Template Types

Introduction

A template is a graphic presentation that uses HTML and CSS to control the look and feel of the customer experience. From the initial offer, during the login/registration to checkout, and even the My Account section.

Below is a basic table showing you the customization options available for each template type:

*The CSS for all Identity Management templates can be updated through the Identity Management layout template in the CSS tab, except from Identity Management profile template which has it's own CSS tab.

Offer Templates Overview

The primary purpose of offer templates is to provide visual containers for the offers you create in Subscription Management + Billing. Offer templates allow you to control the wording, style, and behavior of your offers.

Piano's complete guide to constructing offer templates is here. That guide includes extensive information about the directives, models, and methods available when using offer templates. While Piano provides a default offer template as an example, you can create as many distinct offer templates as you want, tailoring each with HTML, CSS, and Angular to match your branding and marketing needs.

Click here to read more about how to create an offer template, and then customize the offer template using our offer template guide.

Offer Template Types

Once you've constructed your offer template, you can use Composer's Show Offer card to link it to an offer. There are various ways these templates can be configured:

• Modal: Makes your offer template appear as a pop-up message. If you select modal, you'll have the additional option of deciding whether or not you want your offer to be dismissible (inline templates are non-dismissible by nature).

• Inline: Makes your offer template obscure text or video on the page or fill any other container you create for it. Inline offer templates can be placed inside of any selector on your page.

• Landing page: Piano clients will often use an inline offer template to fill an entire page, creating a landing page devoted to a particular offer or promotion or marketing message.

• Fixed: You can use the inline display mode to create fix-position offer templates or messages that fly-in from the top, bottom, or side of the page.

• Simple: Offer templates can be used without any Piano offer. We call these "simple templates" because they don't include any Piano terms and therefore won't start the Subscription Management + Billing checkout flow. With simple templates, you will use Composer's Show Template card to trigger the template. You will, once again, have the option of showing the template inline or as a modal. Simple templates are typically used to present marketing messages, such as an advertisement for an event. Clients also frequently use simple templates to ask ad blockers to whitelist their sites or promote email newsletters. Composer-only clients can use simple templates to link to third-party applications of any type.

For information about Lightweight templates follow this link.

System Templates Overview

Offer templates are always the first screen shown during checkout. System templates are used for the remainder of the checkout process. You can create an unlimited number of offer templates, but you cannot create new system templates. You're free to make as many alterations as you like to offer templates, but we recommend that you only alter the text and CSS of system templates because many of the code blocks within these system templates are essential to the proper functioning of the Subscription Management + Billing checkout process. Extensive modifications to system templates should be done in consultation with your Piano implementation team.

System templates are exclusive to Piano clients using Subscription Management + Billing. There are a range of system templates, not all of which are utilized during any given checkout flow. Some system templates take over the entire screen (examples: confirmation screen, receipt, print address collect screen, etc). Other system templates are for a single component or multiple components of a checkout screen (examples: promo code components, consent components, back/close button components, etc).

Please follow this link to learn more about system templates.

My Account Templates Overview

The My Account templates determine what your users will see when they go to view information that pertains to their access or profile. These can be edited to meet the style of your site, to hide irrelevant components of My Account, or to customize the wording of My Account. For many My Account templates, we recommend only modifying the text or CSS, as modifying the HTML can cause errors.

You cannot create My Account templates, but you can adjust each component found within My Account by editing these templates.

For further information about My Account templates, click here.

Identity Management Templates Overview

The Identity Management templates are used to customize all components related to user registration or sign-in, especially for stylistic purposes. For information about the individual Identity Management Templates, see this article.

Notification Templates Overview

Email Manager notification templates are used to control the wording and style of emails your users receive after transactional events, such as subscribing or canceling. These emails can also be configured to be sent according to a certain schedule (for example: a certain number of days before or after a user's credit card expires). If you are using Subscription Management + Billing with Identity Management or any third-party user provider, all emails sent through Piano's system are optional and customizable and will appear to be sent from your own domain — making them indistinguishable from emails sent from your own email system.

Piano's emails are fully integrated into the rest of our platform, meaning you're able to automatically individualize your emails by inserting customer-specific variables about your users' identities, your product offerings, and your business profile. Below you can learn more below about all the emails we enable, along with the default email wording we provide to get you started.

See here for a full breakdown of all notification templates.

Last updated: July 03, 2026