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Plans & Billing

Subscriptions, payments, renewal, cancellation, and everything in between.

Plans & pricing

TreeHost has two plans. You start on Free automatically — no credit card required. Upgrade to Researcher whenever you need more workspaces or larger participant counts.

Plan Price Workspaces Participants per workspace
Free $0 / month 1 Up to 20
Researcher $30 / month 3 (Solo or Lab) Up to 120

Free plan

The Free plan is available to everyone with a TreeHost account. You can create one Solo workspace (up to 20 participants) and run experiments indefinitely. No time limit, no credit card required.

Researcher plan

The Researcher plan is designed for active researchers running multiple studies or larger participant pools. At $30/month you get:

  • Up to 3 workspaces active at once
  • Both Solo (≤ 20 participants) and Lab (≤ 120 participants) workspace types
  • Access to all current and future Researcher-tier features

No annual plan yet. Billing is monthly only for now. An annual option (with a discount) is planned for a future release.

Subscribing to Researcher

Upgrading takes under a minute. Payment is handled entirely by Stripe — TreeHost never sees your card details.

  1. Go to the Pricing page and click Upgrade to Researcher.
  2. You're taken to Stripe's secure checkout page. Enter your payment details there.
  3. After a successful payment, Stripe redirects you back to TreeHost. Your plan upgrades automatically — no page refresh needed.
  4. Your dashboard shows Researcher next to your name, and a Manage billing link appears.

Your card is never stored by TreeHost. All payment details are stored on Stripe's servers. TreeHost only stores your subscription status and billing dates.

Billing & renewal

Subscriptions renew automatically every month on the same date you originally subscribed.

Automatic renewal

On your renewal date, Stripe charges your saved payment method and sends you a receipt by email. No action is required on your part.

Upcoming renewal reminder

Stripe sends an email a few days before each renewal as a heads-up. You can configure this timing in the billing portal (see Managing billing).

Invoices

All invoices are available to download in the billing portal. Stripe also emails a receipt after each successful charge.

Cancelling your subscription

You can cancel at any time through the billing portal. Your Researcher access continues until the end of the billing period you've already paid for — there's no immediate cut-off.

How to cancel

  1. Go to your Dashboard and click Manage billing.
  2. In the billing portal, click Cancel plan.
  3. Confirm the cancellation. Stripe records your cancellation date.
  4. Back on the dashboard, a banner shows the date your Researcher access ends.

What happens after you cancel

Your Researcher access stays active until the end of the current billing period. After that date:

  • Your plan reverts to Free
  • Existing workspaces above the Free limit are no longer editable (they remain visible but can't be updated or restarted)
  • You can resubscribe at any time to regain Researcher access

Cancellation is not immediate. You keep access until your period ends. If you cancel on June 5 and your next renewal would have been July 5, you have Researcher access until July 5.

Reactivating before the period ends

Changed your mind? Click Manage billingReactivate plan in the billing portal. The scheduled cancellation is removed and your subscription continues as normal. The cancellation banner disappears from your dashboard immediately.

Payment failure & grace period

If a payment fails (expired card, insufficient funds, etc.), you don't lose access immediately. There's a 7-day grace period during which you keep full Researcher access while you fix the issue.

What happens step by step

  1. Stripe attempts to charge your card on your renewal date and fails.
  2. TreeHost gives you a 7-day grace period — Researcher access continues.
  3. You receive an email: "Action required: Payment failed — TreeHost" with the grace period end date.
  4. Stripe automatically retries your card several times over the following weeks.
  5. If a retry succeeds, your subscription is restored and the grace period is cancelled.
  6. If no payment succeeds before the grace period ends, your plan reverts to Free.

Updating your payment method

To update a failing card before the grace period expires, go to Manage billing on your dashboard and click Update payment method in the portal. A successful charge will restore your Researcher access immediately.

Stripe retries automatically. You don't need to manually trigger a charge — Stripe's Smart Retries will attempt your card 3–4 times over roughly 4 weeks. If your card issue resolves itself (e.g. a new card with the same number), the next retry may succeed without any action from you.

Managing billing

All billing management happens through the Stripe Customer Portal — a secure, hosted page that gives you full control over your subscription without sharing your card details with TreeHost.

How to access

Click Manage billing on your dashboard. You'll be taken to the billing portal and returned to TreeHost automatically when you're done.

What you can do in the portal

  • Update payment method — add or replace a credit or debit card
  • Download invoices — all past invoices are listed with PDF download links
  • Cancel subscription — schedules a cancellation at the end of your current period
  • Reactivate — remove a scheduled cancellation before the period ends

The Manage billing link only appears on the Researcher plan. If you're on the Free plan, go to Pricing to subscribe first.

Emails you'll receive

TreeHost and Stripe both send billing-related emails. Here's what to expect and when.

From TreeHost

  • Welcome to Researcher — sent when your subscription is activated after checkout.
  • Subscription cancelled — sent when your subscription ends (after the period expires).
  • Payment failed — action required — sent when a payment fails and your grace period starts.

From Stripe

  • Payment receipt — sent after each successful charge.
  • Upcoming renewal reminder — sent a few days before your next billing date.
  • Payment failure notice — an additional notice sent directly by Stripe when a charge fails.
  • Card expiry warning — sent if your saved card is approaching its expiry date.

All billing emails go to the email address on your TreeHost account. Check your spam folder if you don't see them — they're sent from Stripe and TreeHost domains, which some filters may catch initially.

Need help?

Email us at [email protected] with your account email and a description of the billing issue.