Account subscription and billing: The Essentials

Learn about what you can do with a free account, when and how to subscribe to a paid plan, and how to manage billing.

• Use AppSheet for prototyping and personal use (free)
• Subscribe to a paid plan
• Upgrade or change your subscription or number of licenses
• About the enforcement of your subscription and licenses
• Add a payment method
• View billing invoices

See also:

• Find answers to your pricing questions.
• If you are a partner, learn how to enable delegated billing for your clients.
• Learn tips and tricks for account management from the AppSheet Community:
  • Account tips and tricks
  • Account Q&A

Use AppSheet for prototyping and personal use (free)

AppSheet is free for prototype development and testing, and for personal use. By default, every user account is free until you subscribe to a paid plan.  

We encourage you to try all the features of the platform. App features and behavior can be tested for free until you are ready to deploy and share your app. That is, your app will function even if you haven't yet subscribed to a paid plan.

A subset of features, such as sending emails or triggering bots with scheduled events using AppSheet automation, are not fully supported with a free plan. That is, you can configure these features, but they won't execute as expected.

Stay with a free plan if:

• Your apps are for personal (non-business) use
• You are the only app user
• You don't need to use features not supported for a free account (such as sending emails using AppSheet automation)
• You are testing your app with 10 or fewer users (the app creator will count towards the total number of test users)

To configure your app for personal use:

1. Open the app in the app editor.
2. Select Settings > Information > Properties.
3. In the App properties section and enable Personal use only?
4. When you are done, save the task by selecting one of the following:
   • Save - Save the app
   • Save & verify data - Save the app and verify the data defined.

If you want to deploy your apps and share them with other users, you need to subscribe to a paid plan and purchase licenses, as described in the next section.

Subscribe to a paid plan

If you have a Google Workspace edition that includes AppSheet Core, you and other users in your organization automatically have access to an AppSheet Core license. 

When you are ready to deploy and share your apps with other users, you must:

1. Choose your subscription plan.
   See also: What subscription plan is right for me?
2. Determine the number of licenses you need to purchase.
   See How many licenses do I need to purchase for my subscription plan?
3. Subscribe to a paid plan, as described in the following sections:
   • Subscribe to the Starter or Core plan
   • Subscribe to the Enterprise Standard or Enterprise Plus plan
   • Subscribe to the Publisher Pro plan (for public apps)

Note: When you perform a deployment check on your app, you will be notified if your account is not on a paid plan. 

We have structured our plans and pricing to encourage adoption with minimal friction and barriers to use. If none of our plans are appropriate for your scenario, contact your AppSheet Sales representative to discuss options.

You can only change your subscription plan if it is an individual self-service account. If your account is managed as part of a team or organization, the options to subscribe to a plan individually are not available. You'll need to contact your organization or team administrator. 

Choose your subscription plan

Before you begin, determine the subscription plan that is right for you. See also How to choose your subscription plan.

Plan	Description	Subscribe or upgrade
Secure (pay per user)	Select your subscription plan based on the features required. See What subscription plan is right for me?	See: Subscribe to the Starter or Core plan Subscribe to the Enterprise Standard or Enterprise Plus plan
Public (pay per app)	Share publicly accessible apps with users without requiring them to sign-in (if you don't have an Enterprise plan). If you have an Enterprise plan, work with your AppSheet Sales representative to include support for public apps in your existing Enterprise plan. You do not need to subscribe to the Publisher Pro plan.	See Subscribe to the Publisher Pro Plan (for public apps).

Subscribe to the Starter or Core plan

If you have a Google Workspace edition that includes AppSheet Core, you and other users in your organization automatically have access to an AppSheet Core license. 

To subscribe to the Starter or Core plan:

1. Sign in to AppSheet.
2. Select your account from the account profile drop-down to go to the My account page.
   
   
3. Select the Billing tab.
4. Click Upgrade.
5. Enter the following information:

   Field	Description
   Plan	Select Secure (pay per user).
   Subscription Plan	Select AppSheet Starter or AppSheet Core.
   Number of user licenses	Set this value to the number of licenses required based on the total number of unique app users across all of your deployed apps. See How many licenses do I need for my subscription plan?
   Billing period	Select Monthly or Annually.
   Promo Code	Enter your promotion code, if applicable, and click Apply. For example, we offer discounts to non-profits.

6. Review the expected charges.
7. Click Accept.
   The recurring bill payment dialog displays.
8. Enter your billing information at the prompt. 
9. Click Payment Info.
10. Enter your credit card information.
11. Click Add card.

Subscribe to the Enterprise Standard or Enterprise Plus plan

To subscribe to the Enterprise Standard or Enterprise Plus plan, contact your AppSheet Sales representative for assistance.

