IYF Magazine

A digital magazine and subscription experience delivered independently for a client — the authentication, checkout and payment infrastructure a real subscription business needs, built and shipped end to end.

Readers subscribe to one of several yearly publication plans through an authenticated account that tracks their active subscription state after checkout.

Independent Client Work

• Translated the client's plan structure into a working subscription product
• Built the Next.js App Router frontend for browsing, subscribing and account management
• Implemented Route Handlers for checkout, subscription state and webhook processing
• Integrated Cashfree for payments, including webhook-driven subscription activation
• Designed the MongoDB data model for users, plans and subscription records
• Built authentication for account access and subscription-gated content

Unlike a marketing site, a subscription product has to get the unglamorous parts right: reliable payment confirmation, accurate subscription state, and an authentication flow that doesn't get in the reader's way.

• Used Next.js App Router and Route Handlers to keep the frontend and backend in one coherent codebase, appropriate for a product of this scope.
• Treated the Cashfree webhook as the single source of truth for subscription state, rather than trusting client-side checkout confirmation alone.

• Built checkout flows for each subscription plan, integrated with Cashfree's payment APIs
• Implemented webhook handlers to reconcile payment events with subscription records in MongoDB
• Built authenticated account views showing active subscriptions and access
• Kept the reader-facing browsing experience static and fast, isolating dynamic subscription logic to authenticated routes

The platform runs live for the client, handling real payments and subscription state end to end.