Codes & Free Registration

Three ways to give people free or discounted access — shared discount codes, one-time receipt codes, and invitation-only registration. This guide helps you pick the right one.

Which code do you need?

You want to…	Use
Offer a discounted or free price to people who know a shared code	Discount code on a pricing rule
Give specific people free access with a one-time-use code	Receipt code
Lock the course so only invited people can register at all	Require Code to Register

Most customers asking about "free registration codes" want one of the first two.

Discount codes (pricing rules)

A discount code lives on a pricing rule for the course. In the course builder, pricing rules are under Registration › Pricing; on the classic pages they're on the Payments tab.

• One shared code (for example SPONSOR2026) that any number of people can use
• Sets the price that rule charges — including $0 for free registration
• Rules with a discount-code filter are hidden from the pricing descriptions shown automatically on your announcement page, so the discounted price isn't advertised publicly

Because pricing rules are evaluated top to bottom with the first match winning, put discount-code rules above your general pricing. A catch-all rule sitting above a discount rule means the discount never applies.

Member pricing doesn't need a code

If you use membership checking, member pricing is applied automatically based on the membership list or your connected CRM. Don't hand out codes for that — build a pricing rule with a Members filter instead.

Receipt codes (one-time-use free registration)

Receipt codes are individual codes that let a specific person register without paying. In the course builder, generate them in the Receipt Codes section of Registration › Pricing; on the classic pages, from Manage Receipt Codes on the course's Payments tab.

When you email someone their code, the subject is Your receipt code for {course} and the message names the course, so a person holding codes for several of your courses can tell them apart. If your organization has a Public Contact Email, their reply comes to you.

• One-time use. Once a code is redeemed it can't be used again.
• Not tied to an email address. Whoever enters the code can redeem it, even if it was emailed to someone else. If a recipient forwards their code, the other person can use it — the one-time-use limit is what prevents reuse, not the email address.
• The registration is recorded as paid, with the receipt code as the payment method.

Free registrations still use a participant

A receipt-code registration draws one participant from your bank, same as a paid one. See How Billing Works.

Require Code to Register (registration security)

This is an access control rather than a pricing tool. With it on, only people holding a valid code can register, and you generate and distribute a unique code per person — useful when the guest list itself is the point.

• Course builder: Registration › Security. Add the Unique sign-in codes rule to the Registration Security card. An Access Codes section then appears beneath it, where you generate codes and email each to its participant. The section is only there while the rule is on.
• Classic pages: tick Require Code To Register on the Registration Security tab and enter how many codes you need.

The email is headed Your registration code for {course} and says registration for that course is by code only.

Use it when you need to tightly control who can even reach the registration form — an invitation-only cohort, a pilot group, a board-members-only session. When your goal is free or discounted pricing rather than restricted access, a discount code or receipt code is the tool you want, and it keeps the course open to everyone you've invited to register.

Making a course completely free

If a course should be free for everyone, remove its pricing rules entirely rather than creating a 100% discount code.

With any pricing rule in place, the registration form shows a payment section and expects a code — registrants who were told the course is free often can't tell what to do, and hunt for a code field they were never given. With no pricing rules at all, no payment fields appear and registration is a clean, short form.

Use a discount or receipt code only when some registrants pay and others don't.

Members-only registration

To restrict a course to members without building pricing rules, turn on the members-only option: in the course builder, add the Membership rule under Registration › Security; on the classic pages, it's on the Registration Security tab. This is useful as a temporary measure — for example, opening registration to members while you're still waiting on payment processor credentials to build your non-member pricing.

Once your pricing rules exist with member and non-member tiers, turn the members-only security setting back off: the pricing rules then handle the distinction on their own.

The difference in one line: registration security decides who may register; pricing rules decide what each registrant pays.

Sponsors

Two separate jobs, and both are things you already have tools for.

Recognition goes in the course's description — a logo, a thank-you line, formatted however you like. In the course builder it's the description under the title on the Course Details page; on the classic pages it's Additional Info on the Details tab. It shows on the announcement page and in catalog announcement emails. It is not included in confirmations or completion reminders.

Free access for the sponsor's people is a discount code priced at $0. Give each sponsor their own code so you can tell afterwards how many of the free seats each one used, and set a usage limit if you're capping how many they get.