Your trial, plans and billing

1. What's free, with no time limit

Creating an account and setting up your business costs nothing and never expires. You can add your services or tables, invite yourself as the one team member, and build your branded booking page without paying anything.

Every business keeps a free plan with the core booking loop, whether or not you ever pay:

• Up to 50 bookings a month on Solo, or 35 on Venue Starter
• Your own branded booking page, with no per-booking fee or commission
• Real-time availability, so two people can never book the same slot
• Email booking confirmations to every guest
• Guest self-service, so a guest can change or cancel their own booking within your policy
• Automated booking reminders
• Client directory with visit history

A busier month costs A$19 on Solo or A$49 on Venue Starter, charged only if you've added a card. Without a card, we email you and warn you in the dashboard when you pass the free limit, and 7 days later online booking pauses (only ever from 9am, Monday to Thursday), with a message asking guests to call you. Existing bookings keep working. Online, phone and staff-entered bookings count; walk-ins seated on arrival and bookings cancelled before they start don't.

Anything beyond that list, such as deposits, reviews or texts, needs a paid plan or an add-on. Your first business also starts with a free trial of nearly everything; see section 3.

2. The plans

Gaplessly runs two different pricing ladders, because the two kinds of business it serves are different products. Your business only ever sees the one ladder that matches how it takes bookings. Prices below are the figures excluding GST that the product itself defines (Australia's goods and services tax is 10%). GST is added on top at checkout, not folded into the figures below: your receipt from Stripe, or your invoice under Billing history, itemises it as its own line.

If your business books one client at a time with one team member and a service, an appointment, haircut, treatment, you're on the Appointments ladder. Team members are the people clients can book; logins without a calendar, like a receptionist, are free:

If your business books a party at a table for a service period, a restaurant, cafe or bar, you're on the Table reservations ladder instead. It has no per-team-member pricing; each plan covers a set number of bookings a month:

A venue that goes more than 5% over its plan's bookings, or over two months running, is asked to move up a plan, with 7 days' notice. Venue Pro is never paused for it: past its cap, we talk to you about Venue Custom. Appointments plans have no booking cap, only a fair-use line of 1,000 bookings per team member a month, and we contact you first rather than slow anything down.

On either ladder, some tools can also be bought as add-ons on a plan that doesn't already include them. Deposits and no-show protection, Reviews, Intake and consent forms, and Your own web address are A$14.99 a month each on any plan (your own web address is for Appointments only). Marketing and, for venues, Experiences and ticketing are A$29 a month each from Growth and Venue Growth up; marketing includes 1,000 emails a month, then A$9.99 per 1,000. Growth and Venue Growth already include deposits and no-show protection, and reviews. Pro and Venue Pro include every add-on. Texts and website analytics aren't sold as add-ons: they come with the plans above.

3. The free trial: what you get and how long it lasts

Your first business gets a free trial: 30 days of every feature from sign-up, with no card needed. Texts, marketing emails, taking payments and connecting your own domain wait until you choose a plan or add-on.

When the trial ends, your business keeps its free plan, and nothing is charged unless you choose a paid plan or add-on. Each add-on you buy starts with its own 30-day free trial, and is billed when that ends unless you switch it off first.

4. How billing actually works

Gaplessly's own subscriptions run on Stripe, a widely used payment processor. Checking out for a plan or an add-on takes you to a secure Stripe payment page. Gaplessly does not see or store your card details directly.

• Extra team members beyond a plan's included ones (on the Appointments ladder) are billed automatically each month, with no separate action needed. Only people your clients can book count.
• Texts are metered: each one is billed automatically at A$0.09 per text, with no monthly cap and none free. A text up to 160 characters is one segment, and each segment is billed. A longer text is split into segments of 153 characters, and an emoji or another special character drops that to 70 characters (67 once it is split).
• Changing plan takes effect once it's paid: the difference for the rest of your billing period is charged, or credited against your next bills, straight away.
• Moving down to Solo or Venue Starter is done by cancelling your plan in Manage billing, and your plan keeps working to the end of the period you've paid for.
• There is no commission on bookings and no per-cover fee. Your plan and add-ons, plus any texts and marketing emails over the monthly allowance, are the whole cost.

5. Where to see or change your plan

Click your avatar at the bottom of the sidebar and choose Plan & billing from the menu that opens above it. That opens a page dedicated to what your business pays for, separate from the rest of your business settings.

• The Plan card shows which plan your business is currently on.
• If you're not yet on a paid plan, you'll see a Monthly or Yearly choice and a button for each available plan, such as Upgrade to Growth for its monthly or yearly price plus GST. Clicking one takes you straight to Stripe checkout.
• Once you are on a paid plan, the card offers the other plans and billing periods instead, each as a Move to or Switch to button. It says what you will be charged or credited and changes your plan the moment you confirm.
• The Manage billing button beside them opens Stripe's own billing portal, where you swap the card on file, download invoices, or cancel at the end of the period you have paid for.
• Below the Plan card, a row of bars lets you switch on any add-on your plan doesn't already include.
• A Usage card shows what's actually been used this billing period: how many texts have gone out (a message over 160 characters counts as more than one) and how many emails have been sent (booking emails are free on every plan).
• A Billing details card lets you add your ABN and a separate receipts email, used only for Gaplessly's own invoices to your business, not for the receipts your own customers get.
• A Billing history table lists every invoice Gaplessly has issued your business, once there is at least one, each showing the date, amount and status, with a link to view it once Stripe has one ready.