Plans and billing

Applies to: anota, all plans Roles required: Owner or Admin Regulatory references: none

Overview

The Billing page shows your workspace's plan and how much of its monthly allowance you've used, compares the paid plans, and is where you subscribe or change plans. Payments and invoices are handled by Stripe: anota sends you to Stripe's secure pages to pay and to manage your subscription. It's for the workspace Owner and Admins. In the page's own words: "Check your plan, your usage, and upgrade whenever you need to."

The examples use Café Aurora's workspace on the free Starter plan.

Key concepts

• Current plan: the plan the workspace is on. Every new workspace starts on Starter, the free plan. Starter has no card of its own on the page; the cards show the paid plans: Bronze, Silver and Gold.
• Monthly / Annual: the billing cycle. It changes the prices on the cards and the price you subscribe at. The plans' limits are the same in both.
• Checkout: Stripe's payment page, where you enter your card to subscribe. It's hosted by Stripe, outside anota.
• Manage billing: opens Stripe's billing portal, where a workspace that has subscribed manages its subscription. Also outside anota.
• Active subscription: any subscription that isn't canceled, and isn't a checkout that was abandoned or never completed (for example a card check that failed). While you have one, you change plans through Manage billing, not from the cards.

Task 1 — Check your plan and your usage

Prerequisites

• The Owner or Admin role. The Billing link only appears in the top menu for them.

Step-by-step

1. In the top menu, click Billing.

   Editors and Viewers don't see this link.

2. The Current plan card shows the plan's name and its status. On the free plan the status reads Free plan.

   Café Aurora is on Starter, the free plan.

3. Below it, two bars show this month's usage against the plan's limits: Forms and Submissions this month, each as used / allowed.

   Café Aurora uses all 5 of its forms and 15 of its 100 submissions this month.

Result

You know which plan you're on and how close you are to its limits. Forms counts active and draft forms: archived forms and forms in the trash don't count. Submissions this month counts every response received in the current calendar month, across all forms. The status can read:

Task 2 — Compare the plans

Step-by-step

4. To see yearly prices, click Annual above the plan cards. Each card then shows the price for a whole year. Click Monthly to go back.

   Paying yearly costs less than twelve monthly payments.

5. Compare the cards. Each lists its forms, its submissions per month and its seats (members). Silver and Gold also list ✓ Remove anota branding.

   Bronze, Silver and Gold, monthly.

Result

The plans side by side:

Each plan also has limits that aren't listed on the cards:

For what the branding removal changes, see Company and branding.

Task 3 — Upgrade to a paid plan

Prerequisites

• No active subscription: the workspace is on Starter, its last subscription was canceled, or its last checkout was never completed. With an active subscription, the other plans' cards read "Change plans from Manage billing" instead of showing a button (Task 4).

Step-by-step

6. Choose Monthly or Annual, then click Upgrade on the plan you want. (On a plan below your current one the button reads Change.) While anota prepares the payment, the button reads Redirecting….

   The cycle you picked with Monthly / Annual is the one you subscribe to.

Result

Stripe's Checkout page opens, outside anota. Enter your card details there and confirm. Stripe then brings you back to Billing:

• After paying, you see All set! Your plan will update in a few seconds. Within seconds the new plan appears under Current plan, its card shows a greyed-out Current plan button, and the new limits apply.
• If you leave Checkout without paying, you see Payment canceled. and nothing changes.

After the first subscription, a Manage billing button appears at the top right of the page.

Task 4 — Change plans, update your card or cancel (Manage billing)

Prerequisites

• The workspace has subscribed at least once. Until then there's no Manage billing button.

Step-by-step

7. On Billing, click Manage billing at the top right. The button reads Opening… while Stripe's billing portal loads.
8. The portal opens outside anota, on Stripe. Manage your subscription there: the options it offers (such as changing plans, updating your card, invoices or cancelling) are the ones set up in Stripe for anota. When you're done, use the portal's link back: it returns you to Billing.

Result

Changes made in the portal reach anota as soon as Stripe confirms them: the Current plan card shows the new plan and status. anota doesn't list invoices on its own pages: they're kept by Stripe.

Form payments card

Where form payments are available, the Owner also sees a Form payments card here to connect the workspace's own Stripe account (Connect with Stripe); see Products, orders and Stripe payments.

What happens when you reach a limit

The bars on Billing don't block anything themselves. Each limit applies where you use it:

Upgrading raises every limit at once. For forms and seats you can also free room: archive or trash forms, or remove members.

Roles and permissions

See Roles and permissions.

Troubleshooting

Related features

• Company and branding
• Products, orders and Stripe payments
• Team and roles
• Invite members
• Roles and permissions
• Publish and share