Billing, plans and your data

MakeWine has five tiers. You can start free, upgrade when you need more, and downgrade or cancel without ever losing a record.

Provenance QR codes and all calculators are free on every plan.

Your subscription page

The Subscription page (account menu → Subscription, /settings/subscription) shows your current plan, your usage against its limits (with gauges for things like active fermentations and vineyard blocks), and a checklist of what your plan includes.

Upgrading or switching plan

1. Open your account menu (top right) and choose Subscription.
2. In the Upgrade your plan (or Switch plan) panel, press Choose → on the tier you want.
3. You're taken to a secure Stripe checkout. Once payment completes, the new plan is active immediately.

The /pricing page has the full side-by-side comparison of every tier.

What the "Upgrade to continue" prompt means

When an action needs a higher tier — creating one more fermentation than your plan allows, or opening a feature your plan doesn't include — the app shows an Upgrade to continue dialogue instead of performing the action. Nothing has gone wrong: it simply means that specific action is beyond your current plan's limits. You can dismiss it and carry on with everything else, free up capacity (for example, complete an old fermentation), or upgrade.

Downgrading: retain and restrict

Downgrading — or letting a subscription lapse — never deletes data. The policy is retain and restrict:

• Everything you created stays visible and readable, always.
• If you hold more of something than the lower tier allows (say, more vineyard blocks), the existing ones are kept; you just can't create new ones until you're back under the limit or upgrade again.
• Features not in the lower tier become read-only: existing records remain viewable, but creating and editing them prompts an upgrade.
• Re-upgrading restores full access instantly, with the original data intact.

The Subscription page flags this state with a note explaining that your data is safe and what's temporarily restricted, so nothing is ever locked away silently.

Cancelling

1. On the Subscription page, press Manage billing.
2. This opens the billing portal, where you can update your payment method, view invoices or cancel the subscription.
3. When a cancelled plan ends, your account reverts to Cellar Hand and the retain-and-restrict rules above apply — your records are all still there if you return.