The 14-day free trial

Summary#

Every paid plan can start with a 14-day free trial. During the trial you have the full plan: the whole credit allowance, every seat, and every capability the tier includes. The trial is offered to first-time customers only. If the email address you check out with has ever had a Metric Vault subscription before, the subscription starts as a normal paid subscription instead.

Purpose#

Search and content work runs on a monthly rhythm. A tour of the interface tells you almost nothing about whether a plan fits, because the question is never "do the buttons work" but "does 500 credits cover the way I actually work". Two weeks is long enough to run a real client engagement end to end, so the trial exists to let you answer that question with your own domains and your own workload rather than a demo dataset.

Limiting it to first-time customers keeps that offer sustainable. Without the limit, an account could cycle through back-to-back trials indefinitely and never subscribe, which would end with the trial being withdrawn for everybody.

Overview#

The trial is attached to the subscription at checkout, not to your account. That has three practical consequences:

• You start it by completing checkout for a paid plan in the normal way. There is no separate "start trial" action. See Subscribing and checkout.
• The pricing page marks it: the Pro card carries a 14-day free trial badge, and the Pro, Agency and Enterprise buttons read Start free 14-day trial.
• It applies to Starter, Pro, Agency and Enterprise. Free has nothing to trial, and its button reads Start free.

The contractual wording, from our terms of service, is:

How it works#

Who qualifies#

When you start checkout, we look up your email address with Stripe and check whether it has ever had a subscription with us, in any state, including ones that were cancelled long ago. Three outcomes are possible:

The check is keyed to the email address you check out with. Checking out with a different address from a previous subscription looks like a new customer, and using a previous address will correctly identify you as a returning one.

What you get during the trial#

A trialing subscription is treated exactly like an active one. Your plan resolves to the tier you chose, so you have the full monthly credit allowance, the full seat count, and every plan-gated capability. Nothing is held back and nothing is watermarked. See Subscription states.

Credits behave normally during the trial, including the reset on the first of the calendar month. A trial that spans a month boundary gets a fresh allowance at the boundary. See How credits work.

What happens on day 14#

If you do nothing, the subscription converts to a paid subscription and bills at the plan's standard rate. Your plan and your work continue without interruption.

If you cancel before the end of the trial, the subscription does not convert. Cancel from Account → Manage Billing, which opens the Stripe billing portal. The portal schedules the cancellation for the end of the current period and shows you that date before you confirm, so check that the date matches your trial end date. See Cancelling your subscription and Managing billing in the customer portal.

After a trial#

Once a trial has been used, that customer is a returning customer. A later subscription, on any plan, starts and bills immediately. Cancelling and resubscribing does not produce a second trial.

When a trial is the right choice#

• You are sizing a plan. Run your heaviest month, not a quiet one. That is the only way to find out whether the credit allowance and seat count fit.
• You are comparing two tiers. Trial the higher one. Downgrading later is a cancel-and-resubscribe, so it is easier to start high and settle down than to discover a missing capability after the fact. See Upgrading and downgrading.
• You are buying for a team. Get the seats filled during the trial. The seat limit is checked at the moment you invite someone, so it is better to find the ceiling while you can still change plan without cost.

When it does not apply#

• You have subscribed before, on any plan and at any time.
• You are on Free and staying there. Free has no time limit and needs no trial.
• You are moving between paid plans. A plan change is a fresh checkout, and a returning customer is not offered a trial on it.

Screenshots#

FAQs#

Am I charged when I start the trial? No. The trial runs for 14 days before any charge is raised. You are billed at the end only if payment information is on file and you have not cancelled.

How do I know whether my trial was applied? Open Account → Manage Billing. The Stripe portal shows the subscription's current status and its next billing date. A trial that was not applied shows an immediate billing date.

Can I extend the trial? Not through the product. Contact us before it ends if you need longer. See Contacting support.

Does cancelling during the trial end my access immediately? No. You keep the plan until the trial's last day, then the account returns to Free.

Can I get a second trial by using a different email address? A different address does start a new customer record, but the account is a new account with none of your saved work, integrations or team. It is not a way to extend a trial on an existing workspace, and our acceptable use terms prohibit creating multiple accounts to work around usage limits.

A customer says their trial never started. What do I check? Whether that email address has any prior subscription, and whether the checkout was completed with the same address they now sign in with. Both are visible in the Stripe billing portal, and support can confirm the plan source on their account.