Need documentation on user status, e.g. “inactive”

If I set a user to “inactive”, what does that do? I was unable to find any information on user status in your documentation or in this forum.
What I’m hoping is that an inactive user cannot login and their profile won’t be visible in the member directory. As admin, I still see inactive users in the directory but greyed out and with a “inactive member” label. But what do subscribers see? And can those inactive users login at all, and what happens if they try?
Or do I have to set them as “pending approval” if I don’t want them to have access or appear in the directory? This is for members who have not renewed with our club but they might later, so I don’t want to delete them yet.