or services a subscriber can access based on what they have purchased.
An entitlement is a granular access right, tied to a specific plan, item, or external product, that determines what a customer can actually use once they subscribe. Entitlement management is the system and workflow around those access rights: linking them to plans or items, granting them automatically when a customer subscribes, and updating them immediately whenever the customer's plan or purchase changes. It matters most for products where access has to be checked in real time and enforced across more than one surface, such as a web app, a mobile app, and an app store subscription that all need to agree on what a given customer is allowed to see or do.
Why entitlement management matters for subscription businesses
Without structured entitlement management, access control tends to get hardcoded into each product surface: one set of rules in the web app, another in the mobile app, another for app store purchases. That drifts out of sync quickly as pricing tiers, bundles, and promotions change, and it creates real support and trust problems when a paying customer suddenly cannot access something they are entitled to, or a canceled customer keeps access they should have lost.
Centralizing entitlements against the subscription record means access rights update the moment a purchase, upgrade, downgrade, or cancellation happens, instead of relying on separate systems to stay in sync by hand. Entitlements that link directly to plans, items, or external products are granted automatically when a customer subscribes, and changes take effect immediately and are reflected in every later API call. That keeps web, mobile, and app store surfaces consistent instead of letting them drift apart, which matters most in Subscription pause and cancellation flows, where access needs to change right away and everywhere the customer might try to use the product.
How to use entitlement management
Setting up entitlement management typically involves:
Define the features, content, or services that need access control. This modeling of what needs to be controlled happens outside Recurly, in your own product.
Create entitlements and link each one to the plans or items that should grant it.
For products sold across multiple platforms, connect each entitlement to the relevant external products, such as an Apple App Store or Google Play subscription, so access stays consistent across web, mobile, and app stores.
Check entitlements in real time through the API wherever the product needs to decide whether a customer can access a feature.
Let entitlements update automatically as subscriptions change, rather than manually re-granting or revoking access after every plan change.
Benefits and examples
Structured entitlement management gives a subscription business:
Immediate, consistent access changes whenever a customer's subscription changes, with no separate manual step.
One source of truth for access rights across web, mobile, and app store subscriptions, instead of separate logic in each surface.
A cleaner way to launch new tiers or bundles, since new entitlements can be linked to a plan without rebuilding access logic from scratch.
For example, a media company offers a gold-tier plan that includes premium video content. When a customer subscribes to the gold plan, the entitlement for premium content is granted automatically. If that customer later downgrades to a lower tier, the entitlement is removed and premium content becomes inaccessible right away, whether the customer is using the web player or the mobile app.
Recurly's app management product extends this across app stores: once an Apple App Store or Google Play subscription is mapped to an external product in Recurly, that product can be connected to an entitlement, so cross-platform access control is handled from a single interface rather than three separate ones.
Frequently asked questions
What is an entitlement? An entitlement is a granular access right that defines which feature, content, or service a subscriber can use. It is linked to a plan or item and granted automatically when a customer subscribes.
How is entitlement management different from a subscription plan? A subscription plan defines what a customer is paying for. Entitlement management is the layer that translates that plan into actual access rights, granting and revoking specific features or content as the underlying subscription changes.
Does entitlement management work across mobile apps and app stores? Yes, when entitlements are connected to external products representing app store subscriptions, such as an Apple App Store or Google Play subscription, access can be checked and enforced consistently across web, mobile, and app store purchases.
What happens to entitlements when a subscription is canceled or paused? Entitlements update immediately when the underlying subscription changes, so a cancellation or pause is reflected in what the customer can access right away rather than after a delay. See Subscription pause for how pause specifically affects an active subscription.