Subscribe to the Publisher Pro plan (for public apps)

Notes:

• If you have an Enterprise plan, work with your AppSheet Sales representative to include support for public apps in your existing Enterprise plan. You do not need to subscribe to the Publisher Pro plan.
• If you have a Starter or Core plan, you need to subscribe to the Publisher Pro plan using a separate AppSheet account. See Can I subscribe to multiple plans using the same AppSheet account?

To subscribe to the Publisher Pro plan:

1. Sign in to AppSheet.
2. Select your account from the account profile drop-down to go to the My account page.
   
   
3. Select the Billing tab.
4. Click Upgrade.
5. Enter the following information:

   Field	Description
   Plan Class	Select Public (pay per app).
   Subscription Plan	Select AppSheet Publisher Pro.
   Number of app licenses	Set this value to the number of licenses required based on the number of deployed apps. See How many licenses do I need for my subscription plan?
   Billing period	Select Annual or Monthly.
   Promo Code	Enter your promotion code, if applicable, and click Apply. For example, we offer discounts to non-profits.

6. Review the expected charges.
7. Click Accept.
   The recurring bill payment dialog displays.
8. Enter your billing information at the prompt. 
9. Click Payment Info.
10. Enter your credit card information.
11. Click Add card.

Upgrade or change your subscription or number of licenses

You can upgrade or change your subscription or the number of licenses on your plan at any time. Any charges are prorated to reflect the changes and applied to your next 30-day bill. If your plan change lowers your charge, then we will credit you with the appropriate amount.

For example, you may need to upgrade or change your plan if:

• Your app uses a feature that requires a subscription plan upgrade. For more information, see How to determine if a subscription plan upgrade is required.
• You have five users of your app and have purchased five user licenses and you need to send the app to more users. In this case, you should simply increase the number of app licenses. Likewise, you can decrease the number of licenses to reflect lower expected usage or change plans.

For Enterprise plans, contact your AppSheet Sales representative to make changes to your plan. 

For Starter, Core, and Publisher Pro plans, you can increase or decrease the number of licenses as described in Subscribe to a paid plan.

Note: It is uncommon to switch from a paid subscription plan to a free plan unless you expect your apps to see no usage. Typically, it is more appropriate to modify the number of licenses to reflect periods of lower expected usage. 

Troubleshoot: My subscription plan upgrade is not reflected in my account after purchase

It may take 24-48 hours before the changes to your account take effect. If the changes are not reflected in your account after this period of time, try signing out and then signing in to your AppSheet account.

About the enforcement of your subscription and licenses

We try to ensure that app usage is never compromised because of short-term discrepancies in plans and licenses. To allow you time to modify your subscription appropriately, your app status will remain active and the access to your app won't be affected for a reasonable interval if any of the following situations occur:

• The actual number of users for your app exceeds your license limits
• You are on the wrong plan
• There is a problem with your credit card (see below)

Credit card failures

When there is a failure processing a credit card payment, you will receive an email notification indicating that the credit card information should be updated. You can go to My account > Billing page and update your card information. In the interim, your app status will remain active and the access to your app won't be affected for up to 15 days from the date the email notification was sent. 

Our credit card charges are United States dollar-based, and cards based in countries outside the US may have security constraints that disable foreign charges. We are currently not able to charge directly in currencies other than United States dollars.

 Add a payment method

Note: This step is not required for Enterprise plans.

For Starter, Core, and Publish Pro plans, you must add a credit card to be used for payment. When subscribing to a paid plan, you are prompted for billing information and payment method. You can also add a payment method using the steps described below.

Your credit card is charged on a monthly schedule based on the particular plan and license count you have chosen. AppSheet processes credit card payments through Stripe, a popular and reliable platform for credit card payments.

If you make changes in the middle of the month, the pricing is prorated to the time of the change. You may see adjustments to the next month's billing to reflect these changes. For example, if you lower the number of licenses, you will see credit reflected in your next month's bill. Please contact us at any time if you have questions about your billing. 

AppSheet partners can manage the plans and licenses of clients through delegated billing. 

To add your payment method:

1. Sign in to AppSheet.
2. Select your account from the account profile drop-down to go to the My account page.
   
   
3. Select the Billing tab.
4. Under Payment Method, click + Payment Method.
5. The recurring bill payment dialog displays.
6. Enter your billing information at the prompt. 
7. Click Payment Info.
8. Enter your credit card information.
9. Click Add card.

View billing invoices

For Enterprise plans, contact your AppSheet Sales representative directly for specific invoicing procedures.

Every time your credit card is charged using Stripe, you will receive an invoice email from Stripe showing what you have been charged by AppSheet and the details of the invoice. If you have not received these invoice emails, please check your Junk mail folder.

To display your invoice.

1. Sign in to AppSheet.
2. Select your account from the account profile drop-down to go to the My account page.
   
   
3. Select the Billing tab.
4. Scroll to Billing History.
5. Select the desired invoice and click View.