# Plans, licences and the trial

What a licence is, what each plan covers, how the trial works, and what read-only means.

For: Workspace owners and admins

## A licence is one website's plan

Every website takes a licence, and the licence is that website's plan: Standard, Pro or Managed, paid monthly or yearly. You buy licences first, as many as you need, then choose one each time you make a website. A workspace with three websites holds three licences, and each one can be on a different plan.

A licence that is not on a website is spare. A spare licence is what New website needs; with none spare, the button is greyed out and says how to get one. Deleting a website frees its licence, so it is spare again for the next website.

Walkthrough: The Licences page at a glance (The Licences page)

1. **One for each website**: Licences counts what you hold; Spare counts what is ready for a new website. The bills count licences bought by card here, without VAT.
2. **A licence and its website**: The name, the plan and how it is paid, the website it is on, its status and its price.
3. **Spare**: A licence on no website. New website needs one of these.

1. Open Licences in the workspace menu, or Settings, then Licences.
2. Read the tiles: how many licences you hold, and how many are spare.
3. Buy licences before making a website, then choose one while making it.

Note: The website is still what you pay for. A licence lets you buy its plan before the website exists, and move the plan to another website later.

## What each plan covers

Standard is a business website on your own domain or the included cubesites.site address, with the full editor, a blog, contact forms and a team page, up to 50 pages. Pro adds what bigger websites need: up to 200 pages, a staging address, advanced SEO (redirects, business details for search engines and SEO checks), more than one language, custom code, a product catalogue and an online shop, and AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Claude working in their own copy of the website.

A few features belong to the whole workspace and come with any active Pro licence in it: the API, requiring two-step sign-in for everyone, and the audit log. AI and storage allowances add up across the active licences. Managed is arranged with Cube Systems: our team builds and looks after the website for you, and you can still edit everything yourself.

Walkthrough: The plans a licence can carry (Buying licences)

1. **Standard or Pro**: Standard for a business website on its own domain; Pro adds staging, advanced SEO, languages, custom code and the shop.
2. **Managed, arranged with us**: We build and look after the website. It is not bought by card: Ask us starts the conversation.
3. **Prices exclude VAT**: VAT is added where it applies. The pricing page lists everything each plan includes.

Note: The pricing page lists everything each plan includes, with prices. Prices exclude VAT.

## The trial

A new workspace starts with a 14-day trial and no card. The trial gives one trial licence, so one website, working as Pro unless you choose Standard. Under Your trial on the Licences page, Try it as switches between the two as often as you like while the trial lasts.

The trial builds and previews everything, including private preview links, but it cannot publish. When the website is ready, Buy a licence for this website replaces the trial licence with a bought one, and the website can be published straight away.

Walkthrough: The trial, and what it can do (Trial and payment notices)

1. **One website, fourteen days**: The trial licence covers one website and builds everything, with no card to start.
2. **Try it as Standard or Pro**: Switch as often as you like while the trial lasts, to see which plan fits.
3. **The clock is honest**: Notices start before the last day rather than after it, with Buy a licence beside them.

1. Build the website during the trial as if it were going live.
2. Try it as Standard and as Pro to see which plan fits.
3. Buy a licence for the website when it is ready to publish.

## When a workspace goes read-only

If the trial ends without a licence being bought, the workspace becomes read-only: everything can be read, previewed and downloaded, and published websites stay online, but nothing can be changed until a licence is bought. The card at the bottom of the menu and a notice at the top say so, with Buy a licence beside them.

A payment that fails shows its own notice. Stripe tries again over the next few days; change the card under Plans and billing and nothing else changes. Nothing is deleted in either case.

Walkthrough: When a workspace goes read-only (Trial and payment notices)

1. **The gentle stop**: Everything can be read, previewed and downloaded, and published websites stay online. Changes wait for a bought licence.
2. **A failed payment is its own notice**: Stripe tries again for a few days. Nothing else changes while it does.
3. **One click to the card**: Update the card opens Plans and billing, where Change card sorts it.
4. **Buy a licence**: For a website that never had a bought licence, buying one is the whole fix.

- [ ] Trial end date known before it arrives
- [ ] Every website that should be live on a bought licence
- [ ] Card details current
- [ ] Billing emails reaching someone who reads them

## Does each website really need its own licence?

Yes: one licence, one website. A client website on Standard beside a flagship on Pro is a normal arrangement, and each licence changes without touching the other.

## Is there a free plan?

No. After the trial, a website needs a bought licence to be published. A website without a licence stays in the workspace as a draft you can still open and preview.

## Can the trial website publish if I add a card?

Not on its own. Buy a licence for the trial website and it can be published at once.

## Related guides

- [Buy and manage licences](/help/plans-and-billing/buy-and-manage-licences)
- [Cards, invoices and several websites](/help/plans-and-billing/pay-for-several-websites)
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CubeSites is a trading name of Cube Systems Limited, part of Crushed Ice Group. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17220899. Registered office: Unit 11, Olney Business Park, Osier Way, Olney, Buckinghamshire, MK46 5FP. ICO registration number ZC216972.

Contact: hello@cubesites.co.uk | 01234 672 617 | https://cubesites.co.uk/contact