I’ve just pushed the new payments system live, and so would like to share what’s new.

There are now only Subscriptions

The big change is that no matter what plan you buy, you now just pay for a Subscription, to which you add one or more Users (who have a licence to use ActiveInbox on one Gmail account).

The goal was to simplify any changes you might want to make after the initial purchase. It’s now much more easier to add or remove users, attain credit for doing so, and transfer responsibility for paying to another person.

If you’re wondering what the motivation was, it’s two fold:

  1. A very common – but twistingly complex – path was for a person to buy in an organisation for themselves, then an accounts person to take responsibility for paying for the team, pulling that individual in, then later adding or removing team members, then as jobs rotate or departments change shape, for the accounts person to transfer ownership to someone else.
  2. The payment system was a bit of a pig, from a coding POV. It had mutated and grown organically over 14 years; and was incredibly hard to add things like monthly payments too. It was also hard to fairly handle tax, new banking security, and other mundane-but-crucial things. So out it went…

Answering the key questions you’ve asked

  • I was on a Personal account, what am I on now?
    Just a Subscription, but for only one User (you!).
  • I was on the Freelancer/Professional plan, which has disappeared. Do I now pay more?
    No! I migrated those plans to Business plans, but with a reduced rate, so you pay the same as before.
  • How do I upgrade / downgrade between Personal and Business?
    As everything is now just a Subscription, to go from Business to Personal, just remove Users (you’ll receive credit); or from Personal to Business, just add Users and Checkout.
  • I previously had a Primary / Secondary email on one account, how do I make changes?
    Lucky you! We actually stopped this back in 2015 (but grand-fathered you, so you can always keep it). It’s not yet in the new UI, but if you need to make changes, please email support@activeinboxhq.com
  • The price looks higher on the Pricing page
    Fear not! That’s the new user pricing, but we always respect the price you paid when started, so if you follow the link to log in, you’ll see the correct price when you renew.
  • Will ActiveInbox start auto-renewing?
    Not without your permission. That feature is coming, but I’ll never force it on you.

  

This was written by Andy Mitchell