Billing & Plans
Renewals and Auto-Renew
Kapsule subscriptions renew automatically by default. There is no auto-renew switch to find, because renewal is the normal state: you opt out by cancelling, and you opt back in by keeping the subscription.
This page covers when the charge happens, what you are told beforehand, how the price is protected, and what happens when a renewal fails.
There Is No Auto-Renew Toggle
Look for one and you will not find it. The mechanism is a scheduled cancellation.
- A subscription with no cancellation scheduled renews on its anniversary.
- Cancelling schedules the subscription to end at the close of the current period. It is not charged again.
- Changing your mind before that date, using Keep my subscription, clears the schedule and normal renewal resumes.
The checkout consent line states the same thing: your plan auto-renews at the same price until you cancel, you can cancel any time to stop future charges, and there are no refunds for the current period.
Domains work differently from subscriptions. A domain is a registration with a registry expiry date rather than a subscription, and it is not governed by anything on this page. Manage domain renewal from the Domains area.
When the Charge Happens
The renewal charge fires on or after the end of your billing period, never before it. You are always billed for time you have already been given, not for time you have not yet reached.
Your billing anniversary is anchored and does not drift. If a payment is late, the system bills the period that is actually owed and keeps your original anniversary date, rather than pushing your renewal date forward each time something goes wrong.
Two billing cycles exist: Monthly and Annual. Annual plans display a saving against the monthly price and a monthly equivalent figure so you can compare them fairly.
Renewal Reminders
Three reminder emails go out before each renewal: 14 days, 7 days, and 3 days ahead.
Each one names the service, the amount, the renewal date, how many days are left, and links to the Billing page.
Reminders are only sent for subscriptions that are active and not already scheduled to cancel. If you have cancelled, you will hear nothing further, which is correct but easy to misread as a renewal that was quietly forgotten. Check the Billing page if you are unsure whether something is still running.
Renewal reminders are sent to a team member's address on the account. Receipts, payment failure warnings, and suspension notices go to the billing email where one is set. If those are different addresses in your organisation, make sure both are watched. See Managing Your Email Notifications.
Your Price Is Locked
The exact price you agreed is recorded against your subscription in your own currency at the moment you subscribe, and that recorded amount is what renews.
When Kapsule changes a catalogue price, a new plan is created for new customers. Existing subscriptions stay on the price they were sold at. This is enforced in the charging code, not by policy alone: the renewal reads your locked amount rather than the current catalogue price.
The panel says it in three places: "Your rates are locked from signup" on the Billing overview, "Your price is locked and renews at this rate" on the subscription detail page, and "Price locked at renewal" on the plan change summary.
The lock is re-set to the new amount whenever you change plan, which is the one thing that moves it. See Proration and Plan Changes.
Cancelling Before Renewal
- Go to Billing and click Manage on the subscription.
- Click Cancel Subscription.
- Optionally pick a reason from the list.
- Confirm.
The modal states the outcome exactly: "Your plan stays active until the end of the current billing period. After that, services are suspended. You won't be charged again."
A banner then reads "Cancellation Scheduled" with the end date, and offers Keep my subscription if you change your mind. See Cancelling a Subscription.
Pausing Instead of Cancelling
Where it is offered, Pause Subscription stops billing for one, two, or three months while your services keep running. Your next billing date is pushed forward by the length of the pause, and billing resumes automatically on the date you chose.
The panel is explicit: "Your services stay active during the pause. No invoices are generated. Billing resumes automatically on the date you choose." A Resume now button in the paused banner ends the pause early.
Pausing is usually the right answer to a seasonal business or a project on hold, where cancelling would mean losing your locked price.
When a Renewal Fails
A failed renewal starts a fixed ladder. Nothing is deleted at any point on it.
| Day | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0 | Charge fails, subscription becomes past due, payment failure email sent |
| 1 | Automatic retry |
| 3 | Automatic retry |
| 7 | Suspension warning email, naming the suspension date |
| 14 | Services suspended, account access suspended |
| 30 | Subscription cancelled |
You can break the cycle at any point by fixing the card and using Retry payment now on the subscription page. A successful payment clears the past due state and brings suspended sites back.
At day 14 sites stop serving, mailboxes stop accepting mail, and panel access is suspended. Your data is not deleted at this point. At day 30 the subscription itself is cancelled. Act before day 14 and nothing is interrupted.
When a Payment Fails covers the recovery steps in detail, and Why Your Account Was Suspended covers what suspension looks like and how it is lifted.
Renewals and Authentication
Renewal charges are made against your saved card without you present. That means a bank that demands interactive authentication for a particular charge cannot be satisfied at that moment, and the renewal is treated as a decline that enters the retry ladder above.
If your renewals keep failing while the same card works fine at checkout, this is the likely cause. Talk to your bank about allowing recurring charges from us, or save a different card. See Payment Options and Saved Cards.
Troubleshooting
I cannot find the auto-renew setting. There is not one. Cancel to stop renewal, or use Keep my subscription to resume it.
I cancelled but my site is still up. Correct. It runs until the end of the period you have paid for.
I was charged after cancelling. Check whether the cancellation was confirmed and dated before the renewal. The banner on the subscription page shows the scheduled end date.
My renewal amount changed. Your locked price does not move on its own. A change means a plan change, a currency difference, or GST. Compare against the invoice.
No reminder arrived. Reminders stop once a cancellation is scheduled. They also go to a team member's address, which may not be your billing email.
A resize or provisioning step failed during a renewal. Where a renewal involves a compute change, the change and the charge succeed or fail together. You are not billed for something that did not happen.