Your platform plan is what you pay Mateflow for your community. It decides which features your community has and how much it can hold. This article explains the free trial, where to manage billing, and what each billing status means.
Who can do this: In the admin console: community owners, admins, and billing admins. In the creator dashboard: the workspace owner and teammates with Finance access. · Where: Web. · Plan: Applies to every platform plan.
What your platform plan is (and what it isn't)
Each community has its own platform plan (sometimes called a Mateflow subscription). You pay Mateflow for it, monthly or annually, and it sets your community's features and limits — members, spaces, storage, AI, and more.
Your platform plan is not the same as Subscription Plans. Subscription Plans are what your members pay you, set up in Admin → Monetization → Subscription Plans. See Ways to earn with your community.
Where to manage your platform plan
Billing appears in two places. Each one manages different things:
| Place | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Admin → Billing (your community's admin console) | See this community's plan and status, subscribe, change or cancel the plan, check usage, buy add-ons (owner only), and download invoices under History |
| Dashboard (app.mateflow.com) → Billing | See all communities in your workspace together: spending, subscriptions, Invoices, Payment methods (cards for the whole workspace), and billing information under Settings |
| Dashboard (app.mateflow.com) → Communities → [your community] → Plan | See one community's plan, trial, and usage. The owner clicks Manage plan in community admin to make changes |
Plan changes and cancellation happen in the admin console. See Change or cancel your plan and Invoices, payment methods, and tax details.
How the free trial works
Most platform plans start with a free trial when you create a community. The trial doesn't need a credit card and currently lasts 14 days. Plans with custom pricing, arranged with Mateflow's sales team, don't have a trial.
- Your time left appears as Trial · N days left on Admin → Billing → Overview, and as Trial · Nd left in the creator dashboard's Communities list.
- A banner at the top of the admin console shows the days left, with a button to subscribe.
- You can't extend a trial yourself. To ask for more time, contact Mateflow support.
- During an unpaid trial, some limits can be lower than the plan's normal allowance. On Admin → Billing → Plan & Usage, those rows have a Trial badge and say Trial ceiling — [limit] once you subscribe.
Subscribe to your platform plan
- Go to Admin → Billing → Overview and click Subscribe.
- On Activate your subscription, choose the plan you're trying (marked Your trial) or another plan, and Monthly or Annual.
- Click Subscribe. If you picked a different plan, review the change and click Continue to Checkout.
- Pay in the secure Stripe checkout.
When payment succeeds, you see You're all set. If you leave checkout, you see Checkout cancelled and no charge is made.
Adding a card under Payment (Manage in Stripe) doesn't start a subscription on its own. Always subscribe from the plans page.
If you subscribe during the free trial, billing starts right away and the rest of the trial isn't kept.
What happens if the free trial ends without a subscription
If the trial ends before you subscribe, a short grace period starts and Mateflow emails you that the trial has ended. The Billing overview shows Trial ended — add a payment method and Subscribe now, and the status reads Trial ended · N days of grace left.
During the grace period, members can still browse and post, but nobody can create spaces, courses, or blog articles, upload files, or send invitations.
When the grace period ends, your community is paused. There's no free plan to fall back to. Everyone who opens the community, including you and your admins, sees a page saying it's temporarily closed while the owner updates the subscription, and the admin console can't be opened either.
A cancelled plan ends the same way: a 3-day grace period when its billing period ends, then a pause. See Change or cancel your plan.
To restore a paused community, open the creator dashboard at app.mateflow.com and go to Communities → [your community] → Plan. The page shows Your subscription has expired or Your free trial has ended, with Add payment method or Retry payment. If you cancelled the plan, it shows This community is paused instead: pick a plan under Resubscribe and click Continue to payment. See Troubleshoot billing and plan problems.
Platform plan statuses on the Billing overview
The plan card on Admin → Billing → Overview shows your plan name, price, a status badge, and the next date that matters:
- Trial · N days left / Trial · ends today — free trial in progress.
- Trial ended — the trial is over; subscribe to keep your community running.
- Active — your plan is paid and renews on the date shown.
- Past due — a payment failed. Update your payment method.
- Cancels soon — you cancelled; the plan ends on the date shown.
- Cancelled — the paid plan has ended. Choose a plan to subscribe again.
- Billing paused — you paused billing; it resumes on the date shown.
Below the plan card you'll find Payment, Usage, and Billing address & tax details.
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