Subscriptions and billing

Locodex is free forever for planning: the full editor, the full rail catalogue, every core module (including reverse-loop short-circuit detection), image / PDF / CSV export, read-only share links, and unlimited local .trackplan files. There are exactly two things you can pay for, and they're independent — you can have one, both, or neither:

• Cloud — a subscription that syncs and backs up your layouts across devices (Free / Hobby / Club).
• The eternal license (Pro) — a one-time purchase that unlocks the advanced software capabilities. See Core and pro features for what that covers.

This page is about the Cloud service. The license is a separate axis covered on the modules page.

The Cloud tiers

Cloud gates only on how many plans sync to the cloud — never on what the software can do.

¹ Club's cap is soft — we warn as you approach it but never block you from creating another plan.

Everything else — the editor, the catalogue, core modules, unlimited track pieces, export — is identical on every tier. Cloud is purely about hosting and syncing.

Subscribing

Visit /pricing from the landing nav. Toggle monthly / annual at the top — annual bills for ten months, roughly two months free over a year. Click Choose Hobby or Go Club and Stripe Checkout opens in a hosted page. Pay with any card, complete the flow, and you're redirected back to /profile on your new tier.

You need a Locodex account before you can subscribe. If you click a paid tier while signed out, the planner asks you to sign in first — nothing is charged for an anonymous visit.

Changing your plan

Open /profile → Account & plan → Change plan to manage your subscription in-app (no trip to the marketing page). Pick a tier and billing period, and the planner tells you what will happen before you confirm:

• Upgrades — moving to a higher tier, or from monthly to annual — take effect immediately. You're charged only the prorated difference for the rest of the current period, shown as "you'll be charged €X today" before you confirm.
• Downgrades — a lower tier, or annual to monthly — are scheduled for the end of your current period. You keep your current plan (and its higher cloud cap) until then; no charge today. While it's pending, the change-plan page banners the scheduled switch, your current plan's card shows a Keep [tier] button (click it any time before the period ends to cancel the downgrade and stay put, no charge), and the tier you're scheduled to move to shows as Scheduled rather than an actionable switch. Upgrading while a downgrade is pending also supersedes it.

Manage billing still opens the Stripe Customer Portal for payment-method updates, invoices, and anything else. Changes reflect on /profile on the next refresh.

Cancelling

Use Cancel subscription on the Account & plan tab (or Cancel and return to Free on the change-plan page). A confirmation dialog spells out what happens; confirm it and the change applies right away without leaving the planner. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period, so you keep access until then — the billing line flips to "Billed monthly · until 12 Jun 2026" the moment you confirm and the cancel button gives way to a "Cancellation scheduled" note. Your cloud-saved layouts stay backed up; they just stop syncing once the period ends. Core modules stay free, and anything unlocked by the Pro license stays yours regardless.

Changed your mind? While the cancellation is pending you can resume any time before the period ends. Your current plan's card on the change-plan page shows a Resume [tier] button (and the Account & plan tab has a Resume subscription button next to the cancellation notice) — clicking it clears the cancellation so the plan renews as normal, and unlocks any plans that had gone read-only. The Manage billing portal's Renew option still works too.

If you have more plans than the new tier syncs

Free syncs a single cloud plan; Hobby syncs 10. If you cancel (or downgrade to a smaller tier) while you hold more plans than the destination syncs, the confirmation dialog asks you to pick which plan(s) keep syncing. The plans you keep stay fully editable. The rest turn read-only: they stay safely backed up in the cloud and you can export any of them to a .trackplan file at any time, but you can't edit them until your account has room again. Resubscribe and they all unlock instantly — nothing is ever deleted. Read-only plans show a lock badge in your library, and opening one shows a banner explaining why edits won't save.

This only kicks in once your account is actually over the cap. Because the switch happens at the end of your billing period, your plans stay fully editable until then; the read-only state appears when the smaller tier takes effect. Deleting plans back down to the cap unlocks the remaining one automatically.

What if I miss a payment?

Stripe retries failed renewals automatically over a few days. While retries are in flight, /profile shows your subscription as past due but doesn't lock you out. If every retry fails, the subscription cancels and you revert to Free — local files are unaffected, and your cloud-saved plans wait on the server for you to resubscribe.

The €50 eternal license (Pro)

The eternal license is a separate one-time purchase that unlocks the advanced capabilities forever, online or offline, with no recurring fee. It's mentioned on /pricing; its own checkout flow is still being built, so the button currently directs to the registration page. See Core and pro features.